Oscars 2019: “Roma” nominated in ten categories, including best film

Black Panther nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, a first for a superhero film. Rome nominated in ten categories, including Best Picture, an unprecedented performance for a film released by Netflix. Between Ryan Coogler’s feature film, which filled multiplexes from New York to Cape Town via Beijing, and Alfonso Cuaron’s, which triumphed at festivals before being seen on small screens, the list of Oscar nominations, unveiled Tuesday, January 22, makes the splits.

The film professionals who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) have consecrated a film which has only made – in the United States – a brief passage in theaters. Rome will compete, among others, in the categories director, script and direction of photography (statuettes which would all go to the same man, Alfonso Cuaron), but also best actress and best supporting actress (Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira).

It’s a remarkable performance for a film that isn’t in English (the last foreign-language feature to compete for the Best Picture Oscar was Love, by Michael Haneke, in 2012), nor in color (the last black and white film to win the Best Picture Oscar was Tea Artist, by Michel Hazanavicius, in 2011).

We can no doubt attribute part of the success of Rome the admission of hundreds of new members, including many Europeans, Asians and Latin Americans, into the ranks of Ampas. The proof is that the film which is on a par with Rome, The Favorite (The Favorite), ten nominations also, was directed by a Greek, Yorgos Lanthimos, nominated for the Oscar for best director. Just like the Polish and British Pawel Pawlikowski, for Cold War. If Alfonso Cuaron won in this category (which he has already done for Gravity, in 2013), it would be the fifth time in six years that a Mexican filmmaker won the trophy for best director.

Two African-American directors for the Oscar for best film

If four US box office hits compete for the Best Picture Oscar – Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, by Bryan Singer A Star Is Bornby Bradley Cooper and Green Book, by Peter Farrelly – none of their directors were nominated in their category. In addition to the presence of Lady Gaga in the best actress category, Bradley Cooper will be satisfied with two nominations, at the Oscar for best actor and that of the best adaptation, of a scenario which won itself the Oscar in 1938.

The Best Film and Best Director categories are completed by Vicethe biography of Vice President Dick Cheney by Adam McKay, which earned nominations for three of his interpreters – Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Sam Rockwell –, and BlacKkKlansmanby Spike Lee.

There are therefore two African-American directors behind the Oscar nominees for best picture, Ryan Coogler and Spike Lee. BlacKkKlansman also earned its author his first nomination in the directing category, while his chosen composer, Terence Blanchard, was also nominated for the first time. If Beale Street Could Talkby Barry Jenkins, whose Moonlight had won the Best Picture Oscar in Amazing Circumstances in 2017, (The world dated February 27, 2017), is content with three nominations: screenplay, female supporting role (to Regina King) and music.

No parity

Gender parity is waiting. No director of photography or composer. To find a named director, you have to search in the documentary categories, with the RBGby Julie Cohen and Betsy West, or foreign language film, where Nadine Labaki is a favorite with Capernaum. This is the second consecutive year that a Lebanese film is competing for this Oscar, after The Insultby Ziad Doueiri.

The Oscars will be awarded on Sunday February 24, during a ceremony in an unprecedented format. Following the outcry over the repost of homophobic Tweets, the presenter who had been tipped – comedian Kevin Hart, who has just taken over the role of Omar Sy in the American remake ofUntouchables – had to give up. The Oscars will therefore do without master of ceremonies.