The Favourite, Roma lead 2019 Oscar nominations

January 22nd 2019, 8:20am

Alright, folks, we’re almost at the finish line. Many of the guilds have announced their winners (and in effect, losers) and the critics have spoken. It’s been a divisive awards season, but it’s all almost at an end with the announcement of this year's Oscar nominees. The awards were announced this morning at 5:20 PST/8:20 EST, and below you'll find the full list of nominees, so try to keep the screaming down to a low roar if your favorites don’t make the cut. You have neighbors.

As expected, movies like BLACK PANTHER, BLACKKKLANSMAN, A STAR IS BORN, THE FAVOURITE, ROMA, GREEN BOOK and more played well, each earning several nominations. The big winners of the morning were THE FAVOURITE and ROMA with 10 nominations each, VICE and A STAR IS BORN with 8, BLACK PANTHER with 7, and BLACKKKLANSMAN with 6. Golden Globe winners GREEN BOOK and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY had 5 nominations apiece, including for Best Actor and Best Picture.

As for surprises, two of the bigger standouts for me were Bradley Cooper and Peter Farrelly getting no nominations for Best Director for A STAR IS BORN and GREEN BOOK, two which seemed like locks. Cooper, in particular, was seen as a heavy favorite for a nomination, but like Ben Affleck with ARGO, was shut out. Perhaps one of the bigger single snubs was Justin Hurwitz not being nominated for Best Original Score with FIRST MAN, easily one of the best scores of the year and once a heavy favorite to win. While there are plenty of snubs out there, like no WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? for Best Documentary, this is one of the harder hits.

Another big one was Willem Dafoe getting nominated for AT ETERNITY'S GATE, which not all that shocking in of itself, his slot was perhaps expected to go to Ethan Hawke for FIRST REFORMED, one of the most acclaimed performances of the year.

On the smaller scale, we have BLACK PANTHER getting shut out in some tech categories, namely Best Makeup/Hairstyling and Visual Effects, which was expected to be a favorite to win, even though the recent Visual Effects Society also shut it out with their nominations. Also, really, nothing for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT in the tech categories? Shame.

But for all the snubs there are some bright spots, like BLACK PANTHER being the first comic book movie nominated for Best Picture, which is great no matter what you think of the movie. There's also the acting nominations for Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira for ROMA, two great performances that people thought may not get in.

As always there's lots to love and lots to hate, but congratulations to all the nominees regardless! What did you all like/hate about this year's nominations? Sound off below!

—————