It’s almost time for the annual Academy Awards show, also known as The Oscars. The Academy Awards will be premiering February 9th, 2020 at 8:00 pm EST. For those of you who don’t watch, the Academy Awards show is where actors and actresses, as well as films, are nominated for certain categories. Talented people within those categories are chosen to vote for a category, such as Best Director or Best Animated Film.
One of the people who voted for the Best Soundtrack category is actually my father, so I was able to get some insider information about how the voting process works. To vote for the Best Soundtrack category, a person has to be a lyricist or composer, which shows that the Academy Awards carefully selects each person who votes for these awards. For other categories, the people who are eligible to vote are directly involved in that field, so they have more awareness of the intricacies of their category’s merit— or at least far beyond the average movie buff (sorry). People selected to vote are then sent a multitude of films that have the words “for your consideration” on every film case. The votes are then tallied, similar to any type of voting process, and the decision is protected until The Academy Awards. So now when you see your favorite actor get passed over for the award, you can know that the decision was not made lightly and that all the nominees are very worthy for the award, whether or not they win it this year.
There were a lot of great films nominated, so I wanted to highlight the ones that are in multiple categories as well as ones that are worth a watch. If you’re a fellow movie buff, you may want to watch some of these that interest you before we find out the results. All the nominations are posted on The Oscars website. The movie that received the most nominations is Joker, with 11 nominations. If you haven’t already seen Joker, then this should help motivate you to watch it. A close runner-up is The Irishman, a film with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating (which is insane), and 10 nominations. You can find The Irishman on Netflix, so if you are interested in films about organized crime or are a fan of Robert De Niro, it is worth a watch. For films that have fewer nominations, but are still worthy of a watch, see below:
If you are interested in animated films: Toy Story 4, I Lost My Body
If you are interested in dramas: Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Marriage Story
If you are interested in action films: Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
If you are interested in international films: Les Misérables, Pain and Glory, Parasite
Whether you’re a huge movie buff or just like to watch The Academy Awards with your friends and eat popcorn, I sincerely hope you enjoy the show. One tip to make watching even more fun for those of you who have a competitive side: make some predictions either before the awards show or right on the spot when you’re watching and compare with your friends to see who was right. Another idea is to make bingo cards for something you think might happen during the awards show, such as a dramatic look on a particular actor’s face (we’re looking at you, Meryl Streep). There’s always at least one Academy Awards watch party on campus, so look out for a weekend email on the week of the 9th. There’s almost always tons of pizza and soda at the watch parties, and a bunch of fun energy to make The Academy Awards show a blast. I wish all your favorite films and actors the best of luck, whether you tune in or not. •
