Who/What Should Be Nominated

Commentary by James Berardinelli
January 29, 1997

Every year around this time, I have a apoplexy when the Academy Awards nominations are announced because someone that I was pulling for is unceremoniously ignored and someone far less deserving is given the nod. I've found that one tonic for this situation is to write about those performances that I deem nomination-worthy. In some cases, I'm aware that there's little or no chance that a particular film/person will attain Academy notice, but my intent here isn't to talk about who I think will receive an Oscar nomination, but, rather, who I think should.

Unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise, I'll restrict myself to five "nominees" in each category. These are in alphabetical order (except the "best scenes", which doesn't reflect an Oscar category anyway). Certain categories (screenplay, foreign language film, documentary, and picture) are presented without commentary, largely because I've already written about these ad nauseum elsewhere, or because I didn't have much to say.


ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:


ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:


ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE:


ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE:


DIRECTOR:


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:


FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:


DOCUMENTARY:


PICTURE:


MOST MEMORABLE SCENES OF THE YEAR (in no particular order, and, yes, I know it's not an Oscar category):

Now, let's see if the Academy agrees with even a handful of these choices...


Next: "The 1997 Academy Award Nominations: Comments, Gripes, and Assorted Musings"

© 1997 James Berardinelli


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