Going under the hood at the Oscars

We are breaking down our ten "below the line" Oscar categories!

Tinsel Town News & Notes

We finally have some closure on the Warner Bros. sale after Netflix's accepted bid was re-opened to allow the David Ellison-owned Paramount Skydance to build the bid up to $110 billion in overall compensation. Not willing to go up to $31 a share, Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, took a $2.8 billion break-up fee after walking away from the deal. Will this lead to a loss of jobs and "synergy" cuts for both companies? Yes, it will. Should you be concerned about a seemingly right-leaning organization controlling CBS, CNN, and a variety of other artistic outlets? I certainly would be. I highly recommend listening to Hollywood insider Matt Belloni and his podcast, The Town, which breaks down the deal as well as the fallout.

Now, onto the major awards that transpired over the past two weeks. Across the pond in the U.K., the BAFTAs kicked off with some well-deserved controversy. Shaking things up was Wunmi Mosaku and her Best Supporting Actress win for Sinners, which has really opened up the field. One Battle After Another took home all the major prizes, which followed suit at the Producers Guild Awards shortly after back in the States. Paul Thomas Anderson seems to have his Hollywood anointing waiting for him, reminiscent of Christopher Nolan's 2024 Oppenheimer run.

Lastly, this past Sunday, Netflix televised the 32nd Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) Awards. Sinners had a great night, taking home the night's biggest award for Best Ensemble. Michael B. Jordan captured Best Actor with his dual-role twin portrayal of Smoke and Stack. Best Actor is anyone's guess, as any of the five nominees seem to have a shot at the Oscar. Jessie Buckley and Sean Penn continued their dominance in the Best Actress and Supporting Actor categories, but there was another small surprise by the night's end. Veteran actress Amy Madigan won for her terrifying portrait of Aunt Gladys from the horror hit, Weapons. Once the dust settled, we have two main categories that seem completely up for grabs (Best Supporting Actress & Best Actor) on March 15th.

“Below the Line” Awards

Below-the-line awards are Oscars given out to the technical categories of artists who physically produce aspects of every film. Their names aren’t as well-known or up on the marquee next to the acting stars but are integral to the director’s vision. Sinners, Frankenstein, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and F1 are sprinkled throughout the craft categories. Some years, there is quite a variety in choices, but this year seems like a lot of locked “chalk” selections. We’ll break down ten categories and their current standings as we head into Hollywood’s big night.

Production Design

Let’s first look at Production Design. I had a hard time getting on board with Frankenstein compared to the on-site shooting sets of Marty Supreme in New York City and the various California locations of One Battle After Another. Hamnet essentially rebuilt the famous Globe Theater, and Sinners time period sets were exquisite. Then I re-watched Frankenstein last night and was dazzled by the beautiful, large-scale mid-19th-century sets. As always, Guillermo del Toro’s gothic aesthetic comes through in England, the Alps, and the gorgeous interior sets particularly in the laboratories. Frankenstein has swept almost all awards in this category, and Tamara Deverell, along with Shane Vieau, should keep that trend going for the win.

Best Costume Design

Ruth E. Carter is back again, looking to claim a potential third Best Costume Oscar for her 1930s Southern aesthetic in Sinners. I can’t help but be swayed by the Elizabethan-era dresses and britches adorned by the cast of Hamnet. The same logic applies to Frankenstein, which I believe has the juice to win this award as well. Kate Hawley put incredible detail into matching del Toro’s horror vision, showcasing the aristocracy and peasant simplicity in her designs.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

I have not seen the Japanese film Kokuho, but the kabuki makeup is perfect for the time period. The Ugly Stepsister is a period piece horror with some gnarly scenes that required considerable detail. Sinners and The Smashing Machine did well to transform their main characters (even though “The Rock” is playing someone 20 years his junior). I tip my hat to the Frankenstein team for their work bringing “the creature” to life on screen. It was a new look we haven’t seen before from over 1,000 TV and film adaptations of the classic horror. Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Fureyand kept the traditionally beautiful Jacob Elordi the most wonderful sort of ugly. Kudos!

Best Sound and Visual Effects (VFX)

I am going with F1 for sound, as the intense racing scenes brought my ears to a new ethereal plane. Between the drivers ripping around the track to the sound of engines roaring into spectacular crashes, this choice was a no-brainer.

In visual effects, Avatar: Fire and Ash seems to be the head-on favorite. To manifest a completely different world-scape behind an army of computers and blue screens is impressive, no matter how much I’ve come to think of the series as a slog to get through. “Big Jim” Cameron and his team should pick up their third visual effects Oscar for this installment.

Best Casting

This is the first year of a brand new, long overdue category: Best Casting. It’s the first new Oscar category since 2001, which introduced Best Animated Feature Film. Sinners is nominated in many of the acting categories, and its sprawling group of characters, from juke joint players to folk-singing vampires, all capture the tone perfectly. Can you imagine anyone else playing Delroy Lindo’s role or placing a musician doing his first acting in Miles Caton which could be the breakthrough performance of the year? I have no idea how this was chosen or what the criteria are, so I’m just going in blind, choosing Francine Maisler of Sinners to double up with their recent Actors Award for Best Ensemble win this past Sunday.

Best Film Editing

There is a myth that Best Picture and Best Editing go hand in hand. Since 2000, there have only been seven times that rang true, with Everything Everywhere All at Once being the last to pull it off in 2023. I would like to bring some reality to that myth today. The tight cuts, multiple storylines, and B-roll filming turned One Battle After Another into the shortest two-hour and forty-two-minute film I’ve ever watched. F1 certainly has a case, as their dozens of racing camera angles and thousands of hours of video is a feat in itself worthy of an Oscar. I just feel like Andy Jurgensen and OBAA will be the final cut left standing at the end of the night.

Best Original Score

I’m amazed that Jonny Greenwood, composer and lead guitarist of Radiohead, has not won Best Score at this point. This will be his third nomination and second working with Paul Thomas Anderson (2017: Phantom Thread). His work for One Battle After Another will, unfortunately, run into the juggernaut of this category for the last several years, Ludwig Göransson. Ludwig’s Sinners score infuses classical, rock, and folk sounds into Mississippi Delta blues, setting a tone for Ryan Coogler’s film. It’s really hard to argue, other than for voter fatigue, that Göransson won’t be picking up his third Oscar in seven years.

Best Original Song

The phenomenon that was KPop Demon Hunters stormed through Netflix, enjoyed a wildly successful short theater run, and is almost guaranteed to be played through your speakers if you have a young child. “Golden” may not even be the most preferred track, but it has rampaged through the awards season with no signs of slowing down. If there is a run of Sinners voting happening March 15th, we could see “I Lied to You” with breakout star Miles Caton take it home. At this point, though, it’s “Gonna be, gonna be golden. You know we’re gonna be, gonna be golden” for the animated fantasy film.

Best Cinematography

There is a three-headed Cerberus manning the underworld of below-the-line categories at this point. The wide-open field of Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners), Michael Bauman (One Battle After Another), and Adolpho Veloso (Train Dreams) can all lay claim to being the best behind the lens this year. Honestly, it comes down to the aesthetic choice of the academy voters. Do they prefer the small-town southern farming landscape over the arid southwestern feel or the saturated forest of the Pacific Northwest? To me, it comes down to which film currently has the most momentum out of the awards circuit, which is why I’m going with Sinners to take home the award.

It looks like there will be plenty of love for Frankenstein and Sinners in these picks, but only time will tell. Plenty more categories are coming next week. Can One Battle After Another clean house, or are there be some major upsets brewing? Also, we have two special guests joining us for our Best Picture Power rankings and conversations on the big ticket awards. Tune in next week to find out who they are, along with our second-half Oscar breakdown. Thanks for reading Matt at the Movies over at Y’all Weekly!