97th Oscar ceremony | Finalists, forgotten and a few surprises

Quebecers Denis Villeneuve, Tanya Lapointe and Patrice Vermette will be finalists in 97^e Oscar ceremony, March 2, for Dune : Part 2quoted five times during the revealing of the candidates on Thursday. Emilia Péreznamed 13 times, as well as The Brutalist et Wickedcited both 10 times, lead the race. Who was forgotten? What are the surprises? Our columnist Marc Cassivi offers his analysis.

Dune : soft-love

Dune : Part 2produced and produced by Denis Villeneuve – notably with his partner Tanya Lapointe – is appointed five times to the Oscars, among others for the artistic direction of Patrice Vermette. It is the third time that a work of the Quebec filmmaker has been a finalist at the Oscar for best film after Dune et Arrivalwhich had earned Villeneuve to be a finalist at the Oscar for the best achievement. We preferred him this time the effective, but conventional staging, staging of James Mangold for A Complete Unknown. Dune : Messiahthe last film in the trilogy, will it be the occasion for the consecration for Villeneuve, like The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King For Peter Jackson? We wish him. Not only because we are chauvinvia, but because it deserves it.

No real favorite

And Emilia Pérezthe non -English -speaking film most often cited in the history of the Oscars (13 times), leaves with a length a theoretical head, there is no candidate who clearly overshadows the others in the category of the best film. Last year, the coronation of oppenheimer was written in the sky. This is not the case this year. The five films which are named both in the queen category and in that of the best director – Emilia Pérez, The Substance, A Complete Unknown, Aor et The Brutalist – remain the most likely to be crowned. And these are, exceptA Complete Unknownauthor’s films acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Mostra, which testify to the diversity of increased, and welcome genres, of the Oscar finalists.

Disappointed for Rankin

The film jewelry A universal language Quebecois Matthew Rankin, selected in the short list of aspirants to the Oscar for best international film, is not among the five finalists. I am disappointed. I preferred it to the Danish film The young woman with a needlefinalist alongside the big favorite in the category, Emilia Pérezthe amazing Latvian animated film Flowfrom the moving Brazilian political film I’m still there and excellent Iranian thriller The seeds of the wild fig. Among the candidates discarded, there was also the enigmatic Senegalese documentary Dahomey and the very beautiful Italian film Vermilion. The most poetic film of 2024, All We Imagine As Light From Payal Kapadia, is also absent. India has not submitted it to the Academy. A universal language will be released in the indoor in Quebec on January 31.

Snobées …

A surprise? The absence of Angelina Jolie, captivating in Maria Callas, in the category of the best actress. A more astonishing absence than that of Nicole Kidman for Babygirl. The finalists all deserve their place. Brazilian Fernanda Torres, remarkable in I’m not hereKarla Sofía Gascón, unforgettable in Emilia Pérez, just like Mikey Madison in Anora. Demi Moore found the role of his life in The Substance and Cynthia Erivo’s voice (Wicked) could only seduce the academy. Selena Gomez, snubbed? She has not inherited the greatest partition ofEmil Pérez (Unlike Zoe Saldaña, the favorite). It’s Margaret Qualley (The Substance) who deserved to be a finalist at the Oscar for the best support actress … rather than Isabella Rossellini, a great actress who has only a handful of replicas in Conclave.

And snobbies

The suave (and suant) Daniel Craig could have been among the finalists at the Oscar for best actor for Queerin the role of the tormented William S. Burroughs. But instead of which actor? Denzel Washington was still as impeccable in Gladiator 2. Unfortunately, Ridley Scott’s film is a result. The absence of Edward Berger in the category of best director is more surprising. At the start of the week, the specialized magazine Variety had predicted the Oscar to the German filmmaker. Conclave is named eight times, especially for the Oscar for the best film, and has benefited from a favorable buzz all the fall, unlike Dune : Part 2who took the poster at the beginning of last year. This may explain why Denis Villeneuve was dismissed from the category of the best achievement.

One nose to Trump

The selection of the excellent Jeremy Strong, in the role of the master to think conservative Roy Cohn, among the finalists at the Oscar for best support actor, and especially that of Sebastian Stan in young Donald Trump, in The Apprentice From the Danish filmmaker of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi, is a Hollywood nose to the new president of the United States. After his presentation in Cannes, and the lively reaction of the Trump clan, Abbasi had all the difficulties in finding a distributor in the United States for this very unusual portrait of a young real estate wolf who has become a sociopath thirsty for power. Now the Oscar evening, which will be animated on March 2 at the Dolby Theater of Los Angeles by Conan O’Brien, gives him new light.