[mks_dropcap style=”letter” size=”48″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]T[/mks_dropcap]he Oscars – Probably the most infamous award show in the world. Recently, the nominations for the 91st edition were announced. Since the Oscars reflect on all the movies from the recent year, I thought it would be nice to discuss three of the movies that had a clear impact on us in the past year. Not only because of their number of nominations, but also because of the media attention that they received. Of course they were all nominated for ‘best picture’ which is undoubtedly the most important award of the night. So, let’s find out what cinematic wonders were the best of the best from 2018.
1. Stars are born with A Star is Born?
No one can deny the success of the movie “A Star is Born” – it was literally everywhere. Not only the movie itself was praised by many; the music from the movie also hit the Billboard hot 100, which is the reason why the song Shallow is nominated for ‘best original song’. Thanks to all of this, it probably won’t come as a surprise that “A Star is Born” was nominated for best picture, best song and six other awards. One being for Lady Gaga, the lead actress in the movie, who is nominated for ‘best actress’ – a very interesting nomination since until recently her career mostly consisted of hit singles and pop concerts.
Winning any Oscar is obviously a great accomplishment, but we all know that it is mostly about the ‘best picture’-award. But even though the movie did amazing commercially, I am not sure whether it has a big chance of winning this award. The movie itself is not necessarily original, when thinking about the three previous versions of the movie. Commercial success does not necessarily mean ‘Oscar winning’-material since, let’s be honest, the taste of the public can’t always be trusted..
2. Royalty on the stage and.. the big screen?
The band Queen is already iconic, but might their movie actually become iconic too? The movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” has five Oscar nominations and one of them is indeed the one for ‘best picture’. Again, not very surprising, it was a movie that actually inserted Queen’s 80s popularity into modern times – and made them a previous century name many current adolescents will actually know.
The movie made not have been a creative and original masterpiece because it is more or less a biography of Freddie Mercury, but with the name Queen and all their controversy attached to it, it pretty much breathes culture and art. The lead actor Rami Malek, who undoubtedly does an excellent role playing the unique and flamboyant Freddie Mercury (with teeth and everything), is also nominated for ‘best actor’. In my opinion, this movie might have a big chance of winning at least one or two of these awards.
This results in that it might not be a ‘favourite’ for everybody.
3. An unexpected ‘favourite’?
While the above mentioned movies were box office hits and commercial favorites, the last movie I chose to point out is one that it is not commercial but more alternative. There is a lot to say about this movie, but with ten nominations it has the most nominations from this year’s Oscars. But “the Favourite” does have a more alternative approach than the other two movies and this results in that it might not be a ‘favourite’ for everybody.
The movie stars Emma stone and Rachel Weisz, which are well-known names in Hollywood, but surprisingly an award for best supporting actress is not in the picture for either one of them. Instead of this all eyes are focused on the lead actress; Olivia Colman. Colman fulfills the role of queen Anne, who Weisz and Stone are fighting over in the movie, which makes the story one filled with swearing, animal cruelty, sex and politics. The movie itself is bizarre to say the least, but apparently it is so well done that it has the most chance of winning an Oscar out of all the other movies of 2018.
Who will be the winner?
So, that was a small recap of the three movies that stood out to me in 2018. Which one of them will win the ‘best picture’-award is pure speculation: I have absolutely no idea, like many of us do not. These three movies and the other five nominations for ‘best picture’ all have a certain feature that makes them stand out. Movies are simply a matter of taste but somehow, there does have to be a winner. So how does this winner get picked you may wonder? Well, this is done by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Eventually it will all come down to what this Academy thinks and we will have to see on the 24th of February whether we agree with it or not. So I’d say: grab the popcorn!
Cover: Denise Jans / Final editor: Fabian Bais
