My Oscar goes to... Our film critics reveal their personal shortlists
Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
Best picture – my shortlist (my favourite first)
• Leave No Trace
•BlacKkKlansman
• Cold War
•If Beale Street Could Talk
• You Were Never Really Here
As always, several of the best films that played here in 2018 (Andrew Kötting’s brilliant oddity Lek and the Dogs, Léonor Serraille’s Jeune Femme) aren’t among the 347 titles eligible at the 91st Oscars. Yet my favourite film is up for consideration, although it may well end up being overlooked – Debra Granik’s quietly overwhelming Leave No Trace, a perfect example of “show don’t tell” film-making.
Best director
•Debra Granik ()
•Pawel Pawlikowski ()
• Steve McQueen ()
•Lynne Ramsay ()
• Spike Lee ()
The Oscars now allow up to 10 nominees in this category, and if our lists did too I’d have included Widowsin my best film selection. Instead, I’ve opted to nominate its director, Steve McQueen, for his vibrant adaptation of Lynda La Plante’s TV series. Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Hereis similarly poetic, while Debra Granik’s Leave No Tracecements the promise of 2010’s Winter’s Bone.
Best actor
•Tomasz Kot (
•Ben Foster ()
•Stephan James (
•Rami Malek ()
•John David Washington ()
Tomasz Kot was Danny Boyle’s choice for the next Bond villain, and it’s easy to see why – his performance inCold War blends charisma with vulnerability, subtlety and strength. John David Washington gets the balance between humour and horror just right in BlacKkKlansman, while Rami Malek is uncanny as Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Best actress
•Viola Davis (
•Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie ()
•Yalitza Aparicio ()
•Olivia Colman (The
•KiKi Layne ()
An astonishing field this year, from Oscar hopefuls Glenn Close (The Wife) and Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born) to personal favourites such as Jessie Buckley (Beast), Joanna Kulig (Cold War), Keira Knightley (Colette) and Toni Collette (Hereditary). I’d also include Yalitza Aparicio, who makes an amazingly natural debut in Roma, while Viola Davis is the lightning rod at the centre of Widows.
Best supporting actor
•Mahershala Ali (
•Adam Driver ()
•Richard E Grant (
•Jason Isaacs ()
•Tom Waits ()
Mahershala Ali, an Oscar-winner for Moonlight, looks set to repeat that victory as pianist Dr Don Shirley in Peter Farrelly’s Green Book. He and Viggo Mortensen make a marvellous double act in a film that rests squarely upon their shoulders. And it’s great to see musician turned underrated actor Tom Waits excelling in the Coen brothers’ western portmanteau.
Best supporting actress
•Regina King (
•Salura Andô ()
•Cynthia Erivo (
•Michelle Rodriguez ()
•Millicent Simmonds ()
2018 was a good year for Cynthia Erivo, who stole Bad Times at the El Royaleand co-starred in Widows. Millicent Simmonds was dynamite in A Quiet Place. Honourable mentions to Jennifer Ehle (The Miseducation of Cameron Post), Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) and Claire Foy (First Man), but Regina King is hard to beat in If Beale Street Could Talk.
Best score
•Nicholas Britell (
•Anna Meredith ()
•Jóhan Jóhannsson (
•Terence Blanchard ()
•Justin Hurwitz ()
I’d like to include Max Richter(Mary Queen of Scots), Jonny Greenwood (You Were Never Really Here) and Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther), all worthy contenders. But Britell once again proves the perfect musical foil for Barry Jenkins’s cinematic vision, with his superbly counterintuitive score for If Beale Street Could Talk.
Wendy Ide, Observer film writer
Best picture – my shortlist (favourite first)
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With the big flashing neon caveat that the Academy voters almost always conspire to annoy me, I see cause for cautious optimism this year. There’s a decent intersection between awards contenders and films that are rather good. But what thrills me is the very real possibility that the best picture prize might go to Alfonso Cuarón’s masterly Roma, a Spanish-language film from Mexico. What a message that would send: cinema builds bridges, not walls.
Best director
•Lynne Ramsay (
•Alfonso Cuarón ()
•Debra Granik (
•Pawel Pawlikowski ()
•Chloé Zhao ()
I was blown away by Chloé Zhao’s direction of The Rider – her deft blend of real-life and fiction excited me anew for the possibilities of hybrid cinema. But I would hand the statuette to Lynne Ramsay for You Were Never Really Here, a film that immerses us so thoroughly in the mind of her troubled protagonist that you almost fear you won’t escape.
Best actor
•Jakob Cedergren ()
•Paul Giamatti ()
•Ben Foster ()
•Daveed Diggs ()
•Ethan Hawke ()
It’s unlikely the Academy will even nominate Jakob Cedergren for Danish thrillerThe Guilty (although watch this space when Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the English remake). But he’d get my vote because he is the film, which plays out almost entirely in his face. While the voters tend to favour impersonations, Cedergren not only creates his character, he forges our journey through the story.
Best actress
•Olivia Colman
•Melissa McCarthy ()
•Joanna Kulig(
•Viola Davis (
•Julia Roberts (
I could have filled this list three times over, such was the quality of female lead performances this year. Joanna Kulig’s magnetic turn in Cold War burns phosphorus bright. Julia Roberts, every fibre tense with hope as the mother of an addict in Ben Is Back, has been curiously overlooked. But Olivia Colman gets the crown this year for The Favourite and a performance effortlessly ranging from riotous comedy to aching pathos.
Best supporting actor
•Daniel Kaluuya ()
•Richard E Grant ()
•Simon Russell Beale ()
•Mamoudou Athie ()
•Tom Waits ()
The supporting performances are often where we discover the talents of the future – and I would hazard a guess that Mamoudou Athie, so quietly impressive in The Front Runner, is one such name. But I would hand the prize to the always impressive Daniel Kaluuya for a forceful, fearsome performance which chilled me to the core inWidows.
Best supporting actress
• Zoe Kazan ()
•Rachel Weisz ()
•Claire Foy ()
•Elizabeth Debicki ()
•Letitia Wright ()
I loved Letitia Wright in Black Panther – it was a scene-stealing, irreverent turn full of zest and mischief. And the malevolent charm of Rachel Weisz in The Favourite is hard to resist. But my choice for supporting actress would be Zoe Kazan, who crammed a whole feature’s worth of gauche, cautious dreams into a perfectly crafted short segment in the Coens’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Best foreign language film
•(Poland)
•(Mexico)
• (Colombia)
• (Denmark)
• (South Korea)
Since I have already handed out best picture to Roma in my fantasy film awards, I’ll spread the love and award best foreign language film to another intensely personal period piece shot in black and white. I adored the elegance and economy of Pawel Pawlikowski’sCold War – there is not a frame in the film that seems wasted. The exquisite cinematography is a crystalline miracle; the performances superb throughout.
Simran Hans, Observer film writer
Best picture – my shortlist (favourite first)
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Either the Academy Awards are cursed, or I am. If I deem a film my secret winner, it will be fated to lose (my previous upsets include Phantom Thread (2017), Selma (2014), The Social Network (2010) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), but I’m hoping A Star Is Bornbreaks the spell. It’s a big, ballsy, crowd-pleasing melodrama; old-fashioned, serious, designed to provoke an emotional reaction – it’s Oscar bait.
Best director
•Debra Granik (
•Marielle Heller ()
•Sandi Tan (
•Chloé Zhao ()
•Lynne Ramsay ()
Judging by the Academy’s track record, we’ll be lucky if even one woman receives a best director nomination. Still, precedent aside, I see no reason why there shouldn’t be an all-female shortlist. All five of the above display fierce assurance, authority and originality of vision, and none more than Granik, whose exquisite mystery-thriller has the rare confidence to show its story rather than tell.
Best actor
•Brady Jandreau (
•Stephan James ()
•Ethan Hawke (
•Joaquin Phoenix ()
•Lakeith Stanfield ()
A cowboy grapples with his identity following a serious trauma? The story of Chloé Zhao’s innovative real-life/fiction blend could make it an “Oscar” film. Zhao turns non-professional actor Brady Jandreau into a movie star; if she’s the magician, he’s the trick worth applauding. The transformation is subtle but precise; sadly the Academy usually rewards the opposite.
Best actress
•Olivia Colman ()
•Lady Gaga ()
•Regina Hall
•Helena Howard
•Elsie Fisher
I loved Regina Hall’s fraying optimism as the beleaguered manager of a sports bar; Elsie Fisher’s awkward wannabe YouTuber Kayla in Eighth Grade, Helena Howard’s performance artist with mental health issues in Madeline’s Madeline, that a pop star could make me believe she waited tables in A Star Is Born. Best of all, though, is Olivia Colman’s hilarious turn as a selfish, ribald, grumbling Queen Anne.
Best supporting actor
•Richard E Grant )
•Adam Driver ()
•Daniel Kaluuya ()
•Alessandro Nivola ()
•Steven Yeun ()
Worryingly, I found myself racking my brains to come up with five memorable supporting performances from men this year. Then I remembered Richard E Grant, whose witty turn as the prankish accomplice to writer Lee Israel in Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? threatens to to steal the show from Melissa McCarthy’s fraudster. Optimistic to hope that the Academy will agree.
Best supporting actress
•Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie ()
•Regina King (
•Cynthia Erivo (
•Rachel Weisz ()
•Elizabeth Debicki ()
It seems unfair to put McKenzie in this category – her role in Debra Granik’s two-hander is more like a lead. Granik’s Winter’s Bonewas Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role and she provides similar conditions for the 18-year-old New Zealander to shine. Her performance (inquiring, liquid eyes, soft-spoken intelligence) remain lodged in my brain.
Best original song
•Shallow ()
•When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings (
•Treasure (
•Girl in the Movies ()
•Suspirium ()
There hasn’t been a contender of Shallow’s calibre in this category in decades. The soaring power ballad is a proper pop song – and a proper earworm – written by a proper songwriter, plus at least half of it is sung by a proper pop star. With time I’ve no doubt Gaga’s hallowed warble will become as iconic as the flute that opens Celine Dion’s 1999 winner, My Heart Will Go On.
Guy Lodge, Observer film writer
Best picture – my shortlist (favourite first)
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It looks increasingly likely that history will be made at the Oscars this year, with Alfonso Cuarón’s gorgeous Mexico City memory pieceRoma becoming the first non-English-language film ever to win the best picture prize. After 91 years, it’s an embarrassment it hasn’t happened already. So I’ll be cheering if it does, but a different Spanish-language film, Lucrecia Martel’s fevered, ingenious, no-chance-in-hell colonial nightmare Zama, takes my top vote.
Best director
•Lynne Ramsay ()
•Lee Chang-dong ()
•Debra Granik ()
•Lucrecia Martel ()
•Chloé Zhao ()
After Greta Gerwig’s Oscar run with Lady Bird, the odds suggest we’re back to the status quo of an all-male best director race – despite a wealth of exciting options from established and up-and-coming female auteurs. Chloé Zhao won best film from the National Society of Film Critics, while Debra Granik took best director from the LA Film Critics Association: there’s no excuse for them to be frozen out.
Best actor
•Yoo Ah-in ()
•Joaquin Phoenix ()
•Zain Al-Rafeea ()
•Bradley Cooper ()
•Matthieu Lucci ()
Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury impression undeservedly won the Globe, but I suspect Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of an emotionally ravaged rock star will take the Oscar – on the strength of the performance and as a reward for his achievement in writing, directing and producing A Star Is Born. I’d be happy with that, but Korean star Yoo Ah-in gave the year’s most complex, mystery-riven male performance.
Best actress
•Toni Collette ()
•Juliette Binoche ()
•Olivia Colman ()
•Regina Hall ()
•Ruth Wilson ()
It may be cold comfort in the face of a woman-free best director lineup, but at least there’s broad agreement that this year’s best actress field is infinitely deeper and richer than its male counterpart. I struggled to pick a winner: Olivia Colman’s astonishing tragicomic Queen Anne has many critics’ vote, but Toni Collette was ferocious and emotionally wrenching in a genre – horror – that Oscar voters rarely touch.
Best supporting actor
•Brian Tyree Henry ()
•Daniel Kaluuya ()
•Alex Wolff ()
•Michael B Jordan ()
•Hugh Grant ()
The Academy will avoid the #OscarsSoWhite trap this year with BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther and If Beale Street Could Talk all in the best picture frame. Mahershala Ali is widely tipped to take this prize again for elevating the civil rights drama Green Book, but it should be Henry’s turn: with stunning work in Beale Street,Widows and TV’s Atlanta, he was one of 2018’s hardest-working actors.
Best supporting actress
•Dolly Wells ()
•Sakura Ando ()
•Nina Arianda ()
•Elizabeth Debicki ()
•Jennifer Garner ()
Add Marielle Heller’s wry, lovely literary biopic Can You Ever Forgive Me?to the list of female-directed films that have received less than their due this season – though Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant are set to score Oscar nominations for their work (both came close to my ballot).Yet my favourite performance in the film, Dolly Wells’s subtle study in bookish loneliness, has gone entirely uncelebrated.
Best cinematography
•Bradford Young ()
•Rui Pocas ()
•Lukasz Zal ()
•James Laxton ()
•Warwick Thornton ()
If you haven’t heard of Where Is Kyra? don’t blame yourself. Andrew Dosunmu’s striking poverty-line drama, featuring Michelle Pfeiffer’s best performance in aeons, took long enough to reach US screens; it’s still awaiting a UK distributor. Here’s hoping we eventually get to see Bradford Young’s ingenious games of light and shadow on a big screen here.
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