The Watchers Film Show: Lockdown Special 6

Our sixth Lockdown Special is here!

In this edition, we take a look at the IMDb Top 250 films countdown, and pick one that we haven't watched and report back on it. A film show reviewing films... how unusual!

Biting social satire, the vagaries of a Warwickshire accent, and a long-owned but never-watched DVD all come into play in this edition, which will be the last Lockdown Special as the UK is now starting to come out of lockdown; fear not, we will be returning to our usual audio/podcast shows!

In case you missed them, here are our previous Lockdown Specials:

Lockdown Special 1 - Feelgood Films

Lockdown Special 2 - Release Schedule Changes

Lockdown Special 3 - Moviemind

Lockdown Special 4 - 1980s Decades Chat

Lockdown Special 5 - Guilty Pleasures

Here are also our Feelgood Films posts, if you want some suggestions for cheery films to get you through these trying times:

Part 1 - Introducing... The Watchers Feelgood Films!

Part 2 - Mrs. Doubtfire and Galaxy Quest

Part 3 - Sci-Fi Special

Part 4 - Disney Special

Part 5 - Documentary Special

Part 6 - 1980s Special

Part 7 - Documentary Special (Part 2)

Awards Season 2020: The 92nd Academy Awards

Well, colour me surprised! Always nice to have a curveball or two, considering a lot of the awards seemed to be foregone conclusions. Prior to Best Director, the biggest surprise of the evening was Le Mans '66 winning for Best Film Editing!

I really liked the opening number by Janelle Monáe (with a lovely cameo by Billy Porter). There were a few funny one-liners between Steve Martin and Chris Rock (especially with the pointed comment that the Oscars don't have a host because of Twitter) but it went on a bit too long. But, like last year, having no overall host worked well. 

As usual, some of the interactions between some of the individual hosts was patchy (Diane Keaton seemed on a different planet, whilst Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and James Corden and Rebel Wilson were just painful [although Corden and Wilson started off well taking a potshot at Cats]) but others were better: Mahershala Ali was great announcing the Best Supporting Actress category as was Olivia Colman announcing Best Actor, Ray Romano and Sandra Oh actually made me lauigh out loud when they presented Best Make-Up & Hairstyling, and Tom Hanks showed a great amount of humour when he announced that the long-awaited Academy Museum will open on December 14, 2020. If I ever make it to LA, I'll definitely look it up!

The musical performances were particularly noteworthy this year: there was a fantastic performance by Idina Menzel and an international cast of Elsa voice actors for Frozen II's 'Into The Unknown', and there was a fabulous montage about movie music which led to a powerful performance by Eminem performing his Oscar-winning Original Song 'Lose Yourself' from 8 Mile that brought the audience to their feet. Cynthia Erivo gave a soulful performance of 'Stand Up' from Harriet. I also particularly liked the energetic medley of the Best Original Score nominees, conducted by maestra Eímear Noone (the first time a woman has conducted at the Oscars in its 92 year history). There was also a very touching performance by Billie Eilish during the In Memoriam section. 

On to the awards themselves.

So, in my predictions, I got 4 out of 6. Got the acting categories right. Like many, I expected 1917 and Sam Mendes to win but there was something quite lovely about seeing both Parasite and Bong Joon Ho win; Bong's Best Director acceptance speech was very touching, especially the bit about splitting the award between all five nominees. Parasite made Oscars history by becoming the first film not in the English language to win Best Picture; it's also the first film from South Korea to be nominated for the newly-renamed Best International Feature Film and also to win it! 

Hildur Guðnadóttir also made Oscars history by becoming the first Icelandic person to win an Oscar, taking the Best Original Score for Joker. Her acceptance speech was quite lovely as well. I thought it was very touching that Elton John and Bernie Taupin won Best Original Song for Rocketman, celebrating their partnership of over 50 years. 

In his acceptance speech, Brad Pitt rightly mentioned the work of the stunt crews (and they really should have an award for that). There was a wonderfully humble speech by Best Documentary Feature winner Julia Reichert, giving proper respect to her fellow nominees which was nice. I was absolutely chuffed at Roger Deakins' win for Best Cinematography for 1917; an incredibly well deserved win. 


Below is the full list of winners at the 92nd Academy Awards:


Best Motion Picture of the Year: Parasite

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Best Actress: Renée Zellweger (Judy)

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood)

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Best Director: Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won (Parasite)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Toy Story 4

Best International Feature Film of the Year: Parasite

Best Cinematography: 1917

Best Film Editing: Le Mans '66 [a.k.a. Ford V Ferrari]

Best Production Design: Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Best Costume Design: Little Women

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Bombshell

Best Original Score: Joker

Best Original Song: '(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again' (Rocketman)

Best Sound Mixing: Le Mans '66 [a.k.a. Ford V Ferrari]

Best Sound Editing: 1917

Best Visual Effects: 1917

Best Documentary (Feature): American Factory

Best Documentary (Short Subject): Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You're A Girl)

Best Animated Short Film: Hair Love

Best Live Action Short Film: The Neighbors' Window

In terms of how many awards won by each film, it's quite an even spread; all bar one of the nine Best Picture nominees took home at least one Oscar apiece. Parasite is the big winner of the evening, winning four awards, with 1917 taking home three. 

Despite multiple nominations, The Irishman, Harriet, The Two Popes, Pain And Glory, and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker all walked away empty-handed. Given that The Irishman was one of the most nominated films (10 nods, and the only Best Picture nominee not to win anything), that must smart somewhat. 

Congratulations to all winners!


Now if you'll excuse me, it's 5:15am in the UK and I could really do with some sleep... Hopefully that cafetiere of strong coffee I had around midnight won't stop that happening. 

Awards Season 2020: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier today, here is a selection of the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

1917

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Le Mans '66 [a.k.a. Ford V Ferrari]

Little Women

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood

Parasite

BEST DIRECTOR

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Todd Phillips (Joker)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST ACTOR

Antonio Banderas (Pain And Glory)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes)

BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kathy Bates (Richard Jewell)

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

So, I make that 30/34 (88%). Pretty happy with that. Hell, I didn't mind being wrong to see Jonathan Pryce get nominated for The Two Popes. I'm not surprised to see Todd Phillips get a Best Director nod, but it certainly wouldn't have been my choice. 

Fun fact: Scarlett Johansson is the first actor since 2007 to be nominated in both Lead and Supporting acting categories (the last one to do so was Cate Blanchett). 

By my reckoning, Joker leads the nominations with 11, whilst 1917, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, and The Irishman all get 10 apiece. 

Congratulations to all nominees!


The 92nd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 9th February 2020. As was reported this week, there'll be no main host again for this year's ceremony. I personally felt that it worked well with no host, so I'll be interested to see if it works again.