Below is how I rank all nominated movies for all the 2020 nominated films minus Documentaries (features and short subjects) Short Films (live action and animated). I also say who I think should win in each category.
I started my annual watching of the Nominated Pictures about four years ago. I had always watched the Academy Awards and wished wish I’d seen all the nominees. So one year, I thought, why not try? Now, it’s something that I do for myself every year that I love. I wrote this introduction, but feel free to skip right down to the rankings if you’re bored with it haha.
This year was bittersweet for me for this thing that I do . Usually, it takes a lot of planning to see all the movies (luckily our movie theater here makes it a point to show many of them), but can get expensive because you either have to go to the theaters or, if not in theaters, they usually make you buy the movie before the awards (they don’t make them available to rent until after). This year, all the nominees were on streaming services, most of the services that I already subscribed to, so it took no effort to find and see them. But I missed going to the theater. Because I didn’t have to worry about where to find the movies, I saved a lot of them to watch until the last minute, which didn’t make it as fun. (I didn’t get to the documentaries this year, either).
On a side note: I’m really annoyed they nominated the doc Collective in The Best Foreign Film category. Documentaries are not the same as fictionalized movies and should not be treated as such.
So here are my rules I set for myself:
1.) I try to stay away from anything on the internet that ranks the movies or gives the odds of a certain film or person winning. However, thorought the year, I am probably influenced by reviews and others’ opinions. I am probably influenced by what category they are nominated in, as well. Even the order I watched the movies in probably affects their ranking (which ones I saw long ago versus now, the mood I was in while watching them, etc.)
2.) I watch the movies legally, even though it gets expensive.
3.) I rank them how I like them or dislike them. This is done completely by my subjective opinion. It is honestly probably impossible to rank movies from so many different genres, cultures, and directors, but I try. And sometimes the only reason for a high ranking is that it was my kind of movie, and I loved it.
So here are my rankings for the movies this year, from Best to Worst:
1. The Father
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7
3. Love and Monsters
4. Mank
5. Minari
6. Quo Vidas, Aida?
7. Sound of Metal
8. Pieces of a Woman
9. Better Days
10. Over the Moon
11. Another Round
12. One Night In Miami…
13. Judas and The Black Messiah
14. Nomadland
15. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
16. The United States vs. Billie Holiday
17. Wolfwalker
18. The Life Ahead
19. The Man Who Sold His Skin
20. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery Of Prodigious Bribe To American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
21. News of the World
22. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
23. Da 5 Bloods
24. Greyhound
25. Mulan
26. White Tiger
27. Collective
28. Emma
The Movies Below This Point Annoy Me
29. Promising Young Woman
30. Onward
31. Soul
The Movies Below This Point Are, IMO, Trash and I Hate Them
32. The One and Only Ivan
33. A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
34. The Hillbilly Elegies
35. Midnight Sky
36. Pinocchio
37. Tenet
Who I Think Should Win In Each Category:
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Anthony Hopkins (The Father)
Runner Up: Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7)
Runner Up: Lesie Odom, Jr. (One Night In Miami…)
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)
Runner Up: Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Amanda Seyfried (Mank)
Runner Up: Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Over The Moon
Runner Up: Wolfwalkers
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Mank
Runner Up: Nomadland
COSTUME DESIGN:
Mulan
Runner Up: Emma
DIRECTING:
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)
Runner Up: David Fincher (Mank)
FILM EDITING:
The Father
Runner Up: Sound Of Metal
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:
Quo Vidas, Aiada? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Runner Up: Better Days (Hong Kong)
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:
Emma
Runner Up: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE):
Soul
Runner Up: Da 5 Bloods
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG):
Husavik (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire)
Runner Up: Hear My Voice (The Trial of The Chicago 7)
BEST PICTURE:
The Father
Runner Up: The Trial of the Chicago 7
PRODUCTION DESIGN:
Mank
Runner Up: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
SOUND:
Sound of Metal
Runner Up: News Of The World
VISUAL EFFECTS:
Love and Monsters
Runner Up: Mulan
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY):
One Night In Maimi…
Runner Up: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery Of Prodigious Bribe To American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Minari
Runner Up: Judas and The Black Messiah
Final Notes:
Zendaya should have been nominated for Best Actress for Malcolm and Marie
Julia Garner should have been nominated for Best Actress for The Assistant
I Like The Academy Awards 