Santa Fe New Mexican
Predictable choices plague this year’s Academy Awards
March 27, 1992
This year’s Academy Award nominations are a rather dull, predictable lot. Surveying the releases during the last year you quickly see that they didn’t have much to pick from. The independents for the most part took a back seat this
year as the studios flexed their muscles. There was so much of an advertising blitz by most of the pictures that were nominated for the major awards that it makes you wonder.
As usual, the Foreign Film and Documentary categories are travesties.
The most notable omission, for the sheer fact that she wasn’t in a movie this year. I’m surprised they didn’t nominate her anyway. Even a picture-less Meryl is better than Bette Midler, the most undeserving of all the nominees.(Mister D: Really? Was that absolutely necessary to say?)
Well anyway, here is the way I’m going to do this: (1) The p i c t u re or person I think will win of the given nominees. (2) The p i c t u re or person I think should win of the given nominees. (3)
Glaring omissions – pictures /people that s h o u ld have been n omi n a t e d.
BEST PICTURE
(l)Beauty and the Beast
(2)Beauty and the Beast
(3)Naked Lunch; The Man in the Moon; Boyz in the Hood
BEST ACTOR
(1) A n t h o ny Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs
(2) Hopkins or Nick Nolte, Prince of Tides
(3) Peter Weller, Naked Lunch; River Phoenix, My Own Private Idaho
BEST ACTRESS
(1) Susan Sarandon, Thelma and Louise
(2) Sarandon (She should have won for Bull Durham)
(3) Judy Davis, Barton Fink, Impromtptu, and Naked Lunch (What do they have against this tremendously talented actress?); Meryl Streep, Picture-less (What’s an Academy Award ceremony without Meryl?)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
(1) Jack Palance, City Slickers
(2) Palance
(3) Steven Hill, Billy. Bathgate; Lukas Haas, Rambling Rose; William Richert, My Own Private Idaho
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
(1) Diane Ladd, Rambling Rose
(2) Ladd
(3) Reece Witherspoon, The Man in the Moon
DIRECTOR
(1) Jonathan Demme, Silence of the Lambs
(2) Demme
(3) David Cronenberg, Naked Lunch; Robert Mulligan, The.Man in the Moon
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(1) Callie Khouri, Thelma and Louise
(2) John Singleton, Boyz in the Hood
(3) Gus Van Sant, My Own Private Idaho; Jenny Wingfield, The Man in the Moon
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
(1) Fannie Flagg and Carol Sovieski, Fried Green Tomatoes
(2) Agniesvka Holland, Europa, Europa
(3) David Cronenberg, Naked Lunch
FOREIGN FILM
(1) Raise the Red Lantern, Hong Kong
(2) ??? I Haven’t seen enough of them
(3) Toto Le Hero; Double Life of Veronique; Cabeza de Vaca; Europa, Europa; This could go on and on.
ART DIRECTION –
(1) Bugsy
(2) Barton-Fink
(3) A Chinese Ghost III
CINEMATOGRAPHY
(1) Allen Daviau, Bugsy
(2) Daviau
(3 Freddie Francis, Cape Fear
DOCUMENTARY
(1) Who Knows?
(2) Ditto
(3) Hearts of Darkness; 35 Up; Architecture of Doom; Paris is Burning
ORIGINAL SCORE
(1) Menken and Ashman, Beauty and the Beast
(2) Menken and Ashman
(3) Bernard Herrmann, Cape Fear, Ha Ha
