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www.postmagazine.com 19 POST JAN/FEB 2019 OSCAR CONTENDERS BY IAIN BLAIR he 91st Academy Awards, which take place on Feb 24 th , are almost here, and the nominations have been made. As usual, the spring and summer releases and biggest box office films of the past year, including such global juggernauts as Avengers: Infinity War (the year's top-grosser, which piled up an astounding $2 billion-plus haul), Black Panther, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Incredibles 2 (which all grossed well over $1 billion each), Mission Impossible — Fallout (nearly $800 million), Deadpool 2 (over $734 million), Ant-Man and the Wasp ($620 million) and Ready Player One (over $580 million), had to vie for voter attention with the crowded fall and winter crop of potential contenders. Well, not so much now, it turns out, since the Academy quickly backtracked and postponed the controversial introduction of its new, crowd-pleasing "Popular Film" award at the show. It was widely seen — and derided by many — as a way to include those summer popcorn blockbusters, along with other non-Oscar fare and such popu- lar hits as A Quiet Place, The Meg, Hotel Transylvania 3 and Crazy Rich Asians, in the show and help its falling TV ratings. Instead, audiences will see the golden boys handed out to films that many of them haven't even seen (or even heard of). For 'tis the season when the studios momen- tarily turn their backs on familiar brands, sequels, tentpoles, money-making toons, superheroes and escapist fare (i.e. nearly every one of those blockbusters), and give their full attention to such (mostly) serious, Oscar-worthy prestige projects as A Star is Born, Green Book, Roma, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, First Man, Mary Poppins Returns, Bohemian Rhapsody, If Beale Street Could Talk, Vice, Mary Queen of Scots, Cold War, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, At Eternity's Gate and more. Other noteworthy films, Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased, The Front Runner, The Old Man and the Gun, Private Life, 22 July, Operation Finale, The Hate U Give, What They Had, Widows, The Mule, White Boy Rick and Welcome to Marwen surprisingly went without scoring any noms. With the Oscar race heating up, here's a look at some of the nominated films, as well as a few honorable mentions that still deserve some recognition. BEST PICTURE/ BEST DIRECTOR When Bradley Cooper decided to make his directorial debut, he shot for the stars and remade a Hollywood classic — A Star Is Born (see our cover story in the November issue of Post). The result is an assured debut — and big hit — that bodes well for his future directing career, and the critically acclaimed film is certainly a strong contender in many of the races. And though not personally nominated, Rob Marshall also tackled an icon when he directed the new Mary Poppins film, a sequel to the 1964 Disney classic (see Post's Mary Poppins Returns cover story in our December issue). Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for his last film, 2013's Gravity, and was ac- knowledged again this year for his new film, Roma, a semi-autobiographical family drama set in the '70s, which has been the darling of the festival circuit (it won the Golden Lion at Venice). Director/writer Adam McKay is also getting plenty of buzz for Vice, his take on VP Dick Cheney (see my interview with McKay on page 16), and got plenty of nominations to show for it. And If they handed out Oscars for ravishing shots of curling cigarette smoke, Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk, a '70s period piece, one of the year's best-looking films and his triumphant follow-up to his Oscar-winning Moonlight, would win hands-down. As it is, his love story — and love letter to cinema — received three noms. Spike Lee (who's never been nominated for Best Director) finally got his ac- knowlegement for BlacKkKlansman, the well-received and timely 1970s drama. Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), Steve McQueen (Widows), Yorgos Lanthimos (The T