I will watch the Oscars as usually an entertaining show but I don’t have a lot to root for this time except screenplay, original song, score, and feature documentary. Instead of predicting the oscar winners, I’ll share my own 2018 film awards where I put things right that the Academy messed up. Since I can do whatever I want on this blog, I took the liberty of creating new awards in a few cases, such as splitting original screenplay into two (most innovative & best dialogue). For music fans who follow my ramblings, I included a category for them too with the best use of (older) music in a film. Other categories I decided to introduce: Best films with zero oscar nominations, Best scene, Best horror, best thriller, Best Netflix film, Best film by a female director, and Best directorial debut. If you want to read my top 10 of 2018, I already posted it here.
Worth mentioning also, the films marked with an *asterisk I have been unable to watch so far, so I’ve included them as “dummy” entries as those have a chance of a nomination in future.
High Life (2018), The Wild Pear Tree (2018) and Never Look Away (2018) I consider 2019 titles. Not out near me until April-May this year, or even later, so not eligible on this occasion.
Films mentioned here such as Beast, First Reformed, Oh Lucy!, You Were Never Really Here, The Rider and Custody are labelled as 2017 on IMDb but with a general release in 2018.
I’ve no doubt left out some quality films but you can’t watch everything! The winners are bolded in green and you’ll notice I have been generous with the number of nominees as I think it’s fairer to those talented people who are competing. On to the film awards, as they stand today:
Best English language Film
Eighth Grade
Beast
Mission Impossible – Fallout
Hereditary
First Reformed
Best Foreign Language Film
Lykke-Per (aka A Fortunate Man)
Burning
Oh Lucy! (Japanese/American co-production)
The Guilty
Shoplifters
Most overhyped
Leave No Trace
The Other Side of the Wind
Roma
The Rider
You Were Never Really Here
The Favourite
Bohemian Rhapsody
Black Panther
Tully
Quincy (documentary)
Most underhyped
Oh Lucy!
Lykke-Per
Beast
Custody
Lean on Pete
Pity (aka Oiktos)
Shirkers (documentary)
Hal (documentary)
*Donbass
*Asako I & II
*Assassination Nation
Most original or innovative
Searching
Border (aka Gräns)
Pity (aka Oiktos)
The House That Jack Built
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
Sorry to Bother You
Best writing / dialogue
The Favourite
First Reformed
The House That Jack Built
Oh Lucy!
The Guilty
Green Book
Best adapted screenplay
Burning (Chang-dong Lee, & Jungmi Oh)
Lykke-Per (Anders Frithiof August & Bille August)
Suspiria (David Kajganich)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
A Star Is Born (Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper &Will Fetters)
Juliet, Naked (Jim Taylor, Tamara Jenkins, Evgenia Peretz)
*Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty)
Best scene
Climbing El Capitan Wall with no safety gear (Free Solo)
Lighthouse (Annihilation)
Olga’s dance-horror scene (Suspiria)
At the restaurant table (Beast)
Meeting of two families (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Swimming Pool (Eighth Grade)
Performing Shallow (A Star is Born)
Armie Hammer’s party (Sorry to Bother You)
Opening dance sequence (Climax)
Running next to carriage (Lykke-Per)
Uma Thurman and Matt Dillon in red van (The House That Jake Built)
The ending (First Reformed)
The ending (Holiday)
The songwriter (Under the Silver Lake)
The ocean (Roma)
Live Aid show (Bohemian Rhapsody)
*Single-take, hour-long dream sequence (Long Day’s Journey into Night)
Best Lead Performance (Male)
Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)
Esben Smed Jensen (Lykke-Per)
Nicolas Cage (Mandy)
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Matt Dillon (The House That Jack Built)
John Houston (The Other Side of the Wind)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book)
John Cho (Searching)
Jakob Cedergren (The Guilty)
Denis Ménochet (Custody)
Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible: Fallout)
Sunny Suljic (Mid90s)
Giannis Drakopoulos (Pity)
*Christian Bale (Vice)
Best Lead Performance (Female)
Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)
Jessie Buckley (Beast)
Lady Gaga (A Star is Born)
Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Toni Collette (Hereditary)
Eva Melander (Border)
Charlize Theron (Tully)
Shinobu Terajima (Oh Lucy!)
Rose Byrne (Juliet, Naked)
Léa Drucker (Custody)
Joanna Kulig (Cold War)
Natalie Portman (Annihilation)
Best Supporting Performance (Male)
Steven Yeun (Burning)
Steve Buscemi (Lean on Pete)
Lai Yde (Holiday)
Thomas Gioria (Custody)
Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Na-kel Smith (Mid90s)
Josh Hamilton (Eighth Grade)
Benjamin Kitter (Lykke-Per)
Alex Wolff (Hereditary)
Best Supporting Performance (Female)
Katrine Greis-Rosenthal (Lykke Per)
Ann Dowd (Hereditary)
Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Mackenzie Davis (Tully)
Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Marina de Tavira (Roma)
Kaho Minami (Oh Lucy!)
Tilda Swinton (for everything) (Suspiria)
Mia Goth (Suspiria)
Galatéa Bellugi (The Apparition)
Best cinematography
Free Solo
Cold War
Roma
Mandy
Hereditary
Lykke-Per
Holiday
*Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Best original score
Mandy (Johan Johnasson, RIP) (Track: preview)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell) (Track: preview)
Suspiria (Thom Yorke) (Track: Has Ended)
Hereditary (Colin Stetson) (Track: Reborn)
Lykke-Per (Lorenz Dangel) (Track: Main Theme)
Under the Silver Lake (Disasterpeace) (Track: A Junction)
The Other Side of the Wind (Michel Legrand) (Track: End credits)
Mid90s (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross) (Track: The Start of Things)
Annihilation (Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow) (Track: The Alien)
Minding the Gap (Nathan Halpern & Chris Ruggiero) (Track: Theme from)
*First Man (Justin Hurwitz) (Track: The Landing)
Original song (written for a film)
Keep Reachin sung by Chaka Khan (Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, Mark Ronson) (Quincy Jones documentary)
Shallow (Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt) (A Star is Born)
Suspirium by Thom Yorke (Suspiria)
OYAHYTT by The Coup (Sorry To Bother You)
Sunday Never Comes by Ethan Hawke/ Robyn Hitchcock (Juliet, Naked)
Best use of (older) music in a film
Fruit and Icebergs by Blue Cheer (The Other Side of the Wind)
Starless by King Crimson (Mandy)
Skyline Pigeon by Elton John (The Favourite)
This Year by Mountain Goats (Minding the Gap)
Hit the Road Jack by David Johansen/Ray Charles (The House That Jack Built)
We’ll let you know by Morrissey (Mid90s)
Never My Love by Association (Under the Silver Lake)
Kids in America by Kim Wilde (Three Identical Strangers)
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester (Studio 54)
Supernature by Cerrone (Climax)
Best film by a female director
Oh Lucy!
Shirkers
Holiday
Free Solo
Best documentary
Minding the Gap (Bing Liu)
Shirkers (Sandi Tan)
Væbnet med ord & vinger (Torben Skjødt Jensen)
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Morgan Neville)
Hal (Amy Scott)
Free Solo (Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
Fahrenheit 11/9 (Michael Moore)
Filmworker (Tony Zierra)
Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle)
Studio 54 (Matt Tyrnauer)
*Evelyn (Orlando von Einsiedel)
*The Raft (aka Flotten) (Marcus Lindeen)
*They Shall Not Grow Old (Peter Jackson)
Best horror
Hereditary
The House That Jack Built
Mandy
Suspiria
Climax
*A Quiet Place
Best thriller
Beast
The Guilty
Searching
Custody
*Widows
*Calibre
Best directorial debut (What a year!)
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper)
Beast (Michael Pearce)
Mid90s (Jonah Hill)
The Guilty (Gustav Moller)
Hereditary (Ari Aster)
Minding the gap (documentary) (Bing Liu)
Shirkers (documentary) (Sandi Tan)
Holiday (Isabella Eklöf)
Sorry To Bother You (Boots Riley)
*Apostasy (Daniel Kokotajlo)
Best Netflix film
Shirkers
Annihilation
Roma
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
The Other Side of the Wind
*The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Best films with zero oscar nominations
Burning
Lykke-Per
Eighth Grade
Beast
Hereditary
Oh Lucy!
Shirkers
Mission Impossible – Fallout
The Guilty
The House That Jack Built
Mandy
Lean on Pete
Annihilation
Searching
Mid90s
Custody
Suspiria
Pity
Tully
Sorry To Bother You
*Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (documentary)
Updated March 29
What do you think? Agree or disagree? Which oscar films are you rooting for? As always, comments are welcome
moviesandsongs365.wordpress.com 
Glad to see “Donbass” make an asterisk appearance :). I’m also happy to see all the love you give to “Eighth Grade”. What an excellent film. I might be a bit biased, as Bo is my favorite comedian, but still, there’s no denying that its screenplay and lead performance were brilliant.
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@Film4Fan: I tried to include 2018 films I missed with an *asterisk so this post is kind of a watchlist for the future besides the awards round-up.
I didn’t nominate Eighth Grade for writing but I easily could have. Just noticed the Writers Guild of America handed it a best original screenplay honor which is considered a surprise win.
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I thought it captured the way younger teenagers talk wonderfully, and that the protagonist felt like a real, complex, and relatable teenager. Also, I can’t stress enough how well Elsie Fischer portrayed her 🙂
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Oh no! Roma and Leave No Trace are easily my favorite films of the year and, in my humble opinion, far from overhyped. I just adore them both. But I love seeing other’s opinions on the film year.
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@Drew: Roma looked beautiful and the performances were pretty good. I wasn’t a fan of the story.
Everyone seems to praise Leave No Trace. It didn’t do much for me and was soon forgotten.
My take on the film year is different to the Academy’s, so I expected some bloggers to disagree with me 🙂 Whereas the year before (2017) I rooted for a bunch of Best Picture films. So it goes!
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Great list and I do agree with a majority of your categories. Eighth Grade is one I need to buy but I have a feeling Criterion is going to do a version so I’m going to wait. I find it funny that 5 of your most overhyped movies are nominated for Best Picture this year.
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@Vern: Thanks, Eighth Grade sure deserved more oscar attention but these oversights happen every year. Ha, yeah, without the award season hype surrounding Roma, BoRh,The Favourite, and A Star is Born maybe I would have liked them better. I respect the Academy’s point of view but I don’t agree at all with the Best Picture line-up this year
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Great work Chris! I really enjoyed reading this, it gave me a ton of movies to check out. Burning was such a transfixing film. It took me a while to settle into its pace, but I genuinely haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it.
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@Alex Withrow: Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the post. I was just saying on another blog that Burning was snubbed big time, Steven Yuen’s elusive character was fascinating
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I seen so few films in 2018 (Mandy, Annihilation, Ballad of Buster Scruggs being the only ones here)… but there are many on my list to catch up on (though finding the time is tough). Anyway, the Mandy score is incredible… I can’t remember the last time I was that taken by the the use of music and sound design. Incredible. Even listening without the visuals, it’s an impressive piece of work.
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@J: I agree about Mandy, the score really adds a lot to the film’s atmosphere.
Of the ones you haven’t seen, I would recommend Beast (starring Jessie Buckley)-arguably the best British film of 2018. Let me know what you think, if you do watch. It’s out on dvd.
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I’ll add it to my IMDb list. There’s so much being added to that just now.
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Enjoyed this very much, had a better time reviewing your picks than I’m sure I’l have watching the Oscars. Your acting picks especially–so glad you have Hawke and Fisher and Collette rated so high (Toni might be my fave performance of the year!). Nice to see Annihilation mentioned so much, that and First Reformed are the movies that left the biggest impression on me this year. Also, random mention: want to add that Red Sparrow had a fantastic score.
As usual tons for me to catch up with here, cheers!
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@Kristina: Nice to hear you enjoyed the post. So unfair to me the oscars limit the number of nominees when there is always a bigger field of contenders, so I addressed that with my own awards. I guess The Academy have a bias against horror(also something I addressed here), resulting in an oscar snub for Toni Collette/Hereditary. Annihilation was a very good sci-fi. Thanks for the tip on Red Sparrow score, I’ll be sure to “youtube” the music!
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Glad to see all the love for Eighth Grade. What a wonderful movie, that is. Really enjoyed a lot of the music categories. Great job, overall, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed to not see a single mention for Sorry to Bother You, especially since it was a directorial debut.
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@Wendell: Thank you, I tried to include some fun categories(music, best scene) and also considered where I think the Academy is lacking such as female director category. I don’t understand the snub for Eighth Grade
I wasn’t aware Sorry To Bother You is a directorial debut! Will add to that category(with an asterisk*) as I haven’t seen it yet. Thanks for telling,
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Awesome post Chris! Great categories here, love it! I’m curious if you’ve seen VICE yet or not? I thought Bale was astounding as Cheney.
Btw, I wish I liked Oh Lucy! more. I saw it on the plane and I almost couldn’t finish it. I liked the character initially but she infuriated me the more I watched it, and that part in the car with Josh Hartnett, ugh it almost made me mad and embarrassed to watch it. I had such high hopes for it and wanting it to be good, but despite the rather hopeful ending I just didn’t really like that movie, sorry.
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@Ruth. Thanks and glad you like the categories! I haven’t seen Vice though I hear Bale is great and I just put him in the male lead line-up today with an *asterisk.
Oh Lucy! turned out to be one of the sweetest movies I’ve watched in a long time. Has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and I liked the main character but it’s okay you didn’t connect with it as much. The choices here are just an opinion based on my own taste.
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Ahah, honestly I often disagree with rotten tomatoes, I rarely use that site as a measure whether I would like a movie or not.
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@Ruth: I check Rotten Tomatoes for every film I watch. It does happen I disagree despite a very high percentage.
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This was a good read, and honestly it’s a better list of films and awards than what the Oscars are providing. Just looking at your list of movies with zero nominations… wow. Just shows how out of touch the Academy continues to be.
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Thanks Eric, glad you appreciate the list. Obviously not everyone is going to agree with all the picks here as my awards are subjective. But I think makes sense to call out what the Academy is lacking. There were a lot of oscar snubs this time.
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