Losers-2023: which films did not receive an Oscar and why should you still watch them

This year, after recovering from the pandemic and other turmoil, the Oscars gave nearly all of the top awards to the surreal “Everything, Everywhere and At Once,” gave a little nod to feminists on “Women Speak “, patted Brendan Fraser, who is reborn from the ashes, on the head, and completely ignores the most interesting films of the year. Not that this is happening for the first time, but it’s still a little disappointing, especially when “happiness was if possible”, i.e. it looked like they were nominated, but they gave nothing at all.

Tell us for whom we are particularly sorry!

Martin McDonagh’s new picture was presented in his beloved Venice (each director has his own festival, where he regularly travels and with which they usually have a serious relationship), where he received awards for the screenplay and for the best male role, got his hands on several Golden Globes, nine Oscar nominations and… was left without a job. Neither excellent actors nor McDonagh himself got statuettes, they didn’t even receive consolation screenplay prizes Banshee Inisherina” . In the meantime, it’s a marvelous dark comedy (we didn’t expect anything else from the director) about the conflict between a peasant and a violinist. Violinist Colm one day decides not to be friends with Farmer Podrick anymore, simply because he doesn’t want to waste time on useless chatter and chooses art. Ridiculous, but very vital, as usual with McDonagh. “Is he 12 years old? one of the heroes asks, and the civil war happening somewhere in the background answers him. If desired, all conflicts can be resolved, the world needs peace, but people often act as if they were stuck at the age of twelve.

Steven Spielberg’s childhood memories turned into a touching film with a wonderful image of a creative mother created by Michelle Williams. Critics wrote that she should have been nominated for a “secondary role” and there she really would have won an Oscar (in the lead actor category it was impossible to squeeze between the blocks of Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh ), but the role may not qualify as secondary, she is the main one there! Not even a boy (like little Steven), who “got sick” of cinema to the point of not imagining life without, namely his mother. Because “Fabelmany” is the drama of a woman who had many projects and desires, and who devoted herself to her family. She dedicated it to a wonderful family, without any objections, but she could become, for example, a world-famous pianist. Spielberg obviously worked through all the traumas of his childhood with this image, but there, this long session yielded one of his best films.

The film for which Cate Blanchett was supposed to receive an Oscar, but did not work, or rather it did, but Michelle Yeoh. Either the Tar turned out to be too complicated, or the academics decided that Kate already had two figurines, there was nothing to collect, the story is silent. Well, we are left with the story of Lydia Tar, who becomes the first-ever female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. She is smart, talented, beautiful, successful – a student of Bernstein, an award winner, she is interviewed by the famous author of the famous New Yorker. But at the same time, an unpleasant person, and after the death of one of her proteges, Lydia’s reputation is in danger. We’ve already seen a lot about the institution of reputation, and about the abuse of power, and about cancel culture, but at the same time, the authors of all these stories for some reason boldly season the morality, write the word “truth” in neon letters and leave no room for reflection. And Todd Field leaves him a special thank you for that.

Cannes favorite Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who you may remember from The Square, is back with another batch of criticisms of capitalism, but some completely unconvincing, so we’ve included him in the list, but more for show, the same White Lotus in two seasons, he criticizes capitalism and is slimmer, happier and more toothy. However, Estlund won the main prize at Cannes and could count on at least something at the Oscars, but no.

And that’s a real shame, a very good film, very complacently accepted both by festivals and by film critics, but it’s not an Oscar at all. Well, yeah, what’s there to discuss, there’s no drama and background, just a girl vacationing with her dad in Turkey. The parents are divorced, the father lives apart and quite far away, so they rarely see each other, and this vacation seems like some sort of reunion, but it seems to be just a series of snapshots of life, with no particular meaning. Isn’t that what all teenage girls go through? Didn’t they tell us the most typical story of growing up and the father’s role in it using the story-in-story technique, or rather old videos, didn’t they tell us told the most typical story of growing up and the role of the father in it – a little distant, not always understanding what to do, but unconditionally loving?

The 1992 remake of the 1992 TV movie starring Angela Lansbury, who you all know from Murder, She Wrote, modestly claimed an Oscar for beautiful costumes, and didn’t win it either. But it’s just the perfect movie for the “what would be so nice and easy to watch” request. A widowed cleaning lady, suddenly full of money, decides to go to Paris for a Dior dress. Well, like that, she wanted a dress. The action takes place in the aftermath of World War II and getting the coveted haute couture dress is not at all easy. But Miss Harris cannot be stopped! She enchants almost the entire Dior house, and at the same time a French aristocrat, although it later turns out that the aristocrat has his own interests. In general, the dress turns out to be a tragedy at Dior, but it will endure. And Mrs. Harris too.