The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Thursday, February 28, 2019 — 5

An old Daily Arts Writer used 
to call the Academy Awards “our 
Superbowl” in the sense that 
this was to be the Sunday night 
in February where we get wine-
drunk and yell at our illegal 
streams HDMI-ed to the T.V. I’m 
not perfectly down with this idea: 
A) because I don’t know if we 
should be making identity-politic 
statements that suggest you can 
only like one and not the other, 
and B) because I don’t know of 
anyone who watches movies that 
would want any ownership over 
the slate of nominations (and 
winners!) we got this year. But a 
football fan could say the same 
thing about their Superbowl this 
year, so maybe the analogy holds.
That being said, we went on and 
made this year’s Oscars as close 
to the Superbowl as we could. 
The film beat played a game of 
“Fantasy Oscars,” the whole setup 
the brain-child of our great writer 
Anish. Split into four teams of two, 
each pair of Daily film Writers 
drafted a team of four general 
nominees and one best picture 
nominee. If the same movie 
showed up in multiple different 
categories — an example being 
Spike Lee’s (“Do the Right Thing”) 
“BlacKkKlansman,” 
nominated 
for adapted screenplay, director, 
best 
picture 
and 
supporting 
actor — then each individual 
nomination was available to be 
drafted and scored separately. For 
their final Best Picture pick, the 
teams were allowed to choose the 
same nominee and drafted blind 
to avoid one team’s pick swaying 
another’s. Teams were told to 
pick based on what they thought 
should win, not on their own 
hopes and dreams.
We randomized the order, then 
snake-drafted from left to right to 
left in the order below. Each of our 
teams wrote little blurbs before 
and after the ceremony about their 
confidence/fears going into the 
night, as well as their reactions to 
how their teams fared.

— Stephen Satarino, Daily Film 
Editor

BEFORE:

We 
believed 
“Roma” 
was 
owed many things. Art doesn’t 
always get the recognition it 
deserves, though, especially not 
in ethnocentric contexts, so we 
thought our safest bet would be 
“Roma” for Best Foreign Language 
Film. That was our first draft; our 
fifth was “Roma” for Best Picture.
The latter was a wish. My 
Nana sends me a screenshot 
of Rami Malek (“Mr. Robot”) 
holding an award every time she 
sees that he’s won something 
else for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” 
Given the number of these texts 
I’ve received, Malek’s Golden 
Globe win, this Oscar season’s 
generosity toward popular films, 
and the way Malek says “darling” 
with a British accent, he was our 
man for Best Actor.
Spike Lee has never been 
recognized as Best Director. We 
repeat: Spike Lee has never been 
recognized as Best Director. See 
our third draft pick.
Fourth, we drafted Regina 
King 
(“Watchmen”) 
for 
her 
performance in “If Beale Street 
Could Talk.” The best part of one 
of movie outings earlier this year 
was when I first saw the “Beale 
Street” trailer. The best part of the 
trailer, aside from its hint at the 
majestic score, is King’s majestic 
animation of his majesty James 
Baldwin’s words. She was the 
highlight of the film.

— Julianna Morano, Daily Arts 
Writer

As we approach the end of 
this awards season, my cynicism 
about the Oscars has only grown. 
The Academy has proven, time 
and time again, that it is the out-
of-touch, mercurial trainwreck 
we believe it to be. To exacerbate 
what will be the shakiest Oscars 
telecast of the last few years, the 
nominees themselves are … less 
than stellar. For these reasons, 
picking our draft team was a 
coldly unemotional process. There 

was little conflict between 
my own wishes and my 
expectations for what films 
would win in each category: 
I rarely felt moved enough 
by even one nominee to 
hope for its success.
With 
that 
dose 
of 
pessimism out of the way, 
I do feel confident about 
my picks. First, we chose 
“Spider-Man: 
Into 
the 
Spiderverse,” a film that 
emerged seemingly out of 
thin air at the end of last year 
to 
overtake 
“Incredibles 
2” as the front runner for 
animated awards.
Next we chose Glenn 
Close (“Crooked House”), 
the star of a film I’ll 
probably never see called 
“The Wife.” As much as 
I hate to admit it, she’s 
confidently 
diminished 
Olivia Coleman’s (“Them 
that Follow”) and Lady 
Gaga’s (“American Horror 
Story: Hotel”) chances at 
the Best Actress award. 
Sorry Ally!
Our 
third 
choice 
is 
Mahershala 
Ali 
(“True 
Detectuve”) 
as 
Best 
Supporting Actor in the 
year’s most controversial 
movie, “Green Book.” As 
much as Sam Elliot (“The 
Ranch”) tearing up while 
backing out of the driveway broke 
my heart in “A Star is Born,” Ali is a 
strong favorite due to his typically 
measured 
performance 
and 
considerable detachment from the 
criticisms of “Green Book.”
Fourth, 
we 
chose 
“The 
Favourite” 
for 
Best 
Original 
Screenplay 
for 
little 
reason 
other than that it was a category 
frontrunner according to experts. 
(It’s also one of the two Best 
Picture nominees I loved.)
And finally, for our fifth pick, we 
overlapped with the other teams 
on the likely Best Picture Winner: 
Alfonso 
Cuarón’s 
(“Gravity”) 
“Roma.” “Bohemian Rhapsody” 
and “Green Book” lurk in the 
background as the dark horses 

that could shatter this outcome, 
but I guess we film writers are an 
optimistic bunch. It’s time to stop 
predicting and start praying.

— Anish Tamhaney, Daily Arts 
Writer

Assembling 
our 
team 
the 
week before Oscar Sunday, Team 
MichalskerHelm felt reasonably 
confident, but our confidence has 
waned as the night approaches. 
Our first three picks are solid, but 
the odds in the Lead Actor race 
have begun to favor Rami Malek 
as he has picked up other industry 
awards including the BAFTA 
and SAG equivalents of the Best 

Actor Oscar. The SAG is especially 
telling, as it’s usually a reliable 
indicator for the acting awards.
The Best Picture pick that 
makes up the fifth round is mostly 
meaningless as we’ve all picked 
“Roma,” but the race is a bit more 
complicated than that. “Green 
Book” is a strong if controversial 
contender, and there’s a chance 
that the acting branch of the 
Academy votes for “A Star Is 
Born” en masse to make up for 
the perceived snub for Bradley 
Cooper’s 
(“Avengers: 
Infinity 
War”) directing.
The same thing happened in 
2013 when Ben Affleck (“Justice 
League”) wasn’t nominated for 
“Argo,” which would go on to 

win Best Picture over the favored 
“Lincoln.” The preferential ballot 
– when voting for Best Picture, the 
Academy doesn’t vote for a single 
film, they rank the nominees 
which 
are 
assigned 
points 
accordingly – also means that 
more broadly appealing films like 
“Black Panther” have a shot, as 
well. Still, with Alfonso Cuarón’s 
masterful work behind the camera 
a lock for the Best Director trophy, 
“Roma” remains the favorite – no 
pun intended.

— Jeremiah VanderHelm, Daily 
Arts Writer

The good, the bad and the ugly: Fantasy Oscars 2019

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

CHRISTINE JEGARL / DAILY

AFTER:

Oscar Sunday was a whirlwind 
– no host, lots of sexual tension 
and some not-so-surprising wins. 
Though the ceremony opened 
with the trifecta to end all trifectas 
(Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and 
Tina Fey), the Oscars eventually 
returned to its tried and true 
formula, proving that, for how 
progressive Hollywood likes to 
think it is, the system still rewards 
mediocre films for increasingly 
unclear reasons.
But it’s all fine if the good 
movies and people get awarded 
somewhere, right? Spike Lee’s 
talents were finally recognized 
with “BlackKklansman” for Best 
Adapted Screenplay (we were 
hoping for Best Director), but 
this and other wins were tainted 

when 
“Green 
Book” 
snagged 
Best Picture. Naively, our team, 
the whole section really, held out 
for “Roma” in this category – we 
put our faith in the Academy, 
hoping they would overcome their 
infatuation with “Green Book.” 
Unsurprisingly, though, they were 
hooked, and audiences will talk 
about this moment for years to 
come.
Overall, our draft team did 
relatively well: “Roma” won Best 
Foreign Language Film, Regina 
King picked up Best Supporting 
Actress and Best Actor went 
to Rami Malek for “Bohemian 
Rhapsody.” It was a predictable 
ceremony that really just left me 
wishing I could also give Samuel L. 
Jackson (“Glass”) a koala bear hug.

— Emma Chang, Senior Arts Editor

While I’m not surprised at all 
about it, I’m beyond happy that 
Cuarón received recognition for 
his direction. It’s the least the 
Academy could do to make up 
for their decision to give “Green 
Book” the Best Picture award. 
I’m excited to see what this win 
means for the artistic futures of 
both Cuarón and Netflix.
Deep 
down, 
I’m 
pretty 
surprised Colman won the Oscar, 
even though she was my draft pick. 
Glenn Close would probably have 
been the safer pick, considering 
she’s a seven-time Oscar nominee 
and 
this 
is 
Colman’s 
first 
nomination. While the cynical 
part of myself speculates that the 
Academy gave Colman the Oscar 
to give “The Favourite” some sort 
of recognition, I like to think they 
did because Colman simply gave 

the best performance of all the 
actresses nominated.
The 
Academy’s 
choice 
of 
“Green Book” for Best Picture 
makes it abundantly clear that the 
Oscars have long stopped being 
relevant in any way that matters. 
For “Green Book” to even be 
nominated, let alone win, shows 
just how out of touch Academy 
voters are. To choose “Green 
Book” over “Roma,” a nearly 
universally adored masterpiece, is 
a conscious vote for tradition over 
progress.

— Elise Godfryd, Daily Arts 
Writer

You never dream of a three-way 
tie when setting these things up, 
but alas, we will have to wait until 
next year to crown a champion 

of the Film section. Congrats to 
all three of the teams who scored 
three points. Ian and Anish will 
be both banished to the realm 
of 
reviewing 
terrible 
Netflix 
originals like “The Kissing Booth” 
or something.
I thought the ceremony ran 
very well without a host, and I 
hope, for the sake of all of our 
future Sunday nights, we won’t 
see a return to the old format any 
time soon. Other than adapted 
screenplay and best picture, I was 
pretty okay with the awards given 
out. It’s difficult to get excited for 
2018’s award season since 2017 
was such an unbelievable year 
(2016 too). Anything receiving the 
vaunted best picture award in a 
year like this, while movies like 
“Lady Bird,” “La La Land,” and 
“Whiplash” go on best-picture-

less, was never going to feel quite 
right. The best case would be, in a 
year like 2018, having the option 
to retroactively use our 2019 best 
picture award up on something 
that the Academy whiffed on in 
years past. In a perfect world, 
we went back on Sunday night to 
1990, to “Do the Right Thing,” to 
Spike Lee.
Oh well. On to the next year. 
Here’s hoping for bigger and 
better things with sounder, less 
offensive choices at the Dolby 
Theatre when we visit the Oscars 
again.

— Stephen Satarino, Daily Film 
Editor

CHRISTINE JEGARL / DAILY

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

