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IT’S TIME FOR the 2019 Oscars – and whether they agree with the outcome or not, it’s a highlight of any film-lover’s new year.
The Academy Awards are the biggest mainstream film awards, with millions of dollars pumped into campaigns by studios in an attempt to get their movies to win. It’s a huge boost for any film to be nominated, never mind scoop a statuette – and excitingly for us, tonight sees Irish productions among the nominees.
But it has been a strange year for the Oscars, with this year’s ceremony being the focus of some head-slapping controversy and ‘what now?!’ moments. And with some of the nominees for best film being heavily criticised, it’s going to be particularly interesting to see which productions do win the top categories.
So with all that in mind, here’s what to watch out for:
Will there be any Oscars for Ireland?
There are a number of ways Ireland could get an Oscar this year. Our best bet is with the Irish co-produced film The Favourite, which is up for a whopping 10 awards (including the cinematography award, which Irish native Robbie Ryan is up for). Its director, Greek native Yorgos Lanthimos, has a great relationship with Irish production company Element, so we’ll all be crossing our fingers that they’ll take home a few golden statuettes.
But that’s not all on the Irish front – animated short Late Afternoon and live action short Detainment also up for awards. Fingers crossed on all fronts.
Will the A Star Is Born campaigning work?
The key to getting on the Academy’s radar and in with a chance of winning something is to, well, get talked about.
But when it looked like there wasn’t enough chatter about A Star Is Born, and most particularly its star and director Bradley Cooper, something had to be done.
So we had Cooper join Lady Gaga on stage at her Las Vegas residency gig, where the duo reunited to sing the hit Shallow from the film’s soundtrack. That would definitely remind people of the power of the film. And then there was Sean Penn’s op-ed about the need for Bradley to win. Which was embarrassing, but Penn, despite his behaviour, is Hollywood royalty. Then there’s the $20million that was apparently spent on the Oscars campaign for the film. So it can’t be said that they haven’t tried.
To be fair to him, Bradley Cooper did at least admit he was put out that he didn’t get a nomination for Best Director (especially given the fine job the debut director did) – but he’s bound to leave home with at least one of the gongs for these for his film: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Cinematography or Best Sound Mixing. It’s unlikely to get Best Picture, but we shall see… (to us, Lady Gaga’s performance was fantastic – but Olivia Colman is a shoe-in for Best Actress).
How will Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book fare?
There has been a LOT of drama about both of these films. For Bohemian Rhapsody (which is, in case you lived under a rock, a biopic about the band Queen) – that’s chiefly down to the fact director Bryan Singer was on board, before being replaced by Dexter Fletcher. Rumours had swirled about Singer’s behaviour for years, and an in-depth article in the Atlantic recently outlined the many allegations made against him.
Then there’s the film itself. First, there were the accusations that it erased Freddie Mercury’s sexual identity (particularly in the trailer). And while Rami Malek got lots of praise for his own depiction of Mercury, when he won awards for the role there was some negative chatter.
Then there is the direction and editing of the film, which has been made fun of online. At the same time, it has taken in about twice what A Star is Born took in at the box office globally – so audiences in the main did love it.
Then we have Green Book (about the real-life pairing of African American musician Dr Don Shirley – played by Mahershal Ali – and his white driver Tony Lip – played by Viggo Mortensen – as they take a trip through the Deep South), which has also been mired in controversy.
There were the facts that it appears to do some white-washing around race relations; that Viggo Mortensen using the N-word at a press event; that the director admitted flashing actresses; and that Don Shirley’s family were said to be not very happy about the film. That all said, doing well in the Irish box office, as this list from Scannáin shows. But have the controversies put off the Academy voters?
The controversies around Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody are particularly interesting because they highlight the types of discussions that we’re having around popular culture in 2019 – digging deep into race, gender politics and who has the right to tell someone’s story.
How they fare at the Oscars will give an insight into the mindset of the members of the Academy, who have certainly not been described as the most diverse group of people in Hollywood. How things pan out on the night will be very telling.
How will the festival do without a main host?
For the first time in 30 years, there will be no main host for the Oscars. Again, this is down to controversy – Kevin Hart had been lined up to do the honours, but when old homophobic tweets of his resurfaced, he stepped down.
He had been given the choice to delete the tweets, or give up the role, and he chose the latter – though he did apologise to the LGBT community for what he said in the past.
That left the Academy with a choice of whether to replace him or not. And, weirdly, they decided not to. Instead, the show will rely on a heap of big-name award presenters.
But will they provide the entertainment the audience wants out of a long ceremony like the Oscars? We shall see…
Will Richard E Grant get his Oscar?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs8PRBTjA-i/
One of the sweetest things about this year’s Oscars has been witnessing veteran British actor Richard E Grant get his first Oscar nomination.
With the enthusiasm of a starstruck teenager, he has been taking to Twitter to share his excitement. Come on – surely he deserves an award at this stage of his career.
But if he doesn’t get it, at least we’ll get to see his lovely tweets from the ceremony. Unlike others, there’s no way he’ll be cynical about this.
Will Roma win Best Film?
This would be exciting because it’d be the first time a film in a foreign language has won the award. And with critics and audiences adoring this film, it’s certain it will get at least one Oscar. It could also land Cuarón an award for Best Director or for Best Cinematography.
It would a big win for Netflix too, and perhaps a source of upset in Hollywood – as the streaming giant is certainly disrupting the way films are distributed and seen by audiences.
Will there be any Moonlight/La La Land moments?
We all hope that at each Oscars ceremony there’ll be an episode we’ll chat about after – like Gwyneth Paltrow’s tearful speech, Crash winning the Best Film Award, Ellen’s internet-killing selfie, or the moment the wrong film was named when Moonlight won Best Film.
The awards show acceptance speech trend recently has been for rousing feminist/anti-racist speeches, which is certainly a good thing. So we can probably expect to see some of them (and maybe some digs at the all-male director shortlist).
But we might see some controversial moments too. After all, it’s Hollywood, baby.
Will Paul Schrader get his due? Or Spike Lee, for that matter? Or Glenn Close?
Neither Schrader nor Lee have won Oscars for the films people wanted them to win Oscars for – Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Do The Right Thing, respectively – so could Schrader get the Best Original Screenplay award for First Reformed, and Lee win one of the many categories Blackkklansman is nominated in?
And as for Glenn Close - give the gal an Oscar already.
Some bonus reading for you. A recap of the 1999 Oscars, when to everyone’s shock – except those involved in Harvey Weinstein’s campaign – Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan to the Best Picture gong. And here’s a look at how much studios spend on Oscar campaigns – because if you’re not in, you sure as hell can’t win.
The Oscars will kick off at 1am Irish time tomorrow morning. We’ll be keeping you updated as all the big news breaks.
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If they choose not to die (if ever they have that option ) terminally ill patients should get medical cards – no question. Several terminal diseases are not considered including Motor Neurone Disease. I had a maternal aunt and have a paternal uncle both diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Each had to really fight to get medical cards; prescriptions to slow the disease are extremely expensive and there is lots of follow-up GP & nursing care needed. If it wasn’t for the exceptional work and support of IMND charity our family have been quite alone & badly unsupported.
Why! If you have a terminal illness and have money why should someone else pay for your care? You won’t need the money when your gone, your just leaving a bigger win fall for relatives. The medical card is based on financial need not medical need, meaning those with one couldn’t afford to care for themselves out of their own means, It not meant for those who just don’t want to pay in various stages of expensive illnesses.Only when reasonable financial means are used up should medical card be granted. Not matter how expensive drugs are they won’t cost a family more then 144 a month.
You’re one nasty, cold-hearted bast*rd
I already answered this in my original post – not everyone who has a terminal illness would or should choose to die by assistance. That’s a massive decision for someone already dying to face & make. Crucially, it is the patient’s choice entirely; not yours to force it and certainly not society’s to make them. The fundamental argument in this issue is choice.
To be honest i agree familys who are well off should not get a medical card they already have the money to pay for meds. On the other hand a family who have not got a pot to piss in should get one.
Aoife why is it cold heart to have someone pay for part of their already heavily subsidized care. It’s the hospices that have to beg for funding every year for people to die with dignity, that were funding should be channeled to. I don’t see why relatively wealthy individuals should have to pay nothing towards their care for the sole purpose of leaving a larger estate to their next of kin. It’s quite disgusting actually.
Tom let me explain why it’s better to just cover everyone and this same logic is why I beleive in free college fees
If we do means tests not only are we punishing people who work by taking services off them that they have started to pay for with more taxes but there is another reason, it’s way more efficent to cover everyone than to try to sloppily ‘target’ them with means tests.
Means tests leave a huge amount of people out who are not well off enough to self fund but not poor enough to meet the means test, the MT is ALWAYS set too low ALWAYS.
Whereas if you cover everyone then the wealthy are paying back theirs with their higher tax rates without any middle group squeezed out, win win win.
@Smidgen Dublin, what do you mean by “choosing to die by assistance”? We’re talking about end of life care here not assisted suicide.
What money Joe. What windfall? The average worker has no spare money. Little savings, if they are lucky. So because they worked all their lives they should die with the worry of their bills hanging over their heads. Jesus, is there nothing we as a nation won’t moan about.
If someone is dying give them a fcuking medical card. Let them at least die with the relief of knowing their family won’t be up sh*ts creek after they’re gone. If you’re on the dole you get a medical card, if you are just breaking even you get nothing but a load of bills to leave behind.
Ryan, Young healthy middle classes will fund your system, while people may be happy to help those most in need I don’t think the working age population could hack paying free health care for everyone. People pay VHI etc to skip the queue, under your system their paying more tax to crazily make the queue even longer.
@Michelle, if you die and have no money (A) you should already have a medical card(B) Debts die with you, you can’t get blood from a stone.
I hate when wealthy individuals start playing the poor mouth. You can have 36k/72k couple in savings and still get a medical card. The working class have a hard enough looking after themselves never mind extending the medical card for the well off.
Ah Joe, come on. It is very easy to die in this country and leave a lot of debts for your family.
Not being able to work while being treated for a terminal illness leaves the surviving partner in a mess. Bills creep up during the final months. A medical card would alleviate some of the worry. I’m not talking about wealthy people. I’m talking about the average person on an average salary. The majority of people don’t have critical illness cover. When you have a two person household paying a mortgage and bills that suddenly turns into a one salary, one terminally ill adult, the bills creep up very quickly and a medical card is not a guarantee. Yet if the two adults are on the dole they automatically get a medical card. Once again those just holding their heads above water get no life line. A medical card is like gold to the family of a terminally ill person.
Michelle, People “breaking even” should of course be entitled to a medical card but the proposal wasn’t even to increase the means test to take account of the non medical costs of those in serious illnesses, it was regardless of means people would be automatically entitled to a medical card thus making zero contribution to their expensive care. Funding free health to the wealthy means less money to help those who are perhaps in greater need and more tax for the rest. It’s all very well saying free this and free that but someone has to pay for it (potentially the less well of).
You are one absolute sc**bag posting a comment like that! Seriously these people are suffering and your suggesting kicking them while there down? Cop on. Of course they deserve one! They deserve all the help that can be given to them. And about their own money? They may be young and have kids that will need that money.. Did u think of that?
NO NO NO NO NO….NO! No! For Gods sake…
Can we just end this farce once and for all? Forget about this nonsense of insurance company middle men etc, just have a flat rate charge per year per person and after that we all get a card and EVERYTHING is covered instead of this universal insurance thing where we fart around with excesses and deductibles and means tests and this is allowable income and this is not and you’re 6 euro over and all that BO**OX!
Single payer models like Medicare Canada are FAR more efficient than this dutch model, that is a simple undeniable scientific fact.
I personally already think these means tests PUNISH people for working..whats the ONE group of Irish society that pays for EVERYTHING and yet gets NONE of the stuff they pay for virtually? The middle class worker…why should they TAKE a card from you the second you start contributing to society to pay for it? Thats lunacy no other EU15 country does it that way.
If we carve it up on things like fatal illness it’s just going to result in farce. The HSE already tried something like this last year, I’ve got an illness that may or may not be fatal depending on various permutations. I had the card initially based on illness and discretion rather than income. One day it was pulled, and when I called up they said discretionary cards based on illness were in future probably only going to be for fatal ilness.
Oncologist John Crown was on the radio pretty fast to explain why that is a moronic policy. Cancer is not the death sentence is once was, someone can survive with it for 10 years and may still die..or recover fully..it depends on the case, there are an infinite number of possible permutations of circumstance, side effects, stages…it can go any which way.
Thats just cancer, there is in many cases no way to tell if someones illness wil be fatal or not.
This is lunacy…can we end this NONSENSE please once and for all and just agree on a simple system where you pay X fee and get everything covered?
Ryan it would be great if everyone could have cover and take cost out of the equation. This is universal health cover. Would you be prepared to pay up to 40% of your wages each month to find this kind of care ? Countries that have UHC have excellent services but it costs. Nothing is free no matter how hard the government want to spin it
Fund*
It depends on what model you choose and how you do it.
We can have simple direct tax funded like Canada that does not mean paying any premium, were probably not able to do it that way without tax increases though, universal care would cost around an extra 4b so that’s why I say a direct charge.
I don’t accept it would take 40% of my wages.
Before doing it, I’d try go for a tallaght strategy on health, get all party agreement on eliminating the waste and staff duplication and red tape in the HSE first
Minister for waste needed. There are 40 thousand managers in the HSE for starters.
They should also have the right to euthanasia if they wish…….. this nanny state even wishes to dictate how you die… SHAME on Ireland
Medical cards and the right to die !
Screw medical cards, people with terminal illnesses should automatically receive the right to die!
Oh no no..personal sovereignty? No no we can’t have that nanny Irish state has to put you in prison for your own good if you take THIS drug instead of THAT drug, nanny Irish state cares about you so much that it will lock you up to protect you from yourself…just not enough to give you control over your own life because God does not want it that way…or so they suppose, they don’t really know afterall what God wants even if there is one, they’re just blindly guessing, and while they drop to their knees slapping themselves in the head screaming ”what does the skygod want?? did you send us a storm because you were upset with us skygod?” people are dying in agony when we have the means to allow them to die peacefully in their sleep.
I’m surprised they didn’t automatically receive medical cards.. Shameful!
Rory it may have escape you but death is an inevitable consequence of a terminal illness
Of course they should have medical cards , everyone should have the right to any medicine , equipment or hospice treatment they need to make them comfortable
About 6 weeks before my terminally ill wife died of cancer she broke her leg. She required a special bed with an inflatable mattress in this time and the easiest way to one was to apply for a special medical card.
The application, which is not means-tested was denied.
That’s an easy one Leo. Go for it.
Of course they should get free medical care. It makes me furious to think that people who have worked and contributed to the national coffers all their lives should be expected to continue to pay, even when they are dying. Those who have paid little or nothing in their lifetime can get free nursing home care plus free medicines. Are people to be punished for actually having supported the national economy?
When you work in the HSE with people needing end of life care or those with a life limiting illness – a medical card is more then medicines being paid for. Many items e.g. Dressings are not covered in the dps and often items are not covered in the gms. We as professionals end up using “hardship” scheme… I costed care for a patient before needing certain items it was x thousand per month.. No medical card. Dps covered y amount but the rest had to be paid for – this was a few hundred a month.. We shouldn’t need to do this to people. People don’t need this stress.
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