2019 Nominee Watch – December 25th

Merry Christmas everyone a few days early. Today I take a look at the films releasing on Christmas Day this week and see where I think Oscar nominations could come from in this last week of the year before the eligibility period ends.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday this week and I will be back after the new year with new Nominee Watch posts looking ahead to the films from 2020 before gearing up for the Oscar nominations on January 13th and the awards ceremony a few weeks after that.

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Little Women
I found seven other film versions of this story dating back to 1917, and those were just the ones straight up titled Little Women. This doesn't include various television series versions that have popped up over the years around the world including Japanese anime and a 2018 web series from India.

I was happy to see that the two most recent film versions had been directed by women, half expecting to see them all directed by men going back 100 years. This time around Academy Award nominated director Greta Gerwig is at the helm with the help of her previous collaborator and Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan Oscar nominee Laura Dern, and everyone's favorite Herminoe Granger, Emma Watson. There is also support from recent nominee Timothée Chalamet and longtime Oscar stalwart and three time winner Meryl Streep.

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To bet against this film at least getting a few nominations would be foolish. I am sure that at least one acting nomination will come out of it, though I'm not sure who. A Best Director nomination is also possible for Gerwig along with recognition for Best Costume Design, since period pieces like this often fill that category.

Spies in Disguise
This feels like the movie that has recent Marvel stars coming over to do voices when they're not making Marvel movies. It features Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Endgame) as Walter Beckett opposite Will Smith's Lance Sterling. Beckett is the technology whiz kid who inadvertently turns Sterling into a pigeon, forcing them to work together to find a way to turn the world's most awesome spy back into a human.

Marvel veterans Ben Mendeloshn (Captain Marvel) and Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War) also appear in the film along with country music star turned actor Reba McEntire, and rapper DJ Khaled.

The film looks like fun and is probably the best family friendly film hitting theaters in this last week of the year. So if you're looking for something to see with the family after all the presents are open on Christmas, consider this in your choices.

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As far as the Oscars goes, this was on the list of films submitted for Best Animated Feature, however I don't think it will make the cut. There are too many other great animated films out there this year from Toy Story 4 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, to the wonderful but perhaps overlooked Okko's Inn that will jump ahead of this film.

Limited Releases

• 1917 – Two soldiers are sent on a journey with an urgent message when a large British force is about to walk into a trap during WWI.
• IP Man: The Finale – Donnie Yen stars in this next film in the IP Man series where he comes to the United States.
• Just Mercy – Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan star in this film about a man who is wrongly convicted and sentenced to death and the people that fought to save him.
• Les Misérables – French film about a regional police officer who moves to Paris and finds corruption everywhere. (Oscar Qualifying Run)
• The Song of Names – The story of two boys separated by a world and time who find each other in older age.
• What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael – Documentary look at the life of film critic Pauline Kael.
• The White Sheik – 1952 Italian film from master director Federico Fellini
• Apparition – A young programmer develops an app that connects the living with the dead and works with friends to investigate mysterious murders. (December 27th)
• Clemency – A veteran prison warden who has presided over many death row executions deals with the effects of her job. (December 27th)