Where is Mr. Rogers? The documentary considered the Oscar front-runner is not even nominated for the 2019 awards. I was sorry not to see Michael B. Jordan nominated for Best Supporting Actor (“Black Panther”), though I am confident there will be an Oscar in his future, and I am glad to see the film make history as the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture. I would like to have seen Timothée Chalamet nominated for “Beautiful Boy,” but like Jordan, he will have many other opportunities. Ryan Gosling should have been nominated for “First Man,” and its score deserved a nomination as well. And my favorite film of the year “If Beale Street Could Talk,” should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.

It was good to see some lower-profile documentaries get recognition from the Academy. “Minding the Gap” chronicles the lives of the filmmaker’s friends from a small town outside Chicago. Director Bing Liu follows the group from their early teens up to the present day, grappling with what it means to be men in present-day America. Skateboarding is a central thread throughout the film. Accompanying the group on extensive high-speed rides, we begin to see how skateboarding is not just something to do, but a shared activity that is deeply meditative and therapeutic for each of them. Trying new tricks, encouraging each other and spending time together, they form a bond much stronger than the mere term “friend” indicates. Skateboarding is their connection and their escape. It premieres on PBS February 19, 2019.

“Hale County This Morning, This Evening” will also premiere on PBS in February. My friend Odie Henderson wrote a beautiful review of the film on rogerebert.com.

The film has an unusual, time-jumping cadence that’s punctuated by strange sounds, odd music and beautiful, superimposed visions of sky and earth. There are unexpected camera angles and long moments that at first seem monotonous but pay big dividends. Ross weaves all these elements together in such a way that you eventually realize the film is teaching you how to watch it, subtly coaxing you onto its wavelength. Suddenly, you feel like an honorary citizen of the titular place, someone temporarily woven into its fabric…”Hale County This Morning, This Evening” is all about how perception changes depending on whose gaze is being reflected and how informed the owner of that gaze is. Events happen in this non-fiction film that, in a fictionalized film, are often depicted in scenes heightened by melodrama and stereotype. Ross’ intimate knowledge of the location and of his subjects, Daniel and Quincy, strips away the usual artifice and baggage, presenting these events as matter-of-factly as life itself. It’s an uncorrupted viewpoint, though Ross is on occasion quick to remind you of prior cinematic and societal reflections of Southern Blacks.

It will premiere on the Independent Lens series February 11, 2019.

Other omissions: Ryan Coogler as director of “Black Panther and the overlooking of every single female director in a year when there were more female-directed films in top-ten lists than ever, including Debra Granik (“Leave no Trace”), Elizabeth Chomko (“What They Had”), Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”), Chloé Zhao (“The Rider”), Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Josie Rourke (“Mary Queen of Scots”), Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”), and Desiree Akhavan (“The Miseducation of Cameron Post”). I expect to see at least some of them in the Spirit Award nominations for independent films along with some of my other 2018 favorites like “Blindspotting,” “Support the Girls,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Eighth Grade,” and “The Hate U Give.”

Perhaps the most significant development is about Netflix, which got its first Best Picture nomination with Roma and fourteen other nominations as well. This is a stunning achievement for an organization that has only been producing original content for a few years. It is great to see vital, creative new producers doing so well.

Here are this year’s Oscar nominees:

BEST PICTURE
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice

BEST ACTRESS
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Adam McKay, Vice
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Vice
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Favourite
First Reformed
Green Book
Roma
Vice

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“All the Stars,” Black Panther
“I’ll Fight,” RBG
“The Place Where Lost Things Go,” Mary Poppins Returns
“Shallow,” A Star Is Born
“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

BEST FILM EDITING
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Vice

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Of Fathers and Sons
RBG

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
Roma
A Star Is Born

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Black Panther
The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

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