Entertainment: Oscar nominations

The Academy Awards are a damn joke, but I don't need to tell you that.

Yesterday morning, January 22, the nominees for the 91st annual Academy Awards were announced by two nobody actors and here's where we stand: Disney's lackluster and alarmingly generic BLACK PANTHER literally got nominated for Best Picture. Let thank sink in.

The nominees in Best Picture include the aforementioned short-bus special, BLACKKKLANSMAN, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, GREEN BOOK, THE FAVOURITE, ROMA, VICE, and my personal favorite film of the year A STAR IS BORN. Not a terrible line-up but certainly far from a good one. The Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic, 'Rhapsody', turned heads as a legit Awards threat at the Globes in early January when Rami Malek and the film itself walked away with Best Actor and Best Picture.

Supporting Actress and Actor included Amy Adams (VICE), Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite), Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Adam Driver (BlackKKKlansman), and a surprise nom for Sam Elliott from A STAR IS BORN.

Original Song nominees included “Shallow” from A STAR IS BORN which won the same accolade at The Globes, “All the Stars” from BLACK PANTHER, and some stupid ass song from Mary Poppins.

For Best Animated Feature Film the nominees included MIRAI, Into the Spider-Verse (Globes winner), and Disney's RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET and INCREDIBLES 2.

Best Actor and Best Actress included Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Rami Malek, Willem Dafoe, Viggo Mortensen, Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, and Melissa McCarthy.

The Best Director category was shockingly without Bradley Cooper who had received a lot of buzz after helming (and starring in) A STAR IS BORN, but the list did include Spike Lee, Pawel Pawlikowski, Yorgos Lanthimos, Alfonso Cuaron, and Adam McKay.

Visual effects seemed safe with nominees including READY PLAYER ONE, Avengers Infinity War, and SOLO.

The Oscars will air live on Sunday, February 24, which means I've got a month to catch up on all these movies and a month to learn how to properly tie a noose just incase Black Panther actually wins Best Picture, which I doubt.

Truth be told, I'm very shocked that WB's CRAZY RICH ASIANS didn't make the cut anywhere as an actual Awards topic and, speaking of individual snubs like Cooper, the omission of John David Washington in the Best Actor conversation for BLACKKKKLAN is utterly baffling since he already has hat gold statue cred in his blood being the son of Denzel Washington. Now I'm not supporting neopitsm or anything but it's just surprising.

The silver lining in all of this is that RESIDENT EVIL 2 drops this Friday!