A golden spotlight shone Tuesday on the latest batch of Oscar nominees, but it did little to illuminate a murky movie awards season.There were portents both good and bad for leading nominees Roma and The Favourite, which each scored 10 nominations, Best Picture among them. Alfonso Cuarón’s memory drama Roma did very well, nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, as well as receiving nods for Best Director, Best Actress (Yalitza Aparicio) and Best Supporting Actress (Marina de Tavira), among others. The nomination for de Tavira was a surprise, indicating deep support for Roma by fellow actors, who make up the largest branch of the Academy. However, Roma’s nominations for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film could end up splitting votes and cancelling each other out in the final tallies. (Vote-splitting could also explain why Emily Blunt, this year’s biggest Oscar snub, was overlooked both for Best Actress for Mary Poppins Returns and Best Supporting Actress for A Quiet Place.)Roma, which is in Spanish and the Indigenous language Mixtec, will also have to overcome the negative that no movie in a language other than English has ever won the Oscar for Best Picture. It’s also the first film by the Netflix streaming service to be nominated in this category, and many people in Hollywood object to the disruption Netflix has been causing to traditional movie distribution.Roma also failed to score a nomination for Best Film Editing, a crafts category that has historically pointed to the eventual Best Picture winner. It’s rare to win Oscar’s top prize if you fail to land at least a nom from the people who cut the film.Yorgos Lanthimos of Greece scores his first Best Picture and Best Director nominations for The Favourite, a royal satire set in the English court of the 18th century. It has three acting nominations — Best Actress for Olivia Colman and Best Supporting Actress for Emma Stone and ...
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