Oscar winners? Have to wait until April 25 to find out

Above : “My Octopus Teacher” is nominated for Best Documentary Feature. (Photo: Netflix)

So, the Motion Picture Academy handed out its annual award nominations this morning. And the standard reactions regarding surprises and snubs quickly followed.

Why no acting nomination for Delroy Lindo (for Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods”)? Why was neither LaKeith Stanfield nor Daniel Kaluuya considered a lead actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah” (both having received supporting nods)? Why a Best Adapted Screenplay nod for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”?

And so on.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that David Fincher’s “Mank” leads the way with 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Gary Oldman), Best Supporting Actress (Amanda Seyfried) and Best Cinematography (a throwback to its use of black and white). Hollywood loves nothing more than stories about itself, even those that aren’t – as this one is – particularly flattering.

For me, the true value of such an event, even given the political infighting and consequent squabbling on social media, is that it emphasizes films that deserve to be seen.

That list includes “Sound of Metal,” which earned six nominations. One of those is for Best Picture, which – even though I like the film a lot – is bit of a stretch. Or any of the five Best Documentary Features, but especially the inspirational “My Octopus Teacher” and Romania’s “Collective” – the latter of which, in an interesting twist, is nominated also for International Feature (formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film).

Though I used to hold an annual Oscars Contest when I worked for the print edition of The Spokesman-Review, I was never very good at predicting who would win. Our office pool would often be won by sportswriters such as Dave Trimmer who hadn’t seen any of the films. So it goes.

So I won’t venture any guesses. The awards show is set to be broadcast on April 25, so there will be plenty of time for any number of commentators to offer up their two bits.

Until then, consider this ironic quote from Billy Crystal: “Nothing can take the sting off the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires present each other golden statues.”