Awards for 2019 Films

Best Picture:

Lulu Wang's and A24's sleeper hit The Farewell (with zero nominations) - the drama about a Chinese-American family's decision to hide the grandmother's terminal cancer diagnosis

Best Director:

writer/director Greta Gerwig's Little Women (with six nominations and only one win) received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and two acting nods (Ronan and Pugh), but Gerwig was denied a Best Director nomination. Gerwig would have made history as the first woman to become a two-time directing nominee. She remained one of only five women nominated in the category.
[Note: Gerwig was nominated as Best Director for Lady Bird (2017).]

writer/director Lulu Wang for The Farewell
[Note: Wang would have become the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated].

other neglected female directors: Marielle Heller for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Lorene Scafaria for Hustlers, Melina Matsoukas for Queen & Slim, and Kasi Lemmons for Harriet

writer/director Noah Baumbach - passed over for his intensely-wrought divorce drama Marriage Story

Best Actor:

Eddie Murphy for his role as black entertainer and blaxploitation legend Rudy Ray Moore (and star of the 1970s Dolemite movies), in Netflix's and director Craig Brewer's biopic Dolemite Is My Name (with zero nominations)

Adam Sandler for his role as Howard Ratner, an indebted jeweler and degenerate gambling addict in NYC's Diamond District, always in trouble with loan sharks, in the A24 (and Netflix) crime-thriller and drama Uncut Gems (with zero nominations)

Robert De Niro for his decades-long title role as Frank Sheeran, a truck driver who turned hit man and was paired up with crime family mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci), in Scorsese's expensively-produced and lengthy Netflix epic crime film The Irishman

Christian Bale for his role as a British World War II veteran, Ford Motor Company car mechanic and hot-headed professional race car driver, culminating in a 1966 race at Le Mans against the Ferraris, in Ford v Ferrari

Taron Egerton for his portrayal of gay rocker Elton John / Reginald Dwight and his friendship and musical partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), in the biographical musical Rocketman (with one win from its sole nomination, Best Original Song: "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again")

Best Actress:

Awkwafina for her role as aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi Wang, who kept a terminal illness diagnosis from her matriarchial grandmother during a family wedding in China, in The Farewell

Lupita Nyong'o for her role as the haunted Adelaide Wilson, whose family was attacked by a group of menacing doppelgängers, in Jordan Peele's well-received horror film Us (with zero nominations) - with a great twist ending

Best Supporting Actor:

Jamie Foxx was snubbed for his role as wrongly condemned, Alabama death row prisoner Walter McMillian, in writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton's true-life drama Just Mercy (with zero nominations)

Song Kang-Ho was overlooked for his role as Kim Ki-taek, the impoverished patriarch of the Kim family in Seoul, involved in a manipulative con against the affluent Park family to take over their household, in the much-lauded black comedy-thriller from South Korea, Parasite

Best Supporting Actress:

Jennifer Lopez was deprived of an expected nomination for portraying stripper Ramona, in director Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers (with zero nominations)

Nicole Kidman didn't get honored with a nomination for her role as real-life FOX newscaster Gretchen Carlson, co-anchor of the Fox & Friends show, who filed suit against FOX news head Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) for sexual harrassment, in Bombshell

Zhao Shuzhen was passed over for her role as Billi's ailing paternal grandmother Nai Nai with a cancer diagnosis, hidden from her, in The Farewell

Best Animated Feature Film:

Disney's blockbuster sequel Frozen II (with only one nomination, Best Original Song) was knocked out of contention by Netflix's two foreign entries: Klaus (Sp./UK), an origin story about Santa Klaus, and/or by I Lost My Body (Fr.) (aka J'ai Perdu Mon Corps)