Oscar Picks: Patrick Markey

Daniel Kaluuya in a scene from 'Get Out.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hollywood producer and Fostoria native Patrick Markey shared his Oscar votes — and the reasons for his choices — in the six main categories of this year’s Academy Awards, as well as his votes in two other categories that are personal to him.

This image released by Fox Searchlight shows Frances McDormand in a scene from 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.'

Best Picture

Nominees: Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Markey's pick: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

“The process of picking a Best Picture, Best Director, those are really ephemeral things. On the list of pictures, I loved Lady Bird, I loved Get Out, I thought The Shape of Water was phenomenal, and Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. All four of those movies are wonderful movies and they all can be Best Pictures.

“[But] something like Three Billboards is close to me politically, and I can really get behind [the film's stars] Fran McDormand and [Sam Rockwell] and Woody Harrelson, a marvelous performance by him. I thought that it was a great script and really well written and well acted. That’s a beautifully produced movie, too.”

Daniel Kaluuya in a scene from 'Get Out.'

Best Actor

Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name; Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread; Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out; Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour; Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Markey's pick: Kaluuya over Oscar favorite Oldman

“Gary Oldman is an amazing, fantastic actor, but I thought what that young guy did in Get Out was an amazing performance.”

Best Actress

Nominees: Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water; Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Margot Robbie, I, Tonya; Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird; Meryl Streep, The Post

Markey's pick: McDormand

“It’s a tough category. Sally Hawkins, Fran McDormand, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan ... those top four. It’s almost like you roll the dice. Sally Hawkins I would probably drop out of that. It would be McDormand, Robbie, or Saoirse Ronan. I think it would probably be Fran McDormand by a nose.”

Willem Dafoe and Brooklynn Prince in a scene from 'The Florida Project.'

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project; Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water; Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World; Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Markey's pick: Dafoe

“I loved The Florida Project. ... That’s an unbelievable performance, and that movie hasn’t got as much attention as I thought it deserved.”

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Mary J. Blige, Mudbound; Allison Janney, I, Tonya; Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread; Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird; Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Markey's pick: Janney

He agrees that Janney is as close to a sure thing in a year in which there are few runaway Oscar favorites. “Allison Janney was pretty damn good in I, Tonya.”

Best Director

Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread; Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water; Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird; Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk; Jordan Peele, Get Out

Markey's pick: del Toro

“Very few people are playing at the top of the game like him, and when it comes to the whole canvas of directing, not just putting stuff on screen, but his ability as a filmmaker and as visionary and what he’s able to create always astonishes me. ... The Shape of Water, it’s so kind of eloquent and eloquently done on every level, I sort of slip out of producer mode and watch it as a viewer or observer of the arts because he’s such a fantastic filmmaker.”

Best Cinematography

Nominees: Blade Runner 2049, Roger Deakins; Darkest Hour, Bruno Delbonnel; Dunkirk, Hoyte van Hoytema; Mudbound, Rachel Morrison; The Shape of Water, Dan Laustsen

Markey's pick: Deakins

“It’s tied up between him and [Laustsen], who did The Shape of Water. Deakins is so unbelievably good. There’s nothing he does that isn’t fantastic. Let’s go with Deakins.”

Best Production Design

Nominees: Beauty and the Beast, Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer; Blade Runner 2049, Dennis Gassner and Alessandra Querzola; Darkest Hour, Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer; Dunkirk, Nathan Crowley and Gary Fettis; The Shape of Water, Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, and Shane Vieau

Markey's pick: The Shape of Water, Austerberry, Melvin, and Vieau

“Hands down. I just think it was amazing, the scope. ... Obviously Blade Runner had a huge design, but there’s something about The Shape of Water that blew me away, the completeness of it. There wasn't anything at all missing in that. It was so well done.”

Contact Kirk Baird at kbaird@theblade.com or 419-724-6734.