At a glance
■ The 90th annual Academy Awards will be presented live beginning at 8 p.m. next Sunday on ABC, including WSYX-TV (Channel 6). Red-carpet coverage will begin at 6:30 on ABC and at 5 p.m. on E! “Beauty and the Beast.”Welldone, but the original is magical.
■ Worst sequel: “Kingsman: The Golden Circle.” Far from golden.
■ Most unnecessary sequel: Always a very competitive category. “John Wick: Chapter 2”
■ Most unnecessary TV adaptation: “CHIPS”
■ Worst 2017 performance by a current Oscar nominee: Gary Oldman in “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”
■ Worst performance ever by a current Oscar nominee: Willem Dafoe in “Body of Evidence”(1993)
■ Best title: Nifty double meanings rule this category. “Downsizing”wins by a nose over “The Mountain Between Us.”
■ Clearest title: “Mayhem.” Any questions?
■ Worst title, form: “Mother!”Sounds vulgar, but that’s not how it’s meant.
■ Worst title, content: “Phantom Thread.”Saw the movie in 70 mm; saw every thread. Still didn’t get the title.
■ Shortest title: The makers of “Coco” thought they’d made it. Then came “It.”
■ Most confusing titles: “Breath”and “Breathe.”
■ Best public-relations campaign: “I, Tonya” had a killer trailer and deployed the real-life Tonya Harding with admirable precision.
■ Longest wait for a prequel: “The Post” came out 41 years after “All the President’s Men” (1976). accounting for 28 of those nominations. If this is a sweep year, it will be for “The Shape of Water,” which is nominated in all of the six major categories except best actor.
■ More than 2,000 films released in 2017 scored no nominations.
■ Michael Stuhlbarg appears in three of the nine nominees for best picture — “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Post” and “The Shape of Water” — but couldn’t manage a supporting-actor nomination. It’s the first time that has happened since 1939, when unnominated Thomas Mitchell appeared in “Gone With the Wind,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “Stagecoach.”
■ Only one film has ever won the best-picture award without receiving a nomination in any other category: “Grand Hotel”(1932).
■ Meryl Streep is an acting juggernaut but not a bestpicture juggernaut: “The Post” is only the second film this century in which she starred to be nominated as best picture. The last was “The Hours” (2002); it didn’t win. Her last picture nomination before that was “Out of Africa” (1985), which won.
■ Only once in the 89-year history of the Oscars has a write-in candidate won. Cinematographer Hal Mohr was the upset winner for his work on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935). Write-ins are still allowed, but a similar upset isn’t likely this year.
■ John Williams’ nomination for best score (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) is his 51st, extending his run as the most-nominated person alive.
■ There are 10 first-time Oscar nominees among the 25 men and women nominated in the five major categories, which is fairly average. There was one fewer in 2017 and in 2014. There were nine in 2017, 10 in 2016 and 2015, nine in 2013 and, in an alltime low, six in 2012.
■ Of the 20 acting nominees, 13 are Americans and five are British. Throw in Australian Margot Robbie and Canadian Christopher Plummer, and it’s a clean sweep for the English speakers.
■ The Oscars have been postponed three times — in 1938, because of torrential rain and flooding; in 1968, because of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; and in 1981, because of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
■ Oscar Hammerstein II, who shared the best song award in 1941 and 1945, is the only man named Oscar to win an Oscar.