The Wrap Includes “Tenet” in 10 Films that could dominate “Below the Line” Nominations | Oscars 2021

The Wrap has listed 10 films they consider will feature in the “below the line” nominations in next year’s Oscars. I’m gathering below the line means sound, editing etc rather than mainstream awards for Best Movie, Best Actor etc etc. Here is why they think Tenet will be successful:

It’s not always necessary to pile up nominations in below-the-line and technical categories to do well at the Oscars, but it sure does help. Apart from “Green Book,” whose five nominations only included one BTL nod (for film editing), most big Oscar winners in recent years have also scored with the voters who make up most of the Academy membership: sound editors and mixers, visual effects artists, cinematographers, editors, designers, composers and the like.

Even after the two sound categories were merged into one earlier this year, below-the-line artistry is responsible for nine of the 23 Oscar categories, with directing, writing and acting responsible for seven.

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“Tenet”
(Warner Bros.)
If voters had been able to see “Tenet” in a theater, the way God and director Christopher Nolan intended, it’d be a slam dunk in many categories. On a smaller home screen, the sheer power of the visuals might occasionally be overshadowed by a nagging feeling that what’s going on is kind of incomprehensible. (I say this as someone who drove out of L.A. County to see the film in a socially-distanced theater, where I could be dazzled and forget about nitpicking.)

But Nolan’s track record is formidable and this is one of the only real Movie Movies in the running, so it’s hard to imagine below-the-line voters not recognizing the scale and virtuosity of what they’re seeing on screen — even if that scale is toned down a bit because of COVID.

Strongest categories: Editing, visual effects, cinematography, sound, production design