Oscar voting is now underway

I’m taking down my bird feeder, wondering who will step in and run the ArcLight Hollywood and rethinking my food choices next time I sit in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium.

Also, Oscar voting is underway, so I’m poring over the ballot, fine-tuning my final predictions. I’m Glenn Whipp, awards columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of the Envelope’s Friday newsletter. Justin Turner just sent over some nachos. Pull up a chair, grab a napkin or three and join me, won’t you? (Just keep an eye out for flying objects.)

Oscar voters share their ballots (anonymously)

I haven’t spoken with as many academy members as I normally do, because I haven’t spoken to all that many people in the past year, period. My family members? Sure. Neighbors? Of course. That guy who keeps leaving his wrought-iron patio chairs in front of my house hoping they’ll attract the attention of a scrap metal collector? Not so much anymore.

But that doesn’t mean that the lines of communication with Oscar voters haven’t remained open, and I went deep with three members who graciously shared their ballots with me recently. They differed on many points but shared a real enthusiasm for Yuh-Jung Youn in “Minari.” “[She’s] so good in that movie, funny and warm and wise,” an actress voter told me. “She’s the grandmother I aspire to be someday!”

The ‘controversy’ surrounding ‘Nomadland’

“Nomadland” is the best picture front-runner. And being in that position means the competition is going to come after you, with rival awards campaigners throwing out all kinds of nonsense, hoping some of it gives Oscar voters pause.

As my colleague Josh Rottenberg reported, some of the gripes about “Nomadland” have centered on its depiction of what it’s like to work in an Amazon warehouse. From many accounts, it’s a grueling, thankless existence, leading to a high rate of job turnover. In the film, we briefly see the main character, a widow named Fern (played by Frances McDormand), working at one of these warehouses as part of the company’s seasonal CamperForce program.

“The visual power of the film and its emotional core, Fern’s grief over the loss of her husband and her former life, occupy the audience’s attention, not Amazon’s problems,” ProPublica reporter Alec MacGillis wrote. “One could easily come away from the movie having a benign view of the toll Amazon takes on its workers, including the temporary ones.”

MacGillis makes a few good points here, one of them unintentional. Fern’s spiritual journey absolutely forms the core of “Nomadland,” which means, no, the movie isn’t about working at Amazon, a job she holds only shortly. “Nomadland” doesn’t ignore the problems brought on by America’s frayed safety nets. For some (not many), though, that isn’t enough. But this whisper campaign also isn’t enough to derail it from winning best picture.

Frances McDormand in “Nomadland.”

(Searchlight Pictures)

First-time directors put spotlight on Black life in L.A. ... and earned Oscar noms

Movies nominated in the short-film categories often get overlooked in the lead-up to the Oscars. But the stories behind them are sometimes fascinating, as Times staffer Jevon Phillips found when he spoke with Los Angeles natives Travon Free and Kris Bowers.

Free co-directed the nominated live-action short “Two Distant Strangers,” a clever and devastating time loop treatment of a Black man’s deadly encounter with police. (It’s available on Netflix.) Bowers’ “A Concerto Is a Conversation” (found on YouTube) was inspired by a desire to understand his grandfather’s journey to leave the South and start a new life in Los Angeles. The common ground for both men: the struggle to find belonging in white-dominated society. Ava DuVernay is an executive producer on the movie, nominated for documentary short.

“It’s definitely been a pretty wild journey — especially for my grandfather, being able to see him just receiving this public recognition and seeing people react to his story,” Bowers says. “And I think that’s been a big win for me .... Every time I call him now he’s excited to hear what new piece of information I have for him, and he’s all ready for the Oscars.”

Kris Bowers in “A Concerto Is a Conversation.”

(From Kris Bowers)