The current Oscar-nominated films that have been seen the least

Kasi Lemmons’s first feature in six years features an incendiary performance from the great Cynthia Erivo, who’s nominated for Best Actress and Best Original Song. The biopic about the legendary Harriet Tubman performed fairly well at the box office, but it deserves a much wider audience. Period films about African-American heroes are far too rare, and Lemmons (whose “Eve’s Bayou” is one of the best movies of the ‘90s) shouldn’t have to go half of a decade between movies.

Noah Baumbach’s brutal divorce drama has been racking up awards since December, but is this Best Picture nominee getting lost in the Netflix shuffle with “The Irishman”, “6 Underground” and “Cheers” reruns? The streaming giant isn’t keen on sharing all of its viewing numbers, but the conversation around the film seems to be more about its awards success than its superb content. If you’re reticent to watch a film about divorce… well, you’re not wrong. It’s a rough ride. But it also boasts some of the year’s best performances (from the nominated Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern, as well as Alan Alda, Merritt Weaver and Julie Hagerty), and a fantastic score from Randy Newman.

Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most celebrated filmmakers working today, but he’s never scored a massive box office success in the United States. This semi-autobiographical film starring the Oscar-nominated Antonio Banderas as his director’s alter-ego is more rewarding if you’re well acquainted with Almodóvar’s work, but it’s plenty involving as a portrait of the artist as a wounded man. It’s a must-see from an absolute master.

Clint Eastwood’s drama about the Atlanta security guard wrongfully accused of the 1996 Olympics bombing drew criticism from journalists who objected to its portrayal of the late reporter Kathy Scruggs as an unethical harpy who slept with sources for a juicy scoop. This dustup isn’t the reason the movie bombed (films about journalism rarely pack ‘em in), but it did obscure some tremendous work from Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell and the Oscar-nominated Kathy Bates.

Netflix scored a surprise Best Animated Feature nomination for Segio Pablos’s inventive take on the Santa Claus myth. Again, it’s hard to know how many people have seen the movie since the streaming distributor hasn’t released its viewing stats, but it certainly lacks the profile of blockbusters like “Toy Story 4” and “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”. Will it win? Probably not, but the nomination feels like victory enough.

This Laika-produced animated film is a total delight, but with a price tag of $100 million, its $26.2 million gross makes it one of 2019’s biggest box office bombs. Now that it’s got the Academy’s seal of approval, maybe audiences will give this tale of a lovable Sasquatch (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) who sets out for the Himalayas to meet his yeti relatives a chance. It’s splendid entertainment for all ages.

Jan Komasa’s drama about a young man with a criminal past who moonlights as a priest is one of four Best International Film nominees competing for second place behing Bong Joon-ho’s prohibitive favorite, “Parasite”. Bartosz Bielenia is superb as the spiritually seized protagonist, and the film is formulaic enough to connect with audiences who generally avoid movies with subtitles.

In a rare turn of events, a documentary cracked the Best International Film top five, which is a testament to the greatness of Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov’s feature about beekeeping and how single-minded capitalism is wrecking the environment. The film was initially intended to be a short documentary, but the beekeeping intrigue unexpectedly exploded, leaving the directors with a compelling drama. 

Ladj Ly’s film is an expansion of his short movie about an anti-crime outfit operating in a dicey area of Paris, and it’s classically entertaining enough to win the Best International Film Oscar in a year when “Parasite” isn’t nominated. The movie is currently in theaters, but will eventually make its way to Amazon Prime Video, where Americans will hopefully discover this compelling gem.

Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s excellent documentary about a Chinese company operating a factory out of Dayton, Ohio seems to be hugging the inside track of the Best Documentary Feature race this year (especially with the amazing “Apollo 11” out of the running), but this category is always unpredictable. But if you want to watch one of the year’s best movies, all you have to do is boot up Netflix, as this is the first film produced by the company’s most esteemed collaborators, Barack and Michelle Obama.

Feras Fayyad followed up his Oscar-nominated “Last Men in Aleppo” with this crushing documentary about a female doctor forced to run a hospital out of a cave in the midst of the Syrian Civil War. This is a National Geographic film, so it has yet to surface on streaming media in an affordable way, but it’s well worth seeking out in light of the United States’ bungling of its Syrian foreign policy.

Petra Costa’s documentary about the turbulent political situation in Brazil is required viewing for Americans wondering where our country is headed under strongman rule. The film is currently available on Netflix, so you’ve no excuse for sitting this one out – unless you’re simply too busy with Season Five of “Cheers”.

“The Cave” has serious competition in the Best Documentary Feature category from this Aleppo-set film by the pseudonymous activist Waad Al-Kateab. It’s a profoundly moving portrayal of a life knocked sideways by a bloody conflict; Al-Kateab gives birth to a baby girl, and must contend with the harsh reality of her perilous situation. Do you stay in the country of your birth, or do you flee? 

Christian dramas have found a foothold in the Best Original Song category, and there’s certainly no better way to land a nomination than to employ eleven-time nominee Diane Warren. Is this the year Warren finally wins? Probably not. Now that the film is in the running, people actually have to watch it, and its ho-hum Rotten Tomatoes score of 61% suggests it’s not worth the trouble. But depending on the depth of your faith, your mileage may vary!

Robert Eggers is a very particular filmmaker, which means his eerily atmospheric horror films are not for everyone. This explains why his critically acclaimed, black-and-white, Academy ratio movie only scraped up $14 million at the box office. Willem Dafoe should’ve been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but Jarin Blaschke earned a richly deserved Best Cinematography nod for his spellbinding imagery. You may not think this movie is for you, but you’ll never know if you don’t give it a shot – and you absolutely should.

Taika Waititi’s Best Picture nominee has probably done about as well as a film about a young German interacting with his imaginary best friend, Adolf Hitler, could be expected to do. But its (to date) $26 million gross feels kind of paltry for a movie that’s been touted as an audience favorite.

The oddly touching tale of a severed hand seeking to reuniting with its body could score a Best Animated Feature upset in a field with a weak frontrunner (“Toy Story 4”). Let’s call it justice for Oliver Stone’s 1981 horror oddity “The Hand”, in which illustrator Michael Caine duels with his separated meathook. “I Lost My Body” is available to stream on Netflix, so you’ve no excuse for missing out on this wonderfully bizarre movie.

It’s not unheard of that a frontrunner for one of the top acting Oscars to appear in a largely ignored movie. After all, Jessica Lange won Best Actress for Tony Richardson’s “Blue Sky”, which no one has ever seen. Rupert Goold’s late-life biopic of Judy Garland grossed an okay $24 million domestically, but that’s awfully low for a film featuring a world class performance from Renée Zellweger. It’s available to rent on various streaming platforms, so have at! 

This category used to be owned by Pixar, but upstart animators have cracked the code and taken the animation medium to ecstatically bizarre places. Pixar’s obligatory nominee, “Kitbull”, is a lovely hand-drawn piece, but the prize of the nominees is Matthew A. Cherry, Everett Downing Jr. and Bruce W. Smith’s “Hair Love”, about a man confronted with the daunting challenge of styling his young daughter’s unruly mane.

Do yourself a favor and carve out an hour and change to watch this year’s Best Documentary Short Subject nominees. You’ll have your heart shattered by “In the Absence”, healed by “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)” and scrambled by the how-can-this-be-true “Life Overtakes Me”. All five films pack a ton of feeling and perception into their attenuated run times.