53. NYAD (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress)

Yes, Oscar nominees Annette Bening and Jodie Foster deliver engaging – and, in Bening’s case, extremely physical – performances. But the problem with NYAD lies in its disposable screenplay that utilizes every biopic cliché. What Diana Nyad (Bening) accomplished should absolutely be celebrated, but she’s such an unlikeable protagonist that it becomes difficult to root for her. There isn’t anything particularly memorable about the film, aside from the embarrassing B movie-level flashbacks and visual effects, making directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin’s first narrative feature something that should make them consider returning to the world of documentaries.

52. The ABCs of Book Banning (Best Documentary Short)

Look, the premise for The ABCs of Book Banning was essentially a slam dunk from the beginning. It likely won’t change anyone’s mind once it’s over, often preaching to the choir of people who are already informed on its subject, and that’s the film’s biggest failing. Sheila Nevins’s documentary looks at the rise of the practice of banning and restricting certain books in mostly Republican-held states. But rather than hear from the adults challenging these policies, it’s a film that gives a voice to the very children who these policies effect, and what’s lost when they’re unable to read certain books. The animation isn’t great whenever it portrays the books discussed, and the discussion isn’t the most nuanced, but it’s no less important.

51. War is Over! (Best Animated Short)

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that an animated short that references John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s titular saccharine song is so overly saccharine. Director and co-writer Dave Mullins undoubtedly had good intentions when crafting War is Over!, but you essentially know where the film is headed once its premise reveals itself early on. The film tells the story of two WWI soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict as they play chess via carrier pigeon. The animation is noteworthy and eye-catching, but that’s mostly where the praise ends for this overly safe animated short.

50. Invincible (Best Live-Action Short)

Invincible is a perfectly fine, if forgettable, live-action short about the final hours of a troubled kid. There’s great potential for director Vincent René-Lortie to make the short into a feature, and allow more time for us to live within Marc’s (Léokim Beaumier-Lépine) head space. Lépine gives a performance beyond his years, making Marc a character with real complexity. Invincible could easily feel like misery porn, as is traditionally the case with this category; the fact that it’s based on a true story doesn’t help. But it’s ultimately tinged with a sense of hopefulness, in a strange way. The film shows promise as is, but it’s hard not to leave wanting more.

49. Golda (Best Makeup and Hairstyling)

Perhaps the most unlikely Oscar nominee this year, Golda mostly received its nomination because of how utterly unrecognizable Helen Mirren becomes. As Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, Mirren fully inhabits a woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders, plunging her country into deadly conflict. The film isn’t anything particularly special narratively speaking, often sticking to the historical biopic structure, but director Guy Mattiv utilizes some interesting flourishes to at least hold your attention. That the film was released in the same year as another ongoing conflict in Israel isn’t Golda‘s fault, but without it, it’s hard to understand why the film needed to be made in the first place.

48. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Best Original Score)

Is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a bad film? Not exactly. Of course, when you measure director James Mangold’s entry against most of Spielberg’s previous entries in the franchise, you’re destined for failure. The film has some enjoyable action set pieces, Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge are fine enough together, and it serves as a better send-off for Indy than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It is a little absurd that composer John Williams seemingly gets a free pass for his forgettable score for the film, but overall Dial of Destiny isn’t worth raising your ire. Instead, it’s just another misbegotten legacy sequel where nobody but the studio executives that pushed the project can really be blamed.

47. Red, White and Blue (Best Live-Action Short)

What appears to be a fairly straightforward, if familiar, story about a woman seeking an out-of-state abortion with her daughter takes an incredible turn in its final moments in Red, White and Blue. Brittany Snow and Juliet Donenfeld are delightful together as they share a mother-daughter bond that goes a long way in selling the film’s message. Writer-director Nazim Choudhury lays the schmaltz on fairly thick throughout the film, but it’s well intentioned and packs an important message.

46. El Conde (Best Cinematography)

I like director Pablo Larraín’s films, and it’s clear that El Conde came from a place of genuine emotion for him, with the film’s connection to his home country. A portrait of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who happens to be a vampire, is an incredibly clever concept for a satire. But Larraín and Guillermo Calderón’s screenplay doesn’t contain enough bite (sorry) or enough humor to remain in the conversation compared to Larraín’s previous work. Oscar nominee Edward Lachman’s black-and-white cinematography stands out in a crowded field, but El Conde feels like a bit of wasted potential from one of cinema’s smartest voices.

45. Knight of Fortune (Best Live-Action Short)

Knight of Fortune perhaps raises more questions than it can answer, but at least it’s simple and emotional enough to mostly forgive these issues. A man arrives at the morgue to say goodbye to his wife, but finds himself unable to do so. But thanks to a misunderstanding, a stranger comes along and helps him navigate his grief in unexpected ways. It’s the kind of also-ran nominee that comes along in the Best Live-Action Short category every year that goes down easy but doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression.

44. Pachyderm (Best Animated Short)

There’s always at least one short film nominee that portrays kids in peril, and Pachyderm seems to fill that slot in the animated short category this year. The animation is fine enough, a kind of loose chalk pastel aesthetic, as it matches its subject matter of looking back on childhood through an adult’s eyes. The menace in director Stéphanie Clément’s film is well hidden until the end, which re-contextualizes the events of before, where a child spends her summers with her grandparents in the countryside. Screenwriter Marc Rius mostly avoids narrative shortcuts with Pachyderm but there aren’t enough positives to be found to keep this out of the bottom portion of this list.

42. Island in Between (Best Documentary Short)

S. Leo Chiang’s Island in Between takes a micro and macro look at a lesser-known conflict between Taiwan and China. Chiang tells the story of the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, and its difficult relationship with China, and the people caught in the middle, including his own family. Perhaps most in need of expanding to feature length, Island in Between deals with some important topics and ideas, but suffers by shortening material that needs more room to breath.

43. Letter to a Pig (Best Animated Short)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my favorite aspect of the animated short category is in seeing the variety of animation styles that you simply cannot find elsewhere. Letter to a Pig features some wonderful animation that works with its themes. The simplistic film tells the story of a Holocaust survivor retelling his harrowing journey as he avoided the Nazis, and the pig that saved his life. It’s a unique angle to take on the Holocaust – a perpetual favorite topic in the short film Oscar nominees – but I struggle to remember much of the film’s substance beyond its great animation style.

41. Rustin (Best Actor)

Colman Domingo is one of my favorite actors working today, which is why it’s a kind of double edged sword to see him receive his first Oscar nomination for Rustin. Another copy-and-paste biopic formula comes to the life of Bayard Rustin (Domingo), and his efforts to plan the March on Washington. Domingo is inarguably fantastic in the role, portraying Rustin’s charisma while never backing away from what made him a polarizing voice at the time. But the film never distinguishes itself, nor does it really have anything unique to say about the Civil Rights movement. Here’s hoping that Domingo will eventually receive a nomination for a film that lives up to his talents.