And the nominees won't be (but should be) ...

2019-01-17 23:09 Last Updated At：23:20

By its nature, awards season tends to winnow a field of films and performances until many of the same names are read week after week, award show after award show, leading up to the Academy Awards. It's a process that always leaves deserving nominees left out for lack of buzz, awareness or box office.

When the Oscar nominations are announced Tuesday, there will surely be much to celebrate and a handful of surprises. But it will inevitably, necessarily be a reductive list that omits many of the high points of what was an awfully good year for movies.

This year, much of the love has been heaped on the likes of "A Star Is Born," ''Roma," ''Green Book" and "The Favourite." There have been occasional, inspired attempts to upend the march to the Oscars, or at least pause for reconsideration. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, in a much praised selection, picked Debra Granick ("Leave No Trace") for best director when few had her (or, notably, any other woman) in "the mix." The National Society of Film Critics went back to an acclaimed if little seen April release, Chloe Zhao's "The Rider," for its best picture winner.

The movies of 2018 were simply too good and too multitudinous to be filed neatly into a steady drumbeat of favorites. Here are just a few of the performers, filmmakers and films that almost certainly won't be among the names read on Tuesday, but who warrant it as much as any other nominee.

BEST ACTRESS

Kathryn Hahn, "Private Life"

Amandla Stenberg, "The Hate U Give"

Joanna Kulig, "Cold War"

Regina Hall, "Support the Girls"

Toni Collette, "Hereditary"

It is easily, overwhelmingly, the most crowded category of the year, and this bunch STILL leaves out unforgettable performances by Elsie Fisher ("Eighth Grade"), Carey Mulligan ("Wildlife"), Jamie Lee Curtis ("Halloween") and Juliette Binoche ("Let the Sunshine In"). Yet these five all seem to be on the outside of the Lady Gaga/Olivia Colman/Glenn Close favorites despite work that was at turns staggeringly ravishing (Kulig), deeply personal and preternaturally poised (Stenberg, in a star-making performance), insanely committed (Collette), comically but forcefully poignant (Hall) and flat-out human (Hahn).

BEST ACTOR

Lakeith Stanfield, "Sorry to Bother You"

Joaquin Phoenix, "You Were Never Really Here"

John C. Reilly, "Stan & Ollie"

Brady Jandreau, "The Rider"

Lucas Hedges, "Ben Is Back"

The most subtle and sweet performances by leading men came in more adventurous, less show-stopping roles than the likes of Rami Malek's Freddie Mercury and Bradley Cooper's Jackson Maine. Stanfield is the unflappable center to the wild surrealism of "Sorry to Bother You." Phoenix, twitchy and haunted, cuts like a knife through Lynne Ramsay's deconstructed revenge thriller. Reilly, a standout also in "The Sisters Brothers," gives a wonderfully sensitive performance as Oliver Hardy in "Stan & Ollie." Jandreau, a Lakota cowboy, doesn't get his due for his magnetic performance in "The Rider" since much of it was based on his life. But that takes nothing away from its honesty. And few actors were more exciting and indispensable in 2018 than the quickly maturing Hedges, whose many strong performances including his recovering addict in "Ben Is Back."

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jun Jong-seo, "Burning"

Sissy Spacek, "The Old Man & the Gun"

Zoe Kazan, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

Elizabeth Debicki, "Widows"

Natalie Portman, "Vox Lux"

The only thing standing in the way of a litany of awards for Jun Jong-seo's aching, sorrowful performance in Chang-dong Lee's masterly psychological thriller "Burning" is celebrity (it's her first film) and language (since foreign films rarely get much recognition in acting categories). "The Old Man & the Gun" might be remembered for Robert Redford's final performance, but it's when he's on screen with the ever-glowing Spacek that the movie lights up.

BEST SUPPORING ACTOR

Brian Tyree Henry, "If Beale Street Could Talk"

Hugh Grant, "Paddington 2"

Michael B. Jordan, "Black Panther"

Russell Hornsby, "The Hate U Give"

Josh Hamilton, "Eighth Grade"

Henry only has a few scenes in "If Beale Street Could Talk," but they were among the most beautiful and tender of the year. (Michael Shannon had about the same screen time in 2008's "Revolutionary Road" and still earned a deserved Oscar nomination.) As a desperately down-on-his-luck actor in "Paddington 2," Hugh Grant gave the most delightful performance of the year (though his co-star Brendan Gleeson, as a prison chef, was close). And it's impossible to separate the greatness of Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther" from the tormented performance of Michael B. Jordan. He's the movie's anguished heart.

BEST DIRECOR

Chloe Zhao, "The Rider"

Joel and Ethan Coen, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

Frederick Wiseman, "Monrovia, Indiana"

Lucrecia Martel, "Zama"

Pawel Pawlikowski, "Cold War"

None of these films could have been made — or even attempted — by anyone else: the soulful melancholy of Zhao's vividly naturalistic "The Rider"; the delirious splendor of Lucrecia Martel's hypnotic adaptation; the Coen brothers' audacious anthology of six Western morality tales; Wiseman's sharp and patient portrait of small-town America; and Pawlikowski's gorgeous, devastatingly concise ill-fated romance.

BEST PICTURE

"The Death of Stalin"

"First Reformed"

"Burning"

"Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse"

"Private Life"

These are many others, too, that deserve to be remembered. Everyone could, and should, have their own picks. To paraphrase Lady Gaga, it was a far from shallow year at the movies.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Amputee football players in Rwanda find healing and a sense of community

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The players struck their crutches against each other as they chased a soccer ball, as well as a larger dream of competing at the global level. Children shrieked in joy as they watched a goalie dive to block an attempt with her remaining hand.

Amputee football, a seven-a-side version of the game in which players roam the field on crutches and goalkeepers have one arm, has grown steadily in Rwanda over the past decade. Players say they have found a community on the field after embracing a sport some never imagined they could play. For many, it offers not only physical rehabilitation but also a sense of belonging.

In the capital Kigali, amputees play to foster healing and social cohesion after traumas that include the country's darkest period: the 1994 genocide, in which about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the majority Hutu population over a 100-day period.

Nyiraneza Solange was born two years after the genocide and lost her leg at the age of 5 after falling and developing an infection. She said the resilience shown by people who lost limbs during the genocide attracted her to amputee football.

She was encouraged by the former coach of the country's first amputee football team, who told her she could use her crutches to play. She quickly left any fear behind.

“I don’t even think about I don’t have a leg,” said Solange, explaining that she feels free while playing and has overcome the stigma that accompanies being an amputee.

Rwanda is estimated to have more than 3,000 lower-limb amputees. Some are victims of the genocide. Others are survivors of road accidents or illness.

Louise Kwizera, the vice president of the Rwanda Amputee Football Federation, said the sport enables players to learn to trust again, building unity in a society that “was once divided.”

“In communities affected by conflict or trauma, the playing field becomes a place of peace. People who may have different pasts come together as teammates,” Kwizera told The Associated Press.

Rwanda hopes to take part next year in the second women’s amputee football World Cup, an invitational event expected to be held in Poland or Brazil. Rwanda was represented by only a single player at the first edition of the competition in 2024.

The sport, governed by the World Amputee Football Federation, is played in more than 50 countries. Rwanda now has five women’s professional teams and 10 for men.

Haitian women’s amputee football team manager Fred Sorrels, who visited Rwanda to help develop the local program, said he was rooting for the East African country to host a World Cup. But the country's sports ministry said it has yet to make a formal bid.

Sorrels said he has seen the benefits of the sport.

“It’s a win psychologically and mentally for these ladies to have an opportunity to experience wholeness and wellness again,” he said.

Gilbert Muvunyi Manier, the Rwandan sports ministry's director general of sports development, called the sport a “powerful tool” for healing, reconciliation and social cohesion.

Players acknowledged limitations in strategy.

“It’s hard to save the ball when it goes to the side with the receding hand,” goalkeeper Nikuze Angelique said. Like Solange, she described a sense of community found on the field.

As players took selfies after a game, Angelique said she is hopeful they will reach the World Cup.

“It will be a dream come true,” she said.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

And the nominees won't be (but should be) ...