Oscar's Visual Effects Race, Round Two

The Academy has spoken and they've axed half of the semi-finalist for visual effects so we're down to just 10 films competing for the five nominations. It's the only bad news Deadpool has received all week after great showings at the Globe and Critics Choice and the only good news Passengers has gotten considering its excoriating reviews. The list is now like so...

• Alice Through the Looking Glass
• Arrival
• The BFG
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
• Captain America: Civil War
• Deadpool
• Deepwater Horizon
• Doctor Strange
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Independence Day: Resurgence
• The Jungle Book
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
• Passengers
• Rogue One 
• Star Trek Beyond
• Suicide Squad
• Sully
• Warcraft
• X-Men Apocalypse

But nothing has changed really since this race is surely a battle to the finish between Doctor Strange and The Jungle Book. One assumes the disturbing CGI humans in Rogue One won't help it win.

The Oscar Week

In this weekly feature from Murtada we will follow the Oscar contenders and examine how their many interviews and appearances impact their chances. This week we check in with Ryan Gosling, Viola Davis, Pedro Almodovar and Annette Bening.

Ryan Gosling

Gosling is trying to catch up with co-star Emma Stone who’s been promoting La La Land while he was away shooting Blade Runner 2049. He also trying to catch up with Casey Affleck and Denzel washington who’ve established themselves as the frontrunners in Best Actor. Last week he got his hands and footprints immortalized. This week he gets his first solo magazine cover - he's been in a couple with Stone - of the season in GQ. Gosling thinks the his appeal and the popularity of the Hey Girl meme are because … he’s Canadian?

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Cheer up, Isabelle

(She's still processing the horrid news).

The Nine Foreign Film Finalists for Oscar

The Academy's complicated process in nominating for Best Foreign Language Film is nearing completion. Last night they winnowed down the 85 film list to a more manageable 9 films. Those 9 will screen for selected panels in multiple cities and 5 nominees will be determined. A few observations and trivia notes about the list after the jump...

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YNMS: "The Circle"

Chris here. We had expected to see The Circle among the Sundance lineup, but it looks like it will be director James Ponsoldt's first film away from the festival. No matter, because the film still will be one of the more intriguing of the coming spring. From David Eggers's novel, The Circle stars Emma Watson as a young professional given the chance to work for an all-consuming social media entity (think Facebook on steroids) that may be more sinister than meets the eye. The novel was a bit on the nose in its critique, but its anxieties grow all the more realized in our online hive mindset.

Let's take a look at the first trailer and break down the Yes No Maybe So after the jump...

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