Ranking the Oscar-Nominated Performances in Steven Spielberg's Films

Mark Rylance’s best supporting actor nomination for Bridge of Spies marks the 13th time a performance in a Steven Spielberg movie has been nominated for an Oscar. Which of course calls for a list, so without any further ado here's Murtada's ranking. 

Oscar Nominated Performances in Spielberg Films Ranked

13- Anthony Hopkins - Amistad (1997)
Other Nominees: Robert Forster – Jackie Brown, Greg Kinnear – As Good as It Gets, Burt Reynolds – Boogie Nights, Robin Williams – Good Will Hunting.
Winner: Williams

Did Hopkins have a big righteous courtroom speech? Must be, because why else was this performance nominated. The only thing I remember about it is that Hopkins robbed Rupert Everett of his nomination for My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Twelve more after the jump...

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A Question For Readers About "Curio"

For those of you who missed it during much Oscar nomination hullabaloo, Alexa who ran the Curio column has left us after great years of arts & crafts each Monday. The demands of cinephilia and mommyhood were too competitive! She encouraged us to keep the series going and wants me to do more art myself (which I know I should -- oh to master time!). But we're not sure how we'll revise the series exactly.

Do you like online arts and crafts? Do you enjoy mashups and fan art? Do you follow any artists or webcomics or the like? Love to hear some input in the comments. In the meantime please look at this amazing looping Vine (i've put it after the jump for this who can't handle this much manic looping imagery in the background while they read the blog) but it's a trippy must for The Force Awakens / John Boyega fans. 

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Fantastic Beasts Behind the Scenes

Manuel here. We talked briefly a while ago about Eddie Redmayne's dapper outfit as Newt Scamander in JK Rowling's upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We got a teaser shortly thereafter and now, we've gotten some behind the scenes footage of the Harry Potter spinoff that fleshes out a bit more about what we can expect from this franchise prequel.

The film follows Scamandar, a famed British Magizoologist who arrives in New York City in the 1920s with a suitcase full of fantastic beasts some of whom escape, putting the necessary plot into motion. Joining him are a pair of wizarding sisters (played by Katherine Waterstone and Alison Sudol) as well as a muggle (Dan Fogler, perhaps the most curious casting of them all) — together they must... well, it's unclear still. I'm guessing they'll have to wrangle the beasts back into the suitcase? We're still in teaser territory so maybe we shouldn't worry about that yet.

You can watch the entire video below but I've isolated four moments that caught my attention.

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Art Directors Guild Winners: The Revenant crawls out in front?

David here to wish a happy 20th anniversary to the Art Directors Guild’s annual Excellence in Production Design Awards! The group handed out their 2015 awards last night, and their three film categories saw all three winners taken from this year’s pool of Oscar nominees. The Revenant, in the Period category, beat out the remaining two Oscar match-ups, Bridge of Spies and The Danish Girl, while The Martian triumphed in the Contemporary category and Mad Max: Fury Road took the Fantasy gong.

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Thoughts I Had... while staring at this photo from the set of "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage"

Thoughts I had in the order they came to me after the jump...

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