Almost There: Peter Dinklage in "The Station Agent"

by Cláudio Alves

With Cyrano in cinemas at the end of the month, Peter Dinklage is on the hunt for his first Oscar nomination. Playing a musicalized version of the classic role, the actor can capitalize on his stardom, which has been steadily growing over the past decade. After years of being ignored, Dinklage's stint in Game of Thrones made him a household name, beloved by the industry and with a slew of trophies to show for it. Will an Oscar nomination be next? It's the second time he's seeking Hollywood's most coveted statuette, having also been a contender back in 2003. Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent was Dinklage's breakthrough, an indie gem with incredible acting across the board…

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Contemporary Costume Design - an FYC overview

by Nathaniel R

We don't get "finalist" lists for half of the craft categories so theoretically everything is still in the running for the visual categories of Cinematography, Editing, Costume, and Production Design. Today let's focus on Best Costume Design options for awards voters. While two-time winner Jeanny Beavan's work on Cruella has been looking like a potential Oscar-winner since way back in May, plenty of competition has arrived since. Our first clue as to what the industry might go for here will be on January 26th with the CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) nominations which divide movies up into period, sci-fi/fantasy, and contemporary. That's a handy way to do it, since it's too easy to fall into "Most Costuming" otherwise and entirely ignore the breadth of what is possible in this field. 

What follows are NOT predictions as to what the Guild or the Oscars might choose (craft predictions are here) but FYCs if you will, highlighting six options we think are interesting in the realm of "contemporary" (mostly)...

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Animated Short Finals - Pt 1: Bad Seeds, Robin Robin, and Us Again

by Nathaniel R

Oscars short film categories don't get much attention in this size queen world of ours out there but let's do our part to change that. While the preliminary "predictions" are up those were made before seeing any of the films. We'll revamp the predictions as soon as we're finished watching all 15 finalists. Let's dive in together on this first batch of three since they're all available to stream right now...

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Will Omicron wreak havoc at the Oscars?

Early January is typically a big time for Oscar campaigns but the Omicron variant has events scrambling, postponing or cancelling. (Rumor is that an announcement of Sundance going all virtual is imminent.)

Patrick Ryan collected some thoughts about all of this from pundits (including yours truly) at USA Today so check it out. One of the things I mentioned to him that wasn't included since the article is more about what's happening rightnow is that I'm hopeful that the Oscars themselves will go on as planned. When they first announced the date for the tail end of March, it felt overly cautious. Though it seems like a million years ago the Parasite Oscars were in early February! Turns out the Academy was savvy not to try to jump back to previous timetables immediately! That extra padding they built in this time should help avoid another delay. 

Updated Oscar Prediction Charts 

Streaming Roulette, January: Being the Lost Daughter of the Manor

What's streaming in January? You know the drill by now. We pick a handful of titles and freeze them on the scroll bar at a random place (no cheating) and share what came up. Let's go.

[Crying in distance]

The Lost Daughter (2021) on Netflix
It's apt that our streaming roulette landed on this image of Leda (Jessie Buckley) ignoring her children. The discourse about this movie has been weirdly reductive and centered on freaking out that she's a "bad mother". I have no idea what ot make of this film's Oscar chances. Critics have been kind but it's an irritable confrontational movie i.e. not what Oscar usually goes for. And Netflix has soooo much on their plate in terms of Best Picture. 

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