Reader Polling Results

by Nathaniel R

So each year we poll you on who you'd like to see take the Oscars (among their nominees of course, which are obviously different than who you may want to see up for the prizes each year) and after a month of voting here's how you responded. You can look up the individual charts on each Oscar page if you so desire to see a fuller breakdown but your collective vote went like so if you're curious, and we hope you are. The eventual Oscar winners were usually either your winner or your runner up but I was personally surprised by a few of the polls...

Click to read more ...

"We Are the Champions" (on LGBT Representation at the Oscars)

by Deborah Lipp

2019 was a very LGBT Oscars. (Well, at least LGB.) And it was not merely the presence of LGB characters, although this was staggering in numbers. It was also that many were presented in a new way.

Consider Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy was not nominated for playing a lesbian. She was nominated for playing a famous writer—a famous lesbian writer. I’m not particularly a fan of the “happens to be” formation—I think it erases the struggle and complexity of arriving at a queer identity. Let’s face it, no one “happens to be” queer. We get there through a process that is sometimes difficult, or even agonizing, sometimes complex and winding. There’s always a road to be taken, always an arrival that may or may not require yet more journeying. Despite that, our stories should be about more than how we got there...

Click to read more ...

''Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man'

We'd be remiss not to share photos of the men of the 91st Academy Awards. Who wins your best dressed among the men? Despite Rami's perpetually crooked tie, Christian Bale's typical black on black (we didn't include him -- you've seen it dozens of times over the years), and the weird choice of shoes that did strange things to Stephan James (making him look shorter and more childlike), most of the men really stepped it up on Sunday. Men's fashion has been ever-so-slightly more daring this season...

Click to read more ...

Team Experience Oscar Reax Pt 2: Good Times, Speech Writers, and Noticeable Absences

As is our practice we polled the team and a few friends shortly after the Oscars to get their takes. You already saw part one on joyful and horny moments so here's part two. We hope you'll answer the same questions in the comments. 

1. Who was having the very best time in the theater?
2. Who most needed a speechwriter?
3. Without a host who was the MVP guiding you through the night?
4. Whose absence did you most feel during the broadcast?

Our answers are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

The 2019 Cannes President is... Iñárritu

Iñarritu winning Best Director at Cannes in 2006.Now that Oscar season is winding down, tuxes/jewels returned, post-mortems wrapping up, we must start looking forward. The first big post Oscar event of the film year, that's not a film opening that is, is of course the Cannes Film Festival (May 14th-25th). They've now announced this year's jury president. It's none other than four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel, The Revenant, Amores Perros) continuing Oscar's obsessive “¡Viva México!”  theme, with five of the last six directing Oscars going to Mexican filmmakers.

Iñárritu succeeds Cate Blanchett, 2018's Jury President. Though its common for film directors to preside, he's the first Mexican ever chosen for the honors. He previously won Best Director at Cannes for Babel (2006)...

Click to read more ...