Great Acceptance Speeches: Halle Berry, "Monster's Ball"

We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's Chris Feil...

Would that all Best Actress years be as stacked and competitive as 2001. All major precursors had gone to a different performance (with Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones as a wildcard fifth nominee): BAFTA to Judi Dench, Globes for Nicole Kidman and Sissy Spacek, and SAG going to Halle Berry. But it would be the latter that would yield our ultimate momentous winner for her work in Monster’s Ball. It already felt like a showdown before her name was called, and this win would be the real event.

Berry was the first woman of color to win for a leading performance, and infuriatingly remains the only one. But you can see the passion in the room to overturn that embarrassingly legacy, the audience leaping to their feet as a stunned Berry initially collapsed into her seat. Denzel Washington would also win on a night that also saw a lifetime achievement prize given to Sidney Poitier - it’s a ceremony whose impact the Academy should consider chasing rather than pat itself on the back for...

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Film Bitch Awards: Heroes, Villains, and Divas of the Year

It's a mad race to get everything done by the Oscars. Three more categories have been announced in our own extensive annual awards: Hero the Year, Diva of the Year, and Villain of the Year. Black Panther dominates these categories, being nominated in each one of them, but you'll also see honors for Paddington 2, A Simple Favor, Mary Poppins Returns, Hereditary, The Favourite, Aquaman, Oceans 8, and more. Check it out.

Podcast: Final Oscar Predictions

with Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and special reccuring guest Nick Davis

 

With the Oscar on Sunday night, you'd better hurry and listen to this 65 minute podcast as it will self destruct in less than 72 hours. We kid, we kid. You'll still be able to make fun of our faulty crystal balls since we spend one hour making bold and not-so bold predictions as to who will win in 21 Oscar categories (minus the shorts). Hear us panic about how many Oscars Bohemian Rhapsody might win, and whether First Man might surprise with multiple wins, and will Roma really take the most statues?

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Oscar win predictions

Great Acceptance Speeches: Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's new contributor Eurocheese...

If you were a Julianne Moore fan in the 2000s and the 2010s, you had learned to live with disappointment. After four nominations years, ending on a double nomination for the one-two punch of her performances in Far from Heaven and The Hours (2002), her momentum suddenly stalled. Her Golden Globe nomination for A Single Man (2009) didn’t translate to an Oscar nod, and when Best Picture nominee The Kids Are All Right (2010) began to break out, it was clear co-stars Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo would be getting the lion's share of accolades. So why was an actress who had received so much acclaim coming up short?

There was was an inkling that she could still have a shot at major trophies when she received an Emmy for Game Change in 2012. Of course, as it often is with the Academy, it proved to be all about timing...

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3 days til the Oscars - comment party.

With only 3 days til the Oscars let's share our 3 utmost (positive only please) wishes for the big night. I'll start

1. For a half-shocking Oscar-winning acting quartet that goes like so: Close / Cooper / King / Grant
2. That Black Panther wins Best Costume Design
3. That the musical performances and speeches are all so entertaining and buzzy that the Academy at large realizes how stupid they've been all season and falls immediately back in love with their own brand, distances themselves from the clutches of ABC, elects entirely new leadership in each branch who all love both movies and the Oscars as a once annual event worth really embracing.

Is this too much to ask?