FYC: Salma Hayek in "Beatriz at Dinner"

Before the Oscar’s nomination votingends on January 12^th, a best actress plea from Jorge...

We’re now in a post-Golden Globes time of awards season, where the most open and uncertain race in years has slowly become more solidified. And it seems like the Best Actress category has, if not all five nominees locked down, at least four (Hawkins, McDormand, Robbie and Ronan) that are solidly established.

But there’s always a maybe. There’s always the possibility of a Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years, or a Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night. So today I’m making my case of why this year there should be a Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner...

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FYC: Ed Lachman for Best Cinematography and Carter Burwell for Best Score in Wonderstruck

By Salim Garami

What's good? It's quite frankly a hell of a shame how little attention and love Todd Haynes' adaptation of young fiction book Wonderstruck has received during this awards season, after its Cannes premiere elicited high hopes about its Oscar chances. Ignoring the unfortunate lack of marketing or campaigning from Amazon Studios (opting instead to push Last Flag Flying and Wonder Wheel -- a decision which didn't do them much good), Wonderstruck's main crime doesn't seem to be any true flaw in its material but the fact that it's such a quiet and small movie. Even its champions give it muted praise rather than rapturous acclaim...

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Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Name the "Best" Film and TV of the Year

by Nathaniel R

The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (aka GALECA) have announced their annual Dorian Award nominations. We thought we'd share the list here since a few of us at Team Experience are members. Though you might feel like I determined the nominees singlehandedly (PFEIFFER ALERT !!!) I am but one vote among many so I'm relieved that other voters chose the perpfect thing, while voting.

Perhaps it's no surprise that Call Me By Your Name led the nominees with 9 votes. Shape of Water was close behind with 7 nods. What was a surprise was 5 nominations for the still wildly underseen French drama BPM (Beats Per Minute) already shunned by Oscar in the category it should have been frontrunning in. 

I personally don't vote in every category, abstaining from the ones I feel are most problematic (does anyone actually agree on what "camp" means in 2018?) or in categories where I feel like I have not seen enough (like documentary though I love almost all the nominees they named this year in that category.)  The list with a few notes is after the jump...

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Soundtracking: "I, Tonya"

Chris's weekly look at movie music takes on Tonya Harding's arena rock...

I, Tonya has proven to be one of Oscar season’s most love it or hate it films - and naturally for yours truly, defending the film is a lot like defending its somewhat maligned soundtrack. And I fall on the slightly positive side for both. Like many of the film’s other broad strokes, it doesn’t nearly all work and some play for a quick grab at audience allegiance. Yet by my ear, its greatest musical sin is underserving Hot Chocolate’s “Every 1’s A Winner” (but we can leave that to Greta and Noah).

While the film becomes too contradictory to support its acceptance of the slippery boundaries of fact, personal truth, and conflicting perspectives, the way it uses music to examine this relationship is a bit more elegant...

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13 days until Oscar nominations... Can Roger Deakins win with a 14th nod?

by Nathaniel R

the great Roger Deakins on set

Is 13 an unlucky number? Not particular with Oscar, no, but Roger Deakins is surely anxious to move beyond it. The 68 year old cinematographer is still hugely in demand and a regular Oscar competitor but he's currently sitting at 13 nominations and STILL has no statues to show for it. Will #14 prove lucky should he be nominated for Blade Runner 2049 this year (as is widely expected)? His nominated film list is just one beautiful astonishment after another: The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Kundun, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Reader, True Grit, Skyfall, Prisoners, Unbroken, Sicario. His filmography also includes films like Thunderheart, The Secret Garden, Barton Fink, and Sid & Nancy. Will he win on March 4th or will someone else steal his thunder yet again at the last moment...

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