César Winners: David Fincher, "The Night of the 12th" and surprise presenter Brad Pitt

by Arnaud Trouve

Brad Pitt and Virginie Efira present the Honorary César to David Fincher

The 48th French César Awards were just held and, as expected, The Night of the 12th was the big winner. It won Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and Best Male Newcomer, just like last year's champion Lost Illusions. Its two additional prizes were for Best Sound and Best Director. Dominik Moll almost broke the record at the Césars for the longest time between two directing wins (he previously won 22 years ago for the thriller With A Friend Like Harry)...

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Oscar Volleys: Best Film Editing might be a nailbiter this year

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony.  Here's Ben Miller and Eurocheese to talk Best Editing

Ben Miller: Well Eurocheese, we're back again.  Pre-nominations, Nick Taylor and I talked about Best Editing being more of an alternative Best Picture lineup.  Low-and-behold, all five Editing nominees are also up for Best Picture. Before we get to talking about the actual nominees, let's pour one out for films that should have gotten a notice in this category.   Personally, I thought the editing in All Quiet on the Western Front was pretty spectacular.  When it comes to coherent action sequences, my main gripe is a sense of place and atmosphere.  For a while, any action or war film was edited with insanity and incoherence.  God bless George Miller because Mad Max: Fury Road showed a first-class way to convey clear, heart-pumping action without throwing you out of sorts.  All Quiet isn't renowned for its action sequences, but when it shows up, it is crystal clear about direction, orientation, and presence.  

What film did you personally want in the lineup, no matter how unrealistic?

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Almost There: Julianne Moore in "Magnolia"

by Cláudio Alves

Though the year is still relatively young, Julianne Moore has already staked her claim on 2023. She stars in two early releases, Jesse Eisenberg's When You Finish Saving the World and Benjamin Caron's Sharper and has some juicy upcoming projects lined up. For instance, Todd Haynes' May December has already wrapped filming and is in post-production, maybe headed towards a festival release later in the year. With all this in mind, it felt like a good time to shine the Almost There spotlight on the 2014 Best Actress champion. And so, let's think back to the afterglow of Moore's first brush with Hollywood's most coveted trophy.

In 1997, she was nominated for Boogie Nights, grasping mainstream acclaim. Two years later, Moore was back working with P.T. Anderson on another prestigious project - the Berlinale-winning hyperlink nightmare of Magnolia…

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Film Bitch Awards: Best Supporting Actor Ballot

by Nathaniel R

Brian Tyree Henry in "Causeway"

Historically among the main acting categories, Best Supporting Actor is where the Film Bitch Awards diverge most strongly from Oscar's path. Oscar tends to use the category for co-leads (anathema to us!) or for career achievements (that's fine when the performance is excellent but otherwise, no thanks!) or for star turns that are fine but don't do much for your host here. So imagine my surprise when Oscar exhibited mostly good taste in this category this year robbing us of a superiority complex in our exceptional taste in this category (haha). During awards season it was a pleasant surprise to see Barry Keoghan pick up steam (despite internal competition from a co-lead, which often ruins the chances for honors for supporting actors) for Banshees of Inisherin. And he even won the BAFTA this weekend!

On nomination morning my biggest inclusion thrill was the long shot triumph of Brian Tyree Henry in Causeway...

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Oscar Volley: Animated Feature Film

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Abe Friedtanzer and Juan Carlos Ojano.

ABE: It's always a pleasure to talk awards with you, and I'm excited to dive in to the Animated Feature race this year. While I wish that we could have been discussing out-of-the-box choices like Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, Eternal Spring, or Little Nicholas, Happy as Can Be or even mainstream fare that for some reason didn't click like Lightyear and The Bad Guys, there are five worthwhile nominees that did make the cut. I know that I had to seek out The Sea Beast once nominations were announced since I hadn't yet streamed that title, while the other four didn't come as much of a surprise. Going into this race, it feels like Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio is the clear favorite. But it didn't net any other Oscar nominations, which many thought it would. Neither did any of the other nominees, however, so maybe we're back to square one...

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