Christmas Classics: Little Women (1994)
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 6:00PM A few members of Team Experience will be sharing posts on their favorite Christmas movies. Here's Lynn Lee
You can have your Christmas Story or your It’s a Wonderful Life. For me, my Christmas movie will always be Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women, which took its bow Christmas Day, 1994, and has kept a place in my heart ever since. Even though it faithfully adapts a literary classic, the movie’s also a perfect encapsulation of the ’90s: besides Winona Ryder, for whom Little Women was something of a pet project, it also featured a very young Kirsten Dunst, fresh off her star-making turn in Interview With a Vampire, and Claire Danes, still in her Angela Chase days, making her big-screen debut, as well as a 20-year-old Christian Bale completing his transition from child to adult actor.
None of that, of course, meant anything to me when I first saw the film...
Screenplay Shake Up Means New Predictions
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 4:29PM 
We warned everyone to not "lock" up any screenplay predictions too early, especially when the provenance of a screenplay is confusing, and our warnings were not in vain. The Academy has rejected the campaigns of Loving and Moonlight as "Originals" and they have been moved to the "Adapted" category. Both had made no secret that they were inspired by other works, despite their Original campaigns. Loving is partially based on the documentary The Loving Story (2011) and Moonlight on an unproduced play (of sorts -- though now the playwright is saying it never was intended as a play... which makes the situation yet more confusing) called "In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue". Regardless, the murkiness was enough for the Academy to cry foul on their preferred Original designations. (If only the Academy's acting branch would play this kind of interference when obviously lead acting roles like Rooney Mara in Carol or Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins or dozens of others in recent years claimed "supporting" designation.)
Prior to this Academy ruling, the Original Screenplay competition looked enormously competitive with a nail-biting battle between Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight for the gold. Now both movies -- arguably the two biggest critical darlings of the year -- have a clearer shot at a win but it does make the competition for the other four nominations in each category more exciting and open. Both charts have been updated accordingly. Which screenplays do you think benefit from this ruling?
SAG Ensemble - Everyone Was Nominated.... Except *You*
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 1:23PM by Nathaniel R
Alex R Hibbert's omission from the nominated cast of Moonlight is one of the worst yet from SAG
For several years now we've highlighted a major problem with the Screen Actors Guild Awards that we hope their union will eventually address. The rule is that to be included in the Ensemble nomination you have to have your own title card (or share the first title card if the whole principle cast is listed on the same card as in Woody Allen movies). But the prize is meant to honor the whole cast and sometimes a less famous person can deliver in a big way in which the movie wouldn't be the same without. My fascination/aggravation with this rule and its collateral damage goes all the way back to The Avatior (2004) when I realized that Matt Ross (an actor who is now a director - see Captain Fantastic) was not included though he is terrifc in the movie and in a ton of scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio while Gwen Stefani, a very famous woman with only a cameo, was included.
So let's look at each ensemble nomination this year and figure out who has fallen victim to this aggravating rule after the jump...
SAG Nomination Surprises: Emily Blunt, Captain Fantastic, and More
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 at 11:35AM 
As we've noted several times in the past, SAG nominations are often among the most surprising for two reasons. First, the nominating committee changes each year, drawn randomly from the Screen Actor's Guild enormous body of dues paying members. Second, because the members are randomly selected and (presumably) spread out more geographically than the easier to target Academy and Globe members, their nominations can often feel like they were voted on earlier and that's the case this year with more summer films nominated than other awards bodies went with.
The nominees with commentary are after the jump...