What did you see this past weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Since I'd already seen Barbenheimer, I opted for a repertory screening (Under the Tuscan Sun, which I'd actually never seen. Why isn't Diane Lane in more things these days?), a play (Let's Call Her Patty starring Rhea Perlman, suddenly busy again considering she's also in Barbie), and a TV season I've always meant to watch (Happy Valley season 1. All of you who raved about it several years ago were correct). Over lunch on Saturday, I ran into two friends who were on their way to see Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One which surprised me since neither of them had seen Barbie or Oppenheimer! 

Were you part of the moviegoing throngs that hit Barbie or Oppenheimer in their strong second weekends or did you opt to catch an older film, a different wide release, or did you hit the arthouse theater? 

Weekend Box Office July 28-30 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 600 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
DISNEY'S THE HAUNTED MANSION	THE FIRST SLAM DUNK
1 ★ BARBIE $93 (cum. $351.4) 4,337 screens	1 🔺 THE FIRST SLAM DUNK (Japan, anime) $645k *NEW* 581 screens

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A History of the Oscars at the Emmys (Can They Win Variety Special, Live, for the First Time?)

by Christopher James

Could continued fervor for the Oscars that awarded Everything Everywhere All At Once lead to an Emmy win for the Oscars ceremony?

The Academy may hand out awards, but they also compete for them! The Oscars regularly compete at the Emmys in the Variety Special categories, having won 7 Emmys from 68 nominations over the past 10 years. This flies in the face of the common joke that the Oscars are regularly the most maligned awards show on the block. Still, Hollywood's big show has never won the Variety Special (Live) prize, nor the Special Class Program award before it. This year’s Oscars got above average reviews, including from The Film Experience. It contends in four categories, including Directing (which it has won twice previously). 

Could a strong show and a great winner with Everything Everywhere All At Once propel the Oscars to a big Emmys win?

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Review: "The Beasts" of Galicia

by Cláudio Alves

Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beasts opened at last year's Cannes Film Festival to thunderous acclaim, beginning  a global trip through film festivals and the odd commercial market. Its greatest success came in Spain and France, the two nations that coproduced the film, whose troubled relation toils the land and souls of a narrative inspired by real-life tragedy. If you're an awards obsessive, you might remember The Beasts from news about the Goyas and César, for the film was a sweeper in the former and won Best Foreign Film against mighty competition in the latter – including the Oscar-nominated Triangle of Sadness, EO, and Close. 

Regarding this bounty, it's easy to feel some skepticism creeping in, though, after you've seen The Beasts, the voters' fervor feels somewhat fair. As the film finally enjoys a limited release in American theaters, let's explore its tale of xenophobia and violence in modern Galicia, where monsters rove, feigning humanity…

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Emmy Analysis: Drama Guest Categories

By Abe Friedtanzer

Hiam Abbass

Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series and Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series are two of the races where only two HBO series are represented, and they also happen to contain nominees from the exact same two shows: The Last of Us and Succession. Before we get to the people recognized and the work they did (spoiler alerts for both series), let’s take a look at the history of these categories and whether this has happened in the past...

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Emmys Postpone Ceremony in Light of WGA and SAG Strikes

The show blog must go on.

In lieu of the WGA and SAG strikes, the Emmys have officially moved away from their September 18th date. This is the first time the Emmys have postponed their date since 2001, after the September 11th attacks. No new dates have been announced for both the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Creative Arts Emmys. It stands to reason that the show will not be rescheduled until the strike ends. As stated earlier on the site, The Film Experience stands with SAG-AFTRA and the WGA in their quest for fair wages. Hopefully, all production (including our beloved award shows) can return once the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) agrees to negotiate with the guilds in earnest.

In the meantime, all this means for us is that there’s just more time to celebrate the amazing work of television that is being honored this year.

In the coming months, you can expect more category analyses, volleys on the big four awards and coverage of many of the Creative Arts categories. You can find our Emmys coverage so far below: 

• “The Strange History of Iconic TV Characters That Never Won Emmys,” by Eric Blume

• “Emmy Spotlight: "The Other Two" and the tradition of the 'lone writing nomination’,” by Chris James

• “Emmy Nominations - Who's Up and Who's Down?,” by Chris James

• “Four shows entirely dominated the Emmy nominations. Worthy or excessive?” by Abe Friedtanzer

• “Team Experience Reacts to the 2023 Emmy Nominations”

• “"Succession" Leads 2023 Emmy Nominations”

Are there any shows or categories that you want us to delve into at The Film Experience? Let us know in the comments below.