Oscar Volley It's Back
Oscar Charts Updated!
Monday, December 1, 2025 at 12:00PM by Nick Taylor
While all five Breakthrough Director nominees have writer/director credits for their films, only Eephus' Carson Lund can boast additional duties as his own editor, composer, sound designer, and casting director. If he can make three more films in the next eighteen months, America might finally have an answer to South Korea's most multi-hyphenate auteur, Hong Sang-soo...
Monday, December 1, 2025 at 7:00AM by Nick Taylor
As with Familiar Touch, I am very solidly impressed by the filmmaking debut on display in Urchin, but first I need to know how the leading turn at the center of this wasn’t nominated. Frank Dillane is magnetic as Mike, the unhoused addict trying to reintegrate into London society after his latest stint in prison. He gives a very extroverted, mannered performance of a strung-out young man rooted in an empathetic understanding of Mike’s decision-making and needs. He never showboats at the cost of the other cast members, instead showing himself to be a receptive, active scene partner. Dillane finds a man who isn’t particularly malicious even when he uses others. At no point does this character stand in for any social issue or personality type, even as the film posits his story as a parable of how an individual’s recovery and downfall are informed by the support they receive. Nothing affects Mike’s ability to take care of himself more than the government housing he receives and later loses...
Sunday, November 30, 2025 at 4:00PM 
Harry Lighton's Pillion has just opened in UK and Irish cinemas, ahead of a stateside February release by A24. This free adaptation of Adam Mars-Jones' Box Hill novella premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section, where it won the Best Screenplay prize. Still at the Croisette, Rosie, one of its canine stars, was also laurelled with a special Palm Dog – Mutt Moment Award. Sadly, other voting bodies don't have categories for the likes of Rosie, though Pillion has already scored eight BIFA nominations (the main ceremony is tonight!) and two wins for its costumes, hair and makeup. At the Gotham Awards, which will be handed out tomorrow, the film is up for two prizes – Best Adapted Screenplay and Outstanding Supporting Performance for Alexander Skarsgård.
All this talk of awards may obfuscate what a fascinating piece of work Pillion turns out to be. Sensual like the kiss of leather straps on hard muscle, as tender as a fresh purpling bruise, Lighton's feature directorial debut is unlike most visions of queer love that get welcomed into the picture house…
Sunday, November 30, 2025 at 2:00PM by Nick Taylor
The Gotham Awards ceremony is tomorrow night, and to celebrate I'll be devoting the next 24 hours and change to the nominees of the Breakthrough Director category. I've already gone long on Familiar Touch, the only nominee represented here and in the Best Feature lineup. Double dipping has historically led to winning the Breakthrough Director category, so we might give Sarah Friedland some pre-emptive congrats if we felt inclined to run stats. I'll reveal my own favorite after I've posted my final review, but suffice it to say that all five films would be worthy winners. So to start, let's dive into Akinola Davies Jr. and My Father's Shadow...
Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 11:00PM by Nathaniel R
Son Ye Jin and Hyun Bin win BEST ACTRESS and BEST ACTOR at the Blue Dragon Awards. IMG SRC
We told you about the nominations at South Korea's Blue Dragon Awards earlier this month. As expected given its hefty nomination tally, Park Chan Wook's genius Oscar submission No Other Choice (opening on Christmas day in US theaters) took home Best Picture and Best Director among other prizes. The film also won Best Actress for Son Ye Jin. Its internationally successful leading man Lee Byung Hun lost Best Actor but we can't be too sad about it as he has dozens of acting trophies already. In a fun twist of fate, though, he lost Best Actor to his screen wife Son Ye Jin's real life husband Byun Hin (Harbin - streaming on Hulu). "Husband and Wife Best Actor and Best Actress Wins?!?" Yep. how wild is that? That's something that's never happened at the Oscars as much as we wish it would have long before our Oscar time with Liz & Dick for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
After the jump all the winners and a few more comments...