Oscar Predix: Which Animated Films Should We Watch Out For?

by Nathaniel R

Can ZOOTOPIA 2 overcome the Academy's resistance to animated sequels?

It's often hard to know from a distance whether a year will be competitive in Best Animated Feature or not. It isn't always based on the quality of the eligibility pool. The default situation is that the early hyped Disney or Disney/Pixar stays dominant from first buzz to Oscar night, whether there's week or strong competition (Coco  and Toy Story 4, respectively, being good examples) though occassionally the Mouse House competitor that looks strongest from a distance concedes quickly to a less hyped sibling that proves more popular (Luca to Encanto or Moana to Zootopia). But in a solid amount of years the race eventually does get competitive albeit only between two films.What usually happens is that the original frontrunner manages to stave off an unexpectedly strong or deserving competition (Pinocchio vs Puss in Boots: The Last Wish or Soul vs Wolfwalkers). In the past two years, though, we've had a strong frontrunner that lost its strangehold on "Best" prizes when an international title soared in the 11th hour (Boy and the Heron vs Into the Spider-Verse and, even more dramatically, Flow vs Wild Robot). On rare occassions the race gets ultra competitive wherein three or more nominees feel possible (remember 2012?) only for the Academy to default to Pixar again. What kind of year will the 98th Academy Awards bring? 

This year the crystal ball looks quite cloudy...

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Brokeback Mountain @ 20

by Patrick Ball

Brokeback Mountain, I’ll never wish I knew how to quit you. I turned 17 in 2005, the year I came out to my parents, and the quiet revolution that was Brokeback Mountain was the first movie I took them to. We saw it on a misty winter afternoon at The Pruneyard in Campbell, CA. It was the first movie I took them to and said “this is me”.

It’s hard to grapple with the fact that 2005 was 20 years ago. That this film, this miracle of cinematic craftsmanship wrapped around a  soul aching romantic drama, was met with both snickers and scorn upon release. Though critically acclaimed, and championed by those willing to embrace “the love that dare not say its neigh-me”, its immediate legacy was riddled with jokes. “The gay cowboy movie”, “I wish I knew how to quit you”, Michelle Williams’ immortal utterance of “Jack Nasty”...

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Eye Candy Predix Pt 2: Will "Wicked" be crowned again in Costume Design?

by Nathaniel R

WICKED FOR GOOD

I cheered when Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design and Nathan Crowley won Production Design for Wicked and yet I also felt a sense of dread. One of my great popculture fears in this franchise era is that the Oscars will one day lose their identity and become something akin to the Emmys with the same achievements winning again and again. Naturally then I'm excited to see new variations on the pinks and greens and golds and blacks of Wicked's color palette in Wicked For Good but also don't want to see it win back to back Oscars in the eye-candy categories, since it's essentially one long film, split into two. (It's the same reason I rolled my eyes that the Academy felt the need to nominate Stuart Craig and Stepheni McMillan for a full half of the Harry Potter franchise films even though their work was strong).

So what might oppose total Wicked dominance in the eye-candy categories come Oscar time?  Specifically costume design...

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Greatest Movies of the 21st Century. Did you join in the fun?

by Nathaniel R

The talk this week in US cinephile circles has been the New York Times interactive "10 Best Movies of the 21st Century". 2025 is a good time for it. Here was my ballot, done on a whim, because how else to do it really? We all know that there are more than 10 "Best" movies in any given quarter century!  Sometimes there are more than 10 "Bests" in a single film year. Nevertheless it was fun to watch friends and strangers sound off this week...

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Germany's "Lola" Awards, or "Babylon Berlin" lives on...

by Nathaniel R

Christian Friedel's "musical" debut in THE WHITE LOTUS may have been a non-starter scene but the actor (of ZONE OF INTEREST and BABYLON BERLIN fame) hosted the 75th Lola Awards with song and dance.

While this news is a month or so old, there are so few movie awards in the summer we feel we owe it to Germany to report on the Lola Awards since we reported on Norway's Amanda Awards last week. The Lola (aka the German Film Award) has been awarded since 1951. The biggest trophy hauls ever have gone to The Devil Strikes At Night (1958) -- which Juan Carlos and I discussed on his podcast The One Inch Barrier a few years ago -- and Michael Haneke's black and white period drama The White Ribbon (2010) which both earned 10 trophies (both also competed for at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Feature). The runner up to these biggest winners ever was the excellent dramedy Good Bye Lenin! (2003) which made an international star out of Daniel Brühl back in the day and collected 8 Lolas though it was sadly snubbed at the Oscars for Best Foreign Film. 

This year functioned as an unofficial reunion for the cast of the great TV series Babylon Berlin and two minor Oscar players from last season won key awards...

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