2025 in Review: Nathaniel's "Best" List (Pt 1)

by Nathaniel R

Begonia, Marty Supreme, Nouvelle Vague, and Kill the Jockey were among the best films of the year

PART ONE. One of the greatest and worst things about the cinema is that it is a perpetually overflowing cup. Discourse about Hollywood always leans toward sky-is-falling “end of” cinema/moviegoing due to horrid socioeconomic and public behavioral reasons. Yet at the  same time we can never keep up so it’s a fact that artists all over the world are still making cinema like the artform will never go out of style. There is literally always more to see and more in any given year than can be seen by any person, on any size of a screen. (If you love catching up on older films this pleasure/problem is exponentially more true.)

In that spirit of “overflowing” here are some darlings and honorable mentions before we get to the Top Dozen tomorrow and at least one of the ways in which they surpassed reasonable expectations...

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Oscar Volley: Is Best Adapted Screenplay in the Bag?

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, EUROCHEESE and ABE FRIEDTANZER  discuss the Oscar race for Best Adapted Screenplay 

Why can't Park Chan Wook get any Oscar love?EUROCHEESE: Excited to chat with you again Abe, though I must admit, this doesn't feel like the most suspenseful category. There's a clear frontrunner, one arguable spoiler and then a few also-rans. It's too bad we get a snoozy 5/5 match with Best Picture when there were so many exciting options. I know you weren't as big a fan of this film, but I really wish we could have made room for No Other Choice here - Park Chan-wook can't seem to get Oscar love in any form. I've seen ads for Pillion leading up to its wide release - what a fresh, provocative script, which received far more love than I expected through the awards season. I was also surprised how charming I found Nouvelle Vague - if only Oscar voters loved it as much as the Globes! I could name several more, but don't want to steal your thunder - any outstanding "wish you were here" honors you'd like to bestow?

ABE: It's true this is a done deal and one of the categories I would be most surprised to see a different winner than the juggernaut we're all expecting. Pillion is a great call that maybe wasn't ever going to click with mainstream American audiences, but I loved it! I did like No Other Choice even if it wouldn't have made my list here, and it's a shame that it was the only NEON international title not to make the International Feature cut...

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One Prize After Another at the BAFTAs

by Nathaniel R

The ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER cast cheers on their auteur winning Best Film

Greetings from blizzard-hit NYC. Over the pond the BAFTA awards were held this weekend. Do they change the Oscar race? Who can say but they do take place right before the Academy votes for their own winners:  February 26 through March 5. During this key voting window we'll also experiene the winners of the newly rechristened "Actor Awards" (SAG ceremony is on March 1). If that weren't enough we'll also see the remainder of the Film Bitch Nominations and Oscar volleys right here which are sure to sway thousands of okay tens of vo --- absolutely no one but they're still fun for us to share! 

One Battle After Another took home six BAFTAs with Frankenstein and Sinners tied for runner up with three each.  After the jump all of the winners and some acceptance speeches, too...

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Oscar Volley: Can anyone beat Frankie in "Best Production Design"?

More Oscar Volleys are upon us. Today, ERIC BLUME and BEN MILLER discuss the Oscar race for Best Production Design...

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER's Florencia Martin and Anthony Carlino are just happy to be nominated. They have non chance of winning.

ERIC:  Hi Ben, let's take a look at our five nominated films for the Best Production Design Oscar:  Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, and Sinners.  Maybe just for funsies, we can go backwards.  What are the two films that you think stand the smallest chance of winning this award?

BEN:  Frankly, there aren't many categories where One Battle After Another stands very little chance, but I think we have finally arrived at one...

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Berlinale: With "Wolfram" Warwick Thornton finally strikes gold

by Elisa Giudici

For a filmmaker long associated with the Australian western, Warwick Thornton has often seemed trapped inside his own obsessions. Film after film has returned to the same harsh landscapes, the same colonial fault lines, the same story of Aboriginal endurance under white domination — sometimes with conviction, often with diminishing returns. With Wolfram, however, something finally coheres. After several disappointments, Thornton delivers his strongest work in years, perhaps decades: a film that feels less like repetition and more like arrival.

The title refers to tungsten, mined with pickaxes, dynamite, and small hands nimble enough to pry metal from rock. Those hands belong to Max and Kid, two Aboriginal kids forced to labor underground for Billy, a white man who oscillates between surrogate father and exploiter...

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