HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Merry merry to all who celebrate anything this time of year. Two questions for you today

• What's the movie gift you want most this season? 
• What New Years resolution are you hoping someone in Hollywood makes?

The team is mostly at family or friend gatherings today --I myself am in California meeting the boyfriends family for the first time. Sacramento to be exact so I have been referencing Lady Bird nonstop and threatening to throw myself out of moving cars for dramatic effect. We'll be back shortly with more Oscar volleys, "split decisions" when we disagree on movies, and... drumroll plz... "Year in Review" list-mania. In the meantime check out the updated Oscar charts for Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Visuals. 

Oscar Volley: the still bonkers-crowded Supporting Actress race

Here are Baby Clyde and Mark Brinkerhoff to discuss TFE's favorite category, Best Supporting Actress:

Jessie Buckley in WOMEN TALKING

MARK:  Happiest season, to all who celebrate! I love a supporting actress smackdown, in real time, don’t you?This is a blood bath, to be sure, although one thing I’m fairly certain of: There will be someone from  Women Talking and  Everything Everywhere All at Once. At this point, I’d say Claire Foy and/or Jessie Buckley and Jamie Lee Curtis and/or Stephanie Hsu could even form the bulk of the lineup.  Curtis definitely is gunning for it—will she be the third veteran, overdue actress in as many years (after Amanda Seyfried and Kirsten Dunst) to find herself finally nominated in supporting?. If Everything Everywhere All At Once overperforms, that could augur well for Hsu. (Wouldn’t it be something if we got four actors in a single film nominated again this year after The Power of the Dog did it just last year?)

My hunch is we’re likely to see a majority of first-timers in this category, which is always exciting...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Two locks for Supporting Actor... and then it's wide open?

Here are Chris James and Eric Blume to discuss one of Oscar's trickiest categories, Best Supporting Actor:

ERIC:  Chris, so happy to be reunited with you, this time to discuss the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.  This category is always one of the weirdest and often the worst... I'm still not done being angry that arguably-bad Troy Kotsur beat the genius work of Kodi Smit-McPhee last year.  But that's how this award often goes.  

Let's start with our "locks".  I think we have two:  Brendan Gleeson and Ke Huy Quan.  And that's great news, because they're both splendid performances and either would be one of the best winners in this category for the last decade.  Gleeson is the embodiment of tragicomedy, and Quan finds that perfect note between farce and realism in an incredibly playful piece of acting.  How do you feel about Gleeson and Quan personally, and would you agree they're locks? 

Click to read more ...

Tweetweek

Some fun tweets from the past week or two, curated for you after the jump...

Dear 2023, be good, or these guys …#Apuntandoal2023 pic.twitter.com/hGGTeX70Uo

— Agustín Almodóvar (@AgustinAlmo) December 17, 2022

Click to read more ...

Colman Domingo, Taiki Waititi, and Idris Elba give starpower to the Best Animated Short Oscar race

by Nathaniel R

Colman Domingo in "New Moon" based on one of his plays

This year's Best Animated Short Oscar finalists come from about a dozen countries and feature a pleasing variety of animation strategies. The shorts feature talking animals, naturally, as well as plenty of heightened surreal adventures. All of this is to be expected in this always intriguing category (provided you are able to find the films!).  Less expected: this year the race has more than a little star power via voice casts. We'll review all the films here as we screen them.

Read on for brief run downs of the finalists and if and where you can watch the films right now (if you can). Links go to official sites if we could find them...

Click to read more ...