Release Date Jockeying: Hey Studios, Keep Spreading the Wealth!

The conversation about the 87th Oscars had barely died down yet when you could hear rumblings about the 88th Academy Awards. It's not just the "will they go back to five" question but the sudden jockeying for release dates for the oncoming battle. Today we've had two new November announcements (Brooklyn & The Danish Girl) to go along with the previously announced titles of potential interest. 

And so far... miracle of miracles, things look pretty balanced... but will that continue?

Titles That Might be of Awards Interest In Some Way
Not a complete list of releases - links take you to articles

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Stop daydreaming. What's on your cinematic mind?

 Come on, tell us. You definitely have something to say. What's on the tip of your tongue? 

(I mean... on the tip of your tongue besides the rumored Best Picture shrinking, the MTV Awards and the 50th birthday of The Sound of Music)

Back to Five? Back to Reality. (On the Best Picture Problem)

Back from a fantasy, yes...

By now you have read the rumor that the Academy is considering going back to only five Best Picture nominees per year. I've been amused by the headlines about this as they're extremely telling before you even get to the editorials. Consider Awards Daily's jaded / defeated "As They've Always Wanted" (Sasha likes the expanded field) or In Contention's even angrier / more insulting "Wants to Go Backward" (Gregory also likes the expanded field). Oscar bloggers have, for the most part, enjoyed the expansion because it gave us more to write about.

I never personally liked it. Oh sure it was fun the first couple of years in the way sudden upheavals in any tradition can feel thrilling in either an adventure film or horror film way. It also prompted fun guessing games about what might have been nominated in years past. But as a lover of Oscar history who enjoys comparing all eras too each other in out-of-time conversation, it was ultra-disruptive. How to compare years with 5 versus years with 8 versus 9 versus 10? Pick a number and stick with it. I understand that people have enjoyed the diversity of genres that the expanded field brought us but that only worked the first two years. [Lots more...]

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RPDR: Thou Shalt Not Take The Name of Thy Tilda in Vain

Katya, an actual original!Did you catch the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race S7? Underwhelming! It's that time in competitions before you've had any time yourself during which to fall in love / hate / conspiracy / indifference / lust with any players. 

I eagerly await the moments each episode when the names of showbiz divas or pop culture properties are dropped but that usually comes from either the smartest or most seasoned queens or the judges who tend to have a better grasp of showbiz history than the competing queens each year whose pop awareness often seems disappointingly limited to Beyoncé waking up flawless. RuPaul dropped "Mitzi Gaynor" while commenting on a queen (I forget who). I'll bet you ten dolla and 33 cent that that queen will be googling it, like, "What's a Mitzi Gaynor?"...

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MTV Movie Awards Nominations

Manuel here pretending not to be baffled and utterly fascinated with the just-announced MTV Movie Awards nominations. As much as I’d like to bemoan their crass youth pandering, their lineup for Movie of the Year (a "category that honors the most loved theatrical release of the season") is quite a respectable one while any awards that nominate Kristen Wiig & Bill Hader for their tour de force lipsync for their lives on The Skeleton Twins is fine by me. 

New Movie Awards Logo designed by Dabs Myla,

You’ll note that Neighbors (which netted Rose Byrne THREE nominations!), Guardians of the Galaxy and The Fault in Our Stars led the pack with seven a piece while Oscar favorites American Sniper, Selma, Boyhood, Whiplash and Birdman found some love. No such luck for Wes Anderson’s big Oscar winner The Grand Budapest Hotel nor for Oscar winners Patricia Arquette & Julianne Moore. Implausibly seeing as she's such an awards juggernaut, you may be surprised to hear that Meryl Streep garnered her second (!!) nomination ever at these awards (Best Villain for Into the Woods). She was previously recognized for her work in The Devil Wears Prada. She shares the category with J.K Simmons (Whiplash), Peter Dinklage (X-Men), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street) making it precisely the type of hodge-podge category MTV so enjoys putting together. Don't forget to vote, and maybe we can collectively nab ScarJo a win for Lucy and pretend it's for Under the Skin.

Check the full list of nominations after the jump:

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