1997: The Ensemble of "Female Perversions"

We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Women, amirite? You've got the unique expectations foisted upon them to perform their gender by strangers, coworkers (no matter the field), loved ones, and themselves. There’s the generational traumas, both inherited and inflicted. Not to mention the way their psychosexual hang-ups function as ungainly manifestations of their repressed selves desperately seeking some kind of release. You can try reaching out to others for help, but all you’ve really got is yourself, and who trusts that bitch?

This is the territory Female Perversions resides in...

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Links: Death Scenes, Star Salaries, and Filmmaker Arrests

Today's Must Read
• Slate examines the "50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time". For a piece on death it's surprisingly fun and life-affirming. But the best reason to read it is that, unlike 95% of "all time" lists unline, it's genuinely far reaching stretching across all storytelling mediums and time periods. At this point it's a miracle to see an "all time" list that acknowledges that the world existed before the 1990s! Obviously spoilers abound though...

Movie and tv salaries at the moment, Jafar Panahi's prison sentence, Amanda Seyfried's Wicked audition, Bollywood anxiety and more after the jump ...

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Would you rather?

An excuse to share current Instagram photos from actors that we loved this past week or so. So, would you rather?

• Get a tarot reading with Dan Levy?
• Attend a Balenciaga dinner with Michelle Yeoh?
• Celebrate the rain with Drew Barrymore?
• Enjoy the full moon with Chris Lowell?
• Go putt-putt golfing with Brie Larson?
• Pull faces with Glenn Close?
• Carry Brad Pitt with Aaron Taylor Johnson & Bryan Tyree Henry?
• Have two cups of coffee with Beth Grant?
• Skinny dip in Spain with Lewis Tan?
• Dance with Kristen Schaal?

(All images from official instagram accounts) Pictures are after the jump to help you decide...

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Almost There: Sigourney Weaver in "The Ice Storm"

by Cláudio Alves

As the 1997 Supporting Actress Smackdown approaches, our celebration of that cinematic year continues. But of course, this project wouldn't be complete without a deep dive into the performance that almost made it to the Oscar lineup, representing a previous Academy Queen's comeback after years of unheralded work. In the 80s, Sigourney Weaver seemed poised to be one of those names who'd inevitably win a little golden man. However, after 1988's double nomination, awards organizations lost interest. Because of that, Ang Lee's The Ice Storm felt like a return to form in terms of sheer prestige, positioning Sigourney Weaver as an expected contender for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Unfortunately, the critical hit failed to secure any Academy Award nomination, a surprising result after a good performance that season. All these years later, Weaver's snub hurts the most…

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When will we start getting "official" submissions for the International Feature Film Oscar race?

The International Feature Film Oscar race has (mostly) reverted to its pre-COVID calendar for 2022. The past couple of years have been chaos with releases and deadline shifts but we're (almost) back to the usual which doesn't follow the  calendar year overseas. "WHAT ON EARTH," you ask? "Oscar is always by calendar year!" Nope, not quite within this category...

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