The Winning Moment & The Loveable Losers

Oscar night is still rich with the thrill of victory but not, I'd argue, with the agony of defeat. At least not anymore. The Oscar race has never been as sports-analogous as some would like but the victory part in the modern awards season maybe. That requires true endurance... months of campaigning and appearance and interviews and people whisking you here and there. The agony of defeat is surely now lessened by way of expectations. There didn't use to be all these signposts along the way that you're never going to win which might account for how polite and calm the losers are in their little live-television grids. Nevertheless we still love to slow-mo the shit out of those moments.

We're doing three and a half categories (Supporting Actress, Director, Actress, and ?)  starting now...

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The Beautiful People

The Class of 2013 via The 86th Academy Awards,  March 2nd, 2014!

Damn, that's a good looking bunch. It occurs to me that there was more than just a little bit more of a consensus this year behind "shoulds" when it came to acting winners, hence the repeats from ceremony to ceremony. That was true even here at The Film Experience. Though McConaughey didn't win his reader's poll here (he came in 3rd in a tight race for 2nd with Chiwetel, both behind Leo), the rest were your preferred winners as you can see on their percentage totals on the individual charts. And Cate and Lupita were also my gold medalists in the The Film Experience's long running Film Bitch Awards, too.

Group Tidbits & Trivia
• Cate and Matthew are the exact same age (44) and I wonder when or if that's ever happened before with the lead winners? It probably doesn't happen often given Oscar's double gender standards when it comes to what age its appropriate to honor male and female actors; generally speaking, women win most often when they're in their late 20s to mid 30s wherease men have much better luck in their 40s.
• The lead winners are both married and both have three children. The supporting winners are both single and keep publicly joking about the rumors that they're dating

Jennifer and Lupita reenact the last month of the internet backstage!

• another cute Lead/Supporting divide. The leads brought their spouses to the Oscars and both Lupita and Jared brought a sibling!
• Interesting gender divide in terms of origins. The women are international (Australia and Kenyan/Mexican) while the men are both from the Southern US (Texas and Louisiana)
• All four went to college --  so since Ellen went there with a joke: stay in school, kids

Jared Leto photobombing Anne Hathaway

• Cate is the old pro (6 noms / 2 wins) but the other three are all 'first time's the charm' winners
• I interviewed 75% of this group, alas not a perfect fab four: ICYMI my chats with Matthew, Jared, & Lupita
• Four different zodiac signs but we have two waters (Matthew & Lupita) and two earths (Cate & Jared) and yes, I have insomnia, or else why else would I be looking this up?!

Oscar Winners As They're Announced

I will be doing a full fun recap but during the show mostly just minor notes. I'm gonna enjoy the show this year! 

OPENING MONOLOGUE 
Very bold for Ellen DeGeneres actually!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Presented by: Anne Hathaway
winner: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

This is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS.

ANIMATED "HERO" MONTAGE
Presented by Jim Carrey
"Light on Finding Nemo" according to Ellen Degeneres 

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Oscar Night ~ Notes Upon Arrival

I've been thinking, I've been thinking Why can't I keep my fingers off it, baby? I want it, na-na. Oscar Night. We be all night! ♫

And we can't stop And we won't stop
<-- Can't you see it's He who owns the night?! ♫

REFRESH YOUR SCREENS FOR UPDATES AS WE GO...

6:15 If you have to pee now would be a good time. It's going to be a long night.

>6:21 I will take this as a good omen for the night. The first E! interview is with Viola Davis "green is my go to color." While they're talking Liza arrives channeling the blue hair contingency of the Academy. More...

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"YOU LIKE ME!" (this is not an Oscar post)

3 Notes. Oh don't click away you have time to read them. And yes I'll be live tweeting and a little light blogging tonight

01. Like The Film Experience on Facebook. Follow Nathaniel on Twitter, Pinterest? Why am I so needy? It's like this: Once Oscar night wraps up I experience something like a free fall; help me pull that parachute string.

02. We're here all year -- it's not just an Oscar site so don't abandon us if you're exhausted by Oscar shenanigans. There's only one more week of it, recapping this year's Oscars, filmbitching, and we'll close out the annual festivities with that Supporting Actress Smackdown we promised (yes, the one I flubbed that you've been impatient for). After that one eye returns to brand new movies and pinch of tv and the other to occasional trips back to favored oldies in A Year With Kate, Seasons of Bette, and Hit Me... oh, yeah...

03. Break out the bubbly! "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns on March 18th (We're moving it to Tuesdays at 9 PM to give people the weekend to screen the movies and be ready!). If you're new to the blog or haven't yet experimented with actually participating, I guarantee a good time and it proves the point the more the merrier! You simply watch the movie, post your single favorite shot on your blog/ tumblr/ youtube/ instagram/ twitter/pinterest whatever and tell us why you chose it!

03/18 ETERNAL SUNSHINE (2004, *10th anniversary*)
04/01 TBA - what fun but terrible movie should we together for april fools day?

... and more to come in April

These are all the previous episodes in chronological order of the films (though not the episodes) since we experiment with all eras and all genres. Join our group viewing party!  1920s Sherlock Jr (24), The Circus (28), Pandora's Box (29)  1930s Tarzan the Ape Man (32), Snow White (37), Wizard of Oz (39) 1940s Fantasia (41), Shadow of a Doubt (43), The Woman in the Window (44), Double Indemnity (44), Black Narcissus (47), Possessed (47), Easter Parade (48);  1950s A Streetcar Named Desire (51), Singin' in the Rain (52), The Bad and the Beautiful (52), Forbidden Games (52), How to Marry a Millionaire (53), Night of the Hunter (55), Rebel Without a Cause (55), Picnic (55), Summertime (55), A Face in the Crowd (57) 1960s Rocco and His Brothers (60), Psycho (60), La Dolce Vita (60), Hud (63), Mary Poppins (64), Bonnie & Clyde (67), Barbarbella (68), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (69) 1970s Pink Narcisuss (71), The Exorcist (73), American Graffiti (73), Dog Day Afternoon (75), Story of Adele H (75), Eraserhead (77) 1980s Ladyhawke (85), The Color Purple (85), Aliens (86), Law of Desire and/or Matador (86/87), Peggy Sue Got Married (86), Dead Ringers (88) 1990s Edward Scissorhands (90), Beauty & the Beast (91), Raise the Red Lantern (91), Heavenly Creatures (94), Se7en (95), Showgirls (95), Jackie Brown (97), The Talented Mr Ripley (99) 2000s Bring it On (00), Requiem for a Dream (00), X-Men (00), Moulin Rouge! (01), Memento (01), The Royal Tenenbaums (01), Road to Perdition (02), Angels in America (03), Mean Girls (04), Serenity (05) 2010s Pariah (11)