The Honoraries: Samuel L Jackson in 'Black Snake Moan'

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their career.

by Ben Miller

Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan is a hard sell on paper and an even harder sell in execution.  Jackson’s Lazarus finds half-naked and half-dead sex addict Rae (Christina Ricci) on the side of the road.  He takes her back to his house to nurse her back to health.  In order to cure her sex addiction, Lazarus chains Rae to his radiator. Luckily for Brewer and the film, Jackson fully invests in the provocative material, delivering a fiery performance of angry righteousness, and one of the best star turns of his career...

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How they count the Oscar ballots

Voting for the Oscars is now over. Now comes the waiting period to see the results on Sunday night. Final predictions and the Supporting Actress Smackdown are coming up tomorrow! In the meantime, let's talk preferential balloting. This type of voting has given us some amazing winners (Moonlight, Parasite, Nomadland) but it has also given us some absurd ones (Green Book) though we can never know which would have still won  on a straight plurality ballot and which would have lost. We've seen a few of these videos over the years explaining this but this is a really good one. 

It's also worth noting that the other categories use a straight plurality system. The film/person with the most votes win. This balloting system is only used for Best Picture. 

Interview: Peter Sciberras on editing four key scenes in 'The Power of the Dog'

by Nathaniel R

Peter Sciberras, the Oscar-nominated editor of The Power of the Dog

Final interview of the season! Editing is often called "the invisible art" but it's very visible. The audience just doesn't always know what they're looking at. Editors make a million choices in how we see, absorb, and feel the movies we love. I was thrilled to sit down with the editor Peter Siberras, who is Oscar nominated for his rich work on Jane Campion's Best Picture nominated future classic The Power of the Dog. As we started talking we shared stories about falling in love with editing.  Peter fell in love young when a housemate was making a music video and was having trouble finding an editor. "So, I gave it a shot one night at the age of 22," he recalls. "I instantly loved it. The second I did it I stopped thinking about any other career."

You can dip into everything you love about movies including cinematography, acting, and directing while you're editing, he explains. "Without doing all the hard work" he jokes. The editor's work is substantial after all. They essentially make the whole film over again after it's shot. Sciberra's big break came with David Michôd's thriller The Rover (2014) so he was already comfortable with dusty slow burn drama and building tension before Jane Campion came calling. For something a little different we focused on four specific beats in the film...

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Oscar Trivia: Who has had the most consecutive acting nominations?

by Nathaniel R

Given that this year brought us only one repeat acting nominee from last season (Olivia Colman, from The Father to The Lost Daughter)  we thought it would be a fun detour to look back at thespians that Oscar was obsessed with for a relatively intense stretch of time. Which of the 20 actors nominated this year will be back again next year and start a run towards this rarefied list?Care to make a guess? Maybe it'll be Olivia Colman a third consecutive time. We could see it if Empire of Light opens in time.

Now, it's pretty easy to return again and again at The Emmys given that one series can last for several years (and the TV Academy falls out of love slowly), but for the Oscars, where it's new projects and characters every year, it's very dificult to hold interest for years on end...

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Oscar Volley: Best Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Cláudio Alves, Gabriel Mayora, and Nathaniel Rogers to discuss the Best Costume Design and Best Makeup & Hairstyling races.

NATHANIEL ROGERS: Hello Cláudio and Gabriel. Ready to get dressed up? Picture me speaking to you in Stanton Carlisle tux and blindfold from Nightmare Alley and tell me what you're wearing. So many outfits from the five Oscar-nominated films are fully visible to me even with my eyes closed they were so memorable. In short, I think this is a strong Oscar list, even if my own ballot only overlaps by two pictures.  The Costume Design Guild Awards were held last week and Cruella, Dune, and Coming 2 America emerged as the winners for Period, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Contemporary respectively. Since Oscar rarely honors contemporary work only the prior two are nominated at the big show on March 27th. They're up against Cyrano, Nightmare Alley, and West Side Story. Though I am constitutionally opposed to the all too common internet and pundit trend of handing out Oscars before all the films have been screened in any given year, I will admit that this was a rare case when I did. At least inside my own head. As soon as Cruella reached its garbage-dress reveal, my jaw-dropped and I thought 'game over. Engrave the Oscar' while sitting in the theater. Way back in May...

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