2021 is a wrap (sort of). Hello 2022!

HAPPY NEW YEAR LOVELIES!

As longtime readers know our new year literally begins now but figuratively we're still in 2021 until the last Oscar is hadn't out on March 27th, 2022. Then a 'happy new film year' can truly begin. But in case you've been away and our just rejoining us in the thick of precursor season, here are...

10 highlights you might've missed from December
• Steven Spielberg's 10 Best Films the whole team sounded off
• FYC Simon Rex his motormouthed brilliance in Red Rocket 
• Mike Faist Interview How the new West Side Story's "Riff" found the intensity for reinvention
• Discussing the Endings of Passing and Power of the Dog
• Young Adult at 10 Mavis never grows up but her film does
• Which countries have been waiting for Oscar nominations the longest? None of the "top ten" made the finalist list again. When will Oscar notice them?
• Yes No Maybe So The Northman Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgård get their Viking on
• Year in Review List-Mania - we did team lists of Onscreen Chemistry, Entertainers, Best Animals, Movie Posters, and Thirst Traps of 2021
• Spider-Man Best Picture - that weird media push to nominate it 
• Cate Blanchett in Talented Mr Ripley - an episode of your favourite "Almost There"
• West Side Story Oscar Journey x 2 - a handy comparison chart as we move towards Oscar nominations
• Best Supporting Actress -who gets the fifth slot?

Previous wrap-ups if you're just rejoining us...
Oscar 2020 Wrap | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov

COMING IN JANUARY 2022
Nathaniel's top ten list + The Film Bitch Awards, and the Team Experience Awards. Plus lots of interviews for Oscar hopefuls and a conversation with a secret SAG voter. We'll hit new films including A Hero, The 355, Scream, Belle, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. We'll have virtual Sundance Film Festival reviews. And finish up all the Oscar charts (2/3rds done now) in the next two days only to redo them once SAG nominations hit on January 12th. And if they ever reschedule those Honorary Oscars (meant for this month), we'll launch those half written weeklong celebrations of Liv Ullmann and Samuel L Jackson.

Oscar Charts: Best Actor & Best Actress

by Nathaniel R

Stewart and Cumberbatch have hogged the lion's share of critics awards. Will gold statues follow?

Both lead acting charts have been updated so take a look at BEST ACTOR and BEST ACTRESS. Both categories are giving off the vibes of being set in stone already before SAG has even announced their nominations so we'll soon see if that's an illusion or the truth. I've made one big adjustment in Best Actor, having Leonardo DiCaprio in Don't Look Up vault over rising but minor critical darling Nicolas Cage in Pig and knocking out Peter Dinklage in Cyrano. Cage maybe could have happened had critics really rallied but they were too busy praising Benedict Cumberbatch to really take a Pig stand. As for Dinklage, though the role is an awards magnet,  MGM/UA just didn't seem to know what to do with that film even though it's a) easy to market b) well liked by most people who see it... and kept pushing back its release. Better to have just saved it for 2022 at this point we think. And for Best Actress, there are no major changes, just a bit of order shuffling. I'm sticking with the five women who keep getting cited everywhere. Yes, there is a lot of PERFORMANCE and PASSION happening in the second tier of Best Actress hopefuls but it's getting harder and harder to see a path for any of them, even previous Oscar darlings like Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers) and buzzy newcomers like Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza). Unless SAG honors one of them, it's this five until Oscar night. 

Revised Oscar Charts

• Director
• Lead Actress
• Lead Actor
• Supporting Actress
• Supporting Actor
• Cinematography
• Production Design
• Film Editing
• Visual Effects
• Makeup and Hairstyling
• International Feature Film
• Animated Feature
• Documentary Feature

Year in Review: 2021 Entertainers of the Year

by Team Experience

Olivia Colman photographed by Amelia Troubridge from The Guardian

In our final "Team Experience Year in Review" post before the 10th annual Team Experience Awards and Nathaniel's own Film Bitch Awards (both in January), we wanted to pay tribute to the stars who worked overtime to keep us smiling, crying, laughing, and altogether wide-eyed in 2021. We asked contributors to cite ten choices as "Entertainer of the Year". The catch was the celebrity in question had to have had more than one project during the year. Quantity and Quality.

Names that didn't quite make the list but are nevertheless worthy of our sincere gratitude include actors Olivia Colman (Landscapers, Mitchells vs the Machines, The Lost Daughter, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain), Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley, Licorice Pizza), Vicky Krieps (Old, Next Door, Bergman Island), and auteurs Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy), and Ridley Scott (House of Gucci, The Last Duel). Technically speaking both Jamie Dornan and Oscar Isaac  made the following list but since we already sufficiently highlighted them yesterday in "Thirst Traps of the Year" we've ceded their spots to others. Spread the wealth is always our motto...

"ENTERTAINERS OF THE YEAR"
(a dozen wonders in no particular order) 

Click to read more ...

Betty White (1922-2021)

by Nathaniel R

One of the most beloved actors, no... make that one of the most beloved people, period, has died. We must unfortunately say goodbye to the Emmy-winning legend Betty White. The longest lived of The Golden Girls was just three weeks shy of her Centennial when she passed away. 

Betty White was more than just The Golden Girls though that sitcom rightfully leads any discussion of her career. That's what happens when you spend eight years of your life perfecting the same character, the dim but utterly loveable/hilarious Rose Nylund, and the show housing her morphs from risky bet (a sitcom about sexually active lively old ladies in youth-obsessed prudish America?) to surprise smash (the Golden Girls spent six of its seven seasons among the 10 most-watched programs on air) to immortal favourite within your life time. People talk about The Golden Girls so often nearly 30 years after it went off the air that it truly feels as if it never did. It did. But, in a very real way Betty White did not... 

Click to read more ...

Oscar charts: The more interesting than we were expecting it to be "Best Director" race

by Nathaniel R

The annual competition for Best Director at the Oscars is in a very interesting era. The Academy has become increasingly international so, in theory, we can expect more international figures to pop up in this category rather than just the superstar auteurs. Though it's long had the same racial problems as the acting categories it's always had those in a much less visible way... until recently. And it wasn't all that long ago that people (or, more specifically, the media) didn't grouse about no women being up for the prize. The movement for equity behind the camera only went truly mainstream in the past decade. Female directors have always been around, of course, if not in the same numbers they are today it's a topic Juan Carlos is currently investigating as he moves backwards in time through the Oscar years in his series "Through Her Lens" (new episode drops tomorrow).

For the first time in history we could be looking at a second consecutive win by a female auteur since Jane Campion is currently the favourite for The Power of the Dog. But who else will join her in the lineup? 

Click to read more ...