Best Director - "How'd They Get Nominated?"

The Best Director Oscar chart is fully revamped with a poll, lots of stats, trivia, and information. If we fused all five directors into one Mecha-Director we'd have a 59 year-old 5'9" Sagittarian living in California who has New Zealand, Irish, and Japanese roots. This fictional Mecha-Director has made 15 movies and been nominated in this category 3 times.

The chart also contains our annual thought experiment: "How'd they get nominated?"...

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Almost There: Class of 2021

by Cláudio Alves

Another year, another class of actors who got close to Oscar glory but failed to make the cut. Like last year, here are capsules of 15 unnominated but buzzy performances. At the end of the article, you'll get to vote for who you think should get the full "Almost There" treatment. Since I already wrote extensively about Ruth Negga in Passing and Simon Rex in Red Rocket, those two won't be here, though my heart mourns for their dashed Oscar dreams. 

First up, let's start with the season's wildest race...

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Mixed results for pop stars in the nominations

by Elisa Giudici

The most surprising snub of this round of Oscar Nominations was Lady Gaga missing her earned spot in the Leading Actress category. I am not speaking of quality, but about campaign effort. She did and said literally anything 'an Italian girl living in NY' can to fit the profile of an Oscar-nominated actress, at least 1990s style. I have to confess I am going to miss her ability to offer up a new small, crazy detail or anecdote each interview about how immersive and challenging it was to play Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci.

She is in good company. With their glamorous attitude and dazzling personas pop stars tend to catch the attention of Hollywood, but this year the results with Academy voters were not all welcoming...

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Best Picture Rankings... the serious and the silly

by Nathaniel

It may surprise you to know that DUNE does not even have the highest death count among the Best Picture nominees

Each year after the Oscar nominations are announced we give ourselves over, even more fully, to our primal mania of list-making. On the updated Best Picture Oscar Chart you'll find a daily Reader's Choice poll, plus lots of info on the films, how we did on our predictions, and multiple very random lists like these...

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Oldest & Youngest Oscar nominees this year

46 days until the Oscars! You can now vote (daily) on every category on the Oscar charts as to who should win, so do it. Let your voice be heard. 

Judi Dench and Billie Eilish are the oldest and youngest nominees this year

We enjoy numbers and useless stats here at TFE so here is a little something on extremes to start your day, this year's oldest and youngest nominees (none of whom broke any Oscar-related age records that we know of, though). IMPORTANT CAVEAT ABOUT THIS LIST: Birthdates aren't available on many crafts people, producers, documentarians, and info is especially scarce when it comes to the shorts categories... 

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