Oscar Predictions: Will Best Actress be dominated by biopics yet again?

by Nathaniel R

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in "Respect"

We'd love not to be a broken record but until the Academy isn't, we must sing the same choppy tune: The Academy has a biopic problem. They just can't give them up and nearly always view mimicry (of various degrees) as more of an achievement than character creation from scratch. We'll never understand it exactly but it keeps reasserting its truth. So that's always where you have to begin with predictions. This year's Best Actress category has the potential to be entirely performances based on real people.

Not that it will be. There are (that we know of thus far) seven real life characters as female leading roles this season...

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Brazil's Cinematic History Aflame

by Camila Henriques

It wasn't even a month ago when Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho made a plea at the Cannes Film Festival for people all around the world to discuss what was happening to the Cinemateca Brasileira (or Brazilian Cinematheque, if you will). As the Bacurau helmer mentioned the 500,000 lives that our country lost due to COVID-19 and how the Jair Bolsonaro administration (if you can even call them an administration) is truly responsible for those deaths, it was inevitable that that neglect would extend to other parts of the society. Which brought him to talk about the Cinemateca. In fascist governments, culture and knowledge are threats, and yesterday, the whole world saw just another chapter of this horror fest as some of our most precious memories caught on fire.

For the past year, the Brazilian Cinematheque, in São Paulo, has been closed. The archives that held more than 240,000 film reels were left to their own luck, as all the workers who took care of that historic treasure were fired...

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Oscar Charts: Will we have a "double" again in Best Supporting Actress?

by Nathaniel R

Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton star in "Mass"

We may have gotten a little carried away with wishful thinking in (some) of our Supporting Actress chart building this time around. You see, so many actresses we love that have never or only once been in the Oscar race have what sound like amazing parts this year. But it's early enough in the year that optimistic guesses are as good as pessimistic guesses. At least that's true in the supporting categories where less is usually known this early about the roles themselves.

But what we found most interesting while thinking through the first predictions of the year was how many films have the potential for a double nomination in Best Supporting Actress...

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Chris Marker @ 100: Visionary, innovator, cat person

by Cláudio Alves

Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve was born 100 years ago, on July 29, 1921. Sources, including the man himself, differ on his place of birth. Whether it was in the capital of Mongolia or France, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that, before World War II, the man became a Philosophy student, later joining the French Resistance. Inspired by his teaching and experiences, he'd become a journalist during the war's aftermath and, eventually, a film critic. From there, he pursued photography and, finally, became a filmmaker during the 1950s. Instead of his given name, the artist preferred to be credited as Chris Marker. This polyvalent artist would become one of the essential names in cinema history, a crucial part of the Nouvelle Vague, and, in his words, the best-known author of unknown films…

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Category Analysis: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series

by Juan Carlos Ojano

With no recurring guest nominee present, this should have been an exciting crop. And yet, if I am being completely honest, it's hard to get excited. Two nominations for The Mandalorian but none for its best submission (Bill Burr)?  The best "guest actor" from The Crown was not even submitted (Tom Brooke). An Emmy favorite gets in for a show already cancelled by its network on its first season. Meanwhile, Don Cheadle gets in for a cameo in a Marvel series? These are the men in this year's crop of contenders for this category.

Without further ado, the nominees and their episode submissions…

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