Actors Turned Producers @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

We've already posted about many records broken with this year's Oscar nominations, but one particular achievement remained unmentioned. With her double nominations for Nomadland – for Best Picture and Best Actress – Frances McDormand became the first woman to earn an acting and a Best Picture nomination for the same project. This comes after a decade when this feat became incredibly common for male performers. Historically, ever since the 1950s, when AMPAs started to list producers with Best Picture nods, instead of merely the studios' name, actors have been producing their movies and earning added honors for those efforts. Still, it was only in the late 60s that someone scored the elusive double citation by the Academy…

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SXSW: Hysterical, Potato Dreams of America, Introducing Selma Blair, and Broadcast Signal Intrusion

by Christopher James

There’s a lot that the pandemic has made harder. The one thing it has made easier has been attending film festivals from all around the country. Pre-pandemic, covering SXSW would’ve required a flight to Austin, Texas, inflated lodging costs and lots of pre-planning. Now, the only lines festival goers have to battle are online. Food is just an arms reach away in the kitchen (no more popcorn dinners). 

Last year, SXSW was one of the first things cancelled as COVID-19 spread across the country. The festival is very different this year, but the quality of content is still great. The Film Experience will be covering the fest through the weekend.  Here are a four takes from Day One. One comedy doc, an intimate celebrity piece, a noir, and a Russian comedy... 

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What's the worst case of "category fraud"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some people don't care about "category fraud" and that's understandable. I'm a big proponent of just being happy that great artists are honored, ignoring the categorization of their work, especially when it's all so subjective. However, when it comes to the Oscar acting prizes, it does feel wrong that awards specifically created to honor character actors are now regularly dominated by stars in leading roles. Instead of opening avenues to highlight those performers with less narratively-prominent parts, the Supporting categories have become a way for leading actors that couldn't crack the leading prizes to still win gold. This game of fraudulent campaigning may have just hit its apex with this year's slew of Best "Supporting" Actor and Actress nominees.

To organize my thoughts and hopefully make the arguments clearer, here's a ranking of the "category fraud" cases of the year from least to most egregious. This is all subjective, though I'd side-eye anyone who tried to argue for the legitimacy of that top choice... 

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Showbiz History: Julia peaks, Channing rises, and Maddie swings from chandeliers

6 random things that happened on this day, March 17th, in Showbiz History. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

1941 The National Gallery of Art opened in DC eighty years ago today. 

1991 The 44th annual BAFTA Awards honoring the films of 1990 are held. Italy's Cinema Paradiso (which we were just discussing) is a huge hit winning 5 awards and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas emerges triumphant with the top prize (Dances with Wolves, which will beat it at the Oscars a week later, isn't up for the BAFTAs until the following year, but it loses then to the homegrown title The Commitments)...

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This Had Oscar Buzz & Chasing the Gold

by Nathaniel R

I had the pleasure of recording not one, not two, but three podcasts this week. Yes, The Film Experience's own podcast returns very soon (hopefully tomorrow). But before that's edited, please enjoy these two guest-spots I had the pleasure to do.

THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ
Joe Reid and Chris Feil, former Team Experience members!, launched this brilliant podcast in 2018. You're probably already a fan. "This Had Oscar Buzz" discusses one failed awards hopeful per episode. They gave me a list of films to choose from for my guest spot and perusing it I knew exactly which film I had to choose. The very blonde, very actressy, very complicated, very Pfeifferiffic White Oleander (2002) called out to me. Please give it a listen! 

CHASING THE GOLD
You can also hear me discussing the brand new Oscar nominations on InSessionFilm's podcast hosted by Ryan McQuade.  Erik Anderson of Awards Watch and I were the special guests and we really get into the weeds of Oscar campaigns and this odd season.