Showbiz History: Inspirational Bette, Presidential Meryl, and Favourite Joe

4 random things that happened on this day, February 21st, in showbiz history...

The Globes weren't crazy about A Streetcar Named Desire

1952 9th annual Golden Globes are held with An American in Paris and A Place in the Sun both winning before battling it out at the Oscars. The Globes weren't that into A Streetcar Named Desire so the only one of the acting wins shared by the two shows was Kim Hunter as "Stellaaaaaa!" I had the pleasure of speaking about this competition on the "And the Runner Up Is..." podcast. And speaking of podcasts, 1951 is one of the few remaining years for the Supporting Actress Smackdown final season. 

1981 Prince performs on Saturday Night Live for the first time. Charlene Tilton (Dallas) was the host and he sang "Party Up" from the album "Dirty Mind"...

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FYC: Never Rarely Sometimes Always

by Nick Taylor

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is the 2020 film I've watched the most times this past year. The story of a 17-year-old girl fleeing her small town for several days to get an abortion in the city is perhaps not the kind of tale that one expects to dive into over and over again. But few films have gripped me quite like this one has. Of all the American  films contending for an Oscar nomination, this and First Cow are by far the two I most want to see recognized somewhere, anywhere, everywhere. It’s always rough when the televised awards start culling from critics prize winners for their own lineups, and even harder when the whole goddamn process is strung out for two extra months. Will key nominations from the exclusive, rigorously discerning Critics Choice Association help kick it back into the conversation? Or did writer/director Eliza Hittman missing at WGA signal the end of the road? Maybe the Indie Spirits will be the last time we see this crew up for an award, but until proven otherwise, here’s my pitch on behalf of this marvelous film in any and all categories available to it.

There’s nowhere to start like the beginning, which in this case is the most internally idiosyncratic scene of the film. Never Rarely Sometimes Always begins with a talent show of sorts, as student dress up in ‘50s Teen Outfits and sing & dance to Elvis...

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Showbiz History: France loves KStew, and infamous 'Chicago' trials, real and fictional

5 random things that happened on this day, February 20th, in showbiz history...

two Oscar-winning Roxies, Ginger Rogers & Renée Zellweger

1939 A shameful moment in US history: an American Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. Footage from this event became the basis of the recently Oscar nominated doc short "A Night at the Garden". 

1942 The film Roxie Hart adapted from the play "Roxie" opens with Ginger Rogers playing the murderous showgirl. Roxie would go on to pop culture immortality with the long running musical adaptation of the play and its Oscar winning counterpart, called simply Chicago...

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Job Hazard

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More prizes: IFMCA, Nevada, Utah, Seattle, Dallas Ft Worth, and Washington DC

by Nathaniel R

The awards for 2020 cinema aren't done yet! First things first the British Independent Film Awards were held so we've updated that post to reflect their winners. Rocks was the big winner with five wins but The Father far behind it in nomination totals, won three.

Now here are five more new sets of critics groups from Nevada, Utah, Seattle, Dallas Ft Worth, DC. There are no new names or titles winning except for Nevada honoring Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy and The Father in Screenplay and Seattle's choice of Documentary (The History of the Seattle Mariners: Supercut Edition). Utah goes slightly off consensus preferring both Minari and One Night in Miami to Nomadland in the top Picture/Director categories. Utah also has two unusual choices in runners up positions like Lukasz Zal for cinematography and Cristin Milioti for Palm Springs for a genre performance category. We'd congratulate Utah on their good taste except that they also declare that Chicago 7 was better written and edited than Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal/Tenet respectively so you win some you lose some.

But first let's start with the International Film Music Critics Association winners since by its nature, it's forced to be different from the other awards being passed out at the moment...

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