Showbiz History: "Blame It (on the Alcohol)" or Pazuzu

8 random things that happened on this day, January 26th, in showbiz history...

1931 Cimarron premieres in NYC. It becomes the first western to win Best Picture

1961 The Mark opens in theaters. You have to see the trailer to believe it (film distributors were so excited at the new raciness of the 1960s). Stuart Whitman, a rising star of the time and a last minute replacement for Richard Burton, received an Oscar nomination playing a ex-con child molester who is suspected of a new crime...

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Trust BAFTA to make this bizarre awards season even crazier!

BAFTA has made a strange decision. Despite more than enough movies to justify an awards season (as you can see from the numerous critics awards we've already witnessed... many of which weren't considering January/February releases like Oscar and the Globes are), BAFTA now just opened to the window for even more films to play. They're saying that as long as you already had a release date planned before April 9th in the UK, you can be eligible for their current award season and just delay your actual release until any point in 2021. 

This is an administrative nightmare. Or, at least it's a nightmare for those of us who enjoy things like calendars, time, seasons, and Things That Make Sense.

It also begs the question of what groups like the Globes, SAG, BAFTA, and the Academy are going to do for next year's awards (do all of these awards bodies think the world is going to end in 2021)...

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FYC: Best Ensemble

by Nathaniel R

SAG has a lot of choices for "Outstanding Cast" but will they choose well?

SAG and GLOBE and BFCA members are all voting right now or very soon for their nominations for the 2020 film year. This is as good a time as any then, to do FYCs that also serve as my own ballot in the first wave of the annual Film Bitch Awards. SAG and I don't often see eye to eye in terms of "Outstanding Cast". For my own "Ensemble" Award I tend to think of it as interplay and chemistry between actors. A  perfect ensemble has all performers operating on a high level and doing so together, so group scenes are far more important than a series of one-on-one encounters.

For instance, I wouldn't nominate Promising Young Woman for an Ensemble award even though it has a large talented cast because there's almost no group acting. Each scene is essentially Carey Mulligan versus  _____...

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AFI Honors: Bridgerton, Ma Rainey, Chicago 7, Nomadland, etc...

Like the National Film Registry but in a more 'in the now' kind of way the American Film Institute offers up a top ten list each year meant to denote American screen entertainments that are "culturally and artistically representative" of the artform that year. This year's jury included luminaries like Oscar winner Marlee Martlin, Oscar nominees Cynthia Erivo and Rian Johnson, Honorary Oscar winner Wes Studi, 2021 Kennedy Center Honoree Debbie Allen, Emmy winner Amy Sherman-Palladino, Director Lulu Wang, film historians like Molly Haskell, Mark Harris, and Leonard Maltin, and many more including critics from Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, TV Guide, and The Washington Post. Here's what they came up with after the jump...

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Gay Best Friend: Bill Truitt in "The Opposite of Sex" (1998)

A series by Christopher James investigating the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

Martin Donovan stars as Bill Truitt, a kind teacher whose life is torn apart by his half-sister (Christina Ricci)

In this column, we haven’t really looked at many movies that were written or directed by queer people. You don’t have to be gay to include a gay best friend in your film. If that were a prerequisite, we would have so much less gay representation onscreen. But something magical does happen when queer people tell queer stories. It changes and affects the DNA of the movie. Take for example this week’s choice, The Opposite of Sex, written and directed by Don Roos. There’s a daring and unflinching energy to the film that can only be described as inherently queer. This allows the movie to take large swings that don’t always connect. It’s emboldened by the confident voice behind the camera that knows what it wants to do. 

The movie is narrated by Deedee (Christina Ricci), a sixteen year old girl with a mean streak who runs away from home in Louisiana and moves in with her half-brother, Bill (Martin Donovan), in suburban Indiana...

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