Almost There: Christopher Plummer in "The Insider"

by Cláudio Alves

Despite starring in two Best Picture winners and many other movies blessed by plentiful love from AMPAS, Christopher Plummer always struggled to be recognized by the Academy. While the actor earned a lot of golden accolades and nominations for his TV work, including two Emmys, his cinematic efforts rarely caught the attention of awards-giving bodies. It was only in the twilight of his career that such fate changed but that doesn't mean he wasn't deserving before. For example, in 1965, the year of The Sound of Music, I'd have happily nominated him both for his stern star turn as Captain von Trapp and for the malicious sensuality he brings to Inside Daisy Clover.

Still, the closest he ever came to an Oscar nomination pre-2009 was for Michael Mann's The Insider...

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"Minari" leads the Dorian Award nominees but LGBT films underperform

by Nathaniel R

The Society for LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, to which I and a few of our writers here belong, have revealed their nominations for the film year with Ammonite, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, I Carry You With Me, Supernova, and Uncle Frank up for best LGBTQ Film though only one of them (Ma Rainey) secured any other nominations. Minari leads with the overall nominations with six and Nomadland is just behind with five.

You can see all the nominations after the jump...

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Let's talk about Oscar's screenplay races

by Nathaniel R

"Mank" is about the writing of a legendary screenplay. That should do the trick.

Are there locks in the Screenplay categories? At the moment both races feel almost settled (aside from hugely competitive fifth slots) though the WGA nominations arrive on February 16th which could theoretically disrupt the consensus punditry.

ORIGINAL
In the original race Mank, Minari, Promising Young Woman, and Trial of the Chicago 7 all feel like certainties but are they? That's too many locks prior to the WGA nominations and leaves only one spot open. That hypothetical fifth spot battle has a lot of strong fighters...

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Showbiz History: Linda Blair movies, Kurt Russell's Emmy nod, and Burt Reynolds on a bear-skin rug

8 random things that happened on this day, February 11th, in showbiz history...

Linda Blair made several TV movies in the 1970s post The Exorcist

1975 Sarah T Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic starring fresh Oscar nominee Linda Blair airs on NBC. It was the second of a handful of TV movies she made after The Exorcist that all traded on the dichotomy of her being young and innocent in scary adult situations...

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Globe chaos: A deep dive into the Comedy or Musical nominees

By: Patrick Gratton

At long last, the second phase of the awards race is well underway. This past week we had Globe and SAG and Critics Choice nominations and then the Oscar shortlists. Normally all of this takes place earlier but this season is elongated and fragmented to. Originally, I though that the abnormality of this race would give way to industry groups following the critic’s leads and anoint, say, Riz Ahmed, Carey Mulligan, Paul Raci, and Youn Yuh-jung, as frontrunners following the critical tallies. Clearly I was wrong, The HFPA saw this possible route, and instead chose violence. 

First things first, let’s just contextualize the Comedy or Musical designation within the framework of the Golden Globes themselves. The drama/comedy division of Picture and Lead Acting awards by genre started in 1951, when the HFPA awarded both A Place In the Sun and An American In Paris as their "Motion Picture, Drama" and "Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical" winners. The HFPA would later divide Motion Picture Comedy and Musical into separate categories in 1958, only to reinstate the category as we know it in 1963...

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