Weekend Awards Wrap-Up: From the PGA to Cinema Eye

by Cláudio Alves

THE ZONE OF INTEREST proved an unexpected hit with the Producers Guild of America.

Oscar voting is ongoing, so this past week's honors feel especially important. They can be the spotlight that shines on a movie at just the right time, reminding Academy members of its merit as a contender. But of course, in terms of guild honors, they're also a way for awards obsessives to get a sense of what movies the industry values most. For example, the latest onslaught of guild nods makes the picture clear for those doubting that Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest could succeed beyond critics' prizes. If an organization as mainstream-inclined as the PGA can embrace Jonathan Glazer's latest nightmare, what's stopping AMPAS from doing the same?

So, from producers to regional critics, Annie nominees to Cinema Eye winners, this is what happened last week…

Click to read more ...

Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2017

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

This year’s slate of nominees showcase five performers strategically placed within the vision of their respective films right from their introductions. Whether introduced in a scene with actual spatial detail that immediately relates to the core of their characters or configured within the film’s style and tone in a more general sense, none of our first glimpses of them are deficient in meaning and purpose. It is probably not a coincidence that most of these performances appear in Best Picture nominees (and the one that didn’t probably came close too), a rarity in the Best Actress category.

Are you ready? The year is 2017...

Click to read more ...

Last Minute FYCs from Team Experience

by Nathaniel R

Rachel McAdams in "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret."

Oscar nomination voting began yesterday morning and will continue through Tuesday, January 16th at 5 PM. Word has it that the bulk of Academy members vote early in the time frame. For those holdouts who are still thinking about their ballots and screening a couple more films just to be sure, we asked members of Team Experience to share what they hope will be considered...

Click to read more ...

Who Will Be The Snub or Surprise at Oscars?

By: Christopher James

Can the entire trio of Killers of the Flower Moon get nominated after Leo's SAG snub?

Now that the SAG Awards have announced their nomination, we have a very clear picture of where the Oscar acting races are heading into Oscar voting. Every year features its snubs and surprises. The one thing you can rely on the Oscars for are some curveballs. However, there are ways we can systematically predict the lineup using the numbers of the past to inform the future.

Let’s apply some statistics to figure out the most likely nominees...

Click to read more ...

On Gladstone and Scorsese's Mollie Kyle

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar voting opens today, and, for once, some of my favorites are poised to thrive on the nomination ballot. Because of that, it might seem overkill to write FYC pieces, those love letters by another name. Even so, as it's a time for advocacy, I shall articulate why some of the year's best cinematic achievements deserve to be recognized as such. Today, I find myself inspired to make the case for Lily Gladstone, a virtual lock for a Best Actress nomination who might win it all. And to think some said going lead would ruin her Oscar hopes. 

As Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, she breathes life into a dark chapter of American history. Gladstone illuminates the tragedy of a woman and people betrayed, forsaken by individuals who claimed to love them and systems who exploited them under the guise of protection, brutalized by greed and white supremacy…

Click to read more ...