Almost There Extra: Tilda in "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

A bonus episode of "Almost There" (Claudio's Monday afternoon series) this week. Here's Eric Blume on a 2011 race...

There was a sad surprise when the 2011 Oscar nominations were read:  Tilda Swinton did not make the Best Actress slate, despite checking every precursor box along the way.  She had nominations from SAG, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes, but Oscar overlooked her magnificent performance.

Three of the nominees for the Oscar that year were considered locks:  Meryl (who won, of course) for The Iron Lady; Viola Davis for The Help; and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn.  But the final two to make the list were Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs and Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

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Remember "An Ideal Husband"?

This picture poppd into my head quite unexpectedly this morning. So many delicious actors were in this (Blanchett, Moore, Everett, Lindsay Duncan, Simon Russell Beale, etcetera). Oh, and a very happy 50th birthday today to the ever-undervalued Minnie Driver! 

"Because you love movies"

by Cláudio Alves

There's something mercenary, a bit unseemly, about many Oscar campaigns. Nobody should be slighted for campaigning too hard or for showing they want the award too much, of course -- that's not what we're saying (no Hathahating here). Still, studio's FYC ads tend to feel pushy, more interested in vacuous hyperbole than a genuine celebration of any film's particular merits.

All of that said, sometimes a campaign hits the nail right on the head, negotiating the needs of clever promotion and cinephile wonderment with utmost ease. Such is the case of Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood's latest ads. As the final Oscar voting starts, Sony has played its last card in the campaign game. It's a rather simple one, focused on special screenings and a bunch of traditional paper ads as well as some internet banners. Their genius lies in the simplicity of it all, avoiding incomprehensible lists of critics' prizes in favor of a simple powerful message...

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9 days till Oscar

Final voting has begun for the Oscars with just 9 days until the big night. Preferential balloting is such that we can dream of crazy outcomes on the big night even though it's fairly clear that 1917 is in the lead amongst the 9 Best Picture contenders. (Have you voted on our "who should win polls yet?If not do so on each Oscar chart) Only Parasite and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood are well poised to spoil the war film's party if preferential balloting is kind to them.

For those who don't know how preferential balloting works it's a complicated math system which begins rather simply by counting #1 votes until one of the contenders has reached 50.1% of the votes. Since that rarely happens on first pass, #2 votes become important... but only from the ballots that have been discarded by whichever film came in last on the most recent round.  It's a process of elimination whereby the least loved pictures votes are continually reallocated to that movie's biggest fan's next preference until one movie eventually gets half of the voters on its side...

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Interview: Double Lopez on "Into the Unknown"

by Eric Blume

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, nominated for the Best Song Oscar for "Into the Unknown" for Frozen 2.  This talented duo has already won the Oscar twice in this category, for the megahit "Let It Go" from the original Frozen, and "Remember Me" from Coco.  They could not be more charming and charismatic, as witnessed here...

[This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity]

Eric: At what point in the process were you brought in on FROZEN 2?

KRISTEN: Very early on when it was like, 'I think we're going to do Frozen 2. We're thinking it's about change.' Jennifer Lee [Frozen 2's writer/director] called us, sort of tipped us off.

ROBERT: It needed to happen because, you know, the sounds in a musical are as integral as any dialogue and in fact, they have to bear a lot more weight. So we had to be there. We helped influence the story and they helped influence the songs...

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