24 days... 24 karats

It's 24 days till Oscar. Did you know that the Oscar statue is actually made of bronze and not gold? Though he's often referred to as the gold man, he's bronze. He is however, plated in 24 karat gold.

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Welcome to the one-nomination club

by Cláudio Alves

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the injustice of Oscar snubs, the general lack of diversity and other matters that forever plague the Academy Awards. One must remember, however, that, in the middle of this week's justifiable discontent, there are silver linings to consider. While the 92nd round of Oscar nominations are exhaustively dominated by Best Picture contenders (the most films ever with double digit nomination tallies), a few films managed to squeeze into the mix with just one nomination. In the past, many a great film ended the season with just a sole Oscar nod for its trouble.

Looking back at the last few years, we have such gems as First Reformed, Border, 20th Century Women, The Lobster, Elle, Silence, 45 Years and Gone Girl among many other notable movies. These films' nominations are little morsels of hope that remind us that the Academy isn't completely wrong, not always. So, let's celebrate those films that might not have conquered handfuls of nominations, but are still in the Oscar conversation…

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Oscar Trivia: Longest gap between nods... and who might return next?

by Nathaniel R 

Tie a yellow ribbon round the ol' Oscar ceremony this year. There are a lot of "welcome back" nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards since the nominations skewed towards senior actors as it occassionally does. Seven previous winners are in play again -- Bates, Theron, Zellweger, Pacino, Pesci, Hanks, and Sir Anthony Hopkins... all of whom have been missing in Oscar action anywhere from 15 to 29 years!  Surprisingly none of them are close to the all time record for “longest gap between nominations”.

Still, two decades is a big long stretch of time since most actors of either gender have all of their Oscar activity in a relatively condensed period of time; when you’re hot, you’re hot. Gaps over 20 years are uncommon. Even Lee Grant and Ingrid Bergman, famously blacklisted or exiled for a spell before returning triumphantly to Oscar’s good graces, didn’t have to wait that long. So herewith a list of the only actors who returned to the mix after a 20 year absence. 

The 25 Longest Gaps Between Oscar Nominations (for Actors)

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Never bet against Disney

by Cláudio Alves

While not all of Disney’s movies get Oscar gold, it’s never a good idea to bet against the studio. This year, Captain Marvel, Dumbo and Aladdin failed to conquer any nomination, but many other Disney properties got in the race, even in categories people weren’t expecting them to. Think of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’s makeup nod, for instance. It’s true most of those movies don’t seem like frontrunners, but if we trust in the patterns of Oscar history, then we can be assured the House of Mouse will earn a couple of statues come Hollywood’s biggest night. 

To prove this point, let's peruse the last decade of the Academy Awards and explore Disney’s many nods and victories. Notice there’s at least a win per year…

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A note about the comments

... I've sadly been informed that since the comment moderation was turned off the impostors have returned to ruin the fun for the rest of us. If you're a long time reader I deeply apologize for this. I hate for people to feel they are being discredited or falsely represented. But as I've conveyed before it's an impossible lift for the site to change its whole commenting system, as some have casually suggested and others have demanded, during our busiest time of year. The site is run from pure love of movies (and awards silliness) and not from a bank account or endless free hours (everyone has a day job) so our time and energy is best used on delivering content and not on spending needless money or time to worry about boring things like operating systems and software. Thank you for your patience as we return to a moderating system so we can better ferret out the people who aren't really here to discuss movies but to shit stir. 

We'll rethink after Oscar season is over. Until then big hugs and deep gratitude  to everyone who wants to talk about the movies with each other. That's why we do this. Please continue doing so and we'll do our best to approve comments as soon we can peruse them in an effort to weed out the trolls.