Echoes from Oscars Past

by Cláudio Alves

The past always returns, one way or the other. It haunts the present and prophesizes our uncertain futures. That's why History is a cycle of recurring nightmares and dreams, one overtaking the other in ruthless combat.

Anyway, we're here to talk about the Academy Awards. The ghosts of Oscars past always come to haunt the current races, helping shape narratives, setting records to be broken and announcing patterns of cyclical discontent. Regarding the Best Picture nominees of 2019, here are some of the Oscar champions of the past that haunt them… 

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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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