Laura Dern's Amazing Run

by Camila Henriquez

If last weekend's Golden Globes were anything to go by, we’ll have an award season packed with Laura Dern speeches. Even though she has been deemed a favorite to win Best Supporting Actress for the past few months, many (myself included) thought the HFPA would go the HFPA way and honor Jennifer Lopez. It was probably the best shot for J.Lo at a televised award, as Globe voters looove their mega-stars. But Dern has an "overdue" narrative that her category rivals just don’t. Well, Annette Bening does, but unfortunately there’s no chance in hell she gets her Oscar this year. Even the nomination would be a shock.

But Dern's Globes victory should have been a foregone conclusion, regardless of Lopez's great Hustler's performance. Laura Dern has a great track record with the HFPA; she has had eight nominations and lost only thrice. With her win last sunday, she joins Carol Burnett, Rosalind Russell, Jessica Lange and Ed Asner in the five-Globe-wins group. 

Let's look back at her Globes history - with an Oscar note or two thrown in -- for fun...

Click to read more ...

Music Supervisors name their favs

Music Supervisors can't win Oscars -- this isn't the Emmys or Grammys where every conceivable kind of job has multiple categories -- but they do have a guild. They're the people who oversee all music-related aspects of a film. This year they've nominated the usual suspects plus a lot of others (since they have many categories divided by budget - hiiiii Gloria Bell, nice to see ya). Here's who they're honoring this year...

Click to read more ...

What if DiCaprio had lost for "The Revenant"?

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar narratives can shape an entire awards season. More radically, they can transform the way we perceive certain films, actors and other artists. Leonardo DiCaprio is an example of the phenomenon. Until he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the star brought with him a baggage of perceived injustice and honors long deserved but never given. He was due an Oscar, many argued, and the hysteria around his lack of one made every one of his new releases into an event – Would this be the movie to finally earn DiCaprio the Academy Award?

The Revenant (2015) was the production to eventually capitalize on all this hubbub, mounting a mighty campaign to win DiCaprio his prize. It worked and so it was that the poster boy for "Oscar dueness" lost his shine. That meant his following films wouldn't be able to take advantage of his lack of recognition and the reactions to his performances would no longer be inflated by the urgency to award him. But the next big film on DiCaprio's resume after The Revenant has proven to be an even more remarkable showcase for his talents than the production that earned him his overdue honors…

Click to read more ...

Chatting with Disney's vfx contenders

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

When the Oscar shortlists were announced in nine different categories a few weeks ago, the remaining films up for Best Visual Effects were halved from twenty to ten. It turns out that five of those films left are Disney productions, and so we had the chance to sit down with the team from each to learn a bit more about what went into creating everything you see on screen.

Team Endgame
Avengers: Endgame
Each member of this specific team was beyond excited to have worked on the epic blockbuster conclusion, which, to each of them, was a scope that they had never experienced before. They code-named their work “Mary Lou,” after the famous gymnast, to reference a need to “stick the landing”...

Click to read more ...

'Parasite' Sweeps Dorian Awards with Five Wins

by Murtada Elfadl

Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite dominated the winners list at the Dorian awards. The season’s front runner managed five wins, including Film of the Year, Director and Screenplay. Renée Zellweger took Performance of the Year—Actress for Judy, with Antonio Banderas the top choice in the Actor race in Pain and Glory. Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) and Song Kang-ho (Parasite) won the Supporting awards. The Dorian Awards are handed out by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, comprised of 260 mainly U.S. journalists covering film and television. Among the group’s unique and LGBTQ focused categories, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was named LGBTQ Film of the Year, while Cats was, of course, the choice for Campy Flick of the Year...

Click to read more ...