Oscar Volley: The Inaugural "Best Casting" Race

We kick off our annual post-nomination Oscar Volley series with the newest Oscar category: Best Casting. There have been calls to add Casting as a category for decades but the Academy always resisted... until now. 

Regina Hall & Chase Infiniti in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. Casting by Cassandra Kulukunis

NATHANIEL: Abe, I'm sure I've shared this before but since we were assigned Best Casting -- in its inaugural year! -- I feel the need to shout that this film craft, alongside Editing, are the only two I feel I would have been great at, had my life taken a different path. I never took any steps toward making movies -- mostly scared off by how much time people devote to making just ONE if they're on the filmmaking side when my appetite is closer to 200 movies a year and ample time to obsess over about 30 of them as an audience member.

To jog your memory as we begin our discussion, here were the finalists in the category with the eventual nominees in bold...

Click to read more ...

Berlinale #1: "Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die" and more...

by Elisa Giudici

NO GOOD MEN © Adomeit Film

I'm on the ground here at Berlinale with a report on the first four films screened including a film from  Afghanistan, Slovakia standing in for Wisconsin, a drama about the Turkish diaspora in Germany, and Gore Verbinski's new sci-fi comedy Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die. 

No Good Men
The Berlinale has not opened with something this emotionally persuasive in years. With No Good Men, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat delivers a film that appears modest in scale and technique yet proves unexpectedly buoyant. Its visual language is spare, at times almost elementary, but the lightness is deliberate. In a story about gender inequality in Kabul, hope becomes a quietly subversive choice...

Click to read more ...

All Four Acting Categories -- Some Fun Through Lines & Connections

by Nathaniel R

Elle Fanning made her acting debut opposite Sean Penn in I AM SAM (2001) - both are up for Supporting Oscars in March 2026

When we're looking at Oscar trivia we're often focused on individuals. Once that's done it's fun to widen the view a little and think about the year's twenty nominated thespians as a unit. So here are some connections and percentages of note...

Click to read more ...

Nicole Kidman's Closet of Wigs

Our new favourite comedy skit from the obviously brilliant Adrienne Ianniciello. What's your all-time favourite Nicole Kidman wig? 

The end is priceless. Any reminder of her brilliance in Babygirl (2024) is always welcome! 

We Can't Wait: 2026 Cinema. (Part Three: Q-Z)

by Nathaniel R

the great animation studio Laika is back with "WILDWOOD"

ICYMI In Part One: A-F we began our look forward to 2026 movies with legacy sequels, a new Almodovar, and multiple films from a few actresses of note. We continued the anticipation with  Part Two: G-P in which we got excited about French legends, queer cinema, possible all-quadrant blockbusters, and more traditional Oscar fare like a period epic from an favored auteur and a movie chronicling the literal making of a Best Picture winner. 

Let's wrap things up with another twenty films we're hoping give us exactly what we crave in a dark theater. This grouping includes a friendly neighborhood webslinger, campy drag queens, 13th century werewolves, and one last Anne Hathaway (four films this year) who is aiming for "Entertainer of the Year" dominance...

Click to read more ...