Eye Candy Predix Pt 1: Who will be nominated for Best Cinematography?

by Nathaniel R

F1 The Movie - shot by Claudio Miranda

Eye-candy. It's a good chunk of the reason we obsess over cinema, a gloriously visual artform. Films which don't maximize the capabilities of cinematography, costumes, and production design often risk looking dull or under-thought by comparison to those that use everything the cinematic toolbox has to offer. It should go without saying that Oscar predictions do not necessarily mean that these are the titles which will excel in any given craft area -- we all know that Best Picture heat gets you further than it ought to  in every category... yes, even the ones you deserve to be competitive in! All categories should be judged on their own exquisite merit. Neverthless here is some guesswork about what Oscar voters might respond to this year in terms of these visual arts...

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Last night I caught an IMAX screening of Joseph Kosinski's latest all quadrant hopeful, F1: The Movie. It's received a bit of breathless Variety hype for Chilean DP Claudio Miranda's work...

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The Film Fest Triple Crown: Who's Next?

by Cláudio Alves

Juliette Binoche's jury made history when they gave Jafar Panahi the Palme d'Or.

One month ago, Jafar Panahi took the Palme d'Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident and thus became the fourth director to win top honors from the Croisette, the Berlinale, and the Venice Film Festival. The Iranian master joins the ranks of Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Robert Altman. However. If you exclude ties and those cineastes who won two prizes for the same film, then Panahi and Antonioni are in an exclusive club of two. Inspired by Eric Blume's musings on the Triple Crown of Acting – Oscar, Tony, and Emmy – I started to ask myself what other filmmakers are close to achieving the same Palm, Golden Lion, and Bear combo. Who's next? The answers might surprise you…

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New Oscar Charts: Screenplays, Music, and Visuals

by Nathaniel R

Speeding the April Foolish Oscar chart production up now, with 10 of Oscar's 24 categories posted, in order to finish by, uh... June's end.

• Prediction Index
  (in progress since some categories are still under construction)
• Original & Adapted Screenplay 
• Visuals (all but two posted)
• Sound
• International Film

Ten categories left to publish (we never predict the shorts or documentary categories this early), so we'll try hard to get them all up this week and say more about the, too. They are: Actress, Actor, Animated Feature, Casting, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Picture, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor. 

Wicked and Sinners currently lead the predicted tallies though that may change with the remaining categories yet to be posted. What's interesting is that they could fill up 80% of the original song category since Wicked (an official musical) has two Original Songs, one for each of its leading ladies, while Sinners (an unofficial musical) has four or five ... though of course only two song nominations are allowed for any film given the current Oscar rules; That rule is kind of a bummer because given the popularity of both Wicked and Sinners we could have finally had a year without the mandatory throwaway Diane Warren nomination! 

Amanda Nominations: The Ugly Stepsister, Armand, and more...

by Nathaniel R

The Ugly Stepsister -- now streaming on AMC+ and Shudder

Norway's annual Amanda Awards take place in August each year in beautiful Haugesund on the west coast. I lived there briefly a million years ago. Their eligibility is not by calendar year but for Norwegian release dates between July 1 through June 30. This often means that you'll see last year's Oscar submission in the mix along with newer titles. You'll recognize some of the titles this year and a few of them are even available to see in the US by streaming or at the theater.

Nominations and thoughts after the jump...

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Ten reasons to celebrate Pride Month with "Latin Blood"

by Cláudio Alves

LATIN BLOOD: THE BALLAD OF NEY MATOGROSSO | © Netflix

Last Thursday, Americans celebrated Juneteenth, but south of the Equator, Latin America's largest nation was in a cinephile mood. It was Brazilian Cinema Day, marking 127 years since Affonso Segreto shot what is considered the earliest cinematic depiction of Brazil in film history. A century and change after cameras first glimpsed the Guanabara Bay, the country's having a moment on the world stage. In the space of a few months, we saw such titles as I'm Still Here, The Blue Trail, and The Secret Agent win big at the Oscars, Berlinale, and Cannes. However, within Brazilian borders, other success stories have flourished, largely overlooked by international onlookers. Consider Vitória with Fernanda Montenegro delivering a staggering star turn at 95, and today's subject, the word-of-mouth box office phenomenon that is Homem com H.

Known as Latin Blood: The Ballad of Ney Matogrosso in English-language markets, the music biopic arrived on Netflix June 17th. And, since that streaming giant is doing nothing to promote it, let me enumerate ten reasons why you need to add Esmir Filho's latest to your Pride Month watchlist…

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