Oscar Volley: Best Director could be 2012 all over again

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category before the nominations come out. Here's Eric Blume and Glenn Dunks to talk Best Director...

ERIC:  Hi Glenn, excited to dive into this year's crop of Best Directors with you.  To me, the big question is whether all three of the "big gun pictures" will carry their directors to nominations.  That's Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon; Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer; and Greta Gerwig for Barbie.  I personally can't get too excited about Nolan or Scorsese, even though they both do expert work but nothing that rattled my cage.  I think one of Gerwig's biggest achievements directing that film...and this is no easy feat...was dealing with what must have been BINDERS of notes from Mattell and Warner Bros and still delivering the film she set out to make...

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BAFTA makes a split-decision on "Barbenheimer"

by Nathaniel R

Sandra Hüller scored double nominations with BAFTA. Can she repeat that trick at the Oscars?

While "Barbenheimer" has largely led the American precursor system's many many many many many awards bodies / nomination tallies, the British felt differently. They'll take only the latter half of that summertime phenom; Oppenheimer nabbed 13 nods but Barbie only received 5. The runner up to Oppenheimer's British dominance was Poor Things with 11 citations (though none of those went to either of its two supporting actors who've had a curious precursor season despite being in such a popular film.) Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall and Germany's Sandra Hüller (double-nominated) were also very popular with BAFTA voters. 

All the nominations and commentary are after the jump...

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Oscar Volley: Will there be any surprises in Best Cinematography?

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category before the nominations are announced. Here's Eric Blume and Lynn Lee to talk Best Cinematography...

ERIC:  We have the pleasure of discussing the insanely talented cinematography candidates this year.  It seems like this year's two big awards players, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, will certainly make the slate here...so, can I say, why I am not particularly excited about the work of either Hoyte van Hoytema and Rodrigo Prieto for these two films?  Don't get me wrong, both are beautifully lensed films and these men are brilliantly talented, but their work seemed more standard than inspired. 

Neither world, neither Oppenheimer's labs and offices nor Moon's flat plains, are the most visually exciting terrains, and while both men work with their respective directors to build a few lovely frames, I was definitely more knocked out by the imagery in some other films this year...

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Final Emmy Predictions and Creative Arts Emmy Winners

By: Christopher James

For those who watched the Golden Globes, the TV landscape seemed to only have three shows. Succession took home all drama specific prizes. The Bear pulled off a similar hat trick on the comedy side. Finally, Beef swept the Limited Series categories. With the delayed Emmys finally happening, one may think they’ll see the same people and the same speeches repeat one week later.

However, keep in mind the Emmys voting period was from August 17 to 28, meaning the winners were technically chosen five months ago. Like a time capsule, all will be revealed on Monday, Jan 15th. We got our first clue as to how the Television Academy voted this past week at the Creative Arts Ceremony.

See how these categories could clue us into the Emmy winners, who we are predicting for the Primetime Emmy Awards and a full list of Creative Arts Winners after the jump.

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"Nyad" and "The Color Purple" get a boost from SAG

by Nathaniel R

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster in "Nyad". Photo by Kimberley French for Netflix

The Screen Actors Guild announced their annual nominations this morning and there are some minor plot twists. They rejected May December in totality (Todd Haynes movies do continue to struggle with non-critic based movie awards bodies), embraced Nyad just like the Globes did, and threw new question marks around both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. No major plot twists this year, though, like an I Smile Back, Woman in Gold, or St. Vincent. 

The SAG Awards will stream live on Netflix this year – a first! – as we’ve long suspected awards shows will move to streaming like everything else has. Comments and a full list of nominees after the jump…

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