Oscar Balloting Begins. What are your top three FYCs?

Tomorrow's the day awards-freaks, January 5th, 2017. Oscar nomination balloting begins. Where the buzz falls now is where the buzz settles. AMPAS branch voters have just 8 days to finalize their ballots (they're due by the 13th). January 14th through 23rd then becomes our awards purgatory and on the 24th when nominations are read we learn who goes to heaven and who is cast out for good, forever doomed to be considered a "snub" to their future fans. Pardon the tortured analogy but the Oscars are our religion!

This past week has been a very strong week for La La Land and Fences with fantastic box office grosses for each as they went wide. The hottest titles from October and November (Manchester, Moonlight, Arrival) can also feel pretty safe about their potential nomination hauls. But there are several titles that are a bit harder to read in terms of possible Oscar love. Those are the titles that expanded too late for a definitive take from the precursors (20th Century Women, Lion, Silence, and Hidden Figures) and their counterparts, the titles that were too "old" (i.e. released before October like Sully, Hell or High Water, Florence Foster Jenkins, Captain Fantastic, Zootopia, Love & Friendship) for precursor season's problematic but blatantly obvious "shiny new toy" syndrome in which everything that's just opened must be prioritized above all else. 

If you had three FYCs and three FYCs to impress on Oscar voters this week, what would they be? 

Team Experience: Favorite Globe Nods

We bitched and moaned about WTF snubs and inclusions earlier so now it's time to turn those frowns upside down. We polled Team Experience about their favorite Globe nominations in movies and tv and we hope you'll answer the same questions in the comments! Ready? Here we go...

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Globe Predictions? Let's Go Out on a Few Limbs...

This Monday morning very bright and early Don Cheadle, Laura Dern, and Anna Kendrick will announce the 74th annual Golden Globe Predictions. Though the media likes to take easy shots at the Globes each year, if you look through their history of awardage their ratios of great decisions to bad ones is about the same as any organizations. What's more they definitely afford themselves the opportunity to be more daring than Oscar does with their doubled categories. The Comedy/Musical categories are sometimes wasted on star-f***ing it's true (The Tourist anyone?) but more often than not it allows for "lighter" fare which, let's face it, can age better than biopics or message movies to have its day in the sun.

Don Cheadle (Miles Ahead), Laura Dern (The Founder), and Anna Kendrick (Mike & Dave...) will announce. Only Cheadle might show up as a nominee...

What might be nominated this year? We've never claimed to be good at predicting the Globes but let's all ponder the possibilities together after the jump...

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"Land of Mine" to compete for Foreign Oscar. (Plus Chart Updates)

Though I just gushed love all over Thomas Vinterberg's Oscar submission finalist The Commune yesterday, today brings news that Denmark went with another title for their submission. The committee unanimously chose Land of Mine, a World War II drama. The film looks at a little told story about German POWs in Denmark forced to dig up land mines. The film will be released in the US by Sony Pictures Classics, dates TBA. It's worth noting that the film is also up for the Nordic Film Prize on November 1st, a prize which has other Oscar submission finalists in the running:

Nordic Council Film Prize Nominees
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Finland's Oscar submission)
The Here After (Sweden - Reviewed last year at TIFF)
Land of Mine (Denmark's Oscar submission)
Louder Than Bombs (Norway's English Language Joachim von Trier film)
Sparrows (Iceland's Oscar submission finalist - they have not announced yet)

If you haven't checked out the Foreign Film Submission Charts they've had multiple updates recently with 55 films announced thus far (the number of contenders generally falls somewhere between 75-80 when all is said and done). New announcements include Apprentice from Singapore (reviewed), Jonas Cuarón's Desierto from Mexico (opening next month in the US starring Gael García Bernal, a mainstay of this category), Asgar Farhadi's Arthur Miller inspired Salesman from Iran, Karma from Thailand, and more. You can read about the films on the charts

Submission Charts
Afghanistan to Finland - 20 submissions thus far
George to Morocco - 13 submissions thus far
Nepal to Venezuela - 23 submissions thus far 

Current Predictions 
Here are 15 hunches, alphabetically, of films that have a good shot at the 9-wide finals. In red is the only film you could argue is locked up for the finalist list.
Barakah Meets Barakah (Saudi Arabia)
Desierto (Mexico)
Happiest Day in the Life... (Finland)
Julieta (Spain)
The King's Choice (Norway)
Land of Mine (Denmark)
Letters From War (Portugal)
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
Neruda (Chile)
Salesman (Iran)
Sieranevada (Romania)
Tanna (Australia)
Toni Erdmann (Germany) 
Train Drivers Diary (Serbia) 
"Whatever France Submits" (TBA) 

All Oscar Charts Updated

ICYMI. With Venice & Telluride in swing and Toronto almost in session, the race is off. But a word to the wise - it's a marathon not a sprint.

INDEX 
Handy chart (final pre-festival guesswork) and nomination tallies 

PIC | DIRECTOR | ACTOR | ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS 
The marquee categories

FOREIGN | FOREIGN A-F | FOREIGN F-N | FOREIGN N-Z
Updated Frequently. 15 Official Submissions in foreign language film category thus far. New films added today include entries from Egypt, Bosnia, Hungary, Sweden, and Belgium

VISUALS | AURALS | ANIMATION & DOCS | SCREENPLAYS 
Some of our favorite categories