The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
The Cannes Film festival is not usually a bellwether for Oscars. That happens with the trifecta of late August / early September of Venice, Telluride and Toronto. However this year several movies that premiered in the main competition and in adjacent sections have been nominated for Oscars. Two of them - Parasite and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - scored multiple nominations and are expected to win a few and are considered favorites for the big prize, Best Picture...
One thing I love to do each award season is to scan through the connections between the films and nominees. That sighting of Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes transported me immediately back to 2005's Walk the Line. Amongst this year’s Oscar nominees, though, the connection that has me most nostalgic is one between two category mates: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, competing with each other in Best Actor, are finally Academy Award nominees.
They have a past together in Argentina, the same country that gave us Pope Francis, played so delightfully by Pryce. More than two decades ago, Pryce played another famous Argentinian, former president Juan Peron in the Alan Parker/Andrew Lloyd Webber/Madonna extravaganza that was Evita. That movie also featured Spanish heartthrob Banderas, fresh off a successful transition from being the quintessential Almodóvar man to Hollywood player, with talked about turns in Philadelphia and Desperado. He'd become an even bigger international star with Evita...
We've polled Team Experience one last time today to answer the following three questions to complete our Oscar Nomination Day reactions (apart from the podcast which is going up soon). We hope you'll chime in too.
Which nomination are you happiest about?
Which is the strongest category and which is the weakest?
Nominees always release totally generic statemetns about being "truly honored". But which nominee would you most like to have been a fly on the wall to watch their totally authentic reactions/conversations this morning.
Ready? You'll hear their answers after the jump...
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...
Banderas with Catherine Zeta Jones at last year's ceremony
It’s almost time for the Golden Globes. Over the years they have given us many memorable speeches that we talked about for days after and influenced the rest of awards season. So it’s time to judge potential speeches Sunday night by evidence given at other awards ceremonies earlier this season. I’ve chosen the best actor drama category because I think the nominees are eclectic in their public style and personae. And play along by thinking of which of these speeches you'd like to see a replica of on Sunday.
If Antonio Banderas were to win, I think he will be charming. However more importantly he will be sincere in paying respect to Pedro Almodovar, who will be in the audience. Wouldn’t you like to see that?
Adam Driver will be probably not be the most memorable. If we take a look at his speech from last month’s Gothams it’s mostly a list of names. He only shows genuine emotion when he mentions his wife. And perhaps that will be enough to provide a TV moment.
Joaquin Phoenix's speech might be an odd mix of earnest and weird, as evidenced by this speech at TIFF. Unfortunately he won't be able to ramble as much as he did here, or interrupt the presenter. Still he's my bet for giving a speech that might become the most unforgettable. Despite not caring much for Joker (it's fine), it looks like I'm a Phoenix voter when playing this game.
Christian Bale and Jonathan Pryce haven't given speeches this season yet. Or at least ones I could find on youtube. Based entirely on what speech you want to see on Sunday night, who do you want to win this category?
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at 11:03PM 
