Friday Awards Wrap-Up: BIFA, AFI, and more!

by Cláudio Alves

With the awards race heating up, there's much to discuss. Maybe too much. Da'Vine Joy Randolph is proving a sweeper in Best Supporting Actress, taking every single one of those awards so far. Her The Holdovers costar, Paul Giamatti, is also doing well for himself, somehow scoring better results than some of the supposed Oscar frontrunners. Then there's Lily Gladstone taking the lead in Best Actress, while Killers of the Flower Moon adds some more victories to go alongside its NYFCC wins. The Color Purple has struggled to make an impression, but that might be due to late screenings, while Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is making a good case for itself as a Best Picture contender. 

In any case, here's a small compendium of prizes and top ten announcements from this week, plus some additional commentary…

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Oscar Volley: It’s Whimsy vs History in Production Design

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nick and Cláudio to talk Production Design...

BARBIE sails to a sure nomination, but can it win?

CLÁUDIO: Last year, the trenches took gold, but what will even be nominated this season? The gloomy days of WWI behind us, Barbie shines a pink promise on the plastic horizon, with Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer providing some period seriousness. Maybe it'll be Wonka or Poor Things, colorful lunacy with a candied twist. There are other musicals to contend with, more biopics than your mind can process, sci-fi, diorama-land, and even a detour into mid-00s opulence. Yes, this is the Best Production Design race, where anything is possible until it isn't. May the odds be ever in your favor…

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Oscar Volley: Best Editing is Now Best Picture-lite

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Ben and Abe to talk Film Editing...

The Trinity Explosion editing from Oppenheimer

BEN: Abe, it's time for another talk about one of the most confounding categories at the Oscars...Best Editing!

Last year, I talked about this category with Nick Taylor and we talked specifically about how non-Best Picture nominees don't show up in this category, no matter how special their editing might be. Last year, they went 5/5 again. They even went with a nominee (The Banshees of Inisherin) with relatively unremarkable editing.

Why do you think the Academy is so apprehensive to care about the craft of the actual editing process?...

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Oscar Volley: Best Makeup is the Battle of the Biopics

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Cláudio to discuss Makeup & Hairstyling...

At the moment, MAESTRO looks like our undisputed frontrunner.

NATHANIEL: Dearest Cláudio, it falls on you and I to kick off this year's pre-nomination Oscar volleys. Best Makeup and Hairstyling is up first. So please picture me in heavy old age makeup with some crazy wig atop my bald head. Also, I have green skin (I'm covering as many films as possible in my look). The dark circles under my eyes are not a makeup effect in honor of Lily Gladstone's suffering Mollie Burkhardt -- that's unfortunately just my face! I'm doing too much in my look because like many other craft categories, Makeup is often a race for "Most" rather than "Best"; when we get phenomenal winners it's usually because they are accidentally both of those things at once! I always wish the "Hairstyling" part would get more attention since that would complicate predictions. 

I want to start with an unexpected question before we get to things we're rooting for (however unlikely) and actual predictions…

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Team Experience Oscar Predictions - Post 1 - Initial Thoughts

by Christopher James

Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are obvious frontrunners, but who is the leader among The Film Experience writers as of now?

With the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Awards having announced their winners, the Oscars race is officially afoot! We have surveyed The Film Experience writers and asked them to make predictions in the main eight categories - Picture, Directing, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay. Every other week, we will check in with the team to see who has risen or fallen in the rankings.

Martin Scorsese’s epic drama, Killers of the Flower Moon, had the strongest showing of the week, awards-wise. It took home Best Picture at the New York Film Critics Awards and stars Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro had the most high profile moments of the Gotham Awards. Does that mean it is out in front, or does Oppenheimer still have the distinction of frontrunner status? See what the Film Experience Team thinks after the jump...

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