A Brief History of Oscar Ties

by Cláudio Alves

Best Live-Action Short Film is the only category to count two ties in its Oscar history.

Last month, at the 98th Academy Awards, the world got to witness the seventh official tie in Oscar history. Presenter Kumail Nanjiani was quick to assure the audience that this was not a bit but something that was really happening as the Best Live-Action Short Film race came down to two victors – The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva. For someone like me, what made this even more momentous was how, for once, the Academy made a good choice, even if they didn’t make up their mind. In a category where good taste goes to die, our champions are good examples of the form, amply deserving of this honor and their new place in the annals of Oscar history. Who would have thought?

For some added context, join me as I go over these seven ties. Were they all deserving? Let’s find out…

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Oscar Volleys: Best Documentary shows why awards matter

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller discuss Best Documentary Feature Film...

NO OTHER LAND | © Antipode Films

CLÁUDIO: War, ethnic cleansing, sexual assault, anti-colonial fight, and more ethnic cleansing - this year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar race has it all. As often happens, the populist fare and celebrity-focused docs got a lot of precursor attention but failed to convince the Academy's more politically-minded Academy branch. No Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story or Jim Henson: Idea Man here. That leaves us with no fluff or even the potential for levity, no feel-good conclusion or catharsis of any sort. And, to be honest, these pictures and the race in general are better for it. But it does make it hard to discuss, which is why I'm elated that I got such a great conversation partner. If anyone can make this convo enjoyable, if not outright fun, it's you, Ben.

BEN: Nothing brings me more joy to talk about than five films that are big fat bummers.  I do wish we had something with a little more light or levity, but that is the byproduct of documentaries in general.  They depict real life, and our real lives are bummers right now…

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The Oscar Shortlists for the 97th Academy Awards

by Nathaniel R

EMILIA PÉREZ © Shanna Besson

Today the Academy released the shortlists for the 10 categories that use this system, wherein a large number of eligible movies or narrowed down to a more manageable size for the voters in those categories. You can be sure we will be updating the Oscar charts as a result (and you'll find we already have for the other categories!) The lists are usually revealing, fun, disappointing, surprising, and energizing in roughly equal measure. This year though they skipped the "surprising" factor altogether, unless you count the variety in Best Original Score. Emilia Perez led the pack with six citations, but that wasn't surprising since the Spanish language trans cartel drama musical was eligible in most of the categories whereas most of its best picture competitors were not.  

Okay let's look at what they selected in each of those categories...

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The First Oscar Eligibility Lists are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

PIECE BY PIECE is the only film competing in both the ANIMATED and DOCUMENTARY Oscar races.

At long last, AMPAS has started divulging its eligibility lists for the 97th Academy Awards. As is usual, the first categories to be announced are the special feature races – Animated, Documentary, and International Film (click on each category to see their prediction pages). This year, 31 cartoons vie for the Oscar, while 167 docs form the non-fiction race. In Best International Feature Film, this year has 85 official submissions. This state of affairs differs from some of the earlier reports that pointed toward 89 films contending, but we're used to many disqualifications. It's a steep decline from the past few years, and it's the first time since 2018 that the number of total submissions is below 90. We have to go back to 2015, with 82 nations competing, to find a year with even fewer films in contention.

You can read more about such trivia in Nathaniel's extensive two-part overview of the Best International Film race. Still, I added some additional trivia for all three categories in this write-up. Find out more after the jump…

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11 Quick Observations about the Oscar Nominations

Did you toon into the Oscar nominations this morning. Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz (in particular) did a fine enthusiastic job of announcing the nominations in Oscar's 23 categories. There were surprises and shut-outs and overperformers as per usual. You can see the complete list of nominations at the Oscar Charts Index Page (though the individual charts per category are not yet updated).

Herewith 11 quick obversations about the nominations before we dive in to individual categories.

1. BARBIE FATIGUE (SORT OF)
While America Ferrera nabbed the Oscar nod we predicted for her in Best Supporting Actress (we went 5/5 on that volatile category in our predictions) Barbie received just 8 nominations overall. That's a lot, of course, but it isn't a lot in terms of expectations and how well the film had been performing at precursors...

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