2025 in Review: Perfect Costumes & Other Visual Delights

by Nathaniel R

I had briefly hoped to do a huge post in each awards category but in the interest of time and availability thereof, we have to wade into the deep end. Herewith a random shout out to 4 costumes from the film year that I think are special in some way. ONLY THE FIRST IS A NOMINEE for Best Costume Design (here at TFE) but in the interest of spreading the wealth I really wanted to shout out some films randomly and these were the first four I thought of.  I love costume designers with all my heart. They regularly elevate and enrich storytelling and especially when costumes aren't the focus of the picture, they get way too little credit for it. 

Willa's Act Three Ensemble - One Battle After Another
If you ask me four time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood had been running on fumes for some years trapped as she was in Burtonisms and puffy shoulder fetishes. Something in Paul Thomas Anderson's near future battlefields -- not her usual type of assignment - set her imagination free again. She makes one inspired choice after another...

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“Sinners” and “Wicked” lead the Oscar shortlists

by Cláudio Alves

Despite poor reviews WICKED: FOR GOOD is beloved by the industry. | © Universal Pictures

The Oscar shortlists announcement is an occasion that many a pundit anticipates, sometimes fears. Because it’s a day when narratives change, some consolidate, some emerge, while others crumble into nothingness. Three years ago, the shortlists were the first hint of just how big All Quiet on the Western Front was about to become, for example. For the 98th Academy Awards, there is no surprise champion, as Sinners and Wicked: For Good earn the most categories in a year when Casting and Cinematography are also among the shortlisted races. More surprisingly is Sirât’s surge, a cinematography selection full of antithetical picks and a Best International Film race where ten out of fifteen finalists arrive from outside of Europe, a rarity that should be celebrated.

Without further ado, here are the Oscar shortlists with some commentary…

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Critics Choice Voters All Infected By "Sinners"

by Nathaniel R

SINNERS

As a voting member, despite my votes rarely being reflected in nominations, it is my duty to share the annual Critics Choice Award Nominations. As is increasingly the case in modern awards voting, hardly a problem unique to the CCAs, there is far less spread the wealth than there use to be. I believe this is an unintended consequence of expanded Best Picture lists which theoretically narrow voters ideas about a) what they should watch and b) what they should vote for without "wasting" their precious few ballot spots. This year FOUR pictures had double digit nominations with Ryan Coogler's genre hopping vampire picture Sinners scoring 17 (gulp) nominations, just one shy of Barbie's all time record (18). One Battle After Another was in second place with 14 nominations. 

Anyway let's get to the nominations, some commentary, and a few Oscar punditry notes, too.... 

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Oscar Volleys: Best Makeup & Hairstyling is a tale of many Horrors

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. First up, Cláudio Alves and Eurocheese tackle Best Makeup & Hairstyling...

EMILIA PÉREZ | © Netflix

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Neurofibromatosis melting off someone's face, rapid aging into chimeric flesh, immortal rot, green women, and brownface - this year's Best Makeup & Hairstyling race has it all. Looking at the state of the race, we seem to have a runaway winner but one can never be sure of these things. Especially when that likely winner belongs to the Academy's most hated genre - horror. Indeed, we have two horror films competing this year, a rarity in itself, plus a dark comedy that sometimes flirts with the cinematic idioms of horror and a movie musical that's a horror to witness. And then there's Wicked, which I can see pull an upset if it overperforms on Oscar night. What do you make of this year's race?

EUROCHEESE: I'm amused that you included Emilia Pérez in the mix as one of our "horrors," and given Karla Sofía Gáscon's title character would be a focal point of the nomination, Netflix can't avoid her here. We're in unprecedented territory when it comes to the ripple effects of the scandal, but even on nomination morning, this nomination felt like a mild surprise.

I'd safely rank it least likely to win…

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Split Decision: “Nosferatu”

Split Decision returns to TFE. In this series two of our writers face off on a movie one loves and the other doesn't. - Editor

NICK TAYLOR: Alright gayboy. Enough sucking dicks we gotta suck some BLOOD!

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Why not both? Eggers' Orlok switched from neck to tiddies, so we might as well take things further south. Let's suck dick and blood at the same time, get really kinky with it. Sure, this new Nosferatu is more carnal than its previous iterations, but its sexual neurosis is fittingly contained within a historical context and its particular hang-ups. Queerness is only suggested in sublimated terms. A bit like Bram Stoker's original work and Murnau's copyright-evading spin on it. Though this bat man's origins are rooted in the imaginations of queer men, that dimension seldom comes to the surface, remaining subtext at best. I guess it's appropriate, then, for this latest film to be discussed by two members of the alphabet mafia, such as ourselves...

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