Split Decision: “Marty Supreme”

In the Split Decision series, our writers pair up and face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, ABE FRIEDTANZER and CLÁUDIO ALVES discuss Marty Supreme...

ABE: In 2024, I achieved an exciting milestone: seeing all the major Oscar movies before Thanksgiving. The last one I caught was the late-breaking Timothée Chalamet movie no one had seen yet, A Complete Unknown. Since I'm not into music all that much, I was impressed but not wowed, but happy at least, even if just for prognostication purposes, to have seen a film that was going to factor into the Oscar race.

It's amusing that, one year later, the film that nearly eluded me and turned out to be close to my last one to screen was also a little-seen late-breaking Timothée Chalamet movie. The difference here, however, was that Marty Supreme had its surprise premiere at the New York Film Festival, and then I managed to RSVP for an FYC screening in mid-October in LA that disappeared from listings moments later. I got to the Academy Museum and only found my seat ten minutes after the screening was supposed to start, stunned at how popular this hard-to-see film was. I knew nothing about it other than that it was Josh Safdie's first time directing a movie on his own in many years, and Chalamet was supposed to be incredible. Several hours later, I found myself in solid agreement…

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Split Decision: “Blue Moon”

In the Split Decision series, our writers pair up and face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Tonight, CLÁUDIO ALVES and NICK TAYLOR discuss Blue Moon...

CLÁUDIO: Since I'm the one organizing the Split Decision convos, I end up trying to assign everyone at least one film they love, or like, so they have something to defend against the naysayers. Sadly, that usually means I get to fill in the grumpy contrarian roles in most of the volleys I do. Not so this year, since I made sure to assign myself Blue Moon. I caught it at TIFF right after Nouvelle Vague, ready to be disappointed as I was by Linklater's French misadventure. And yet, what I got was one of the director's best films in a while, a text besotted with the musicality of florid verbiage and performances to match. It was love at first sight. I gather your experience was very different. Please share with the class, dear Nick. 

NICK: It was not! I really wish Linklater had given Blue Moon the same stylistic care he applied to Nouvelle Vague…

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Oscar Volley: "Best Original Screenplay" is sewn-up for Ryan Coogler. It's his coronation.

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, LYNN LEE and BEN MILLER discuss the volatile Oscar race for Best Original Screenplay.

BLUE MOON took the slot many thought/hoped would be filled by SORRY, BABY.

LYNN: Ben, it’s been a long if not especially strange road getting here, and we’re in the homestretch now!  Other than the surprise of Blue Moon being the sleeper nominee, this race seems to be running pretty much as expected.  What do you think of the nominees?  Does Sinners have this in the bag, or could one of the international nominees score an upset?  I don’t think Marty Supreme is winning this one, and I swear it’s not just because it's my least favorite of the nominees.

BEN: As much as I love Blue Moon, I have to pour one out for my beloved, Eva Victor's Sorry, Baby...

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New Oscar Charts: Screenplays, Music, and Visuals

by Nathaniel R

Speeding the April Foolish Oscar chart production up now, with 10 of Oscar's 24 categories posted, in order to finish by, uh... June's end.

• Prediction Index
  (in progress since some categories are still under construction)
• Original & Adapted Screenplay 
• Visuals (all but two posted)
• Sound
• International Film

Ten categories left to publish (we never predict the shorts or documentary categories this early), so we'll try hard to get them all up this week and say more about the, too. They are: Actress, Actor, Animated Feature, Casting, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Picture, Supporting Actress, and Supporting Actor. 

Wicked and Sinners currently lead the predicted tallies though that may change with the remaining categories yet to be posted. What's interesting is that they could fill up 80% of the original song category since Wicked (an official musical) has two Original Songs, one for each of its leading ladies, while Sinners (an unofficial musical) has four or five ... though of course only two song nominations are allowed for any film given the current Oscar rules; That rule is kind of a bummer because given the popularity of both Wicked and Sinners we could have finally had a year without the mandatory throwaway Diane Warren nomination! 

Oscar Volley: "Anora" takes the lead in Best Original Screenplay

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Today, Abe Friedtanzer and Eurocheese discuss Best Original Screenplay...

ANORA | © NEON Rated

ABE: Eurocheese, always a pleasure to get to talk to you about movies! I think we got a great category this time - Best Original Screenplay - which is actually quite a competitive race! The WGA rules meant that only two of the Oscar nominees are recognized by that guild too, which did make room for one of my favorite movies of the year, My Old Ass. But at the Oscars we have a race that's legitimately a three-way competition. I think we can safely rule out September 5, a film which I think is excellent but which didn't get any other nominations, including Best Film Editing, so I can't see a scenario where it has a path to victory here.

Similarly, A Real Pain, initially conceived as a potential frontrunner, missed the Best Picture list and only scored one additional nomination (which it can probably win) for Kieran Culkin. It's hard to see it having enough support here. That brings us to the other three nominees. I would have said Anora was the clear number one pick here, but precursors aren't looking that way.

Where do you think the race stands?...

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