Esther Williams @ 100: Neptune's Daughter

by Camila Henriques

As we continue with our celebration of Esther Williams's centennial, we're thrown into the story of "a girl, a guy and a swimsuit". All in all, that's an accurate summary of Neptune's Daughter, the 1949 film directed by Edward Buzell that paired the star with one of her frequent onscreen partners Ricardo Montalbán. Like other Williams efforts, the picture relies on her screen charisma to succeed, and, when it does it's pure magic.

It's a funny coincidence that her centennial comes as we're invaded by the Olympic spirit. Williams herself was never able to compete in the games. Her big shot came the year they were cancelled due to World War II, in 1940...

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Oscar Predictions: Visuals, Score, Animation, and Sound

by Nathaniel R

The Oscar charts are finally going up. Best Animated Feature was the first a month ago but it's been tweaked to reflect Belle, rising, post its special Cannes screening, as well as Disney's stingy release of Luca. We're saving Cinematography and Costume Design for their own posts tomorrow but for now the rest of the Visual charts as well as Score and Sound are up. Yes, we're predicting a strong showing for House of Gucci, Dune, and Eternals in craft categories. Take a look and sound off in the comments. 

93rd Academy Awards: The saga of Best Original Song

By Glenn Dunks

Quick, hum the melody of any of this year’s Best Original Song nominees (except “Husavik”). Hell, recite a single lyric from any of this year’s Best Original Song nominees (except “Husavik”).

Several years ago for The Film Experience, I ranked every winner of the original song category while hypothetically ranking each of that year’s nominees. We struck out with “Writing’s on the Wall”, which instantly became one of the worst winners of this beleaguered and controversial category. I unfortunately do not hold out much hope for this year’s crop of song contenders, only one of which deserves to win and only one of which would rank among the category’s finest winners. No need for suspense: that song is “Husavik”.

But we must and we shall look at this year’s nominees.

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March 25th is a super-duper Oscary day

If today, March 25th, is your birthday please brag about this fact...

Audrey Hepburn & Prince at their Oscar winning ceremonies

More Oscar ceremonies have been held on your birthday than any other day in history with the exception of March 29th, which has had the same amount of Oscar ceremonies: five. (Supposedly in 2022, these two March dates will have to share this peculiar honor in a three way tie with February 27th.)

1954 The 26th annual Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1953...

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A Brief History of Documentaries competing in "Best Original Song

by Juan Carlos Ojano

One of the more interesting Oscar trends during the past decade is the increased presence of documentaries in the Best Original Song category. While most award-giving bodies have an aversion to recognizing docs outside of their own category, the Music branch of AMPAS has shown an openness to embrace them. At least in Best Original Song. Six of the eight songs from documentary films nominated came from the 2010s. 

Here is the list of eight docs nominated for Best Original Song (with only one winner so far) and this year's contenders...

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