The Academy Shortlists Have Arrived

As most of you reading probably know, there are nine Oscar categories that go through rounds of voting rather than just one ballot for the nominations. So each year the Academy narrows the field in these nine categories a few weeks to a month before the final nominations. Anything not listed below is no longer possible as a nominee in that specific category, since the ballots will only include these choices. (Curiously they don't do this winnowing process with one of the specialized categories, Best Animated Feature, so all 27 eligible films in that category are still possible as nominees.) The Academy will vote on the actual nominations between March 5th and March 10th and the Oscar nominatitons will be announced on March 15th, 2021. Then we'll have an unusually long wait for Oscar night on April 25th, 2021.

Here are the shortlists... 

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...and still more film prizes!

After the jump, as we're trying to catch up* - London Critics Circle, Toronto Film Critics Association, The Black Film Critics Circle, Kansas City Film Critics Circle, New York Film Critics Online, North Texas Film Critics Association, Atlanta Film Critics Circle,  and Hawaii Film Critics Society. But for a bit of a change of pace in that it's talking about scores and original songs, let's start things off with a non-critics award "Hollywood Music and Media"...

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Eligible for "Best Original Song"

Thanks to The Wrap for providing this list that though it's a pity (as with all of these types of list) that it's taken so long for it to arrive. Now we have barely a moment to think on it before Oscar whittles it down to 15 songs on February 9th. The complete list is after the jump and we've put 25 titles in bold that we think have a great shot at the finalist list...

 PLEASE NOTE, THE NAMES LISTED ARE WHO PERFORMS THE SONG. WE DON'T KNOW WHY THE LIST WAS ORIGINALLY SHARED THIS WAY BUT IT IS ONLY THE SONGWRITERS WHO ARE NOMINATED IF A SONG MAKES IT TO THE OSCARS... 

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How many Oscars should "Selma" have been up for?

On this MLK Day, we couldn't help but think back to Selma (2014), which was just a bit ahead of its time in terms of Oscar recognition... or perhaps right on time, helping to usher in the current understanding that awards organizations and honors needed to be more diverse, depending on how you look at its performance that year. Though the movie did well at the box office it had a disappointing awards run finishing the season with zero SAG nods and only two Oscar nominations (despite a strong showing at the Globes and the Critics Choice): Best Picture and Best Original Song ("Glory" which won). One of my favourite memories from that year was a NYC fyc party where "Glory" was performed live with so many of the film's luminaries in the room. It was so incredibly moving so I've embedded it below from way back in 2014. What would you have honored Selma for in its year? 

GLORY live

Showbiz History: Frances McDormand's Film Debut

7 random things that happened on this day, January 18th, in showbiz history

1942 Dates on this one tend to vary but some sources say the Mickey Rooney/ Judy Garland film Babes on Broadway arrived in movie theaters on this day. A year later it would be up for Best Original Song at the Oscars for "How About You?" but lose to "White Christmas" in the film Holiday Inn... 

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