The Joys and Struggles of Making "The Woman King"

by Patrick Ball

Gina Prince-Bythewood in conversation with Kasi Lemmons. Photo: Patrick Ball

This week Sony Pictures held a Downtown Manhattan screening for their awards contender The Woman King, at the Roxy Cinema. With its handsome below-the-line offerings and the true actor/producer star wattage of Viola Davis behind it, The Woman King looks to be one of Sony’s top contenders as we head into the intense first phase of Award Season. With the critics groups beginning to announce, and many major awards bodies entering their voting periods ahead of nominations, now is the time to grab the metaphorical crown, as it were...

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Team Experience Predix - Round 1: Post-Thanksgiving Snapshot

We'll be polling Team Experience biweekly to get their (collective) take on the Oscar race. This week, the 'Big Six' categories and Screenplay prizes.

THE FABELMANS

BEST PICTURE

Click to get expanded view.It’s a dangerous business to be an early frontrunner. However, if anyone can handle that title, it’s Steven Spielberg...

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Chart Updates: Best Picture... and how much diversity will we get in Best Director?

by Nathaniel R

Sarah Polley on the set of "Women Talking". Photographed by Michael Gibson for Orion Releasing

So what's going to get a Best Picture and who will get a Best Director nomination? The possible combinations of 10 and 5 contenders, respectively, are many. While Best Picture could well find a mix that doesn't upset too many people (10 is a lot to work with) Best Director will likely be more fraught. So let's talk Best Director first...

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Almost There: Jean Gabin in "Grand Illusion"

by Cláudio Alves

The Almost There series continues its exploration of the Criterion Channel's May programming. It's time to shine a light on Jean Gabin, currently celebrated in a 10-film collection named "France's Everyman". From 1936's The Lower Depths to 1963's Any Number Can Win, this tenfold serves as a sample of the Gallic actor's extensive career, dramatic prowess, and on-screen persona. Gruff and disaffected, with a cynic's soul and a mischievous twinkle in the eye, Gabin came to embody the French working classes in a myriad of roles from romantic heroes through charismatic scoundrels. Even before the Nouvelle Vague rocked the foundations of France's film industry, the actor had already become something bigger than life. Gabin turned from man into symbol, the personification of his nation's cinema. No wonder he never found a home in Hollywood despite a 1940s detour. Maybe he was just too French! 

Still, American audiences embraced Gabin's movies. In 1938, Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion made Oscar history and brought the actor close to a nomination…

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April Foolish Pt 7 - All Oscar Charts Are Complete!

by Nathaniel R

The annual 'April Foolish' Oscar speculation charts are up for the 95th Academy Awards. They'll be held next winter or spring in 2023 honoring the films of 2022. Normally by now we'd have a ceremony date but perhaps burnt by two years of COVID and media fallout from Oscar night, the Board of Governors is being coy about the dates for the new season.  Now about these predictions...

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