All hail the glorious Ruth E. Carter!

by Cláudio Alves

With her latest victory, costume designer Ruth E. Carter became the first Black woman to win multiple Academy Awards. Breaking barriers and setting Oscar records isn't new to Carter, mind you. In 1992, she became the first African-American nominated in the category, and later was its first Black winner, thanks to 2018's Black Panther. Having won again for the sequel, Wakanda Forever, she's also the only person to earn multiple Costume Design Oscars for the same franchise. Considering she's dedicated so much of her career to the representation of Black history on screen, it feels correct that Carter's name should forever have a place in the history books… 

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Will history repeat itself?

Please welcome new contributor Danny Cox.

by Danny Cox

At this moment, the fate of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is the least settled of the acting  categories. Will Jamie Lee Curtis ride the wave of her SAG win? Does Kerry Condon’s BAFTA  upset suggest wanting to award at least one actor from the much lauded film? Or does the earliest  front runner, the winner of the Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Award, Angela Bassett rally back around to take home the prize? While there is definitely momentum for both Curtis and Condon,  one thing Bassett has over the two of them is a strange parallel to a former win. If Bassett pulls  this off, this would not be the first time a highly respected actor gets a late career nomination for  a film that is popular with the general public in a category with split competition. Does that sound familiar?

If Bassett wins, it would be Jack Palance in City Slickers all over again.  Unexpected comparison I know, but hear me out...

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Oscar Volley: Will it be Period Perfection or Fantastical Visions as the winner of "Best Costume Design"?

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Chris James and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing Costume Design.

CARLOS: Hi, Chris! I would like to confess that I am terrified to talk about this category. For the last few years, I have just made my picks without actually articulating specific reasons. Maybe I don't have the necessary vocabulary or real-life knowledge in costuming or maybe because I'm still working on veering away from my preconceived notion of "Best" as "Most" or "Prettiest". But that fear also makes this exciting, and to do this with you - huzzah!

All right. Let's get down to business. What do we have here? Two Best Picture nominees, two Best Picture-adjacent films, and a lone nominee from a favourite designer in this category. In the expanded ballot era, a time where a lot of the categories have gone (or in some cases, defaulted) to Best Picture nominees alone, this category has demonstrated a level of independence. Out of the past thirteen winners, seven were non-Best Picture nominees (that's 54%, more than half!). So if you're predicting the winner, stats aren't necessarily helpful...

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Oscar Volley: "Naatu Naatu" vs Pop Divas for Best Original Song

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony. Here's Baby Clyde and Chris James to talk Costume Design.

CHRIS: A round of APPLAUSE for my volley co-host, Baby Clyde. Now, let's Tell It Like A Pundit - what is going on with the Original Song race? On the surface, it seems like "Naatu Naatu" has this category in the bag after winning this prize at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. RRR's grand dance number is one of the most memorable scenes of the year and would make for a worthy winner. However, one can't forget that it is against some heavy hitters, such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga, both for films that made over a billion dollars at the box office. Are we underestimating them?

And do you have any favourites that weren't nominated?...

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Oscar Volley: "Avatar" versus what in Best Visual Effects?

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony. Here's Abe Fried-Tanzer and Nick Taylor to discuss Visual Effects.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever

ABE FRIED-TANZER: Hey Nick! Here we are discussing the category with the most stages of finalists, giving us a window into what could have been. I appreciated the inclusion of interesting choices like Bardo, Good Night Oppy, and RRR on the initial twenty-wide list, and was pulling for Nope and Thirteen Lives to move on from the next stage of ten. But none of that happened, and we’re left instead with five very different choices, none of which are based on original material.

There are some intriguing stats to share about these nominees, like that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever placed, but its predecessor (which scored a Best Picture mention) didn't in the same race...

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