What's next for the recently Oscar-nominated: Pt 3 - Actors

by Nathaniel R

Austin Butler and co-stars in "Masters of the Air"

With the 95th Academy Awards wrapped, it's time to look to the future. We already talked about the next projects for this past season's hot directors and actresses. Now let's look at the leading and supporting men. What's next for them? 

AUSTIN BUTLER
Like most modern stars, Butler is juggling both TV and movies now. He's already shot the World War II miniseries Masters of the Air (fellow Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan is also in it). The big movie news...

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Podcast: Oscar Season Finale (and Career Futures)

It's all over but the post-mortem and the huge sigh of relief that another awards season is over. Team Experience has a multiple time zone conversation to talk about the 95th Academy Awards and the season in general: Nathaniel in NYC, Ben Miller in Texas, Chris James in Los Angeles, and Baby Clyde in London. Hope you enjoy and do carry on the conversation in the comments, wherever you are.

1 hr and 10 minutes
00:01 Intros & Oscar parties
05:00 Length of the season / staying power of Everything Everywhere All At Once
19:00 Original Song performances / Acceptance speeches
33:00 The internet turning on Jamie Lee Curtis
38:00 Career futures: Paul Mescal, Hong Chau, Stephanie Hsu, Austin Butler, Colin Farrell
46:00 Miscellania: Kidman, Malala, Kimmel
1:02:00 Final thoughts - which acting nominee returns first? 

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify or download the attachment below. 

Goodbye to the Oscar Season

Ranking the 2022 Oscar Clips

By Ben Miller

It's that time of year again!  Every year since 2017 (minus 2020, when they didn't show clips), this is the piece I most look forward to writing.  The Oscars always throw a few curveballs with their clip choices.  They certainly made some choices this year.  Let's rank the clips 20 to 1.

I'm gonna not be selfish. I'm gonna be your mom.

What Are We Doing?
20. Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
19. Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once
18. Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once

For all three of these performers, their roles had big showy moments that were tailor-made for Oscar clips.  Instead, they went with odd choices...

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Oscar Volley: Biopic Breakout or Heartfelt Comeback in "Best Actor"?

Team Experience has been teaming up to discuss the various Oscar races. Here's Christopher James, Abe Friedtanzer and Nathaniel R...

CHRIS: It's been a while since Best Actor was the most exciting and unpredictable race of the evening. Heading into last weekend, it was truly a three man race between Austin Butler (Elvis), Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin). Now that both BAFTA and SAG have made like Brendan Gleeson and passed over Farrell, I sadly feel like he has dropped out of contention for the win. Of the nominated five, he was my personal vote. He knows how to dramatize Pádraic's hurt, while also finding the comedy in his tragedy. With just the crinkle of an eyebrow, he communicates such emotional vulnerability, a level to which we don't often see men rewarded for showing.

The race is now a photo finish with BAFTA/Globes winner Austin Butler and SAG/Critics Choice winner Brendan Fraser. This mirrors the 2011 Best Actress showdown, where Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) had both BAFTA and Golden Globes wins and Viola Davis (The Help) took home SAG and Critics Choice prizes. In the end, Streep won, which is hopeful for Butler. However, the SAG/Critics Choice combo was a successful path to victory for Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) last year, so Fraser is certainly not out of the running...

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Film Bitch Awards - Best Actor (and more)

by Nathaniel R

Though all of us have our differences of opinion with Oscar, but sometimes the stars align and we get an Oscar lineup we adore. I'm quite fond of Oscar's Best Actor list this year (have you voted today?) to the extent that my own ballot is 80% similar. That happens about once a decade (the last time was 2016). The one difference is my inclusion of Franz Rogowski, one of Europe's greatest actors, for the Austrian prison drama Great Freedom. It was an Oscar finalist last Oscar season in Best International Feature but wasn't nominated and then got a small US theatrical release in 2022. So while the film is now "old" (haha) it's been impossible to shake for over a year now. Thanks in large part to Rogowski's work. He outdoes himself with this portrait of a man so implacably committed to his own desires that you begin to wonder where the prison walls truly are. In short: he sells that alarming challenge of an ending.

Click on over to the awards to see the reasoning behind the rest of the ballot and the list of finalists and semi-finalists  which includes a lot of performance that Oscar would not have deigned to look twice at. It was a strong year for rising actors but Oscar generally likes their contenders already famous and well into their leading man years.

As a bonus, the "Best Actor in a Limited Role or Cameo" is also posted for your pleasure or scorn depending on your feelings for these performances. This time there's an actual Oscar nominee present since Judd Hirsch took a spot in Supporting Actor with the Academy. Love that for him as he packs such a punch in his two scenes. The other honorees are Tyler Merritt, David Lynch, Louis-do de Lencquesaing, and Julian Glover.