Does Having a Co-Star Nominated in the Same Category Help or Hurt a Frontrunner?

by Christopher James

"Judas and the Black Messiah" became the 19th film to earn two nominations in Best Supporting Actor. Both Lakeith Stanfield (left) and Daniel Kaluuya (right) were nominated.Daniel Kaluuya has won all the major televised awards of the season so far for his tour-de-force performance as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. This should clear an easy path for him in Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. The one difference: he faces off against co-star Lakeith Stanfield in the same category for the first time this season at the Oscars. Is this a show of confidence in the film, further solidifying his imminent win? Or does this open up the possibility for vote-splitting?

Theoretically, having multiple nominees from a film in a single category should double a film’s chances at winning...

Click to read more ...

Yeun Trouble Now

by Jason Adams

It's really no surprise that writer-director Jordan Peele is at that point in his career, after Get Out and Us, where he could land anybody he wanted to land for the cast of his next movie -- he's got the sort of heat that would get the dead stars of yore reanimating in their caskets for a slice of that sweet cinematic success. But instead of choosing, say, the skeleton of Gary Cooper to star in his next flick, Mr. Peele is going with a cast of current babes and we cannot complain! (Although hey Gary Cooper's skeleton, call me.)

The title and the contents of Peele's new one are naturally being kept under wraps but we already know it will reunite him with his Get Out leading man Daniel Kaluuya as well as co-star the should-be-a-superstar-already KeKe Palmer -- this was announced back in February, along with the whisper that whatever this movie is KeKe is playing the villain in it. And today comes word that that tag-team of hot trouble is actually a trouble throuple, as Best Actor nominee and everybody-crush Steven Yeun is also joining the film. As who? Who cares? Buy your tickets today!

What's the worst case of "category fraud"?

by Cláudio Alves

Some people don't care about "category fraud" and that's understandable. I'm a big proponent of just being happy that great artists are honored, ignoring the categorization of their work, especially when it's all so subjective. However, when it comes to the Oscar acting prizes, it does feel wrong that awards specifically created to honor character actors are now regularly dominated by stars in leading roles. Instead of opening avenues to highlight those performers with less narratively-prominent parts, the Supporting categories have become a way for leading actors that couldn't crack the leading prizes to still win gold. This game of fraudulent campaigning may have just hit its apex with this year's slew of Best "Supporting" Actor and Actress nominees.

To organize my thoughts and hopefully make the arguments clearer, here's a ranking of the "category fraud" cases of the year from least to most egregious. This is all subjective, though I'd side-eye anyone who tried to argue for the legitimacy of that top choice... 

Click to read more ...

Oscar race: Supporting Actress Chaos & Supporting Actor Lock-up

by Nathaniel R

don't despair ladies, you're the only two locks in "Best Supporting Actress"

We saw a tweet yesterday that implied that the Oscar race for Best Supporting Actress is now between Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) and Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian) which felt a bit insane to us. That's a Globe induced fever. Nevertheless the shock of Foster's win for a movie people have barely noticed does maybe tell us that the Supporting Actress competition is more fluid than assumed. So who is leading and who is going to be left out on the 15th when the nominations are announced? The way we see it there are 9 women left standing for various reasons (which is a lot going into voting since it's usually only 6 or 7 by now). Only two of them (Glenn Close and Olivia Colman) feel locked up for honors. Curiously despite the sure-thing feel of Colman's soon to be second nomination, it's unlikely she has ANY shot at a win. Her Oscar win is very recent and The Father isn't quite the contender it should be (qualitatively speaking) given its quiet campaign. But the nomination battle is always different than the battle to win.

Who gets the other three spots?

Click to read more ...

Who's Zooming Who? A Very Virtual Golden Globes Night

by Nathaniel R

On of the funniest bits had Tina defying the split screen to stroke Amy's hair

Given the restrictions placed on Hollywood's most convivial hobnobbing boozy party things went as well as you could probably expect for the 78th Golden Globe Awards. The HFPA was wise to lean into something that always works (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler paired... although this time they were on different coasts) in a year where all the other things that make Globes night so fun, weren't really going to be there to lean into...

Click to read more ...