"Dune: Part Two" does well with the WGA and VES

by Cláudio Alves

DUNE: PART TWO | © Warner Bros.

Due to understandable circumstances, the awards season calendar has been thrown into disarray. Last week was supposed to be dominated by the Hollywood guilds announcing their nominees, but many chose to postpone such fanfare in the face of the LA wildfires. Still, there are two more guilds to account for now, as the VES and the WGA have issued press releases with their members' best-of-the-year picks. For those trying to predict the Oscars, the re-emergence of Dune: Part Two as a contender is a notable development, especially since Denis Villeneuve just received a Best Director BAFTA nomination. Then again, when discussing the Writers Guild, the sheer number of illegible contenders makes their precursor status a bit iffy…

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"Conclave" leads the BAFTA nominations

by Cláudio Alves

Isabella Rossellini and Ralph Fiennes are both nominated for CONCLAVE. | © Focus Features

The BAFTAs are upon us, and this year's nominations are a return to the institution's 2000s penchant for precursor-ism. By that I mean that its choices are keeping in tune with the Oscar favorites in most races. That's unsurprising considering that, for the first time since 2020, the British Academy did away with juries and committees in the acting and directing categories. Many may rejoice at this populist comeback, but I miss the more unexpected choices we enjoyed during those years. In any case, Conclave leads the nomination tally with 12 mentions, while Emilia Pérez is a close runner-up with 11, including a Supporting Actress double dip. Next comes The Brutalist with nine nods, Dune: Part Two, Wicked and Anora have seven, A Complete Unknown six, while The Substance and Nosferatu each nab five…

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The 'Guild Week' starts with the Cinema Audio Society

by Cláudio Alves

The Cinema Audio Society sure loves themselves some Timothée Chalamet.

This week will be all about the Hollywood guilds having their say, giving us awards obsessives a better picture of the industry's reaction to the season's top contenders. Today, the Cinema Audio Society shared their film and TV nominations, with various of the Academy's shortlisted picks making the cut. But pundits beware, for the CAS can fail to be in perfect synchronicity with AMPAS. The TV nominees are much of the same as we've seen so far in the season, Emmy and Golden Globe favorites on repeat. That being said, there's a sense of individuality to the organization's taste. The voters love music-heavy projects, war, and racing cars…

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Oscar Volleys: Best Picture is all about Narratives

Here’s Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller on the Best Picture race...

THE BRUTALIST, Brady Corbet | © A24

CLÁUDIO: Hello Ben, it's time to discuss the biggest category of them all - Best Picture.

This year, I'm sad to say I'm not especially passionate about the top contenders. Indeed, taking a glance at my rankings, it's likely that not a single nominee even cracks my top 25. Then again, miracles do happen once in a while, even when all seems said and done. Even so, imagining an AMPAS lineup without Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Emilia Pérez, or Wicked seems increasingly difficult. In those times before the category's re-expansion to ten nominees, these would be the five I figure most folks would be predicting. Do you concur? 

BEN: I am really enjoying the variance in this year's race…

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Oscar Volleys: The Eye Candy Trifecta

Taking a break from the so-called “above the line” races, Nathaniel R and Cláudio Alves discuss the eye candy Oscar categories – Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design...

DUNE: PART TWO | © Warner Bros.

NATHANIEL: Hi, Cláudio. So this year, for time reasons, the pre-nomination Oscar Volleys are not covering every category and I'm feeling guilty about it. In the 21st century all 20+ Oscar categories have arguably more devout fanbases than ever thanks to the ease of catering to niche interests that the internet, streaming, and social media have all brought.  Yet the 'Below the Line' categories are somehow incongruously more disrespected than ever. Consider that the Oscars are now the ONLY major awards show (that's not an exaggeration) that doesn't pretend that craftsmen and artisans are less crucial to making art than actors and directors. Consider that time and again we get these horrid articles from the media about how to fix the Oscars that invariably suggest that they should be more like their less popular counterparts (Tonys, Grammys, Emmys, Globes, etcetera) and ditch the "crafts" or have them on another night altogether without the fanfare. This suggestion has made me redhot with anger from the very first time I heard it and the anger has never dissipated…

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