Oscar Narrows the Documentary Feature Field

Chris here, with more Oscar bake off lists. Today we have the 15 films advancing in the Documentary Feature race, many of which we have covered here at The Film Experience in Glenn's column Doc Corner. The eventual lineup could include two recent Honorary Oscar winners: Frederick Wiseman (Ex Libris: New York Public Library) and Agnès Varda (Faces Places, with JR), neither of who had ever been nominated in the category. Al Gore could be returning to the Oscars, as the follow-up to winning climate change doc An Inconvenient Truth has also advanced. Take a look at the rest of the list:

• Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
• Chasing Coral
• City of Ghosts
• Ex Libris: New York Public Library
• Faces Places
• Human Flow
• Icarus
• An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
• Jane
• LA 92
• Last Man in Aleppo
• Long Strage Trip
• One of Us
• Strong Island
• Unrest

Some beloved players that missed the lineup include Kedi, Whose Streets?, Dawson City: Frozen Time, and Casting JonBenet to just name a few. Jane, featuring recently rediscovered footage from Jane Goodall's study of apes, might be the early frontrunner thanks to a few wins with NBR and Critics Choice. Oscar Chart here!

"We Can't Wait" Pt 1: Most Anticipated of 2017

Before the Oscar nominations on Tuesday help put on a cap on 2016, we here at Team Experience are looking to the year ahead. Yes, fresh off of our Team Experience Awards, our most anticipated films of 2017 with this installment of We Can't Wait!

In this list you'll find upcoming films from favorite auteurs and favorite actress, and some promising films giving us both in the same package. Forgive us if your favorite superhero doesn't make the cut - our superheroes are the actressy sort, though we will be keeping an eye on Wonder Woman. Some films that almost made the list: Pulitzer-winning adaptation Marjorie Prime, the starry remake Murder on The Orient Express, and a Short Term 12 reunion for Destin Cretton and Brie Larson with The Glass Castle.

After the jump our 17 most anticipated films of 2017...

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New Year's Babies. Start Fresh!

I was an illustration major at university and one era we studied repeatedly was "The Golden Age". For illustrators that was roughly the 1900s through the 1940s. One of the the most sentimental traditions of this time was JC Leyendecker's 'New Years Babies' covers. The babies were always white and cutesy but weren't always "happy" and sometimes politics entered the picture. Here is the 1917 painting to your left a full one hundred years ago wherein there's a scary hole where Europe should be. This diapered cherub is not at all sure he wants to arrive into this  (World War I was raging and would not end for another 23 months.)

The New Year's Baby tradition reminds us that whatever may be ending or happening, there are always opportunities for fresh starts. 2016 was a shit show but maybe a whole lot of really cool human beings that will one day be giants of the arts, world peace, human rights, or whatnot were born? Who knows what New Years Babies joining the world today future generations will worship the way society currently obsesses over, say, Meryl Streep or Ryan Gosling or [Insert Name Here].

HEREWITH A RANDOM COLLECTION OF MOVIE/TV RELATED NEW YEARS BABIES BY YEAR...

1879 - EM Forster, gay literary giant whose books made for delicious cinema (Howard's End, Maurice, A Room With a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Passage to India)
1891 Charles Bickford, 3 time supporting actor Oscar nominee...

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Daniel Gives Thanks

Daniel here, and Happy Thanksgiving! I couldn’t be more thankful to be a member of such a lovely film-obsessed sphere as the one here at TFE. From the passionate readers and writers to our fearless leader Nathaniel, it’s a plain and simple thrill to be here with you all. In a year that I’ve found stuffed with cinematic delights, here are ten things I’m especially thankful for…

...the swirling morass of overlapping dialogue in Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha. Nothing says Thanksgiving like talking over your relatives in every room of the house and – in this turkey-trotting tale – conjuring a palpable sense of potential explosion in the process. And if that won’t make your head spin, the chaotic camerawork sure will!

…all eight hours of OJ: Made In America.

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Honorary Oscars - The Acceptance Speeches

The General Election really threw off coverage here but we're back on our feet (if a bit wobbly) and we hope you are, too! The annual Governor's Awards where the Honorary Oscars are handed out were held this past weekend with basically everyone in attendance. Here are the four honorees giving their very sweet speeches from the event. They're so moved as well they should be by this historica honor.

Enjoy if you haven't yet seen them...

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