Oscar Volley: "Best Supporting Actress" is a fun, fantastically chaotic Free-For-All!

The Oscar Volleys continue. NICK TAYLOR and ERIC BLUME discuss the ever volatile race for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Amy Madigan in WEAPONS | © Warner Bros.

NICK:  Hello Eric! I’m writing you the day after the Actor Awards announced their winners. Amy Madigan took their Supporting Actress prize for her pristine turn in Weapons, while Wunmi Mosaku can add Sinners’ Best Ensemble award to her shelf. It’s a three-way race between them and Teyana Taylor’s commanding turn in One Battle After Another, and I for one couldn’t be happier. Hell, Inga Ibsdottir Lilleass and Elle Fanning are better also-rans than most of the past decade’s undisputed champions.

After several years in a row of middling lineups, this is the best Supporting Actress field since 2020, maybe even 2016. There aren’t even any leads (or categorically ambiguous) to dampen our fun. In a year with plenty of outside contenders and tantalizing non-starters, all five women earned their nominations fair and square, without feeling preordained. I’m still debating if Taylor or Madigan will go all the way, and while I ponder the fate of all things, let me ask you: How do you feel about this category, Eric? Where do you think the winds are blowing?

ERIC:  Nick, I agree wholeheartedly that this is the best field we've had in many years, not a lame performance in the bunch!  Which is why I'm personally a bit dismayed that the two performances I feel are the strongest (Sentimental Value's Inga and Elle) are the two that seem out of the running for a win...

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Guessing Game: The First Roles of Each Oscar Nominee!

by Nathaniel R

Leonardo DiCaprio's debut film "CRITTERS 3"

A spot of guessing game fun today. Some Oscar nominees are movie stars from the jump but most actors have to build their careers up slowly increasing the size and quality of their roles over the years until their awards breakthrough. 5 of our current 20 nominees across Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor kicked off their feature film career with a leading role. Can you guess who they were? Even more difficult can you pair each nominated actor with the name of their first credited feature film character? The answers to this quiz are after the jump but first jot down your guesses and see how many you can get right before looking... 

In Their Feature Film Debut They Played a Character Named...	The Current Oscar Nominees
1) Alex Dwyer	A) Jessie Buckley
2) Ben Crandall (LEAD)	B) Rose Byrne
3) Danny Vance	C) Timothée Chalamet
4) Drug Kingpin	D) Benicio Del Toro
5) Duke the Dog-Faced Boy	E) Leonardo DiCaprio
6) Erik (LEAD)	F) Jacob Elordi
7) Josh	G) Elle Fanning
8) Jules	H) Ethan Hawke
9) Lucy (2 Years)	I) Kate Hudson
10) Moll (LEAD)	J) Michael B Jordan
11) Rafi	K) Inga Ibsdottir Lilleas
12) Rastus Sommers	L) Delroy Lindo
13) Rena	M) Amy Madigan
14) Renate	N) Wunmi Mosaku
15) Rooster	O) Wagner Moura
16) Seema	P) Sean Penn
17) Sigrid Auge (LEAD)	Q) Renate Reinsve
18) Skye Davidson	R) Stellan Skarsgard
19) Teen #2	S) Emma Stone
20) Terry Jean Moore (LEAD)	T) Teyana Taylor

THE ANSWERS ARE AFTER THE JUMP... 

Got your guesses ready? Tell us how you did once you've read the answers...

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Oscar Volley: Best Supporting Actress has a lot of wiggle room

The Oscar Volleys are back! Today, Cláudio Alves and Nathaniel Rogers discuss Best Supporting Actress...

Teyana Taylor is Nathaniel's frontrunner for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER | © Warner Bros.

CLÁUDIO: It's that time of the year again, the beginning of the awards season proper, and all the punditry that comes with it. So, let's talk predictions. After all, it can't be reviews and festival coverage at The Film Experience all of the time. Because we're actressexuals at heart and lovers of actressing at the edges, it seems appropriate that the first of these volleys would be about Best Supporting Actress.

And let me tell you, having just returned from the London premiere of Wicked: For Good, still reeling from Diane Ladd's death, two thoughts are at the forefront of my mind. Ariana Grande is going to be a force to reckon with this season, as she sinks her teeth into an expanded and, in some ways, deepened version of Glinda. Nevertheless, it's hard to consider her case without thinking about what the late great Ladd was so adamant about fighting - CATEGORY FRAUD…

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TIFF 50: "Sentimental Value" falls victim to high expectations

by Cláudio Alves

To be loved so intensely, showered in adoration by a captive captivated crowd and the world beyond, can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing. Those who follow film festivals and the awards that come after are very familiar with such pitfalls. After all, who among us hasn't gone to the theater, hyped on months of exhaustive praise for a title that, when all is said and done, isn't as special as you thought it would be? Last year at TIFF, I wrote about my disappointment with Anora and loathing of Emilia Pérez, which was made worse by the reputation both films had accrued at Cannes and the palpable affection you could feel emanating from the Toronto crowd. 

This year, I come to you with a similar experience, another Cannes darling that failed to meet the high expectations placed upon it. Sorry, folks, but Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value left me cold…

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