'Parasite' and 'Jojo Rabbit' win ACE Eddie Awards

by Murtada Elfadl

Bong Joon Ho and Song Kang Ho celebrate their film's win

Parasite (edited by Jinmo Yang) and Jojo Rabbit (edited by Tom Eagles) won Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) and Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) respectively at the 70th Annual ACE Eddie Awards last night in LA. This is a huge win for Parasite at the start of the guild awards. Though there’s no direct relation between this award and the best picture Oscar - the last film to win both is Argo (2012) - it still shows broad support...

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Podcast: Oscar Nom Rants & Raves

In this hour long conversation Murtada and your TFE mastermind Nathaniel rant and rave on Oscar Nomination Morning (aka our Christmas).  We try to stay positive but there are a lot of things worth ranting about so it's a mix.

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Nomination Rants and Raves

DGA (semi) surprises with a Taika Waititi nomination

by Nathaniel R

Taika is a previous Oscar nominee for Live Action Short. He could become an Oscar nominee in additional categories this year (Best Director and Best Screenplay)

Making a clean sweep of the major guild nominations, Jojo Rabbit is also in with the Directors Guild of America. This was not totally expected but neither is it much of a surprise since his "anti-hate satire"has performed well all season with awards bodies, despite very vocal detractors and a modest box office performance. Yes, it grossed just a little less than Parasite but since it has Hollywood stars and is in English it wasn't half the breakout word-of-mouth smash that the former was. Where the DGA is always more interesting is in their less Oscar-buzzed "first time feature" category. The nominees are after the jump...

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WGA nominations don't tell the whole story

This week is huge for precursor nominations (Visual Effects Society, DGA, PGA, and BAFTA all hit tomorrow) but today was the Writers Guild of America's turn.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• 1917 -Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
• Booksmart - Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman
• Knives Out - Rian Johnson
• Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach
• Parasite - Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won

A strongish lineup even if we wouldn't single out 1917's strength as its writing. Curiously, both The Two Popes and Hustlers were eligible for Original with the WGA (and missed) but they're both competing in Adapted for Oscar voters where they actually belong since they're based on a play and a magazine article respectively. Did the confusion cost them votes?  This WGA lineup is bad news for critical darlings like Honey Boy, Uncut Gems,  and Dolemite is My Name, any of which might have made headway in a weaker year for Originals. But the three strongest alternate threats for an Oscar nomination weren't eligible...

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Scripter Awards Nominations

by Murtada Elfadl

The USC Scripter awards announced their nominations today. It was another good day for The Irishman and Jojo Rabbit as they continue collecting accolades this month. Joining them are The Two Popes and Little Women whose record so far has been spotty. In a surprise, the fifth spot went to Dark Waters, which means that this is another precursor that passed on honoring Hustlers. Also missing is A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. It seems both films awards strengths lie only in their supporting players, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Hanks respectively. The other title ignored today was Joker, which could still rally with the Academy. 

The Scripter is an award presented annually by the University of Southern California (USC) to honor both screenwriters and the authors whose work they adapted...

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