Who should present Glenn Close the Oscar?

by Cláudio Alves

Glenn Close and Deborah Kerr at the 66th Academy Awards. | © AMPAS

By this point, everyone and their mother has heard about the Honorary Oscar recipients for 2026. It’s been decided by the Academy to bestow these honors on Ridley Scott, Glenn Close, and pioneering Black American animator Floyd Norman. Producers Pamela Koffler and Christine Vachon will also receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with nobody getting a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for the first time since 2020. Much will be written about these artists, here and elsewhere, with plenty of time still to go until the 17th annual Governors Awards are held on November 15. However, to start things off, why not dispel some of the seriousness that comes as a package deal with such honorifics and enjoy a bit of silly speculation. Specifically, who should present Glenn Close with her long-awaited Oscar? 

Back in 1994, at the 66th Academy Awards, then five-time nominee Glenn Close had the privilege to deliver six-time nominee Deborah Kerr with the trophy she had earned since her Powell & Pressburger days. In actressexual and Oscar obsessive circles, this momentous occasion is seen with some irony, as it almost feels as if one perpetual Oscar loser passed her legacy to the next generation. Or should we call it a curse? If that’s the case, should Close keep with tradition and doom another thespian to a life without a competitive Oscar win? If that’s the case, the choice of presenter is clear…

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The Crown: A great cast saves a middling season 5

by Cláudio Alves

The Crown | © Netflix

I've long believed that The Crown is primarily valuable as an acting showcase. In previous years, the third and fourth seasons were examined by this prism here on The Film Experience, so it seems fitting to perpetuate the tradition. It's only appropriate for, if nothing else, the Netflix show is a staunch defender of doing the same over and over again, with as little change as possible - tradition upheld for eternity. And yet, to focus solely on the acting would be a false reading of what is a disappointing fifth chapter. As much as the cast succeeds, the series' foray into the 90s brings about a striking imbalance. Melodrama takes such precedence over History that the results cannot help but lack the grandeur of seasons past…

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2019's Class of First Time Nominees

by Murtada Elfadl

With one day to Oscar, let’s salute 2019’s class of first time nominees in the four acting categories. So many great actors never get nominated, and many just get that one nomination. So it must be so exciting for these lucky 5: Antonio Banderas, Cynthia Erivo, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Pryce and Florence Pugh...

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Joan Castleman got there first

by Cláudio Alves

Joan Castleman might have had to watch her husband win her rightful Nobel, but she got to the Oscars before him. She lost the film award to Queen Anne of the United Kingdom while her dishonest spouse failed to launch a campaign for Best Supporting Actor. This year, John Castleman finally followed in his wife’s footsteps even if his chances at winning are much slimmer than hers were. We can only guess this is a bit of karmic justice for that eternally bereaved wife whose ghostwriting went so horribly uncredited throughout her life.

Silliness aside, Jonathan Pryce is finally an Oscar nominee and, whatever one might think about The Two Popes, that honor is still worth celebrating…

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An "Evita" Reunion

by Camila Henriques

One thing I love to do each award season is to scan through the connections between the films and nominees.  That sighting of Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes  transported me immediately back to 2005's Walk the Line. Amongst this year’s Oscar nominees, though, the connection that has me most nostalgic is one between two category mates: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, competing with each other in Best Actor, are finally Academy Award nominees.

They have a past together in Argentina, the same country that gave us Pope Francis, played so delightfully by Pryce. More than two decades ago, Pryce played another famous Argentinian, former president Juan Peron in the Alan Parker/Andrew Lloyd Webber/Madonna extravaganza that was Evita. That movie also featured Spanish heartthrob Banderas, fresh off a successful transition from being the quintessential Almodóvar man to Hollywood player, with talked about turns in Philadelphia and Desperado. He'd become an even bigger international star with Evita... 

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