The Academy Welcomes 395 New Members

by Nathaniel R

Harry Yoon (Editor), Lee Isaac Chung (Writer/Director) and Christian Oh (Producer) were all invited to the Academy post MINARI

Each year the Academy releases the names of their potential new members. Reports range a bit at how many voting members the Academy actually has. Deadline suggests that if all 395 of the new invitees accept membership, AMPAS will be around 9,750ish members while the LA Times places the number around 10,700. We're not sure where that discrepancy of nearly a 1000 voters comes from but let's just say it's hard to track. We rarely learn who declined membership, for example, and of course people die from year to year since many longtime members are elderly. 

As per usual, even before the Academy's largely successfully diversification and gender parity drive, a good portion of the invitees go out to fresh winners and nominees from the previous season. If they accept Youn Yuh-jung, Maria Bakalova, Steven Yeun, Paul Raci, and H.E.R. (to name a handful of examples) will now be Oscar voters. 46% of the new invitees are women and 39% are from underrepresented groups. One really interesting number is that over half of the new invitees, 53% to be exact, are international invites. Whether that translates to more international titles winning Oscar favor, who knows...

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What's next for this season's Oscar-celebrated directors?

Chloe promoting The Eternals at comic-con

Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win Best Director. We don't have to wait long for her Nomadland follow-up. Next up: Her fourth film -- a huge change of pace from her three quiet earthy features -- is Marvel's gargantuanly budgeted sci-fi superhero film The Eternals which hits theaters on November 5th, 2021. She has two more projects in development that aren't very far along. There's another take on Dracula supposedly coming and a directing gig (but not writing) on a period biopic about the first black US Deputy Marshall Bass Reeves, who was born into slavery, and later arrested thousands of dangerous criminals working in the Oklahoma territory in the 19th century. That latter might certainly be a fascinating movie...

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Directing Acting Winners / Nominees - The Updated List

By Ben Miller

The Oscars are so stat heavy, it’s difficult to keep up with the bevy of information.  One of those stats that gets lost in the noise is the more complicated numbers around acting nominations by director. If you’ve read my previous piece last year, I am somewhat of an expert in this field, and this year’s set of nominees provides some interesting stats...

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Emile Mosseri: The king of 2020's film music

by Cláudio Alves

He may have only been composing film scores since 2016, but Emile Mosseri has quickly become one of the most exciting composers in today's Hollywood. At least, he's got a prime spot on my list of ones-to-watch. Two years ago, he made a big splash with the hauntingly beautiful compositions for The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Joe Talbot's delicate tone poem about a city and its people earned much critical acclaim and even a couple of awards for the young composer. Flash forward to today, and Mosseri's at the top of the world, having conquered his first Oscar nomination for Minari. What's more, that wasn't even the only masterful score he delivered in 2020…

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93rd Academy Awards: A contrarian take on the Best Director field

Editor's note. The Supporting Actress Smackdown is running late and will arrive tomorrow. Apologies! Meanwhile we continue our rundown of Oscar categories with Best Director.

by Elisa Giudici

Five directors. One European filmmaker. one Asian-American director. One woman of color. Another woman nominated for her directorial debut. One old sport named David Fincher. This year's director ballot does not lack variety! Ten days from the Oscar night and this competition is nearly over. All of these movies are clearly personal achievements, but will any prove a cornerstone in the career of its director? Every nominated director is at a different stage of their life and career, each movie a fascinating chrysalis. Every nomination here is like a gentle pat on the shoulder, a "this movie was really good, we are really curious to see what you will do next time!" kind of nomination.

From least likely to win to the one who will probably take the Oscar home, let's investigate a little...

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