Film Bitch Awards finale: Best scenes & big results from small parts

by Nathaniel R

Christian Magby and Lance Reddick in "One Night in Miami"

You know where I am if you need me.

We're finally closing out our 2020 coverage. Five months into the calendar year. We'd say 'Oops' but in this one case we'll happily blame the Oscars pretending that the calendar wasn't the calendar rather than our own sometimes-lacking time management skills. Though we are excited to move on to 2021, in point of fact lists and awards are our happy place. That is not because they have inherent definitive value as arbiters of quality (as the naysayers like to remind). No, that's not it at all. Only time is the definitive tastemaker but even that is fallible since it never stops and collective opinion can shift dramatically from generation to generation just as it does from person to person. No we value and love lists and awards because they are superb documents of feelings about quality at a specific moment in time. What moved people en masse? The answer is all over awards season. What struck certain individuals in a seismic way? That can be found in personal top ten lists and personal awards for those who bother to make such things. 

So let's start with one of our favourite things to honor: smashing work in very limited screentime...

Click to read more ...

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…

Click to read more ...

93rd Academy Awards: Best Picture

by Lynn Lee

The weirdest aspect of this year’s Best Picture race may be its lack of weirdness.  For an Oscars season that the COVID-19 pandemic first threatened to derail and then expanded, in which the vast majority of voters saw none of the contenders in theaters and almost no traditional Oscar campaigning, the path to the Academy’s biggest prize has been, on the whole, remarkably smooth.  With few real curveballs either in the nominations or in the precursor awards, some might even call it a little dull (especially when compared to how bonkers some of the other categories have been).  On the bright side, the final lineup of BP nominees is pretty solid, even if I’d rate First Cow above them all and would happily swap out The Trial of the Chicago 7 for at least a half dozen other films.  Here’s my take on each of the nominated movies, in ascending order of personal preference.

Click to read more ...

Supporting Actress Smackdown '20: Bakalova, Close, Colman, Seyfried, and Youn!

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. For the season premiere we're starting with the current Academy Awards competition honoring the films of 2020.  

THE NOMINEES 2020's shortlist, chosen much later than we're used to in 2021 due to the pandemic reschedulings, collects one breakout young Bulgarian actress (Maria Bakalova), one Hollywood legend (Glenn Close), a popular recently Oscar-winning British treasure (Olivia Colman), a former Mean Girl who continues to expand her range (Amanda Seyfriend), and a revered South Korean actress (Youn Yuh-Jung).

THE PANELISTS Here to talk about their performances and films are, in alpha order:  actress/playwright/comedian Grace Aki (Tell Me on a Sunday), awards columnist Scott Feinberg (The Hollywood Reporter), writer/producer Peter Knegt (CBC Arts), writer/podcaster Jorge Molina (Just to Be Nominated), and awards pundit Matt Neglia (Next Bext Picture). As ever the event is hosted by TFE's mastermind, Nathaniel R. Let's begin...

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

Click to read more ...

On the SAG winners: History making but will they prove Oscar & Emmy influential?

by Nathaniel R

Riz Ahmed was one of handful of stars hat operated as inadvertent hosts by having bits of an interview spliced in all throughout the show about their careers and such.

We watched the SAG awards last night with a mix of fascination and relief. Fascination at the winners chosen and relief that the ceremony accepted that it couldn't be a normal one and therefore became merely a swift presentation of wins with acceptance speeches on Zoom. Aside from swift "bits" where famous actors talked about their headshots or the "special skills" on their resumes, it was all just actors talking about the nominated actors and then the winners beaming from their homes on Zoom. It ran just a single hour long...

Click to read more ...