SAG Predictions

by Nathaniel R

The Screen Actors Guilds are on Easter Sunday this year. How bizarre right? Blame the Grammys which moved into their previous date sending SAG scrambling. What will win this year? Who knows but here are off the cuff predictions in each category will, could, and should wins just for the hell of it. Do share your own feelings in the comments, won'cha? 

BEST ACTRESS

• Amy Adams, Hillbilly Elegy
• Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
• Frances McDormand, Nomadland
• Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

WILL WIN: This is actually tough to guess...

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Almost There: Class of 2020

by Cláudio Alves

In this odd awards season, predicting the acting categories with accuracy was a difficult task. Many contenders seemed to vie for the limited spots and several actors garnered support from important precursors. The amount of legitimate "Almost There" cases is truly immense, especially when one considers such unexpected nods as that Supporting Actor citation for Lakeith Stanfield. In any case, with such a wealth of potential case studies, here goes an unusual entry in this series, one focused on multiple actors…

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Best Picture Nominees - Who's Up? Who's Down?

by Christopher James

Is Nomadland still looking like the clear winner for Best Picture?

Oscar nomination morning changes everything. What it takes to be nominated for an Oscar and win an Oscar are very different. As we enter this new phase for the Oscars, who is best set up for success on April 25th? The eight Best Picture nominees were all the most nominated movies of the year. Mank led with ten nominations. The rest of the nominees all had relatively good days, each earning six nominations except for Promising Young Woman, which received five nominations. Among non-Best Picture nominees, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom led with five nominations and News of the World with four nominations.

With the Oscar mainly coalescing around the eight Best Picture movies, which of them benefitted? Were any movies disappointments, despite a Best Picture nomination? Can anything beat current frontrunner Nomadland?

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What are your 4 wishes for nomination morning?

Yesterday was the final day of voting for the nominations for 93rd annual Academy Award nominations. Since there are four days until the nominations are announced please name your 4 non-locked up dreams for Monday morning. I'll go first...

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Minari: A tale of two (or more) grandmas

By Lynn Lee 

This is a story about grandmothers.

Having finally seen Minari, I’d originally intended to write about its place in the evolution of Asian American film over the last 20 years.  Or about Steven Yeun becoming the new face of Asian American masculinity in Hollywood.  But I couldn’t stop thinking about the Korean grandmother, Soon-ja, played by Youn Yuh-jung, because she reminded me so much of my own late grandmother.  Youn’s vibrant, hugely endearing performance—still Minari’s best shot at an Oscar acting nomination—and the cultural specificity of her character struck a chord of recognition that reverberated right to and through my core...

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