Beyond Sight & Sound: An Alternative Canon

by Cláudio Alves

Appearing on 77 ballots, Spike Jonze's HER was the most voted film.

Two years ago, Sight & Sound released the results of their polls, voted by critics and filmmakers, on the best pictures ever made. Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles topped the former, causing various reactions that ranged from ecstatic to outraged. In total, the 2100 participants voted for 4366 unique titles. And yet, much great cinema was left without a single vote. In response, Ángel González devised another project for They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, focusing on all those films the Sight & Sound voters ignored. A new list was devised based on the ballots of 839 critics and cinephiles. This time around, 4336 films received at least one vote - think of it as an alternative canon.

Nathaniel and I were among the lucky voters, with a few of our picks making the A-List of 1030 titles. Sometimes, our tastes even overlapped…

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Today in Oscar History: Mrs Miniver, Shape of Water, John Garfield

On this day, March 4th, in Oscar history only...

1937 The 9th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1936. Historical epic Anthony Adverse wins the most Oscars (4) but showbiz biopic The Great Ziegfeld takes Best Picture. Some interesting things about this Oscar year: This was the first ceremony with the Supporting acting categories; My Man Godfrey became the first film nominated in all four acting categories and it remains the only film to achieve that without a parallel Best Picture nomination; The Story of Louis Pasteur earned the very weird now impossible distinction of being named both "Best Original Story" AND "Best Adaptation"... the "Best Original Screenplay" category was not yet invented and it did not technically replace "Best Story" as they ran parallel for the first 16 years of Best Original Screenplay...

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Worst Best Picture Snubs Ever?

by Nathaniel R

This week on Las Culturistas I froze on the question of "Greatest Oscar Snub of All Time?" so with 5 days out until the nominations (we know we know final predictions coming at'cha starting tomorrow), let's answer it! Restricting ourselves to Best Picture here because you gotta keep it tight when answering loose questions. 

SO WHAT WERE THE DOZEN WORST BEST PICTURE SNUBS EVER? Let's group them according to types of injustice...

TYPE 1. PLENTIFUL NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST DIRECTOR. SO WHY COULDN'T OSCAR GO THAT ONE SIMPLE HAPPY STEP FURTHER?  My Man Godfrey (1936) and Some Like it Hot (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969) and Thelma and Louise (1991)

In all five of these cases the Best Picture snubs are puzzling. It's not just that the movies are all so grand that you watch them with jaw dropped -- from laughter, cathartic despair, or sheer awe. It's also that the Academy loved them enough to recognize them across multiple branches...

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