Oscar Volley: Best Actress. You can sit with us.

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Nathaniel, Ben Miller, Mark Brinkerhoff and special guest Nick Davis to discuss Best Actress.

NATHANIEL: I've been thinking a lot about what the characters and not the nominated actresses would make of all the competitive hoopla around the Best Actress Oscar this year. Photographer Janis (soulfully embodied by Penélope Cruz) wouldn't quite want all the eyes on her but she'd keep busy and turn her lens on her fellow nominees. She'd stick around for all the events.  Professor Leda (Oliva Colman in all her complexity) and Princess Diana (anxiously inhabited by Kristen Stewart), who I'd never otherwise pair in thought, would both surely acknowledge the honors while eyeing the nearest exit and counting the minutes until they could escape. They would skip anything non-mandatory.  Lucille Ball (surprisingly portrayed by Nicole Kidman) would be the consummate star and pull all the focus... but what would she actually be thinking about in the glow of all the lights? Only Tammy Faye (enthusiastically reincarnated by Jessica Chastain) might truly enjoy it. She would be very extra about campaigning and thoroughly enjoy the circus of it all.

Am I stalling due to utter suspense about who might win? Sure...

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'Belfast' and 'King Richard' win big at "Movies for Grownups" Awards

by Nathaniel R

Alan Cumming hosts the Movies For Grownups Award © PBS

The AARP 'Movies For Grownups' Awards aired as a special on PBS last night to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Alan Cumming hosted the audience-absent virtual awards with disturbing laugh and applause track.  You can watch it on the PBS site through April 15th. Belfast which had led their nominations won the top prize but they spread the wealth. The only film to win more than one prize was King Richard (Actor & Supporting Actress). You have to be 50+ to be eligible for their prizes which is why some of the biggest Oscar contenders are absent.

Winners and comments and a few pics from acceptance speeches are after the jump...

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One For Them, One For Me: Nicole Kidman - 'The Stepford Wives' and 'Birth'

A new series by Christopher James

Nicole Kidman at the Globes for Birth. They were the only group to embrace the film

Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.
— Martin Scorsese: A Journey

This week, Nicole Kidman earned her fifth Oscar nomination for Being the Ricardos, where she plays legendary star Lucille Ball. One can’t spend over thirty years in the industry without a couple of reinventions. The Australian star rose to prominence in America when she became Mrs. Tom Cruise after Days of Thunder. The entire 90s was spent breaking out of that reductive box. It wasn’t until the summer of 2001, when Kidman divorced Cruise, that she stepped into her own as a true A-list star. The one-two-three punch of The Others, Moulin Rouge and The Hours cemented her as both a real actress and a true movie star, culminating in a win for Best Actress for The Hours. At the top of the heap, Kidman decided to take many 'One For Them, One For Me' swings. They didn't always pan out but this post-Oscar period contains some of her best work.

Before her Oscar win she's already filmed The Human Stain, Dogville and Cold Mountain. So 2004 was the year where she really used her cache to gain both cultural clout and big box office...

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Oscar Volley: Can Penelope Cruz or Kristen Stewart land in Best Actress?

Our Oscar Volley series is almost at an end. Here are Matt St Clair, Josh Bierman, and Baby Clyde to talk Best Actress

Matt St Clair: Even though Best Actress has a pretty clear frontrunner, the rest of the category seems mostly up for grabs. Do you guys agree and also, besides Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, do you think there's hope for another non-biopic performance to make the cut?

Josh Bierman: Interesting. I don’t agree that there's a clear frontrunner! I assume you mean Nicole Kidman who is the most solid lock for a nomination. This is a category where I think I have to wait to see who’s nominated before I can declare a winner...

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Who is now in the lead for Best Actress?

by Nathaniel R and Team Experience!

The morning after and we're still reeling from the SAG nominations. But in particular what it's done to presumptions about the Best Actress category. I've updated the Oscar chart but after a brief flirtation with Nicole Kidman as #1, I suddenly felt the urge to give that spot to Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter. Is this insane? Not exactly though it is probably the common pundit psychosis of "overthinking it". My pundit brain began imagining that all the biopic ladies are getting in each other's way with their elaborate makeovers and mimicry (or lack thereof) and through the chaos emerges the true stealth battle of all along: superstar Lady Gaga vs revered thespian Olivia Colman.

Lady Gaga is also playing a real person, like the biopic ladies, but Patrizia Reggiani isn't a famous celebrity being recreated by another famous celebrity as is the usual draw of these things. So the traditional biopic advantage (aka default love for "what a transformation!") doesn't quite apply in Gaga's case. In the end given Olivia Colman mania and Gaga's film having more detractors, is it so outlandish to presume a quick second win could very well happen. So I polled the team, hoping that a crystal clear hive mind pundit choice would emerge. Whoops! Though there is a hesistant "consensus choice" opinions are truly all over the place.

Here's how the team responded to the big question of the moment...

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