98th Academy Awards: Team Experience Predictions

by Cláudio Alves

Tomorrow will be a big day for the ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER and SINNERS' teams.

Before tomorrow’s nomination announcement rocks our world and redefines the season, it’s time for ten Team Experience writers (including Nathaniel!) to throw their hat in the punditry ring and hope for the best. This year, ten predictors are in play, doing their best to see who has the best instincts for Oscar prognostication. Last time, Eric proved himself our champion, but things may change with a new season, new contenders, new narratives. There are some wild swings among the various picks – Kokuho in Costume Design, for instance – along with many locks that everyone agrees with – Best Animated Feature feels terribly predictable – yet may still produce some shocking snubs. One thing’s for sure, either One Battle After Another or Sinners will be our nomination leader. Indeed, there’s a strong possibility one or both will break the record for most nods ever. We have to wait and see.

You can find the prediction charts and added commentary after the jump…

Click to read more ...

State of the Race: So about those BAFTA longlists...

by Cláudio Alves

Is I SWEAR this year's little British film that could? Maybe.

The Oscar nominations are ever closer, so it’s time to start finalizing those predictions. And since this year, BAFTA will reveal their lineups after AMPAS, pundits everywhere must make do with the British Academy’s longlists. In the past, they’ve been a good indicator of what the industry’s feeling, and how it differs from the critics who’ve been dominating the awards conversations so far in the season. As expected, One Battle After Another has the most mentions, at 16, closely followed by Hamnet and Sinners with 14 each, Marty Supreme at 13, and both Bugonia and Frankenstein with 12. Still, what’s most surprising and enticing is how BAFTA can go its own way and zig when we expect a zag. Consider their love for Nuremberg, and such local success stories as I Swear and The Ballad of Wallis Island…

Click to read more ...

“Sinners” and “Wicked” lead the Oscar shortlists

by Cláudio Alves

Despite poor reviews WICKED: FOR GOOD is beloved by the industry. | © Universal Pictures

The Oscar shortlists announcement is an occasion that many a pundit anticipates, sometimes fears. Because it’s a day when narratives change, some consolidate, some emerge, while others crumble into nothingness. Three years ago, the shortlists were the first hint of just how big All Quiet on the Western Front was about to become, for example. For the 98th Academy Awards, there is no surprise champion, as Sinners and Wicked: For Good earn the most categories in a year when Casting and Cinematography are also among the shortlisted races. More surprisingly is Sirât’s surge, a cinematography selection full of antithetical picks and a Best International Film race where ten out of fifteen finalists arrive from outside of Europe, a rarity that should be celebrated.

Without further ado, here are the Oscar shortlists with some commentary…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volleys: Best Picture could be more multicultural than ever before!

The Oscar Volleys are back! Tonight, it's time for Eric Blume, Eurocheese and Nick Taylor to discuss the Best Picture race...

HAMNET, Chloé Zhao | © Focus Features

ERIC: Hi gentlemen, I'm looking forward to our three-way... to talk about the ten possible Best Picture nominees. We're just starting to get some clarity on early predictions, so we might as well add our own two cents regarding the big race. Do you both agree that the two absolute lockshere are One Battle After Another and Hamnet? It's fun that they are two very different films that generate very different feelings, OBAA being sort of the "head" movie and Hamnet being the "heart" movie? That's an oversimplification, of course, but I don't think it's untrue…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volleys: Best Actress or Jessie Buckley vs. the World

The Oscar Volleys are back! Tonight, it's time for Nathaniel Rogers, Cláudio Alves and Eric Blume to discuss the Best Actress race...

Nathaniel's last Best Actress predictions, from November 11.

NATHANIEL: Hello, my fellow lovers of all things actressing! I have been tearing through screeners and at the movie theater a lot this past week  (missing festivals is deadly when it comes to keeping up). So, I want to start this Best Actress volley by saying that I'm just now coming back down to earth after watching two movies, nearly back-to-back, that are about "performance," even when they're not directly about Acting. They were Sentimental Value (in a packed theater) and Hedda (at home, streaming). Renate Reinsve and Tessa Thompson are both gifted with the kind of "bring everything you got" roles that I'm sure a lot of actors would kill for…

Click to read more ...