The PGA goes to 'CODA' but we still have a race and here's why...

by Nathaniel R

CODA is still riding high on that SAG wave but will cresting during Oscar voting give it the win? If it does a LOT of records will be broken. No film since the current slate of categories was in place (many decades now) has managed a Best Picture win with only 3 Oscar nominations. Most film with 12+ Oscar nominations (like The Power of the Dog has) have won more than three Oscars though sometimes they've lost Best Picture (examples include Mary Poppins, The Song of Bernadette, and La La Land) . No films without either a Directing or an Editing nomination (since all the current categories were in place), and CODA has neither has won Best Picture. Finally no film by a streaming company has won Best Picture though this last stat was bound to fall sooner or later and will next Sunday whether CODA or Power of the Dog wins. Unless of course something else entirely surprises. Winners are after the jump...

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Jesse Plemons is an Oscar lucky charm

by Cláudio Alves

Mr. Kirsten Dunst is a lucky guy, wouldn't you say? The past decade has seen him rise in prominence, acting in movies by some of today's greatest directors – Spielberg! Scorsese! Campion! – while also delivering a slew of memorable performances in supporting roles. After earning TV awards glory, he finally transferred that same acclaim to big screen prizes, winning his first Academy Award nomination in the same movie that got his wife an overdue recognition. For awards aficionados, his turn as George Burbank in The Power of the Dog holds even more Oscar trivia goodness. You see, when Jane Campion's latest scored a Best Picture nomination, it marked the fifth consecutive year of Plemons starring in a movie up for the Academy's greatest trophy…

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Oscar History: The Evolution of Acceptance of Openly Queer Actors

by Eurocheese

Stewart and DeBose at the world premieres of their movies in 2021

This year, we saw two openly queer women receive first time nominations in the Academy’s acting categories. Famously, the Academy rarely nominates openly LGBTQ performers while often honoring straight actors for playing queer roles, something that was considered “brave” until shockingly recently. But how have out queer performers fared in the past?

Let’s take a look at the previous nominees… 

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Best Actor - trivia, polls, and "how'd he get nominated?" thoughts

by Nathaniel R

Will Will Smith hear his name called on March 27th?

You know the drill by now. As we're working on trivia and "how'd they get nominated?" theorizing, we love to imagine an avatar for each category melding all the nominees together. In the case of this year's Best Actor race that's a 51 year old bi-racial American movie star, who is married with multiple kids and who spends a lot of time in action franchises. Wait a minute this sounds suspiciously like The Rock! Oh, wait. Never mind. This fictional amalgam of our Leading Men is also an Oscar favourite with four nominations under his belt, usually for playing real life people. In all seriousness though...

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Oscar Trivia: When the Academy Nominates Lovers Together

by Cláudio Alves

Love is in the air…at the Oscars. Both lead and supporting acting categories feature a nominated couple. Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem are on the hunt for their second statuette with Parallel Mothers and Being the Ricardos, respectively. Then, there are Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, who played a married couple in the movie that finally earned them long-deserved Oscar nods. The Power of the Dog stars are the first real-life romantic partners to earn nominations for playing an on-screen couple since Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain – though, of course, the Burbanks have a better marriage than the doomed Del Mars. 

But how often do couples get nominated together at the Academy Awards? As it happens, much more often than you'd think...

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