Lunchtime Poll: What were the 5 best "Best Picture" vintages?

by Nathaniel R

2003 & 2000. what a typical Oscar vintage looks like in terms of spread of quality.

It's 5 days until Oscar nominations are announced so let's have fun with the classic number 5... AKA the ideal size of an awards category. Most Oscar categories have varied in size at one time or another but for the bulk of the 93 year Oscar history five has been the preferred category size for the Academy. For fun let's name the best Best Picture quintets of all time (so only years 1944-2008 are eligible).

The average Best Picture lineup across many decades looks a lot like 2000 and 2003 pictures above, in that they're composed of the following: 2 perfect classics, 1 movie that's quite good, 1 respectable if unexciting choice, and 1 dud stinking up the room.

In short, it's quite difficult to pick the best vintage overall. Here are five BEST PIC shortlists I personally have a lot of affection for for various reasons...

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DGA Nominees: Chung, Fennell, Fincher, Sorkin, and Zhao

by Nathaniel R

The Director's Guild of America have announced their nominations for the 2020 film year. And it's a doozy. For the first time ever two women have been nominated in the top category. It's worth noting that the DGA has nominated more women for their top prize over the years than Oscar has but they've never nominated two simultaneously in their top category.  The nominees and some comments and awards season stats are after the jump...

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6 days til Oscar nominations. Who's about to get their 6th honor?

by Nathaniel R

We'll try to have final Oscar predictions up tomorrow but in the meantime, another discussion prompt. The following people are hoping to snag their 6th career nominations next Monday. Who do you think will actually pull it off? Will any of them win? What's your favourite of their five nominations to date. The names and Oscar honors after the jump.

ANTHONY HOPKINS The Father
Previous nominations: Silence of the Lambs (91 -win), Remains of the Day (93), Nixon (95), Amistad (97), Two Popes (19)...

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7 time nominated actresses

It's 7 days until Oscar nominations are announced and it's also International Women's Day so let's talk actresses. (Like we need an excuse, but just go with it). 7 women have been Oscar nominated exactly 7 times for their acting ... and these were their 7th (and final to date) nominations:

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Showbiz History: An Unmarried Woman, Oscar Balloting, and Hula Hoops

7 random things that happened on this day, March 5th, in showbiz history...

Best Actor and Best Actress, Victor McLaglen & Bette Davis

1936 The 8th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1935. Victor McLaglen (The Informer) and Bette Davis (Dangerous) take the acting Oscars. Mutiny on the Bounty wins Best Picture (and nothing else). That happened three times in the first eight years of Oscar history and has literally never happened since. That same night John Ford wins the first of his four Best Director prizes (the all time record) for The Informer. Curiously only one of his Best Director wins, How Green Was My Valley, came with a companion Best Picture win. (So he's like if you combined Alfonso Cuaron and Ang Lee's records, both of whom have won twice without a companion Best Picture win, and rewrote history -- which we'd sure like to *cough Brokeback* -- to add in 1 random Best Picture win.) The four wins without much help from Best Picture frontrunner status is such a crazy record if you think on it for even half a second. It's hard to imagine that it will ever be broken...

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