Podcast: The Oscars are coming! How many will 'La La' win?

Nathaniel, Joe, and Nick discuss the Oscar nominations with just two weeks to go until the High Holy Night.

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Nomination morning formats
05:45 How much did Amy Adams miss by?
07:35 Cinematography & Score
10:30 Deepwater Horizon
13:00 Which categories will La La Land lose and to which: Lion? Jackie? Hacksaw?
23:00 Denzel vs Casey / Emma vs Isabelle / Salesman vs Toni Erdmann?
30:25 Picture & Director splits. Spreading the wealth. (Remember The Revenant? No?)
39:00 Ryan Gosling & Visual Effects. Byeeeee!

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Pre Oscar Show Part 1

14 Days Until Oscar. When will Thomas Newman win?

Thomas Newman is currently the most nominated composer to have never won the Oscar (and third in line of most nominations for a living artist without a win). Sci-fi hit Passengers marks his 14th nomination. Unfortunately this year he's up against the La La Land juggernaut so he'll have to wait for #15. Or beyond. His cousin Randy Newman waited until his 16th before taking home the gold.

Thomas Newman is on his 14th nomination at age 61. His father won 9 Oscars but he's still waiting on his first.

Composing for Hollywood is a family business in case that connection escaped you but their relatives didn't have to wait nearly as long...

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15 Days Until Oscar: The habit, get into it.

15 is today's magic number. As far as I can tell -- though I am not Pope-infallible-- 15 women have been Oscar nominated over the years for playing nuns or nun apprentices... what are they called, novitiates? novices? problems-like-Maria?

Let's pray for them together after the jump. Which of these nominations do you most approve of and why is it so hard to win for playing a Sister or Mother Superior? 

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18 Days Until Oscar. Nominations for Minors

Sal Mineo & Natalie Wood at the Oscars for REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) one of only two years wherein two minors were nominated. The other is 1973As Sunny Pawar (Lion) can attest this Oscar season, being a cute kid with a preternatural gift in front of the cameras can only get you so far. A little further if you're a girl but still, the point is: it's not easy to be Oscar nominated when you're a minor. Think of the famous or iconic minor performances that DIDN'T snag nominations: Natalie Wood in Miracle on 34th Street, Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, Hayley Mills in The Parent Trap, Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, Evan Rachel Wood in thirteen, Jacob Tremblay in Room and so on. 

On this 18th day before the Oscars let's quickly survey all the actors who managed a nomination before their 18th birthday!

There are 21 of them in total ... and almost 2/3rd of that number come from the Supporting Actress category which won't shock anyone who knows the Oscars and their double standards for men and women. But a few other statistics revealed might be more of a surprise...

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20 Days til Oscar. Beyond Meryl...

Everyone knows that Meryl Streep is Oscar's all time acting nomination queen. This year the queen received her 20th nomination, this time for playing the worst opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins. But Streep's astonishing numbers get a little less intimidating if you break them up into supporting and lead categories. So let's do that to place Streep in a slightly different context in the history of Oscar'ed actresses.

I begged for this Crayola set as a child. pic.twitter.com/uB5CDBkXup

— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) February 3, 2017

We'll ignore wins in this particular exercize. Streep isn't #1 in the supporting sweepstakes, but she remains #1 by a very comfortable margin for leading actresses. More details after the jump...

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