Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay - a wealth of good choices, but will the Academy make the right ones?

The Oscar volleys continue. Today Lynn Lee, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Eurocheese sound off on this year’s Adapted Screenplay race.

a wealth of options for Oscar voters

Lynn: Gentlemen, I don’t know about you, but from where I’m standing, Adapted Screenplay is an embarrassment of riches this year. There are at least three contenders that tackle the incredibly difficult task of illuminating their characters’ inner lives and psychology (The Power of the Dog, Passing, and The Lost Daughter) with minimal to no voice-over narration and they all do it brilliantly. Then there are the play adaptations – everything from Shakespeare via Coen (The Tragedy of Macbeth) to Shakespeare / Sondheim / Laurents via Kushner (West Side Story) to Jonathan Larson via Lin-Manuel Miranda (tick, tick …BOOM!) to Stephen Karam doing Stephen Karam (The Humans) – where each manages to pull off a bold departure from previous iterations while retaining basic fidelity to the source text. And then there’s my personal favorite, Drive My Car, which manages to be at once an ambitious expansion of a Murakami short story and a spectacularly moving adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at once.

That said, we can’t realistically expect most Oscar voters to be familiar with the underlying material for these screenplays. It’s a safer bet the nominations will align pretty closely with the Best Picture nominees or almost-nominees that don’t have original screenplays...

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Oscar Volleys: Four locks, and the race for the fifth spot in Best Actor

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Tonight Gabriel Mayora and Ben Miller on Best Actor in a Leading Role

Ben Miller: My big question: is this a race only for the fifth slot? Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Garfield, and Denzel Washington all feel locked in. Is there any vulnerability in that top four?

Gabriel Mayora: I am surprised by how excited this self-professed raging actressexual™ (thank you to Nathaniel for that genius term) is to discuss this year's Best Actor category. Most years I find it hard to muster much enthusiasm for this category, but maybe after seeing the race take some surprising shifts last year, I have a renewed interest. I  agree with you that Smith, Cumberbatch, Garfield, and --to a slightly lesser extent, maybe? -- Washington are all locks, there is little room for surprise come nomination morning.

And while my first instinct is to complain about the Academy's lack of originality, I can't say I blame them. Those four are all so good...

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Oscar Volley: Is Best Animated Feature already wrapped up?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Abe Friedtanzer and Timothy Lyons on Best Animated Feature

My Sunny Maad, Belle, and Poupelle are all hoping to interrupt the Disney party in Best Animated Feature

ABE FRIEDTANZER: Most years after the Oscar nominations come out I have to play catch up on everything I've missed. That's not the case in a second consecutive season where the Oscars are later in the calendar. I have caught most of the contenders here. The mainstream American studio options are actually all great but of course I'd love to see some international choices make the cut. Belle seems like a decent bet to crack the list, and while it's a terrific film, I want to champion another Japanese movie, Poupelle of Chimney Town. I do worry that it's too under-the-radar to get enough votes, but it was the most visually striking animation I saw all year. I was also impressed by My Sunny Maad, which, like the much buzzier Flee, is about Afghanistan but is a very different experience. Maad has only been noticed by the Golden Globes, so I'm not sure what kind of buzz it has. What have you seen that you'd love to see nominated...

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Oscar Volleys: What do voters want in Best Makeup and Hairstyling?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. This morning Glenn Dunks and Ben Miller on Makeup and Hair.

Ben Miller: Alright Glenn, let's get into one of the more fun craft categories, Best Makeup and Hairstyling. This category has sometimes gravitated towards being the MOST makeup, as opposed to the best.  Some presumed frontrunners include Dune, Cruella, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Do you have a personal preference and what do you look for in a potential nominee?

Glenn Dunks: I really like the make up and hairstyling category in theory. They are one of the most individual branches, often choosing lousy movies or those otherwise outside of the Oscar conversation strictly because they appreciate the technical work on display. I have to respect that...

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Oscar Volley: So many stars, too little shine in the Best Original Song race

Welcome to our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Each day, members of Team Experience will have a conversation about the Oscar categories. Today, Baby Clyde and Josh Bierman tackle the always controversial Best Original Song.

Ariana Grande, Van Morrison, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé

Baby Clyde: Has there ever been such a starry array of contenders with so little to offer? You’d think at least one from a list including Beyonce, U2, Carol King, Van Morrison, Jay Z, Billie Eilish and Brian Wilson would know how to write a good pop song. They’ve previously written some of the greatest of all time! Unfortunately there is an unwritten rule that even the finest tunesmiths turn in absolute garbage when an Academy Award is up for grabs. It’s got to the point where I actually feel bad for Diane Warren...

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