Oscar Volley: Best Actress

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Baby Clyde and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing Best Actress.

CARLOS: A two-time Oscar winner gunning for her third, a rising star playing a Hollywood legend in a highly divisive film, a character actress getting an overdue recognition, a recurring nominee playing Steven Spielberg's mother, and an international star in the role of a lifetime in the Best Picture frontrunner. It's quite an exciting mix of actresses plucked from a highly competitive field.

But we would be remiss if we don't address the elephant in the room, to just get it out of the way...

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Oscar Volley: Let's dig into that Best Director field... who should win?

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Eric Blume and Nick Taylor discussing Best Director.

Portrait of a young director via THE FABELMANS

ERIC BLUME: Hi Nick! I'm excited to talk Best Director with you.  This year's line-up, while I'd swap out a name or two in there personally, is extraordinarily strong, perhaps one of our best ever?  Before we get to each one, who were personal favorites of yours that didn't make the ballot?

NICK TAYLOR: It’s a very strong lineup! Only one of the names Oscar picked would be close to my own ballot, but I see plenty of strengths in the work the Academy nominated, and the competitiveness of this field leading up to nomination morning means nobody coasted to their slots...

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Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay... weak list or weak field?

The team is pairing off to discuss each Oscar race. Here's Eurocheese and Eric Blume...

ERIC:   Euro, I'm so happy to be discussing the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay with you.  Personally, I feel like it's one of our weakest years in this category.  Before we get into each nominee and the race, do you have any candidates you personally loved that didn't make the slate?

EUROCHEESE:  It is strange how all the top contenders, and frankly most of the great films of the year, were original storylines. Even Glass Onion, sneaks into this category thanks to its lead detective but it's really an Original Screenplay...

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Oscar Volley: Oscar's Choice for "Best Cinematography" (and more)

The team is pairing off to discuss each Oscar race. Here's Glenn Dunks and Eric Blume...

ELVIS Cinematography by Mandy Walker OSCAR NOMINATED

GLENN: Hi Eric, let's talk all things camera and light—it's Best Cinematography. Can I just start by asking one big question regarding this particular category. What happened to Top Gun: Maverick here? Claudio Miranda, previous Oscar winner for Life of Pi, was supposed to be our runaway favorite and yet on nomination morning, Lydia Tár claimed one final scalp amid her reign of terror. And a second question, I suppose. Did that Top Gun miss just hand this trophy to All Quiet on the Western Front? As much as I am craving a win for Mandy Walker (for many reasons including how historic it would be), I just can't see anything but the German war movie coming out on top here.

ERIC:  Glenn, two excellent questions.  Let's tackle the first...

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Oscar Volley: Is ‘Best International Film’ a done deal?

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor discussing the Best International Feature Film race.

CLÁUDIO: Since the last batch of Oscar volleys in a pre-nomination world, few categories have been as shaken up as Best International Film. Back then, you could still wonder if All Quiet on the Western Front had been seen by enough people in the industry. Now, after its slew of Oscar nods and smashing BAFTA performance, it's competitive in multiple categories and expected to nab an easy victory in this one. I've already elaborated on my distaste for Edward Berger's war picture and find myself rather delighted to have been paired up with you, dear Nick, for this volley. You see, dear reader, here's someone who might dislike the movie even more than my nitpicky ass.

NICK: But I’ve softened on All Quiet a bit…

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