Oscar Volley: "Avatar" versus what in Best Visual Effects?

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the ceremony. Here's Abe Fried-Tanzer and Nick Taylor to discuss Visual Effects.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever

ABE FRIED-TANZER: Hey Nick! Here we are discussing the category with the most stages of finalists, giving us a window into what could have been. I appreciated the inclusion of interesting choices like Bardo, Good Night Oppy, and RRR on the initial twenty-wide list, and was pulling for Nope and Thirteen Lives to move on from the next stage of ten. But none of that happened, and we’re left instead with five very different choices, none of which are based on original material.

There are some intriguing stats to share about these nominees, like that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever placed, but its predecessor (which scored a Best Picture mention) didn't in the same race...

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Oscar Volley: Beyond the locks, Best Picture is hard to predict

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the nominations. Here's Nathaniel Rogers, Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor to talk Best Picture...

EDITORS - NOTE. THIS DISCUSSION WAS HELD OVER A TWO+ WEEK STRETCH WHERE A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENED. SO THINGS SHIFT WHILE WE'RE TALKING...

 NATHANIEL: Hello teammates. I thought I'd throw you a little unexpected curveball in our last volley. Rather than starting with frontrunners or longshots, let's talk philosophies of selection for a brief moment. When the AFI selects their list annually (depressingly reading like Oscar predictions) the guiding principle is. film that are "culturally and artistically representative of this year’s most significant achievements in the art of the moving image. When the Library of Congress does their annual retroactive National Film Registry list they choose based on "cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to preserve the nation’s film heritage."

That cultural / aesthetic double-side strikes me a LOT like the very first year of the Oscars when there were two separate Best Picture categories " Outstanding Picture (which went to Wings) and Unique and Artistic Picture (which went to Sunrise) .If we want to get really reductive about it -- which we should so that this conversation doesn't go 10,000 words -- it also strikes me a lot like Commerce vs. ART which has always been the tension of Hollywood itself and by extension, the Oscars…

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Oscar Volley: The heat is with the "Original" screenplays

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the nominations. Here's Nathaniel and Abe to talk Best Original Screenplay...

AFTERSUN

NATHANIEL: I feel like I say "my favourite category!" a lot when talking Oscar. So let me just tell you, Abe, that this is at least 'one of em' for me (with the Actress categories, Costumes, International Feature, and and and and and) Usually, the Oscar buzz centers on the Adapted screenplays since they come bearing automatic prestige. This year it is so pleasing that the heat is with the originals. The Banshees of Inisherin & Everything Everywhere All At Once feel neck-and-neck for the future win. Even if they both didn't have so much heat in Best Picture, they'd be formidable contenders in this category.

I want to start with the longer shots, though. One movie a lot of people are rooting for is Charlotte Wells' Aftersun. I love it too but I wonder if it's ineffable impact doesn't spring more from the fluid mystery of the direction, editing, and performances? I wonder if it can go the distance here. What longer shot are you rooting for?

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Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the nominations. Here's Nathaniel and Chris to talk Adapted Screenplays

CHRIS: Hi Nathaniel! I’m looking forward to discussing the Adapted Screenplay race with you. Each year, it’s fun to size up which screenplay category is more competitive - Original or Adapted. This year, the scale is tipped much more in favor of the Original Screenplay race, which has a majority of the Best Picture hopefuls. By comparison, the Adapted Screenplay is much more open, which can lead to a more interesting set of nominations. The clear frontrunner is Women Talking. It’s a Best Picture hopeful that has a really clear script hook. The film takes place over the course of 24 hours, yet weaves the individual stories of its female ensemble into a stunning patchwork quilt of trauma. Yet, it does so with moments of levity and heart. After that, the only other Best Picture sure thing in contention is Top Gun: Maverick. As that movie becomes more of a threat to win the big prize, it feels like the blockbuster behemoth will take one of the five slots here. So what becomes of the final three slots?

It’s crazy that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery only stayed in theaters for a week. The groundswell for the incredibly twisty and fun whodunnit will likely begin now that it's streaming on Netflix...

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Oscar Volley: the still bonkers-crowded Supporting Actress race

Here are Baby Clyde and Mark Brinkerhoff to discuss TFE's favorite category, Best Supporting Actress:

Jessie Buckley in WOMEN TALKING

MARK:  Happiest season, to all who celebrate! I love a supporting actress smackdown, in real time, don’t you?This is a blood bath, to be sure, although one thing I’m fairly certain of: There will be someone from  Women Talking and  Everything Everywhere All at Once. At this point, I’d say Claire Foy and/or Jessie Buckley and Jamie Lee Curtis and/or Stephanie Hsu could even form the bulk of the lineup.  Curtis definitely is gunning for it—will she be the third veteran, overdue actress in as many years (after Amanda Seyfried and Kirsten Dunst) to find herself finally nominated in supporting?. If Everything Everywhere All At Once overperforms, that could augur well for Hsu. (Wouldn’t it be something if we got four actors in a single film nominated again this year after The Power of the Dog did it just last year?)

My hunch is we’re likely to see a majority of first-timers in this category, which is always exciting...

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