Oscar's complicated history with the "complicated woman"

by Matt St Clair

Remember when Maggie Gyllenhaal won a Golden Globe for her starring role in the miniseries The Honorable Woman? During her acceptance speech she spoke about not just the wealth of strong roles for women on television, but roles as complicated women, saying, “when I look around the room at the women who are in here and I think about the performances that I’ve watched this year, what I see actually are women who are sometimes powerful and sometimes not. Sometimes sexy, sometimes not. Sometimes honorable, sometimes not.” Complicated female characters on TV still receive more proper acknowledgement than those in the movies. 

While Carey Mulligan earned a recent Best Actress nomination for her role as the duplicitous avenging angel Cassie Thomas in Promising Young Woman, the Oscars have a historically spotty track record when it comes to acknowledging actresses for playing complicated, and sometimes calculating, women....

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This Had Oscar Buzz & Chasing the Gold

by Nathaniel R

I had the pleasure of recording not one, not two, but three podcasts this week. Yes, The Film Experience's own podcast returns very soon (hopefully tomorrow). But before that's edited, please enjoy these two guest-spots I had the pleasure to do.

THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ
Joe Reid and Chris Feil, former Team Experience members!, launched this brilliant podcast in 2018. You're probably already a fan. "This Had Oscar Buzz" discusses one failed awards hopeful per episode. They gave me a list of films to choose from for my guest spot and perusing it I knew exactly which film I had to choose. The very blonde, very actressy, very complicated, very Pfeifferiffic White Oleander (2002) called out to me. Please give it a listen! 

CHASING THE GOLD
You can also hear me discussing the brand new Oscar nominations on InSessionFilm's podcast hosted by Ryan McQuade.  Erik Anderson of Awards Watch and I were the special guests and we really get into the weeds of Oscar campaigns and this odd season. 

Jane Austen @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

After multiple articles about Jane Austen movie adaptations over the past year, you might have figured out I'm a big fan of the Regency writer. Her delightful mix of social satire and comical romance is pretty irresistible as are many of the films that have been made out of the author's works. Since the Oscar nominations are upon us, it feels appropriate to consider these two personal obsessions together, awards love and Austenian fandom. As it stands, many are predicting Autumn de Wilde's Emma. to score a couple of nods in the Moulin Rouge! categories of Production and Costume Design. If that happens, this latest entry in the Jane Austen cinematic universe will join a select group of movies…

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The Most Confusing Acting Categories of the Past

by Eurocheese

NINE women have received mainstream precursor support this year for Best Supporting Actress. Somethings gotta give.

If anyone you know is telling you they know exactly what will happen when the nominees for Supporting Actress are announced on Monday, you should also ask them for a set of winning lottery numbers. You want to know how many actresses have scored the complete quartet of Golden Globe, SAG, Critics Choice and BAFTA nominations in Supporting this season? That would be zero. Maria Bakalova showed up at all four awards for a raunchy comedy, arguably the least Oscary of all genres, but even she landed in lead at the Globes. I honestly have no idea who’s getting in or who’s winning the category… and I love the confusion.

For everyone trying to put together their predictions for nomination morning, let’s look at how some other bizarre precursors shook out, choosing one year to represent each of the four categories. Maybe this will give us a clue as to the current Best Supporting Actress race...

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Showbiz History: Madonna at the Grammys, Judy at the Globes, Tilda at the Oscars

7 random things that happened on this day, February 24th, in showbiz history...

Judy and Marlon seated together at the Globes; They both won that night.

1955 The 12th annual Golden Globes are held honoring 1954 cinema. On the Waterfront (Drama) and Carmen Jones (Comedy/Musical) took the Best Picture prizes. Both James Mason and Judy Garland (neither of whom ever won a competitive Oscar) of A Star is Born won Globes for their leading work in the Comedy/Musical fields but the fact that the picture lost (when it's a hundred times the film Carmen Jones is) was an ill omen of what would happen later at the Oscars... 

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