Podcast: A Proper Oscar Season Kick-Off

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel reunite to talk about the Oscar season as the floodgates open - Globe & SAG noms are about to hit! There are absolutely no spoilers in this so listen away.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Introductions & The Greatest Showman
02:11 Lady Bird's prospects
04:15 SAG ensemble possibilities
11:00 Girls Trip & Comedy Globe
16:00 Best Director -- easy or tough call?
21:00 Three Billboards, Darkest Hour, Screenplay race
30:00 Phantom Thread, The Post, Murder on the Orient Express, Visual and Sound categories
38:30 Roman Israel Esq
41:00 Colin Farrell & Goodbyes

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? 

December 10th Oscar Check In

SAG Predictions: Outstanding Ensemble

by Nathaniel R

The SAG nominating committe has to turn in their ballots tomorrow (Sunday, December 10th) and we're naturally very curious as to how their votes turned out. We'll find out this coming Wednesday. The bulk of the nominees are usually the obvious set who are carrying a ton of buzz. But that's just the bulk. SAG has been known to throw at least one total wildcard into the mix (remember Naomi Watts for St Vincent, 2014, or Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back, 2015, or Hustle & Flow for ensemble in 2005?).

Let's take a look at the truly competitive Outstanding Ensemble category...

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Streamable doc short finalists: "Kayayo" and "Ten Meter Tower"

by Nathaniel R

TEN METER TOWER

This week the Academy announced the ten finalists for documentary short and the ten finalists for animated short.  The Oscar charts are updated. At least 5 of those 20 are available to watch online. You've probably already seen the wonderful animated coming-out short "In a Heartbeat" that was so popular online earlier this year but it won't be the only tiny Oscar-seeker with big value. That's why the short categories are wonderful, quite often you get much artistic bang for little buck.

Will get to the animated docs later but of the ten doc short Oscar options there are four you can watch online...

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The 2017 Animated Contenders: "In This Corner of the World"

by Tim Brayton

Of the 26 animated features submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for Oscar consideration last month, a respectable five – just the thinnest hair under 20% - came from Japan. Ignoring Oscar eligibility, and throwing Your Name. on the pile (it was a 2016 Oscar hopeful but its commercial U.S. release came this spring), and 2017 has been a pretty fine year for anime in the United States.

Out of all those films, I humbly submit that the best one is In This Corner of the World, director Sunao Katabuchi's adaptation of a 2007-'09 manga series by Fumiyo Kōno. It's actually the story's second cinematic incarnation: in 2011, it was adapted in live-action. I haven't seen that film, but even so, I cannot fathom how it could be anything but a pale echo of the Katabuchi film: In This Corner of the World is an extraordinary triumph of animation as a storytelling vehicle. And this is no less true just because it's telling a mostly realistic story that doesn't "need" to be animated...

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If they lose this year... there's always next!

by Nathaniel R

Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart in "Mary Queen of Scots"

Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett were locked in battle for Best Actress 1998 with Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth? Before that famous Oscar battle was even over Gwynnie & Cate were co-stars on the set of their follow-up The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) one of those rare Oscar intendees that actually won far more fans AFTER its underperformance at the Oscars. (Usually when intended Oscar giants underperform in awards season it's because people they aren't very good and/or people just don't like them.)

19 years later we have a vaguely similar situation happening...

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