Almost There: It’s time to vote! (Halloween edition)

by Cláudio Alves

It’s been a while since you, the readers, have decided what performance should be analyzed in the Almost There series. Since it’s October, let’s do a Halloween-themed poll to spice things up. While AMPAS is notoriously allergic to horror movies, some performances came close to an Oscar nomination, whether their movies were otherwise embraced or not. Here are ten examples, complete with the precursors they won, why I think they were close, and where you can find each flick. The contenders are…

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Almost There: Viola Davis in "Widows"

by Cláudio Alves

Last week, Nick Taylor wrote a beautiful piece about the early days of Viola Davis' screen career, specifically her tryptic of stellar supporting performances in 2002. The article highlights the actress's formidable talent for creating full characterizations with minimal screen time, how she conjures rich humanity from people on the margins of the story, imbuing every glance and spoken word with mountains of meaning. After reading that, I felt compelled to revisit some of the actress's best works and, here we are, exploring the only time Viola Davis was legitimately in contention for an Oscar nomination and missed. Coincidently, it's also my favorite performance of hers in what is probably the best film she's ever been in - Widows…

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What if there had been a Best Casting Oscar this past decade?

Since we shared the news that Casting Director David Rubin had become the new president of the Academy, we've been thinking a lot about a potential Best Casting Oscar. The common 'they shouldn't do this' feeling in the comments and on twitter was based on the fact that the Academy would likely get it all wrong and only pick a random sampling of Best Picture nominees with starry casts. But that's never a reason not to have a category when there should be one. Lord knows they get a lot of things wrong and many of the branches are susceptible to strangely ignoring anything outside of the Best Picture race even if the film isn't strong in their particular field.

Here at TFE, in our Film Bitch Awards, we've had a Best Casting category since 2013 which makes it pretty much our newest category. Why did we wait so long? Who knows. But after the jump we thought we'd share our nominees each year and what we think Oscar would have nominated in those same time frames. Play along in the comments, won'cha?

2013
Film Bitch Nominees	What Would Oscar Have Chosen?

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Watch at Home: Tales from Captain Marvel's City, Mother

Nathaniel R giving you the heads up on what's available to you now to screen at home.

New on DVD/Blu-Ray
Captain Marvel - The year's second biggest hit, and less of a prequel of Avengers Endgame than we were expecting given Carol Danvers itty-bitty part in that ensemble behemoth, is now available in a physical copy if you're into those. Also out today: the hit indie The Mustang starring Belgium's golden perfection Matthias Schoenaerts, the sci-fi drama Captive State, and the romantic drama Five Feet Apart.

Notable iTunes 99¢ Deals
It's a weak week this time for those special deals with not much in the way of exciting pictures. But if you've never seen David Cronenberg's masterful Dead Ringers (1988) or the lesbian indie classic The Watermelon Woman (1996) now is as good a time as any.

New to Streaming

[LAUGHING] Oh this is surreal!

Tales of the City (2019) on Netflix
The Lovely Laura Linney is back in one of her signature roles as Mary Ann Singleton in this continuation of the classic Armistead Maupin series about life in gay ol' San Francisco...

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[Drum Roll] It's the Film Bitch Awards Medals Ceremony

It's the most painfully drawn-out nomination process followed by the swiftest awards ceremony of all. It involves your host Nathaniel slapping gold, silver, and bronze medals on the winners in the Film Bitch Awards chart! A Star is Born (10), The Favourite (9), and BlacKkKlansman (8) which all made the top ten list here, led the total medals count. It may surprise you to hear that Lady Gaga (5 for A Star is Born) and Rachel Weisz (4 between The Favourite / Disobedience) won the most medals for an individual performer,  since we didn't actually nominate either of them in the traditional 4 acting categories! But we have lots of "special" categories to reflect how we really experience the movies.  

Awards Pg 1: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Animated Feature
Awards Pg 2: The Four Traditional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 3: Visuals 
Awards Pg 4: Sound and Music
Awards Pg 5: Additional Acting Categories
Awards Pg 6: 'Characters of the Year' Prizes
Awards Pg 7: Best Individual Scenes (AND TRIVIA ABOUT THE AWARDS) 

AND WITH THAT, MY FRIENDS, FOLLOWING THE OSCAR WRAP-UP, THE FILM YEAR IS COMPLETE. ON TO 2019, ALREADY IN PROGRESS! We're currently at two festivals (SXSW and San Luis Obispo) and of course we've been discussing Avengers and Captain Marvel  and gems currently in theaters like Ash is Purest White, Transit, and more.