Oscar Chart Updates: Animated & Documentary Feature

by Nathaniel R

The Oscar charts overhaul is upon us. Let's discuss each category. First up a two-fer, Animated Feature and Documentary Feature. In both instances we don't have full eligibility lists yet but we know some of the titles that have qualified or will qualify.

ANIMATED FEATURE
We currently know of 15 features that are eligible or that plan to be. Since the threshold is only 16 films to create a full five-wide nominee field, we've decided to change our previous three-only prediction. (We'd love those odds if we were animated producers. It's so crazy easy to get nominated, statistically speaking, unlike other categories where hundreds of competitors vie for 5 slots. As we've said multiple times if the same percentage rules applied to Best Picture each year we'd have like 80-90 Best Picture nominees each year. Teehee.)

The contest is shaping up to be a battle royale between Pixar's Christmas entry Soul and the wondrously individualistic Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers...

Click to read more ...

In 2020, what is a "theatrical film"?

by Juan Carlos

2020 is the year that altered the face of cinema as we know it. After cinemas closed all over the world, films were either delayed or released in modified platforms like virtual cinemas and VOD. Indoor gathering restrictions also led to a resurgence of drive-in theaters. Meanwhile, streaming became an even more vital way for films to reach audiences. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu all have Oscar contenders this season.

This shift in movie-watching was further validated by the Academy’s decision earlier this year to allow films released via streaming and VOD to be eligible for the Academy Awards, provided that they were previously intended for theatrical release and that they will be available in the Academy Screening Room. This amendment to the eligibility rules is major, especially given the Academy’s previous adherence to the traditional definition of what a “theatrical film” is. Pre-COVID eligibility rules state that...

Click to read more ...

Review: Israel’s Oscar Submission "Asia"

By Abe Friedtanzer

It's been quite the year for Shira Haas. Known previously to American audiences for her work in Shtisel on Netflix and the Jessica Chastain film The Zookeeper's Wife, she arrived in a big way in 2020 as the star of Unorthodox, which premiered on Netflix in March. Just a few weeks later, she was named Best International Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival, where her film Asia was slated to have its world premiere. After popping up at a number of festivals over the past few months and winning nine of its twelve Ophir (Israel’s Oscar) nominations, Asia is now opening the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles, which begins today…

In her past few roles, Haas, who turned twenty-five in May, has been playing younger than her age. Esty in Unorthodox was nineteen, and in Esau, which debuted on digital and VOD a few weeks ago, she portrays a particularly young teenage love interest...

Click to read more ...

Michael O'Connor and the costumes of “Ammonite”

by Cláudio Alves

As L. P. Hartley famously wrote, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." When looking back at times gone by, filmmakers often find themselves as the intermediates between the audience and that strange land. Most try, in some regard, to be interpreters, translating foreign tongues to recognizable idioms, adapting what came before to contemporary sensibilities.

Others, like Michael O'Connor are more pedagogue than translator. In his work the oddities of the past are shown naked, and it's the audience that learns how to comprehend a new language. The British costume designer has made a name for himself with great feats of period couture. While purposefully austere, the Victorian wardrobe of Francis Lee's Ammonite is one of O'Connor's best creations yet…

Click to read more ...

Podcast: All about "Mank" plus the Best Director Oscar race

with Nathaniel R & Murtada Elfadl

We're back!

Index (63 minutes)
00:01 Mank: The stars, the story, and rewatching Citizen Kane
24:00 MVPs of the ensemble. Plus those Norma Shearer asides
32:00 How will Oscar react overall? David Fincher's career acclaim
38:00 Everybody in the (wildly open) Best Director race. Plus female directors rising!
55:30 Mank in male acting categories: Gary Oldman? Charles Dance?

Related Reading:
• Best Actor Chart
• Best Director Oscar Chart

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? 

MANK