Oscar Volley: Can anything dethrone 'Dune' in Best Production Design?

With just over a week until nominations are announced Cláudio Alves, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Nathaniel Rogers discuss the Best Production Design race…

DUNE is in it to win it.

CLÁUDIO: The Art Directors Guild of America recently announced their nominees, and I'm in love with the Period Feature lineup. The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and West Side Story offer such a varied approach to the matter of scenography, either swinging towards hyper-stylization or aiming for immersive historical accuracy. Honestly, I'd be OK if AMPAS just copied the guild's picks, though that's not likely to happen. Not with Dune in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it'd be a massive surprise if Patrice Vermette's conception of a dilapidated future doesn't end up winning it all. The scale of the achievement is undeniable, the sense of monumentality and balance between Villeneuve's sense of severe sci-fi and Frank Herbert's Baroque descriptions.

The question, then, is which of the period nominees will get the chop and if there are other outside contenders to consider. Examining the history of AMPAS' relationship to Paul Thomas Anderson's flicks, my guess is that Licorice Pizza is the most vulnerable. What do you think, Mark? 

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Oscar Volleys: Four locks, and the race for the fifth spot in Best Actor

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Tonight Gabriel Mayora and Ben Miller on Best Actor in a Leading Role

Ben Miller: My big question: is this a race only for the fifth slot? Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Garfield, and Denzel Washington all feel locked in. Is there any vulnerability in that top four?

Gabriel Mayora: I am surprised by how excited this self-professed raging actressexual™ (thank you to Nathaniel for that genius term) is to discuss this year's Best Actor category. Most years I find it hard to muster much enthusiasm for this category, but maybe after seeing the race take some surprising shifts last year, I have a renewed interest. I  agree with you that Smith, Cumberbatch, Garfield, and --to a slightly lesser extent, maybe? -- Washington are all locks, there is little room for surprise come nomination morning.

And while my first instinct is to complain about the Academy's lack of originality, I can't say I blame them. Those four are all so good...

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Oscar Volley: So many stars, too little shine in the Best Original Song race

Welcome to our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Each day, members of Team Experience will have a conversation about the Oscar categories. Today, Baby Clyde and Josh Bierman tackle the always controversial Best Original Song.

Ariana Grande, Van Morrison, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé

Baby Clyde: Has there ever been such a starry array of contenders with so little to offer? You’d think at least one from a list including Beyonce, U2, Carol King, Van Morrison, Jay Z, Billie Eilish and Brian Wilson would know how to write a good pop song. They’ve previously written some of the greatest of all time! Unfortunately there is an unwritten rule that even the finest tunesmiths turn in absolute garbage when an Academy Award is up for grabs. It’s got to the point where I actually feel bad for Diane Warren...

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Oscar Volley: Will Best Film Editing only have Best Picture nominees?

By: Tim Brayton and Chris James

Frontrunners "Belfast" and "The Power of the Dog" will also likely duke it out in Best Film Editing.

Welcome to our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Each day, member of Team Experience will have a conversation about one or two of the Oscar categories. Today, Tim and Chris tackle the Best Film Editing race. This race has long been a predictor for Best Picture. In the past fifty years, only Birdman (2014), which was famously designed to look like it had no editing at all, and Ordinary People (1980) were able to win Best Picture without a nomination in this category. Will the branch have a few tricks up its sleeve or just got with the five hottest Best Picture contenders...

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WGA Nominations -- But don't expect these lists when Oscar nominations are announced!

by Nathaniel R

The French Dispatch, a movie about writers is honored for its writing

The Writer Guild have announced their nominations for the 2021 film year. Unlike the DGA and the PGA, the WGA aren't abundantly prophetic when it comes to Oscar nominations since their rules are so different. But the nominees and some notes are after the jump...

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