93rd Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (aka Best Lead Actor Overfill)

by Christopher James

(from left, clockwise) Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Paul Raci, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sacha Baron Cohen make up the 2020 Supporting Actor race.Category fraud has been talked about extensively at The Film Experience. Yet, year after year the supporting categories are filled with leading performances. This year, one could argue that four-fifths of the Supporting Actor field is made up of leading performances. How is a true supporting actor supposed to compete with a lead performance that has been strategically "demoted."

Bad blood aside, the field is filled with many interesting performances from a diverse group of nominees. Even better, four of the five nominees are celebrating their first acting nomination this year. The Oscars can often be accused of repeatedly nominating their favorite actors, whether or not they deserve it, so it's nice to see fresh blood...

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Interview: BAFTA nominee Mikkel E.G. Nielsen on finding the balance and structure of "Sound of Metal"

by Nathaniel R

Talking to film editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (A Royal Affair, Beasts of No Nation), is a bit dizzying. His conversation moves around our subject, Sound of Metal, in circular fashion regularly bringing up both the films beginning, a raucous noisy concert where we first experience Ruben (Riz Ahmed's) hearing loss with him, and the films very quiet yet symmetrical ending. It doesn't surprise us then when he describes his job holistically. "My job is to try and create a whole from start to finish where you feel that you've been on this journey. Either it's revealing or it's fulfilling or emotional."

Nielsen divides his time between movies, music videos, and commercial work and though he loves the immersive challenge of cinema, he appreciates the mix. "Molding a movie" for months, he explains, becomes all encompassing. Working on a spot for three weeks, though, "Wow, that was almost like a vacation!'"

Another 'vacation' will have to wait. We're deep in awards season and Nielsen's fine work, honing the film's structure, and finessing the movies internal and external rhythms alongside its much praised sound design, has been honored with a Critics Choice Award for Best Editing and, this morning, a BAFTA nomination as well. We recently spoke to him about his work and international career...

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Oscar race: Supporting Actress Chaos & Supporting Actor Lock-up

by Nathaniel R

don't despair ladies, you're the only two locks in "Best Supporting Actress"

We saw a tweet yesterday that implied that the Oscar race for Best Supporting Actress is now between Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy) and Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian) which felt a bit insane to us. That's a Globe induced fever. Nevertheless the shock of Foster's win for a movie people have barely noticed does maybe tell us that the Supporting Actress competition is more fluid than assumed. So who is leading and who is going to be left out on the 15th when the nominations are announced? The way we see it there are 9 women left standing for various reasons (which is a lot going into voting since it's usually only 6 or 7 by now). Only two of them (Glenn Close and Olivia Colman) feel locked up for honors. Curiously despite the sure-thing feel of Colman's soon to be second nomination, it's unlikely she has ANY shot at a win. Her Oscar win is very recent and The Father isn't quite the contender it should be (qualitatively speaking) given its quiet campaign. But the nomination battle is always different than the battle to win.

Who gets the other three spots?

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Oscar Charts - All acting categories two weeks before Globe & SAG nods

by Nathaniel R

Zendaya smiling because the camera is absolutely besotted with her.

As strange as it is to note, it's still worth reiterating that Academy voters don't begin to fill out their nomination ballots for another five and a half weeks (!!!) A lot of things can change in that long of a stretch of time. Films and performances can move in or out of favor in two weeks time, let alone five!  But here is where our crystal ball is right now...

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Oscar Chart Updates: Are the critical leaders in "Supporting" Oscar bound or not?

by Nathaniel R

Is there a stranger 'big eight' Oscar category situation this year than the Supporting categories? Both of them appear to have a weird dearth of mainstream contenders. Meanwhile the critics awards or "precursors" have (thus far) been laser-focused on upping the Oscar viability of just two (or three if we're being generous) arguably non-traditional options in those categories: Maria Bakalova's comic improv genius in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Paul Raci's weary mentor in the hard-edged indie Sound of Metal, and Youn Yuh-Jung's spirited grandmother in Minari. 

Which brings up the natural but loaded question of what part critics do or don't / should or shouldn't play in the televised awards races. There are no doubt complicated reasons why critics all across the nation vote so uniformly in some years but we'd argue that it's never from a lack of good options as hundreds of movies starring plentiful gifted actors come out each year...

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