Red Carpet Lineup: Best Supporting Actress!

Annual Mandatory Beauty Posting / Polling  

We've already written up their performances and talked them up at length in the Supporting Actress Smackdown so now let's discuss the gowns. Are you a red latex fan or torn between pristine or shimmery white beaded structured gowns? Perhaps your taste runs more toward classic maroon frills and floof. Or wait... I know some of you thrill to a waffle cone/snake skin/avant garde/1940s/rockyhorror something or other, don'cha? Vote and discuss, plz. 

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Supporting Actor Fun: How were they nominated? What do they have in common?

RANDOM TRIVIA: Sam Rockwell is the only member of this shortlist that isn't tall! Did you know that 80% of the supporting actor category this year are 6'1" or taller? Only Sam Rockwell isn't at 5'8".

Did you know that 80% of the supporting actor nominees this year were born in California?! Now you do. Mahershala Ali (Green Book) was born in Oakland, Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman) in San Diego, Sam Elliott (A Star is Born) in Sacramento, and Sam Rockwell (Vice) in Daly City. The only non-Californian is Richard E Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and though you might have assumed he was born in London, you'd be wrong. He was born in Swaziland, in the late 50s when it was still a British protectorate. The country has been independent for 50 years now and last year rechristened itself The Kingdom of Eswatini. 

On the newly updated Best Supporting Actor chart you can read more trivia about the nominees, vote on who you think is best in the category every day, and share in our speculation about how they snagged those coveted nominations this year. 

ICYMI: Picture & Director charts are also robustly updated. All other charts are updated with the official nominees and preference polls if you'd like to start voting but are not fully filled in yet otherwise. 

Best Director Fun. What a Category This Year!

How cute is this? Here's Adapted Screenplay nominee Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) celebrating Spike Lee's Best Director nomination for BlacKkKlansman:

And the biggest congrats to the 🐐 — ran into this portrait last night in Paris, couldn’t help but grab a selfie; no words necessary. And by every measure, this man — so necessary 👌🏿🙌🏿🙏🏿 pic.twitter.com/YXuzAwNdk3

— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 22, 2019

In related news: the Best Director Chart is updated and ready for your votes (who should win? vote every day!) and commentary. We've added trivia, stats, as well as speculated on "How'd they get nominated?" as is our annual habit. Let's take Spike Lee as an example. This is how'd we'd wager Spike got his nomination...

35% Reputation and do-over. An iconic director who'd never been so honored. Sorry about Do The Right Thing!
30% His biggest hit and best film in several years. Critically adored and guild supported, too. 
16% Timely themes - plus the world has caught up to him.
12% Cannes gave him an early boost and his movie instant highbrow cred.
7% Had the summer all to itself to percolate as Best Picture worthy

Find out how the others got nominated on the chart. Agree? Disagree? Are we forgetting a key factor? Do tell in the comments.

The Best Picture race and the Bechdel Test. Thoughts?

What do these two talk about when they're not talking about T'Challa?We still have so much Oscar work ahead of us but this is a notice that the Best Picture Chart is now updated. You can vote (DAILY!) on which Best Picture you think should win the race and also check out various rankings of the movies by thing liks global success, running time, degree of horniness, how violent they are or aren't, and so on.

We can also discuss whether or not the movies pass the Bechdel Test. If you've been living under a rock all that test is (which should be easy to pass) is that a movie has to 1) have two female named characters who 2) talk to each other about something other than a man. That's it! Should be easy to pass but many many many films fail. Sadly only two of the Best Picture nominees are easy passes (The Favourite and Roma). But perhaps two more do as well. In Black Panther do the women discuss anything together besides T'Challa together? I think they do discuss the glories of Wakanda and possibly strategies for battle but I haven't seen the movie since February so perhaps I'm equating their fierceness with robust conversations? And in Vice do the Cheney women talk to each other about anything other than Dick? Perhaps they do discuss Mary's sexuality and Liz's political campaign? Or is that only a mom & dad conversation? My memory is a bit fuzzy on these details but perhaps yours isn't?

Anyway, enjoy the chart and the various lists. We love to list and we're just trying to keep ourselves, and you, entertained. Check it out and return to discuss.

Related Articles: 
• 12 things we learned from the noms • Adams vs Weisz, Round Two • Deep Cut Oscar Trivia • Mourning the Snubs • How to Stage the Original Songs • Nomination Index 

Vote on BAFTA's Rising Star Award

The BAFTA nominations (i.e. the UK version of the Oscars) will be announced this coming Wednesday. That's during the Oscar nomination voting period (which runs January 7th through the 14th) so it could be helpful to certain contenders (we're looking at you, especially, Mary Poppins Returns since you got stiffed at the PGA.)

But we already know the nominees in one category with BAFTA, their annual EE Rising Star Award, which is voted on by the public. This year's nominees and the 13 year history of that category after the jump...

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