Oscar Predictions: Visuals, Score, Animation, and Sound

by Nathaniel R

The Oscar charts are finally going up. Best Animated Feature was the first a month ago but it's been tweaked to reflect Belle, rising, post its special Cannes screening, as well as Disney's stingy release of Luca. We're saving Cinematography and Costume Design for their own posts tomorrow but for now the rest of the Visual charts as well as Score and Sound are up. Yes, we're predicting a strong showing for House of Gucci, Dune, and Eternals in craft categories. Take a look and sound off in the comments. 

Yes, we're working on the Oscar charts...

For those of you who have been asking. Yes, the Oscar charts will go up soon with first predictions of the year. I'll confess right up front that this year is mighty confusing. That's partially because we're still in pandemic mode and a lot of the big studios are playing it coy about release dates and there are surely numerous sales still to happen. One assumes the studios are all watching each week's box office reports and other much more vague indicators (like streaming numbers which are rarely public and always unverifiable even when they are) to decide on the best way forward in this tough time for the industry. 

Another reason this year feels confusing is that A24 has a truckload of promising films but very few with actual release dates (and they've been known to really only focus on one once things heat up). Meanwhile MGM/UA, not usually a big player, has multiple promising titles...

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Emmy Nominations Are Here!

By Abe Friedtanzer

Nominations for the 73rd Emmys have been announced, and while it was nice to see short clips of each of the program nominees, the gimmick of having father and daughter, Ron Cephas Jones and Jasmine Cephas Jones, announce together would have worked considerably better if they had been in the same place and not experiencing a delayed reaction to their joke setups. But let’s move on to the nominees, which are mostly good but sure to reveal painful snubs as we break it down by category. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that The Crown is the nominations leader with 24 bids, but it did tie with The Mandalorian, which added to its technical total with a few acting, directing, and writing bids.

It took me until I got into the details of the limited series/anthology categories to realize that Small Axe was almost entirely shut out, earning only a cinematography mention. I think that has more to do with its questionable TV format, though that didn’t stop Hamilton from gobbling up a horrifying seven acting slots. Another underperformer was Girls5eva, which managed exactly one nomination, for writing. It was also a sad day for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which didn’t score any of the major bids I and others thought it might. That presumed domination by a few series in the supporting categories absolutely happened, though there were a few positive and unexpected inclusions thrown in. Let’s take a closer look at the categories our Emmy team predicted (plus the guest races) and go from there...

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Emmy Watch: Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

By Nathaniel R

Whoopi Goldberg in "The Stand"

The Emmy nominations are just under two weeks away so soon we'll have actual shortlists to discuss rather than speculation. But let's wrap up the acting categories with a discussion of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series Or Movie. This category isn't quite as heavy on honoring a single show as the parallel supporting actor category tends to be -- we'll generally get two nominees from one series here (though last year Mrs America took up half the list). According to Emmy ballots there are 116 women in the running which means there will be 6 nominees which has become the standard for this category.

MOVIES
Though this category includes stand-alone movies made for television, and stage shows that were filmed,  there's generally little room in the nominee circle for performances that weren't in limited series. It's been three years since a live event muscled in here (Sara Bareilles in Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert) and four years since an actress from a standalone telefilm was nominated (Michelle Pfeiffer in Wizard of Lies)...

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Emmy Watch: Which Limited Series Supporting Actors will break through?

By Abe Friedtanzer 

John Boyega in "Small Axe"

This category is by no means the highest profile of the limited series/TV movie/anthology series acting races, but it does include a handful of strong contenders. The past three years have given us one show that earned three nominations – Watchmen, When They See Us, and The Assassination of Gianni Versace – and it’s certainly possible that this will be the fourth consecutive year of the tripling. This is also one of only two acting categories this year that has more contenders than in 2020, with 140 men in the running…

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