A Quick Hello + Updated Oscar Charts

by Nathaniel R

As the long holiday weekend comes to a close I wanted to come in and surprise you with a quick hello. I've been very absent. I'm fully aware. I've even written about the existential crisis but opted not to publish (for now, he said ominously? playfully?). Anyway, since it's gratitude season and a long holiday weekend I have to thank Cláudio for holding down the fort so beautifully. And thanks also to Nick, Juan Carlos, Eric, Glenn, Abe, and Chris for their November articles!  I thought briefly about writing a big sequel to Cláudio's "thankful for" post, but I will still be doing the Film Bitch Awards even if I do nothing else (hopefully I'll do something else) so don't want to give everything away just yet as to what excited me most this year's movie haul. So instead I opted to spend the spare hours inbetween holiday commitments to update the Oscar charts.

PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SCREENPLAYS | VISUALS | SOUND | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE | ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Awards season is about to hit full throttle. So it was long past time and there's quite a bit of movement on each chart. The big festival surprise was of course American Fiction so that has disrupted several charts. Overall it feels like a messy volatile year, punditry wise, which is my favourite kind of year. So many movies feel like they could get a lot of nominations... or come up much shorter than people were expecting.  I have things to say about Ferrari, Maestro, The Holdovers, The Taste of Things and Killers of the Flower Moon but I keep trying to learn my lesson about over-promising. Wish me luck. xoxo

Is Visual Effects this year's least competitive Oscar category?

by Nathaniel R

Oppenheimer

The Oscar race that looks the most perplexing from this distance and could get worse with strike related delays is surely Best Visual Effects. Dune Part Two, before its departure from the calendar year, was an easy lock for a nomination and threat for a repeat win. Oscar voters are hardly purists or elitists in this category, since some truly questionable nominations have occured over the years. But still, every presumable contender remaining (whether already released or planning to arrive in time) has significant obstacles to success...

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"Dune Part Two" down, "Barbie" up, the Warner Bros Oscar shuffle.

by Nathaniel R

"Dune Part Two" and "Barbie" both come from Warner Bros

No sooner had we entirely completed the first round of Oscar predictions than Warner Bros up and announced that Dune Part Two would be moving to 2024, March 15th to be exact. And we had to rearrange several charts. The delay for the sandy sci-fi sequel is surely due to the ongoing strikes and fears that Timothée and the other stars wouldn't be promoting the movie. [Aside to the AMPT: Just meet the actors and writers demands, already! You can't make movies without them and the asks are not unreasonable given how their wages have been dropping despite still mammoth earnings for entertaining. But it appears that when the only thing you understand is greed, little Oliver asking for slightly more gruel from your abundant pot is offensive!]

When it comes to the Oscar race this means there's far more room for other movies to benefit since the first installment of Denis Villeneuve's take on the classic sci-fantasy opera won a whopping six Oscars from fen nominations two years back. At first glance we think the film that benefits most is Barbie, which also happens to be from Warner Bros...

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Best Actress Predictions - First Round

by Nathaniel R

Annette Bening as "NYAD" (Netflix, 2023)

If I had any hair, I would be tearing it out every time Best Actress predictions must be made. There are so many ways it could go. It's always fun to fantasize about but also agonizing to worry about. Oscar history is wildly hit and miss with Best Actress lineups. Sometimes it's electric quintets and other times they ignore most of the best work for a set of solid but unthrilling performances. 

The contender we're most excited / anxious about is the one and only Annette Bening in Nyad...

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Emmy Analysis: Drama Supporting Categories

By Abe Friedtanzer

Aubrey Plaza and Theo James in The White Lotus. Photograph by Fabio Lovino/HBO

Sixteen nominees for supporting actor and supporting actress are drawn from a mere four drama series, and two of them netted just a single mention apiece. That’s fourteen bids for two juggernauts from HBO, The White Lotus and Succession. The former is up one nomination from last year while the latter breaks even in these races, but two of its supporting contenders from last year, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, got promoted to the lead race (and may be able to win there). Despite heavy internal competition, I think last year’s winners have a good shot at repeating, but let’s look closely at all the nominees and the episodes they’ve submitted for consideration…

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