Weekend Awards Wrap-Up: Opening Pandora's Box

by Cláudio Alves

The FFI's treatment of ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT will go down as THE awards season fumble.

The awards season continues to heat up, though we're about to hit a bit of a pause or a slump as the holidays tend to mark a decrease in such activity. As if to make up for that incoming quieting, the outpour of film honors only grew stronger the past week. This included the Pandora International Film Critics, an unofficial initiative spearheaded by the Filmotomy site – they also organize the Femme Filmmakers Festival every year – that gathers writers and film buffs from all over the world. This year, they invited me to be part of the voting body, and I am delighted to share the results, even if I don't necessarily agree with all of them…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Best Original Screenplay is the Battle of the Auteurs

In this Oscar Volley, Eric Blume and Cláudio Alves discuss the Best Original Screenplay race…

HARD TRUTHS, Mike Leigh

ERIC BLUME: Hi Cláudio, I put us together on this one because I love arguing with you.  Hope that's okay.  Plus, I am curious to get your takes on some of these films and scripts.

Best Original Screenplay has a lot of strong contenders this year.  What I find particularly interesting is that eight of these feature scripts written by their directors - Seed of the Sacred Fig, A Real Pain, The Substance, September 5, Anora, The Brutalist, All We Imagine as Light, and Hard Truths.  That has to be some kind of record? 

CLÁUDIO ALVES: With the growing connection between the big European film festivals and the awards season, auteur cinema is on the rise as an Oscar gold magnet. And many of those selections favor director-forward productions, often where the folks in the director's chair also penned the script. Indeed, from the octet you mention, only A Real Pain and Hard Truths premiered outside Cannes or Venice. And with Mike Leigh's latest, it wasn't for a lack of trying on his part…

Click to read more ...

Weekend Awards Wrap-Up: Regional Critics Groups Galore

by Cláudio Alves

Adrien Brody is on his way to his second Oscar nomination. Maybe his second victory.

When those critics honors start coming, a trickle quickly turns into a tsunami. There's so much to go over, but here's the general state of the race. Best Picture is a mess, with at least four contenders nabbing multiple top prizes this past week. Still, Anora and The Brutalist lead the pack. Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison are the critical frontrunners of their respective races, but Colman Domingo and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are trailing closely behind. Kieran Culkin is sweeping the Supporting Actor awards (even though he's a co-lead), but it's not a Da'Vine Joy Randolph-style sweep. After all, Maclin, Borisov, Pearce, and Washington have all won something. In Supporting Actress, chaos reigns…

Click to read more ...

The Costume Designers Guild loves themselves some Witches

by Cláudio Alves

Paul Tazewell is dancing through the season, toward an Oscar win for WICKED.

PGA this, DGA that, SAG whatever. The most important guild in my heart is the Costume Designers Guild (CDG), formed by those great artists who clothe our movie stars and style the pictures we love so dearly. This year, they're feeling especially witchy with their nominations, somehow bestowing three nominations on Agatha All Along and two for the Dune universe and the formidable Bene Gesserit sisterhood. And, of course, there's Wicked with its aesthetically opposite duo – green does go well with pink. I imagine Paul Tazewell is about to win his first Academy Award for the blockbuster musical, this CDG nod and likely victory a stepping stone on his path to Oscar gold. 

But enough about magical women. Let's assess the complete CDG nominations…

Click to read more ...

The first Guild Nominations are here!

by Cláudio Alves

THE SUBSTANCE continues to be a hit with precursors. A rare feat for horror cinema.

So far, the season has been dominated by critics' awards, which, while worthy of attention, don't offer great help when it comes to predicting the Oscars. After all, AMPAS is formed by industry people rather than critics. So, the guilds are a better indicator of what might be a hit with the Academy and, at long last, we're starting to see the first guild nominations. These past few days, the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and the Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild (MUHS) announced their yearly honors. The Producers Guild of America (PGA) also announced their documentary contenders. Let's see what we can deduce from the results so far…

Click to read more ...