Podcast: For our season finale, Oscar night, naturally!

with Nathaniel R, Murtada Elfadl, and Nick Davis

On this week's podcast, we three Oscarphiles unite to talk about the big night: Parasite's win, Brad's speech, Bong Joon Ho mania, Fonda's magnificence, the musical performances, our hopeful takeaways from the big night... and who we are rooting for among the nominees for a next great Oscar winning act. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

92nd Oscars in Review - Season Finale

Soundtracking: Oscar's 2019 Musical Moments

by Chris Feil

Idina Menzel's perplexed reaction shot -- we'll get to it.

This year, Oscar treated us to a more music heavy ceremony than usual. With some moments expected, some surprising, and some impromptu, the telecast had some naysayers asking “What is this?! The Grammys?!” Overall, yes, the musical numbers halted the night’s energy rather than propelled it, and that wasn’t helped by the producer’s decisions for when to have a presenter and not. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t moments of brilliant throughout. Here’s Oscar night’s musical moments from worst to best...

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22 days till Oscar. Randy Newman, again !

by Nathaniel R

image credit: Danny Moloshok

Scarlett Johansson and Cynthia Erivo got all the press for being double-nominees this year at the Oscars but they were hardly the only ones. Others include Sound engineer Mark Ulano (Ad Astra, Once Upon a Time...) and special effects supervisor Dominic Tuohy (1917, Rise of Skywalker).  Randy Newman, nominated for both Original Score (Marriage Story) and Original Song (Toy Story 4) also got the double bringing his grand total up to 22 career nominations. Oscar's music branch can't get enough of him and he's also won twice before...

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Soundtracking: The 2019 Original Song Nominees

by Chris Feil

Right on schedule, the "why do we still have Best Original Song?" responses have arrived. While this year doesn't rank high among the greats in terms of quality, I, your resident Best Original Song obsessive, would argue that this year's crop of nominees is far from the worst. The most expected (or at least predicted) nominee left off the list was The Lion King's "Spirit", though we can all rest on the certainty that Beyoncé will one day be a nominee here. And then there is many folks saddest omission, Wild Rose's "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)", sadly from a small film that couldn't ultimately battle against bigger names and titles.

Let's break down the nominees and their potential to win...

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Soundtracking: The 2019 Oscar Original Song Bake-Off

by Chris Feil

One of the biggest headlines among the Monday release of Oscar's shortlists among nine categories was a popstar omission from the season's splashiest musical. Yes, it turns out Taylor Swift will have to wait to lift up to Oscar's Heaviside Layer as "Beautiful Ghosts" (the original track she cowrote with Andrew Lloyd Webber from Cats) was left off the list of songs that will advance towards hopeful nominations. But perhaps "Ghosts" is a strong reminder that these days doesn't clear the runway for popstars or new songs for preexisting musicals as easily as we might expect.

But among the lineup of hopefuls are films huge and small, expected names and a few genuine surprises - and it may be a more competitive field than originally expected. Let's run down the fifteen songs that did make the lineup and their chances at a nomination...

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