The 14th Annual Team Experience Awards: "OBAA" and "Sinners" lead the nominations

by Cláudio Alves

SINNERS | © Warner Bros.

One Battle After Another and Sinners lead the 14th annual Team Experience Award nominations. Both films scored twelve nods each, a bit below their Oscar haul in the horror flick’s case, but still respectable. However, neither beat the Team Experience Awards record set by The Favourite, which scored 13 nominations in 2019. As ever, it’s worth reminding that these honors are voted on by The Film Experience writers, excluding Nathaniel, who does his own Film Bitch Awards, wholly separate from this list. He probably wouldn’t have allowed the tie that expands this year’s Best Director roster to six slots. Oh well, it’s more cinema to celebrate, more artistry to cheer and applaud. So, let’s get to it!

Discover the full list of nominees, in our 20 categories, after the jump…

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Best International Film: And Then There Were Two...

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, ERIC BLUME and NATHANIEL R discuss the Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. 

NO OTHER CHOICE, Park Chan-wook | © NEON

ERIC:  Hi Nathaniel, I feel lucky getting you all to myself to discuss Best International Film.  I do think the slate is ultimately very strong overall, but before we get to our five nominees and an assessment on the race, can we take one last brief moment to mourn the EXCLUSION of a film in both of our Top 10 lists, Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice?  It's no easy feat to make a film that's both political and funny, and he really nailed his tiny little bullseye.

NATHANIEL:  Maybe it's a tiny bullseye but I bet if you zoom way in that bullseye is as intricate as the lines in a diamonds or as multi-colored and weirdly patterned as an iris. Which is to say that not only was it my favourite of the submissions but it's quite literally my #1 film of the year. (Why leave everyone in suspense since it takes me so long to post my awards). I really am just obsessed with it and Lee Byung Hun absolutely deserved a spot in the Best Actor lineup too. The Korean superstar is so confident in his gifts that he's able to be goofy and pathetic and sad without ever losing his Movie Star-ness. It's really a miracle performance if you ask me because he does all that while feeling utterly spontaneous in each scene. Anyway I could talk about this movie for days...

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Oscar Volley: Is an upset possible in "Best Editing"?

It’s that time again! Lynn Lee and Eurocheese discuss the Oscar race for Best Editing.

the Best Editing nominees

LYNN: Happy peak Oscar season, Eurocheese! Excited to discuss the editing category with you. Overall, this is a strong if relatively unsurprising lineup. I, for one, am absolutely delighted Sentimental Value made it in – that final scene in itself deserves all of the awards. And I can see the merits in the other selections, even if the Academy once again went with all Best Picture nominees (yawn). But then it’s been almost a decade since they included any non-BP nominees. So I will just sit in the corner and shed my own quiet tear for the unsung A House of Dynamite, which deserved more awards love in general but in this category in particular. At least the BAFTAs recognized that!

What are your thoughts on the nominees? And do you think the winner will also win Best Picture (for the fourth year in a row)?

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The Best Actress Race: Nomination Tracks & Frankenstein Fusion

by Nathaniel R

I should probably switch this up as I've been doing it annually, but I can't resist. I love imagining a Frankenstein-fusion of the parts of all the  BEST ACTRESS nominees.  If you smoosh or stitch Renate, Kate, Emma, Jessie, and Rose together our Best Actress Category Avatar is a mid-career still-ascending brunette star on her second nomination. She's also dabbled in musicals, played Sally Bowles in "Cabaret", and BAFTA recognized her genius before Oscar voters did!  Maybe she has false memories of winning an Oscar but this is only her second nomination. Her director has a proven track record with guiding actresses -- she may have even worked with them before -- to stellar performances. She's a fire sign with earth rising, a wife, a mother of two, and she just turned 40.

The movie she's nominated for is a drama about a young grieving mother struggling to balance her artistic career ambitions, with her obnoxious needy child--- wait, is she Alice from Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore?. No uh, never mind, the movie is weirder than that. There's a darkly comic subplot about incels and mysterious holes in her ceiling but the main thrust of the narrative is that the most important man in her life (was it her dad or husband? I forget) is perpetually absent, consummed by his own artistic career ambitions, and has no time for her needs! 

See the updated Best Actress chart 
The chart includes a daily poll, "How'd They Get Nominated?" speculation (not meant as judgment -- nobody is nominated on performance alone!), stats, anecdotes, and trivia. 

98th Academy Awards: Team Experience Predictions

by Cláudio Alves

Tomorrow will be a big day for the ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER and SINNERS' teams.

Before tomorrow’s nomination announcement rocks our world and redefines the season, it’s time for ten Team Experience writers (including Nathaniel!) to throw their hat in the punditry ring and hope for the best. This year, ten predictors are in play, doing their best to see who has the best instincts for Oscar prognostication. Last time, Eric proved himself our champion, but things may change with a new season, new contenders, new narratives. There are some wild swings among the various picks – Kokuho in Costume Design, for instance – along with many locks that everyone agrees with – Best Animated Feature feels terribly predictable – yet may still produce some shocking snubs. One thing’s for sure, either One Battle After Another or Sinners will be our nomination leader. Indeed, there’s a strong possibility one or both will break the record for most nods ever. We have to wait and see.

You can find the prediction charts and added commentary after the jump…

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