Almost There: Oskar Werner in "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold"

by Cláudio Alves

To be nominated in both Leading and Supporting categories at the same Oscar ceremony is a rare feat some actors have been lucky enough to achieve. Most often, though, AMPAS will pick a role to celebrate and only bless the performer with one nomination. Actors that came close to the elusive double nomination include people like Meryl Streep in 2002, Al Pacino in 1990, Jane Fonda in 1978, and today's Almost There case study, Oskar Werner in 1965.

This Austrian performer, famous for films like Truffaut's Jules and Jim, was nominated in the Best Actor category for his work in Ship of Fools. That same year, he was probably close to a Supporting Actor nod for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold…

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The genius of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" ending

by Cláudio Alves

Back in the 1960s, unlike now, a film could be recognized in the Best Foreign Language Film category one year and still compete for the other Oscars the next. Such a strange fate befell Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, an intoxicating love letter to the classic Hollywood musical by one of the most inventive auteurs of the Nouvelle Vague. In 1964, the picture was a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and would go on to conquer four other nods in 1965, the year of our next Supporting Actress Smackdown.

While it's easy to resent the Academy for not fully embracing the flick (it won nothing), the citations it received, for Demy's script and Michel Legrand's music, were fully deserved...

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Tweetweek: ABBA in a White Room, Carrie Gifs, 1999 Supporting Actress

In today's tweetweek, the 1999 supporting actress race, mindy project A+ joke, ABBA, Lindsay Lohan's new accent, and the last few days of political anxiety (in this phase at least). It's all after the jump...

For Toni Collette's birthday, I broke into Angelina Jolie's home and retrieved her Supporting Actress Oscar. It's the very least I could do.

— Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) November 1, 2016

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Too Spoilery, Too Soon?

How soon is too soon for spoilers?

It's hard to keep the lid on plot details of any film with instant reactions available on Twitter and spreading rapidly. You can try to avoid reading reviews and recaps, but what about the times that a film's marketing campaign gives away too much? It's frustrating to see any new trailer that foretells too much plot, but is it okay to be open with story beats if we've already had time to experience the film?

Recently, 10 Cloverfield Lane has been among the best at teasing us with what it had in store. It's very title alone suggests something more than meets the eye, but it's minimal trailers and posters never dipped more than a toe into the plot elements or scares in this pop-up mini-event movie. Announcing its presence a mere two months before release and never revealing much more was a bold and brave marketing risk that hopefully more studios will be willing to take in the future, for it paid off in spades for the viewing experience.

Less elusive, but still similarly slim on the plot, The Witch came out in February after a year on the festival circuit and a solid block of enticing pre-release materials. General audiences were only promised a chilling horror and remained unspoiled about how it would conclude. The film is getting another push this weekend (to 666 theatres) in the hopes of passing Ex Machina as distributor a24's highest grosser. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing one of the best of the year thus far!

But to coincide with 10 Cloverfield Lane's international rollout and this final expansion for The Witch, there are a new poster and trailer that kick the bucket into full spoiler territory. If you haven't seen either yet and want to remain unspoiled, stop right here. MAJOR SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP...

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