On This Day in History: 1988 & 1994's Opposing Best Pic Lineups!

Feeling festive today but not quite ready for Christmas? Celebrate one of these anniversaries!

1805 Joseph Smith Jr, founder of the Mormon Church is born in Vermont. Here's a very random piece of trivia: Outside of the very early movie Brigham Young (1940) about his successor with Vincent Price in the Joseph Smith role, the only actually famous actor to ever play him is Dean Cain of Lois & Clark fame in a movie called September Dawn (2007)? It's kind of hard to draw a line connecting Vincent Price and Dean Cain otherwise, right?
1867 Madame CJ Walker, cosmetics mogul and the first black female millionaire in America, is born in Louisiana. Where's her biopic, Hollywood? History has more than just Great White Man stories.
1887 Underappreciated director John Cromwell who guided Bette Davis's breakthrough role in Of Human Bondage , and the all female wonders of Caged was born in Ohio. One more Bette related anniversary after the jump...

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New Oscar Predictions: Acting Categories... Locked Up or Not?

By Nathaniel R

Post SAG & Globe Nominations each year oscar's acting categories start feeling locked up. But here's something always worth remembering: Each year brings us 1 or 2 new additions to the "nominated for SAG & Globe but still missed Oscar" close-but-no-cigar club.  This year in particular seems unlikely to have as much exact 5/5 correlation due to the double whammy of Oscar's acting branch voting a little later than usual (they don't get ballots until January 5th) and the precursors voting a smidge earlier than usual. The next two weeks are crucial; no one who is remotely close to a nomination should give up just yet.

ACTRESS
Portman has been winning lots of critics awards but, strangely, her film (just as strong or even stronger than her eery performance) isn't doing as well. She's not exactly locked for a second win but she's definitely giving Emma Stone a fright and probably preventing Amy Adams or Annette Bening from dreaming of their first very long-awaited wins. The nomination race is even tighter...

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Tweetweek: Nick in New Zealand, Amy in OscarLand and More...

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— Nick Davis (@NicksFlickPicks) December 15, 2016

Before you click ahead to see this week's collection of tweeted amusements, take a moment to appreciate the perfection of this visual postcard from our podcast mate Nick Davis. He's on vacation in New Zealand doing Holly doing The Piano on THE beach where it happened. His all time favorite film so I mean. It couldn't be more perfect, except that he neglected to contact Janet Patterson about a hoop skirt. After the jump Babs, Florence Foster Jenkins, Passengers, Jackie, Natalie Portman and more...

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Janelle Monáe's Breakout 2016

Chris here with one of our newest favorites - well, new to the movies at least. Janelle Monáe has already been such an effervescent musician and entertainer this decade, crushing it with ferocious moves and slick style. The leap to movies was only inevitable with all that charisma. This year she's made quite the successful transition, landing right in the middle of Oscar season with supporting roles in two contenders Moonlight and Hidden Figures. Both films and characters are quite different, showing the star's range and excitingly delivering her breakthrough for two black narratives.

But it's not just happenstance of two great projects in the same season. In short order, Monáe proves to be as much of a natural cinematic talent as she is a musical one. Without any of the stunted skills of her pop contemporaries trying out this acting thing, she's already the kind of screen presence you just want to spend more time with. In short order, Janelle Monáe deserves to be a damn movie star...

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Great Moments In... Truth Telling

#41 (Octavia Spencer in The Help, 2011)