What if there had been a Best Casting Oscar this past decade?

Since we shared the news that Casting Director David Rubin had become the new president of the Academy, we've been thinking a lot about a potential Best Casting Oscar. The common 'they shouldn't do this' feeling in the comments and on twitter was based on the fact that the Academy would likely get it all wrong and only pick a random sampling of Best Picture nominees with starry casts. But that's never a reason not to have a category when there should be one. Lord knows they get a lot of things wrong and many of the branches are susceptible to strangely ignoring anything outside of the Best Picture race even if the film isn't strong in their particular field.

Here at TFE, in our Film Bitch Awards, we've had a Best Casting category since 2013 which makes it pretty much our newest category. Why did we wait so long? Who knows. But after the jump we thought we'd share our nominees each year and what we think Oscar would have nominated in those same time frames. Play along in the comments, won'cha?

2013
Film Bitch Nominees	What Would Oscar Have Chosen?

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July. It's a wrap

The dog days of summer are upon us and the year is just flying by now. As we prepare to ride out the last month of the summer (and thus the summer movie season), here are 14 highlights from the month we now leave behind...

• The Farewell interview  Murtada talks to rising director Lulu Wang about her autobiographical hit
• New Classics: In the Loop Michael discovers that the political satire is eerily even more relevant 10 years on
• Doc Corner Glenn says Maiden is a must-see and an Oscar contender
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Nathaniel sits in the car with Brad and wonders where Tarantino's 9th or 10th movie is going. What an odd film experience
• The Personal and the universal Lynn Lee's take on The Farewell
• Best Actresses Nathaniel's ballot on 2019's first half
• Review: MidSommar Chris on the year's most polarizing movie
• Soundtracking: Nashville Chris listens closely to a non-musical that's also a musical 
• Smackdown 1960 Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and more special guests discuss Psycho and Elmer Gantry. Have you listened yet? 
• The Lion King Redux Timn's brutal review of Disney's money-devouring remake 

Most Discussed
• Yes No Maybe So: Cats that trailer was the stuff of dream nightmare ballets
• Emmy Snubs who we were mourning on nomination day
• Populist Oscar Nominees which performances wouldn't have been nominated without their outstanding box office receipts? 
• Big Little Lies "I Want to Know" - series or season finale? Either way we all had opinions.  

COMING IN AUGUST
The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1957,  a tribute to the very random and many-act career of producer Dino de Laurentiis for his Centennial, Mindhunter season 2, and new films like Luce, Blinded by the Light, The Kitchen, Where'd You Go Bernadette, Brittany Runs a Marathon, and Vita & Virginia.

Halfway Mark: Best of 2019 (Thus Far)

by Nathaniel R

 
Let's wrap up the midyear review now with a general overview and behind the scenes beauty. Please don't consider this list 'official' awards since the back half of the year is usually more impressive than the first half due to annoying Oscar-focused distribution patterns. The point, nevertheless, is an important one: we should always be appreciating art and keeping lists so we don't forget delights that opened in non-awards season months like most awards voters do. 

TEN BEST MOVIES

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Birthday-Month Fundraiser

We met Marcia Gay Harden last year during Birthday Month. What joy awaits this year? Happy birthday to us! (The royal "us" but also to our fellow twin Geminis!) The only thing we want for the birthday this year beyond good health (which only God or whatever Higher Power there is can grant without health insurance) and a new love interest (where are they?) is for The Film Experience to stay afloat.

Last week when we were down for a couple of days due to a hosting platform glitch, it felt like a miniature existential crisis in mini: Who are we without this website?

If you read the site daily, please consider a donation which can go along way towards stability / sanity.  For those of you who don't like the idea of monthly tips, please consider a one time donation (either option is available via the dropdown). It's difficult to monetize joy but put a dollar figure on what you get from TFE and then, um, subtract until you can afford it? (We're not greedy, just poor). And if you'd like to support a particular series you can do that this way. SO MANY OPTIONS xoxo

And if you're too poor this year and counting dimes with precision to pay bills, we wish you a sudden windfall (we've been there) and thank you again for reading even if you can't donate. 

May. It's a wrap

In May we were busy gazing forlornly at Cannes and also watching Fosse/Verdon intently. What were you up to? Here are a dozen highlights from the month that was so you can get caught up if you're rejoining us or if something grand slipped past you.

ICYMI
• Midnight Cowboy a 50th Anniversary look-back
• Game of Thrones "The Iron Throne" meltdown
• Pain & Glory at Cannes  Pedro Almodóvar has another hit on his hands. And an Oscar contender?
• Posterized: Keanu Reeves Whoa. He's made 55 movies and he's 55 years old. How many have you seen?  
• Top 10 Nicole Kidman Vanity Fair Covers The enduring beauty hit a milestone so we ranked them.  
• Two new Hong Chau movies The Downsizing breakout made good on her promise at Tribeca
• Booksmart a great comedy. Go see it
• Aladdin a three-part retrospective of the 1992 animated classic. One of our three wishes at the moment is that you would comment more on this deep-dive.
• Y Tu Mamá También's Ending the latest episode of your new favourite series "The New Classics" 

Most Discussed Posts
• Doris Day (1922-2019) A  legend has left us after a long life / huge career
• Posterized: Anne Hathaway She's back with The Hustle. How many of her 27 features have you seen?
• Renée Zellweger as Judy The teaser shows her singing. What do you make of it?

Previously in 2019 Summaries
Best of April | Oscar Season | Best of January

COMING IN JUNE
We have not one but two Smackdowns coming this month (2001 and 1960) for a double-whammy. Plus Emmy FYCs as nomination voting begins and various movies/festivities for LGBT Pride Month. All that plus new movies: Ma, Late Night, The Dead Don't Die, Godzilla: King of Monsters, Rocketman, Yesterday, Men in Black International, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.