ICYMI

Busy week as usual. Seven highlights, in case you missed them...

Alfre Woodard - we talked to the great actress about her favorite roles from 12 Years a Slave to Passion Fish
Stage Door catfights - Anne Marie finally made it to the classics in her Katharine Hepburn retrospective. This one is deeply pleasureable
LA Confidential - this "Best Shot" edition didn't have the turnout of Eternal Sunshine but it sure was interesting to see this movie again after all these years. Such stellar performances 
Tom vs. Dickie - Jude and Matt were warring again in this Italian edition of "beauty vs. beast" in which both of them are both beauties and beasts. Have you voted yet?
Jai Courtney - the next big thing or the next shrug? 
Women's History Month - profiles of great actresses as real life women 
X-Men Days of Future Past - we yes no maybe so'ed the popular trailer 

DON'T FORGET "Best Shot"
The next three films have been chosen -- legendary bad movie Can't Stop the Music (1980) is our April Fools Day selection so watch it this weekend and join us on Tuesday with YOUR Best Shot.

Later in the season we'll be hitting films from all decades and genres and reputations as we do. (You can see the complete list of previous titles by season or by decade) but the best way to enjoy the series is not by waiting for your favorites to show up but by participating each time and blowing your mind, taste and eyeballs wide open. Sad Side Note: I'm dying to do Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) for this series but it's still very hard to find on DVD. Argh. I don't understand why Criterion doesn't come to the rescue - thank god I saw it at the Walter Reade when I had the chance a few years back.

COMING SOON
Our Annual April Foolish Predictions for the Oscar race won't be as early as usual since we're working on some behind the scenes coding. I'll be on a wee vacation as well from April 3rd through the 7th as well but the rest of the team may well pop in.

ICYMI

I know you didn't read everything. So I'm giving you homework on a weekend. But easy fun homework. Highlights from the week that was...

Jake Gyllenhaal doubled-up for the trippy Enemy
Kate Winslet finally got her "Star"
Sofia Coppola might direct a new version of The Little Mermaid
Rob Lowe turned 50 so we looked back
Colin vs Ralph (VOTE NOW!) in the latest 'Beauty vs. Beast', In Bruges style
Streep vs. Bridges in The Giver trailer 
Pixar announced more sequels 
Finally... Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale might do biopics on Busby Berkeley and Steve Jobs respectively

And while we wait for Spring movie season to really start we also revisited some older films. Anne Marie's "A Year With Kate" finally made it through Katharine Hepburn's rough RKO period-piece era and somehow Anne Marie entertained even when the film's didn't. She's about to hit the real classics starting next Wednesday so you'll want to be here. We also celebrated two Peter Sellers films with 50th anniversaries: The Pink Panther and The World of Henry Orient. And for Eternal Sunshine's 10th Anniversary the return of the communal "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series and had the best turnout ever with 32 shots. Please do join us next Tuesday night when we look at the Best Shots from L.A. Confidential and make it 33 by posting your favorite.

ICYMI

A new Saturday tradition since it's the slowest day for the site and some of you don't visit every day *sniffle* and we don't want you to miss anything so catch up over the weekend, why don't you?

Save the Dates SAG, BAFTA, GLOBE, OSCAR ceremony dates announced
Endless Awards  Best Cameos - the film bitch awards continue
Your Vote? Beauty vs. Beast "cleavagey slutbomb" vs. "the chosen one" - why haven't you voted? I know you love the greatest TV show evah!
⬅ And yes I'm shamelessly trying to sway your votes
Some Doodling "Spark" Nathaniel draws the Marquise
Casting Problems More Leading Roles for Women and More Roles (at all) for Disabled Actors and Hollywood's love of White-Washing are three super-related topics that were big talking points this week round the web
Good Talk  "True Looking" this report on the season finales of Looking and True Detective garnered the most comments this week.
Most Talk "Podcast Finale" - the gang's all here to wrap up awards season
Most Important Oscar Coverage Index and a plea for subscriptions to keep the site healthy. We need about 290 more of you!

DON'T FORGET TO WATCH ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND THIS WEEKEND.

2004's best picture (not AMPAS stamped alas) turns 10 years old on Wednesday next week and on Tuesday night at 9 PM we'll celebrated by kicking off the fifth season of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" - to play along just post your favorite shot somewhere with a short explanation and we'll link up. 

Oscar Coverage. It's a Wrap!

Still so cold. Perhaps a tropical vacation post Oscar? Whew. We made it through another season (but for one last podcast - see below). Kisses. Hugs. No-Doz. Please stay with us throughout the year as 2014 WILL be our best yet.

2013 was a breakthrough year starting with a spot on CNNi, joining the Gurus of Gold, doing TIFF (and then Sundance) and the Critics Choice event officially, and the best year yet for ad sales. But a breakthrough is not, unfortunately, quite the same thing as 'making it'.

I recently made a tough life choice to make writing my sole income  -- yes, believe it or not, I've been juggling a second career for most of the 8 years that The Film Experience has been a daily endeavor (TFE existed before 2005 but that was before all sites needed daily content to stay competitive - the speed of content has increased exponentially all over the web). But now I'm just writing about the movies. Juggling the two became more and more difficult and right here is where the passion lies. To help me prove that it wasn't the worst decision of my life: read, share, link, tweet articles you like, donate, or best yet subscribe (see "Keep TFE Strong" in your right hand sidebar) and for the price of a cup of coffee each month (or more if you're flush) you can make sure a roof stays over my head. I feel enormous gratitude that people read at all much less so many of you. I'm particularly grateful to those who are already subscribing but just 300 hundred more of you and things get substantially easier (i.e. [cue Pet Shop Boys/Destiny's Child/] i love you you pay my rent ♫! / Can you pay my telephone bills? Do you pay my automo* bills? ♫ / )  

Complete Oscar Week Coverage 

• Red Carpet Lineup (pt 1) - The Golden Ladies
• Red Carpet Lineup (pt 2) - Everyone Else
• The Night in Liza - because she deserves better!
• "A Pizza Ranks the Celebrities Who Ate Him"
• "Speech! Speech!" - Cate reigned benevolently over us all while Matthew worshipped himself
• Second Nominations? Which first-timers will be right back?
• Backstage at the show - bon mots from the press room
• The Big Show reviewed - crumbs, mysteries, endearments
• Winning Moment / Loveable Losers - slo-mo fantasies of victory & defeat
  Oscar Foods & Frozen Cake  - What did you serve at your party?
• "2013" - Let's get the date right. Plus photos
• The Beautiful People - Cate, Matthew, Lupita & Jared
• Order of Presentation - Performance Order & Winners List
• Arrivals - Live Blogged

PODCAST !? GOT ANY QUESTIONS FOR US? As an addendum to all of this and for the Season Finale, Katey, Nick, and Joe join Nathaniel for the final podcast of the season. (The podcast will be on hiatus until mid to late April but I think you'll love next season even more)

P.S. BRAD PITT HAS AN OSCAR NOW. xo

* I do not actually have automo' bills. I take the subway

"YOU LIKE ME!" (this is not an Oscar post)

3 Notes. Oh don't click away you have time to read them. And yes I'll be live tweeting and a little light blogging tonight

01. Like The Film Experience on Facebook. Follow Nathaniel on Twitter, Pinterest? Why am I so needy? It's like this: Once Oscar night wraps up I experience something like a free fall; help me pull that parachute string.

02. We're here all year -- it's not just an Oscar site so don't abandon us if you're exhausted by Oscar shenanigans. There's only one more week of it, recapping this year's Oscars, filmbitching, and we'll close out the annual festivities with that Supporting Actress Smackdown we promised (yes, the one I flubbed that you've been impatient for). After that one eye returns to brand new movies and pinch of tv and the other to occasional trips back to favored oldies in A Year With Kate, Seasons of Bette, and Hit Me... oh, yeah...

03. Break out the bubbly! "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" returns on March 18th (We're moving it to Tuesdays at 9 PM to give people the weekend to screen the movies and be ready!). If you're new to the blog or haven't yet experimented with actually participating, I guarantee a good time and it proves the point the more the merrier! You simply watch the movie, post your single favorite shot on your blog/ tumblr/ youtube/ instagram/ twitter/pinterest whatever and tell us why you chose it!

03/18 ETERNAL SUNSHINE (2004, *10th anniversary*)
04/01 TBA - what fun but terrible movie should we together for april fools day?

... and more to come in April

These are all the previous episodes in chronological order of the films (though not the episodes) since we experiment with all eras and all genres. Join our group viewing party!  1920s Sherlock Jr (24), The Circus (28), Pandora's Box (29)  1930s Tarzan the Ape Man (32), Snow White (37), Wizard of Oz (39) 1940s Fantasia (41), Shadow of a Doubt (43), The Woman in the Window (44), Double Indemnity (44), Black Narcissus (47), Possessed (47), Easter Parade (48);  1950s A Streetcar Named Desire (51), Singin' in the Rain (52), The Bad and the Beautiful (52), Forbidden Games (52), How to Marry a Millionaire (53), Night of the Hunter (55), Rebel Without a Cause (55), Picnic (55), Summertime (55), A Face in the Crowd (57) 1960s Rocco and His Brothers (60), Psycho (60), La Dolce Vita (60), Hud (63), Mary Poppins (64), Bonnie & Clyde (67), Barbarbella (68), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (69) 1970s Pink Narcisuss (71), The Exorcist (73), American Graffiti (73), Dog Day Afternoon (75), Story of Adele H (75), Eraserhead (77) 1980s Ladyhawke (85), The Color Purple (85), Aliens (86), Law of Desire and/or Matador (86/87), Peggy Sue Got Married (86), Dead Ringers (88) 1990s Edward Scissorhands (90), Beauty & the Beast (91), Raise the Red Lantern (91), Heavenly Creatures (94), Se7en (95), Showgirls (95), Jackie Brown (97), The Talented Mr Ripley (99) 2000s Bring it On (00), Requiem for a Dream (00), X-Men (00), Moulin Rouge! (01), Memento (01), The Royal Tenenbaums (01), Road to Perdition (02), Angels in America (03), Mean Girls (04), Serenity (05) 2010s Pariah (11)