May. It's a Wrap

Well, that went quick. And yet time also isn't moving. Somehow the Oscars were only 36 days ago! Isn't that nuts? But in case you've been in and out of this joint this month when we haven't been as prolific (we're always a bit fatigued the month after the Oscars) here are some posts you might have missed...

a dozen highlights
• Toni Collette - is one Oscar nom all it will ever be?
• Back to the movies - Lynn Lee sees Gunda as her first trip back to the cinema
• Postman Rings Four Times - a quartet of The Postman Always Rings Twice films
• Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot - one of the great child performances
• Emmy Watch: Best Comedy Series - it'll be a mostly freshman competition
• On the Globes cancellation - Hollywood hypocrisy and what it could mean going forward
• Yes No Maybe So - teasing Dear Evan Hansen, Stillwater, and more...
• A Dirty Shame - we revisited 7 John Waters movies for his 75th birthday
• Erin Brockovich's Best Lines - ten juicy lines from a classic script
• Supporting Actress Smackdown 2000 - a great conversation about Frances, Julie, Marcia, Kate, and Dame Judi Dench
• Cher in Mask - she was right to shame the Academy about her snub
• Cruella Interview - the dazzling wigs and mad makeup discussed

COMING IN JUNE
More Emmy FYCs and analysis, first Oscar predictions of the year,  In the Heights, Pixar's Luca, Ellen Burstyn in Queen Bees, the release of I Carry You With Me (finally), the Provincetown film festival, the 50th anniversary of Klute (Jane Fonda's first much-deserved Oscar win), and a celebration of the films of 1946 in the run-up to the Supporting Actress Smackdown.

March. It's a Wrap.

Usually March is our cool-down period after another exhausting but fun awards season. Here at (practically) the end of the first quarter of 2021, we're still three weeks away from Oscar night so we're reviewing each Oscar category still. Our internal calendars are a disaster. How about yours? Here's a quick recap in case you missed any of these... 

A Dozen Highlights of March at TFE
• Minari: A Tale of Two (or more) Grandmas Lynn gets personal for this movie
• The New Actress Hierarchy Frances & Glenn are still rising
• Gay Best Friend: Dolly in Silkwood All roads eventually lead to Cher
• Over & Overs: Amadeus This composer biopic never gets old
• Ten best onscreen pigs because we live for a random list
• Most Confusing Oscar Categories pre-Nominations It was supporting actor not actress that ended up shocking this year. Which other years had confusing results?
• This Had Oscar Buzz Nathaniel guest stars for White Oleander
• The Piano Lesson The August Wilson plays are all getting movies. This is next
• New Oscar Records an annual tradition of course
• The Worst Case of Category Fraud Claudio finds things got egregious this year
• Almost There Anthony Hopkins in The Lion in Winter
• What were the 5 best "Best Picture" vintages? That got you talking

COMING IN APRIL:
SAG, BAFTA, Spirit Awards, and Oscar night are all coming up in April. We'll also have a week-long John Waters retrospective (!) to celebrate his 75th birthday. 

And of course the Supporting Actress Smackdown returns on April 15th with a look at the current Oscar season so get your votes in now on the current list. After that we'll all revisit the year 2000 together. Here's how to vote. 

😬

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Happy Holidays from the Film Experience

May your smiles today be as bright at Natalie Wood's this whole holiday week, in whichever way you celebrate. Thank you for reading us all year round and for loving the movies and actresses and the Oscars alongside us. And a super duper thanks and a wish for as much abundance as you can receive to those who subscribe and pay for a cup of coffee for us each month since it's hard times this year at The Film Experience HQ.

xo - Nathaniel and team. 

November. It's a Wrap

Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my OCD qualities with those Oscar history overviews (Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Netherlands,  Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) so I skimped on other stuff. ANYWAY, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;) 

Highlights from the Month That Was

• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting! 
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney - a three film retrospective for her Centennial
• Carmen Maura in Law of Desire - the definitive Almodóvar interpreter?

Most Discussed

• Amy Adams in Arrival - almost there at the Oscars
• Smackdown '87 - Olympia Dukakis vs Norma vs the Annes (x 3)

COMING IN DECEMBER / ANY REQUESTS?
Oscar chart updates this week. Then a new movie bonanza as the studios finally release their supposedly strongest Oscar contenders --mostly huddled around Christmas week as if they're pretending it's a normal awards-strategy year: The Prom, One Night in Miami, Soul, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Minari, Mank, Ammonite, Nomadland, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.  Beyond that flurry of titles we'll begin our "year in review" list-making frenzy.

Not sure how much time we'll have for older titles but which of the following birthdays/anniversaries would you most like to see celebrated? 10th: Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, True Grit, Blue Valentine, Another Year; 25th: 12 Monkeys, Dead Man Walking, Sense & Sensibility, Nixon, Waiting to Exhale, Cutthroat Island, Timothée Chalamet; 50th: The Aristocats, Donkey Skin, Husbands, Love Story, Horror of Frankenstein, The Wild Country, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Little Big Man, Gimme Shelter, Regina Hall, Jennifer Connelly; 75th: Spellbound, Bells of St Marys, Leave Her to Heaven, or National Velvet?