Podcast: A Proper Oscar Season Kick-Off

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel reunite to talk about the Oscar season as the floodgates open - Globe & SAG noms are about to hit! There are absolutely no spoilers in this so listen away.

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Introductions & The Greatest Showman
02:11 Lady Bird's prospects
04:15 SAG ensemble possibilities
11:00 Girls Trip & Comedy Globe
16:00 Best Director -- easy or tough call?
21:00 Three Billboards, Darkest Hour, Screenplay race
30:00 Phantom Thread, The Post, Murder on the Orient Express, Visual and Sound categories
38:30 Roman Israel Esq
41:00 Colin Farrell & Goodbyes

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

December 10th Oscar Check In

Box Office: Lady Bird and Three Billboards Strike

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Dec 1-3) UPDATED WITH ACTUALS
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Coco  $26.1 (cum. $108.6) REVIEW | FEELING SEEN	1.🔺 The Disaster Artist $1.2 on 19 screens
2. Justice League $16.5 (cum. $197.3) REVIEW	2.🔺 Man Who Invented Christmas $863k on 674 screens (cum. $3.1)
3. Wonder $12.5 (cum. $88)	3.🔺 Titanic (20th Anniversary) $415k on  87 screens
4. Thor Ragnarok  $9.6 (cum. $291.4) REVIEW, YOUR QUEEN	4. Call Me By Your Name $281k on 4 screens (cum. $908k) SCREENPLAY | SEX SCENES
5. Daddy's Home 2 $7.5 (cum. $82.8)	5. Loving Vincent $211k on 161 screens REVIEW

As expected Coco had no trouble keeping people's interest for another weeek. More impressive, due to lower expectations, is Wonder's continued performance. It just hit $100 million globally and if you think about it it could just as easily have been a $15-20 million grosser that few people noticed since bestselling books are hit and miss when they attempt to become bigticket movies. Kudos to the marketing team who were able to focus interest on it immediately despite so many other ostensibly family friendly movies in the marketplace.

(Maybe families are getting bored of superhero movies? Nah, that's wishful thinking since Justice League, is about to hit $200 million and will likely outperform the infinitely more beloved Wonder Woman in foreign markets if not at home). More after the jump...

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Tweet Things 2

It's our weekly curated collection of a dozen or so showbiz-related tweets we think you might enjoy. Some are true and some are funny like these two.

Watch movies from before you were born. It's good for you.

— Diablo Hellalgo (@pablohidalgo) October 28, 2017

Guy at work orientation today: What was the most pirated movie last year? Hint. Blockbuster. Main character dressed in red?

Me: JACKIE.

— Cici Cooper (@danblackroyd) October 30, 2017

And others just make us smile.

There's more after the jump involving Richard Burton's diaries, Meet Me in St Louis, The Snowman, Winona Ryder, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and more. But first how's this for an FYC plug? I mean is Sarah Paulson's asking us, we're considering...

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BIFA Nominations: Lady Macbeth and Three Billboards Boosts

by Nathaniel R

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool received 4 nominationsHot on the heels of the Gotham Awards, the British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2017 nominations. Though they don't tend to get much press in the US due to the the first two words in their title, they're worth noting. And, we'd argue, they're worth noting precisely for their limited jurisdiction. Awards groups with their own identity / purview are all too rare. Lady Macbeth led the field (15 nominations) with gay romantic drama God's Own Country (11 nominations), political satire The Death of Stalin (13 nominations), I Am Not a Witch (12 nominations) and one big tragicomedy Oscar hopeful Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (11 nominations) also super popular

I think the nomination I'm happiest to see (just because it was no sure thing) is Jamie Bell in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool for Best Actor. He's just brilliant in the film as I've mentioned before but it's the type of role -- nuanced / romantic / skewing "feminine" in its appeal -- for which male actors are rarely honored no matter how good they are. The complete list of nominees is after the jump...

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Best Actress: The Shape of Sally. The Mouth on Frances.

by Nathaniel R

Sally says "Hi!" (I apologize profusively that my camera cut off her cute wave to all of you via this TIFF photo)It's getting hot up in the Best Actress race. The fall festivals have thrust a dozen or so women toward potential red carpet glory but how will time and general reviews and audience response and campaigning sort them out? It's nail-biting! At least until the first awards are handed out at which point things always narrow down too quickly.

But for now -- and it's early still (our annual refrain) -- it's appearing like it might be a battle between Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water (which has won consistently strong reviews and the Golden Lion in Venice) and Frances McDormand who stars in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, the surprise winner of the Oscar bellwether "audience award" at TIFF. It's fun to think about the performances in tandem since Sally plays a literally mute woman and Frances a foul mouthed woman who will not be silenced...

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