4 days til Oscar. With 4 nominations let's talk "News of the World"

by Nathaniel R

News of the World is the only movie with exactly four Oscar nominations this year. That quartet of nods for Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Original Score, places the movie squarely in the greatly admired but not-quite-loved camp we see each year. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom met a similar fate with five nominations; both movies stood a reasonable chance in a few other categories but missed suggesting solid support but perhaps not passion. We'd argue that Paul Greengrass' western is easily the least discussed of the dozen most nominated movies this year (that would be the 8 Best Picture nominees plus News, One Night in Miami, Ma Rainey and Soul). That's true even here despite the film landing in my personal top 20. Why was that exactly?

We'd guess there are probably three reasons...

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93rd Academy Awards: on Best Sound and trips to other worlds

by Eurocheese

More than most years, I felt strongly about which films deserved to be in the conversation for Sound this year. This is the first year since the 1980 Oscars that only one team will receive a Sound prize, and even before 1980, Sound Effects would often receive a special separate prize (sometimes competitively, sometimes as the sole choice). Many Oscar fans learned to explain the difference between Oscar wins for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, a separation we’ve had since 2003. The Academy has rewarded the Sound Department in every year since the third Oscar ceremony back in 1930, which means the honor has been around even longer than our supporting acting categories.

The nominees this year brought us a wide range of stories – a high seas chase, a Hollywood throwback, a western, an animated film and an immersive film focused on hearing loss. And did you know this year’s Sound category brought us two double nominees?

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Yes No Maybe So: News of the World

by Nathaniel R

Suddenly we're feeling quite prophetic in expecting News of the World to receive a multitude of Oscar nominations. Universal has finally given us more than just a film still and the western drama looks exciting and robust. Check out the trailer and Yes No Maybe So after the jump...

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"Elvis" gets back to work

by Ben Miller

Elvis and his manager Colonel Parker in 1958

Though the coronavirus is still raging in the US, the rest of the world is starting to get back to normal, and that means the restarting of international film productions.  One of the most noteworthy of those productions,  restarting in Australia, is Baz Luhrmann’s (as of yet untitled) Elvis Presley film, starring Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’s Austin Butler as the King of Rock and the world’s most famous COVID patient, Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker.

The project itself is relatively unknown, but we do know Luhrmann, so don't expect the typical biopic treatment...

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Costume sketches for film characters

Costume Designer Daniel Orlandi is guest-blogging all day!

by Daniel Orlandi

I thought I'd share a few random sketches from past movies and TV specials.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Busty Rusty in Flawless
Director Joel Schumacher was a former costume designer. So he was great to work with. He gave me a lot of confidence as a designer. Robert DeNiro recommended me for the job...

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