Are the new Best International Film rules a good idea?

As the summer stands between us and the awards season to come, Cláudio Alves and Juan Carlos Ojano discuss some of this year’s new Oscar rules, focusing on their beloved Best International Film race.

Visar Morina's SHAME AND MONEY became the first film eligible for the Best International Feature Oscar this season, when it won the World Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

CLÁUDIO: Much was said about the Oscar rule changes when they were first announced at the beginning of May, with various opinions going around. While the possibility of actors double-dipping in the same category for the first time since the 1930s is enticing, the transformations to the Best International Film race are perhaps more important and worthy of discussion. And who better to discuss it with than Juan Carlos Ojano, the only person I know who has seen every single nominee in the category's history and discussed them through The One-Inch Barrier podcast? But first, let's assess the rules themselves…

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It's a Pride Party! with Two Superlative Shorts!

by Joanna Sodeman-Taylor

As some of y’all might have noticed, Joanna Sodeman-Taylor is a fairly new name to be showing up on TFE and acting so familiar. So, happy Pride to me! The diva formerly known as Nick is now going by Joanna, and she's has the hormones to back it up. June may be over, but with my other major cinematic obligation with the Columbus Film Festival currently completed, I figured I should polish off my writings on two exemplary documentary shorts that deserve an audience all year round. Better late than never, right? Right! Also, please sound off your favorite queer-as-fuck films you watched in June, whether they're first tiime watches or perennial faves. We gotta share the love around here, goddammit!

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First Predictions: Best Supporting Actress

by Nathaniel R

Can Daisy & Esmé pull an Emma & Kate in the new version of SENSE & SENSIBILITY?

With such a banner Best Supporting Actress season in the rearview mirror, how can the next race even dream of topping it? Who will be our next Madigan... our Wunmi or Teyana? Will we get another Inga & Elle twofer? Sight unseen the films of 2026 don't appear to be offering us a wealth of contenders. And yet, who can really know in the spring or summertime?  Promos and buzz and rumors of greatness for forthcoming films almost always center around movie star leads and auteurs. Supporting characters, and the actors who play them, only (usually) turn heads / gather momentum during actual screenings and the reviews / media discourse that follows. Which is a long way of saying I don't feel even remotely confident in this first round of Oscar predictions for the 99th Oscars.

Consider the following possibilities...

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Annecy ’26: Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd… and the Minions?

by Cláudio Alves

This year, I was lucky enough to attend the 50th edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market. The festivities ended this past weekend, with Ervin Han and Raúl García’s The Violinist taking the prestigious Cristal prize for Best Film from the feature competition. Past winners include such titles as Arco, Memoir of a Snail, Flee, I Lost My Body, Coraline, and many other unforgettable pictures. But it wasn’t all fun and games and glory. While the festival was underway in the Alps, France was suffering through its worst heatwave in recorded history, and before it all ended, the tragic death of animator Luis de La Rosa shrouded the event in a sense of collective grief. Between good and bad, triumph and unexpected sorrow, there is much to discuss. 

No better place to start than at the beginning, with the slapstick extravaganza that had the honor of opening the festivities – Minions & Monsters, which comes to theaters this week, worldwide…

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First Oscar Predictions: Visual Categories

by Nathaniel R

First still from WERWULF. Can it follow in Nosferatu's footsteps and receive craft nominations?

We started with Costume Design (we're partial to those threads, don'cha know) but now the rest of the first round predictions for the 99th Oscars are available in all visual categories...

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