Gotham Awards: Brigette-Lundy Paine in "I Saw the TV Glow"

by Nick Taylor

In an act of controversial cinema adoration, the awards-giving body that’s spent most of its thirty years structured around gender-neutral acting categories has recognized a gender-neutral performer. Brigette Lundy-Paine is nominated by the Gotham Awards for Outstanding Supporting Performance for their turn in Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow. Lundy-Paine’s Maddy is the only friend of Justice Smith’s Owen, and his guide into the world of The Pink Opaque. It’s a strange, commanding performance, an all-too-real portrait of queer dysphoria and camaraderie tested by alternate realities, shitty dads, and an evil moon. I am unbelievably thankful for this film and for Lundy-Paine's embodiment of this character, so now seems like the best time to celebrate their work. Follow me under the cut if you want to know the truth . . . .

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Happy Thanksgiving... and 1985 Randomness

by Nathaniel R

Dear readers, thank you for the private messages and public comments welcoming me back after my long hiatus. I’m thankful for you. And Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. I’m still in the warm-up mindset in terms of my ‘comeback’ and I'm never going to be daily multiple articles a day again -- it's not 2014 and the world has changed -- but I do have a couple plans for 2025 brewing which will and won’t be like past Film Experience shenanigans.

Anyway, back on topic. We hope you’ve enjoyed this 80s party. We’re doing it for about one to two more weeks interspersed with current Oscar discussions of course. There’s still a few more years of top tens to share and two seminal 80s features to discuss – one from 1987 that I promised a write up of for a reader a long long time ago (forgive me!) and one from 1989 that I have personally felt a strong urge to reconsider because it's been a million years since I saw it and I wonder how it's aged. But for this Thanksgiving Weekend intermission ~ let’s talk 1985…

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Best Supporting Actor in the 80s: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

As in real life, Jack Nicholson takes a Best Supporting Actor prize during the 1980s. But not for TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, however.

November is coming to an end and so is our 80s throwback celebration. That means I have to wrap-up these alternative Oscars posts. After sharing personal ballots for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, it’s time for the other acting categories, starting with the thespians who enrich their films from the sidelines. As ever, the ballots presented follow Oscar eligibility rules, all its quirks and oddities. There are also honorable mentions, some ineligible gems who weren’t up for the Oscar due to release date shenanigans or a lack of submission on their distributors’ part. Finally, I also added a number of titles on my watchlist and would appreciate all your recommendations to enrich these dream Oscars of mine…

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Which International Feature Films will get into Best Picture?

by Juan Carlos Ojano

96 years of Oscars, 14 international feaure films nominated for Best Picture.

While some awards bodies have already commenced the season, Best Picture is still very much an open race. One of the statistics many predictors consider is the presence of international feature films in the category. Since 2018’s Roma - and save 2020, where Another Round even got into Director - every Best Picture lineup has included one. Last year, history was made, when two international features making it in, with Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.

Perhaps this is one of the effects of the inclusivity efforts the Academy has initiated post-#OscarsSoWhite, where they included more world artists into their membership. This year, which international feature films will stand a chance of getting into this year’s Best Picture roster? Consider...

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The First Oscar Eligibility Lists are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

PIECE BY PIECE is the only film competing in both the ANIMATED and DOCUMENTARY Oscar races.

At long last, AMPAS has started divulging its eligibility lists for the 97th Academy Awards. As is usual, the first categories to be announced are the special feature races – Animated, Documentary, and International Film (click on each category to see their prediction pages). This year, 31 cartoons vie for the Oscar, while 167 docs form the non-fiction race. In Best International Feature Film, this year has 85 official submissions. This state of affairs differs from some of the earlier reports that pointed toward 89 films contending, but we're used to many disqualifications. It's a steep decline from the past few years, and it's the first time since 2018 that the number of total submissions is below 90. We have to go back to 2015, with 82 nations competing, to find a year with even fewer films in contention.

You can read more about such trivia in Nathaniel's extensive two-part overview of the Best International Film race. Still, I added some additional trivia for all three categories in this write-up. Find out more after the jump…

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