An "Evita" Reunion

by Camila Henriques

One thing I love to do each award season is to scan through the connections between the films and nominees.  That sighting of Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes  transported me immediately back to 2005's Walk the Line. Amongst this year’s Oscar nominees, though, the connection that has me most nostalgic is one between two category mates: Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, competing with each other in Best Actor, are finally Academy Award nominees.

They have a past together in Argentina, the same country that gave us Pope Francis, played so delightfully by Pryce. More than two decades ago, Pryce played another famous Argentinian, former president Juan Peron in the Alan Parker/Andrew Lloyd Webber/Madonna extravaganza that was Evita. That movie also featured Spanish heartthrob Banderas, fresh off a successful transition from being the quintessential Almodóvar man to Hollywood player, with talked about turns in Philadelphia and Desperado. He'd become an even bigger international star with Evita... 

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Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

The 92nd annual Academy Awards are almost upon us. They're just 29 days away at this writing. We'll have the official Oscar charts back up for you as soon as is humanly possible once the potentially exciting event has occurred on Monday (they're coming down now to prep for Monday's unfurling). But until then, it's time to make final predictions.

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The sure things: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite, The Irishman, Joker, Jojo Rabbit, 1917. That's six titles that we can't imagine missing on Monday morning given their success to date in precursor awards and with critics and the public. The extremely probable: Marriage Story. The only reason we've begun to worry is that there's been virtually no traction for Noah Baumbach in Best Director which suggests that people have reduced the movie to "an actor's showcase"... but then where was the SAG Outstanding Cast nomination? It's likely in but if there's a shock omission Monday morning...

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Who'll be this years' surprise snub?

by Cláudio Alves

Nathaniel's final predictions will be up tomorrow morning but until then, let's talk potential snubs. Oscar nomination morning usually holds a few surprises. Sometimes, everything goes according to plan and the performers singled out by the precursors appear in their entirety but that's a rare event. We're thankful for that since the opposite would be dreadfully boring. Usually, there's one big snub like Timothée Chalamet for Beautiful Boy, Amy Adams for Arrival, Idris Elba for Beasts of No Nation, Jennifer Anniston for Cake or Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips. At the last minute, they all failed to secure an expected nod.

Of this year's crop of contenders, 12 have conquered nods from the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, SAGs, and Critics Choice Awards. Many pundits say DiCaprio is the most vulnerable and we should never be sure about Hanks given his recent Oscar history. Still, the rest of them seem solid if not altogether locked. Unless, of course, Margot Robbie manages to upset everyone and get in for the Tarantino flick instead of Bombshell. You can never know for sure, that's the eternal truth about prognosticating. 

All that said, here are those 12 contenders...

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What if DiCaprio had lost for "The Revenant"?

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar narratives can shape an entire awards season. More radically, they can transform the way we perceive certain films, actors and other artists. Leonardo DiCaprio is an example of the phenomenon. Until he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the star brought with him a baggage of perceived injustice and honors long deserved but never given. He was due an Oscar, many argued, and the hysteria around his lack of one made every one of his new releases into an event – Would this be the movie to finally earn DiCaprio the Academy Award?

The Revenant (2015) was the production to eventually capitalize on all this hubbub, mounting a mighty campaign to win DiCaprio his prize. It worked and so it was that the poster boy for "Oscar dueness" lost his shine. That meant his following films wouldn't be able to take advantage of his lack of recognition and the reactions to his performances would no longer be inflated by the urgency to award him. But the next big film on DiCaprio's resume after The Revenant has proven to be an even more remarkable showcase for his talents than the production that earned him his overdue honors…

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Taron Egerton WANTS that Oscar nomination

by Ben Miller

Elton & Taron at another ROCKETMAN screening

There’s long been an awards season cliché along the lines of 'I didn’t expect this and I’m so grateful to the Academy for the recognition.'  Let’s not kid ourselves, some talent understands the process of what it takes to get an Oscar nomination. That includes schmoozing with Academy members, attending press junkets and sitting on every late-night couch you can find.

No one understands this better in the current season than Taron Egerton.

Following his Golden Globes victory on Sunday night for the Elton John biopic Rocketman, Egerton is well poised to snag one of the Best Actor slots precisely because he has done the work and put himself in front of the most faces in the lead up to the Oscar nominations...

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