The Beauty of Sarah Polley's Oscar Speech

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Women Talking has had a pretty rocky road to the Oscars. From being anointed as one of the early frontrunners to possibly win Best Picture to barely squeaking into the actual nominations - only getting nods for Picture and Adapted Screenplay, the film struggled to find footing during the awards race as more vocal support went towards other films. Believe me, as someone who loves the film dearly, it was hard to watch this film be up in the air for majority of the season.

Coming into the Oscar night, its only real shot at winning was for Adapted Screenplay as Everything Everywhere All at Once's victory lap at Picture seemed secure. The only problem was Adapted Screenplay also contained what was arguably the Best Picture runner-up: All Quiet on the Western Front...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay... weak list or weak field?

The team is pairing off to discuss each Oscar race. Here's Eurocheese and Eric Blume...

ERIC:   Euro, I'm so happy to be discussing the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay with you.  Personally, I feel like it's one of our weakest years in this category.  Before we get into each nominee and the race, do you have any candidates you personally loved that didn't make the slate?

EUROCHEESE:  It is strange how all the top contenders, and frankly most of the great films of the year, were original storylines. Even Glass Onion, sneaks into this category thanks to its lead detective but it's really an Original Screenplay...

Click to read more ...

Best Director Closet Picks... and Polls!

by Nathaniel R

The Oscar charts are complete for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplays with "who should win" polls on each page. So vote for your favs daily!  Each page also has trivia and factoids and listicles for your entertainment. For the first time in Oscar's 95 year history Director and Original Screenplay are an exact match and each of the directors also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays. We still can't get over that. Not just in 'how did it happen' but also in 'how did it never happen before?'. Do we just have more multi-hyphenates than we used to in Hollywood? (Probably) Or was it just a matter of the unique field of contenders this year? (Also possible)

Speaking of writer/directors. Today, February 10th, is Dan Kwan's 35th birthday and he has a lot to celebrate this year with 3 Oscar nominations for his 3rd feature Everything Everywhere All At Once. Remember his dance moves in "Turn Down For What?"  Speaking of "Daniels"... what did you think of their Criterion Closet visit? 

Team Experience Predictions Chart - Round 4 - Post Holidays, Pre Awards Shows

We're polling the Team Film Experience on where the Oscar race stands. This week Best Picture, Director, and the Acting and Writing categories.

It has been over a month since we’ve checked in on the directing, acting and writing categories. Since then, Avatar has soared at the box office, Babylon has flopped and both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards have announced their nominations. Some categories look completely different than they did at the end of November. Others, funny enough, remain the same. One category has a contender who is unanimously on the top of everyone’s predictions… and it’s not the one you think. 

Check out our predictions after the jump…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the nominations. Here's Nathaniel and Chris to talk Adapted Screenplays

CHRIS: Hi Nathaniel! I’m looking forward to discussing the Adapted Screenplay race with you. Each year, it’s fun to size up which screenplay category is more competitive - Original or Adapted. This year, the scale is tipped much more in favor of the Original Screenplay race, which has a majority of the Best Picture hopefuls. By comparison, the Adapted Screenplay is much more open, which can lead to a more interesting set of nominations. The clear frontrunner is Women Talking. It’s a Best Picture hopeful that has a really clear script hook. The film takes place over the course of 24 hours, yet weaves the individual stories of its female ensemble into a stunning patchwork quilt of trauma. Yet, it does so with moments of levity and heart. After that, the only other Best Picture sure thing in contention is Top Gun: Maverick. As that movie becomes more of a threat to win the big prize, it feels like the blockbuster behemoth will take one of the five slots here. So what becomes of the final three slots?

It’s crazy that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery only stayed in theaters for a week. The groundswell for the incredibly twisty and fun whodunnit will likely begin now that it's streaming on Netflix...

Click to read more ...