April Foolish Pt 7 - All Oscar Charts Are Complete!

by Nathaniel R

The annual 'April Foolish' Oscar speculation charts are up for the 95th Academy Awards. They'll be held next winter or spring in 2023 honoring the films of 2022. Normally by now we'd have a ceremony date but perhaps burnt by two years of COVID and media fallout from Oscar night, the Board of Governors is being coy about the dates for the new season.  Now about these predictions...

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Oscar Volley: Best Picture in the final days...

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Baby Clyde, Elisa Giudici, Abe Friedtanzer and  Eric Blume to discuss Best Picture. We're not saving it for last. This conversation began BEFORE the PGA went to CODA but ends afterwards...

the five films with the most nominations this year.

ABE FRIEDTANZER: I'm thrilled to be talking the top Oscar prize with my esteemed colleagues Eric, Elisa, and Baby Clyde. I do think there's plenty to discuss here, but I believe that one film is very far out in front. That's The Power of the Dog, of course, which some may doubt after it missed out on an ensemble nomination from SAG. There is absolutely momentum for CODA after its win there and its triumph the night after that with the Hollywood Critics Association. But Dog also underperformed with nominations from the latter group, so the comparison isn't all that helpful. There just isn't enough going against Jane Campion's western for it to lose, in my opinion. But there are nine other nominees, and at least a few of those will siphon votes. Aside from CODA, King Richard gets a boost from its ACE Eddie win, and Drive My Car is worth considering since it hasn't been in competition with many other groups. What films do you think are still in the mix?

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The PGA goes to 'CODA' but we still have a race and here's why...

by Nathaniel R

CODA is still riding high on that SAG wave but will cresting during Oscar voting give it the win? If it does a LOT of records will be broken. No film since the current slate of categories was in place (many decades now) has managed a Best Picture win with only 3 Oscar nominations. Most film with 12+ Oscar nominations (like The Power of the Dog has) have won more than three Oscars though sometimes they've lost Best Picture (examples include Mary Poppins, The Song of Bernadette, and La La Land) . No films without either a Directing or an Editing nomination (since all the current categories were in place), and CODA has neither has won Best Picture. Finally no film by a streaming company has won Best Picture though this last stat was bound to fall sooner or later and will next Sunday whether CODA or Power of the Dog wins. Unless of course something else entirely surprises. Winners are after the jump...

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Best Picture, Black-and-White Edition

by Cláudio Alves

Ever since NEON released a black-and-white version of Parasite during the awards season's peak, we've begun a tradition here at The Film Experience of looking the Best Picture nominees each year, and trying to imagine what they'd look like devoid of color. Naturally, we'll never know that since making a black-and-white movie is much more complex than simply turning the saturation to zero. Matters of design and lighting are involved, as are other elements of pre and post-production. Still, it's fun to peruse movies in search of striking imagery. But of course, beyond personal amusement, there's another component to this exercise…

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Streaming Roulette, March: Drive my car by the west side, Peggy Sue

by Nathaniel R

Before we begin we should note that between HBOMax (Dune, King Richard, Drive My Car, West Side Story), Netflix (Power of the Dog, Don't Look Up), Hulu (Nightmare Alley), AppleTV+ (CODA) and VOD (Belfast, Licorice Pizza) all of the Best Picture nominees are or will be available to watch at home this month before the Oscars (March 27th). 

Okay, time for this month's streaming roulette. You know the rules. We highlight new-to-streaming titles by freezing them on the scroll bar at entirely random places and just sharing what pops up. No cheating*!

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