Abe’s SXSW Jury of One

A shot from my front-row seat to the Q & A for THE FALL GUY.By Abe Friedtanzer

I had the pleasure of being back in Austin for the fourth time for the SXSW Film and TV Festival, which began on Friday, March 8^th and officially concluded Sunday, March 17^th. During my time there, I got to see 27 in-person films and screened 17 additional films, as well as the first two episodes of season three of Hacks, which premieres in May on Max (and is just as good as ever).

As usual, most of what I saw was really terrific. It was good to see major releases like Monkey Man and Civil War ahead of their theatrical releases with an enthusiastic crowd, though neither compared in quality to The Fall Guy, which was a lot of fun. Two streaming releases coming next month also make my top ten, and I’ll hope they’ll translate well to audiences watching at home...

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Trivia Collection for the 96th Academy Awards

Here's what we came up with as the dust settles from Oscar night. Let us know in the comments if there's any other interesting trivia bits you noticed from this season. 

PICTURE / DIRECTOR

• Oppenheimer is the third consecutive movie to be released before fall film festival season to win the Best Picture Oscar (after Coda and Everything Everywhere All At Once)... so perhaps distributors can learn to start trusting that movies can be released at any time and still factor into awards season? It's also the first movie to go straight to theaters (no festivals) to win Best Picture in ages (well, since The Departed in 2006)

• Three female-directed films Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and Past Lives were nominated in Best Picture which is an all time record...

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Split Decision: "The Color Purple"

No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Ben Miller and Eric Blume on The Color Purple…

BEN:  When it comes to Blitz Bazuwale's The Color Purple, I am supremely positive on the film. It's nice to have a film filled with unbridled energy and verve. I don't necessarily see it as a big loser when it comes to Oscar, but I think it deserves much more than it got.

What are your generalized thoughts on the film's quality?

ERIC:  Ah Ben we're going to have a good time with this one!  I watched The Color Purple with my jaw dropped, finding it almost unfathomable how terrible it was.  Like, I couldn't quite believe it... 

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11 Quick Observations about the Oscar Nominations

Did you toon into the Oscar nominations this morning. Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz (in particular) did a fine enthusiastic job of announcing the nominations in Oscar's 23 categories. There were surprises and shut-outs and overperformers as per usual. You can see the complete list of nominations at the Oscar Charts Index Page (though the individual charts per category are not yet updated).

Herewith 11 quick obversations about the nominations before we dive in to individual categories.

1. BARBIE FATIGUE (SORT OF)
While America Ferrera nabbed the Oscar nod we predicted for her in Best Supporting Actress (we went 5/5 on that volatile category in our predictions) Barbie received just 8 nominations overall. That's a lot, of course, but it isn't a lot in terms of expectations and how well the film had been performing at precursors...

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Oscar Volley - Best Actor

For today's Oscar volley, Lynn Lee and Glenn Dunks discuss the Best Actor race.

LYNN: Glenn, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this strongly about the Best Actor race, so I’ll just lay my cards on the table: I really, really want both Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) to be nominated, would love Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) to join them --though I think he’s a long shot-- and really DON’T want Leonardo DiCaprio to get in for Killers of the Flower Moon.

It’s extra personal for me because I saw American Fiction, All of Us Strangers, and The Holdovers back to back at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier this year and loved all of them. More to the point, while all three films have their flaws, each one worked like gangbusters largely because of the fantastic acting --especially the outstanding male lead performance...

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