News Catch-up: Honorary Oscars, "Barbie", and RIPs

by Nathaniel R

Peter Weir, picture here on the set of "The Truman Show", will receive an Honorary Oscar in November. © Paramount Pictures

We had intended for June to be our freshly energized new season but that fantasized new season here at TFE had its own mind and said "no no no, maybe July". Neverthless before June ends, a rundown on stories we haven't discussed in the early summer lull. 

HONORARY OSCARS
First things first you have probably heard that the Honorary Oscar recipients were announced...

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The Oscar Luncheon was a hit - everyone glad to be back in the room

by Nathaniel R

tick tick BOOM reunion at the Oscar luncheon

For those of you who are not "extremely online" as they say, we thought we'd share some photos and point you to some fine accounts of the Oscar luncheon since they'll be new to you. We are neither cool enough nor local enough to be invited to this Los Angeles event (TFE is a NYC site... though a couple of our contributors are in LA) but thankfully some journalists are! The event took place yesterday and the reports have been trickling in ever since...

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Oscar Volley: So many stars, too little shine in the Best Original Song race

Welcome to our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Each day, members of Team Experience will have a conversation about the Oscar categories. Today, Baby Clyde and Josh Bierman tackle the always controversial Best Original Song.

Ariana Grande, Van Morrison, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé

Baby Clyde: Has there ever been such a starry array of contenders with so little to offer? You’d think at least one from a list including Beyonce, U2, Carol King, Van Morrison, Jay Z, Billie Eilish and Brian Wilson would know how to write a good pop song. They’ve previously written some of the greatest of all time! Unfortunately there is an unwritten rule that even the finest tunesmiths turn in absolute garbage when an Academy Award is up for grabs. It’s got to the point where I actually feel bad for Diane Warren...

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93rd Academy Awards: The saga of Best Original Song

By Glenn Dunks

Quick, hum the melody of any of this year’s Best Original Song nominees (except “Husavik”). Hell, recite a single lyric from any of this year’s Best Original Song nominees (except “Husavik”).

Several years ago for The Film Experience, I ranked every winner of the original song category while hypothetically ranking each of that year’s nominees. We struck out with “Writing’s on the Wall”, which instantly became one of the worst winners of this beleaguered and controversial category. I unfortunately do not hold out much hope for this year’s crop of song contenders, only one of which deserves to win and only one of which would rank among the category’s finest winners. No need for suspense: that song is “Husavik”.

But we must and we shall look at this year’s nominees.

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A Brief History of Documentaries competing in "Best Original Song

by Juan Carlos Ojano

One of the more interesting Oscar trends during the past decade is the increased presence of documentaries in the Best Original Song category. While most award-giving bodies have an aversion to recognizing docs outside of their own category, the Music branch of AMPAS has shown an openness to embrace them. At least in Best Original Song. Six of the eight songs from documentary films nominated came from the 2010s. 

Here is the list of eight docs nominated for Best Original Song (with only one winner so far) and this year's contenders...

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