Franchise fever continues to dominate the Saturn Awards

By Nathaniel R

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE © Warner Bros

The 52nd annual Saturn Awards are taking place this year on February 2nd and voting is happening right now (until the 15th). Dune Part Two (14 nominations) and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (13 noms) are in the lead this time around while Deadpool & Wolverine is lagging a bit behind in third with 10 noms. Those aren't the only franchises in play and we'll discuss how long some of these franchises that are up for prizes have been running (once since the 1950s!)...

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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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The Oscars aren't so local anymore...Maybe?

by Cláudio Alves

THE ZONE OF INTEREST is the first non-English-language film to win the Best Sound Oscar.
Many consider the Oscars to be the highest honor any filmmaker can achieve. However, as an American institution, they've favored Hollywood fare over world cinema. In other words, for all their aspirations, AMPAS is fairly provincial in taste and the composition of their voting body. Strides are made every year to change that, but it'll take a long time before the Academy Awards shake off the "local" allegations. That said, when the voters expand their horizons, one should celebrate it. This year, they certainly looked past Anglophone American-centric cinema, honoring five different non-English-language features…

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Godzilla Finally Gets A Word In

In celebration of his historic Oscar win, Godzilla has returned to the Film Experience to give his acceptance speech...

Thanks to Nathaniel for letting me come back to say a few words, and to Cláudio for interviewing me in the first place. Sugar Cube’s great company. As you might have guessed, I wasn’t really able to attend the Oscars in person to support Godzilla Minus One - too big to fit in the Dolby. I have a few prepared statements I wanted to read...

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Nathaniel's Assorted Wonders (Top Ten Preamble)

by Nathaniel R

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR © Netflix

PART 1 - In real life I am exceedingly punctual. The same is not true of my online listing life. But one of my goals for 2024 is rethinking and clarifying my lifelong need to talk about the movies. So stayed tuned but please follow on Substackd and Letterboxd and Instagram while I sort that out. I am hoping to return to writing, twice weekly. That's the goal. I've accepted that I'll never be able to do the daily churn again that kept the site lively. Bless Cláudio and the rest of the team who have filled in some of my gaps. The world has moved on (social media has replaced incessant blogging and consumption of blogging). Plus I also burned out trying to produce that much. But enough navel-gazing for the moment!

The next week at the site is dedicated to wrapping up my own long-running awards (now in their *gulp* 24th year) and talking about Oscar night (which is about to happen), so here are brief thoughts on some favourite film things of the year which I hope you'll use along with awards themselves as a 'recommended' guide when you're looking for something to watch...

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