The Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists Guild disagrees with the Academy

by Cláudio Alves

Is GOLDA a bigger contender than predicted?

Not every Hollywood guild is in perpetual agreement with AMPAS. However, for most of them, the disagreement is unnoticeable until Oscar nomination morning. Not so with the Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists Guild, MUAHS for short, whose choices significantly differ from the 15-wide Academy shortlist. Despite having five categories with five nominees each, the guild managed to "snub" over half of AMPAS' selection. The only titles to appear in both lists are Maestro, Poor Things, Oppenheimer, and Golda, while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is one of the MUAHS nomination leaders after getting surprisingly shut out of the Oscar shortlist. 

Discover the full list of film nominations after the jump…

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Oscar Volley: Best Makeup is the Battle of the Biopics

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Cláudio to discuss Makeup & Hairstyling...

At the moment, MAESTRO looks like our undisputed frontrunner.

NATHANIEL: Dearest Cláudio, it falls on you and I to kick off this year's pre-nomination Oscar volleys. Best Makeup and Hairstyling is up first. So please picture me in heavy old age makeup with some crazy wig atop my bald head. Also, I have green skin (I'm covering as many films as possible in my look). The dark circles under my eyes are not a makeup effect in honor of Lily Gladstone's suffering Mollie Burkhardt -- that's unfortunately just my face! I'm doing too much in my look because like many other craft categories, Makeup is often a race for "Most" rather than "Best"; when we get phenomenal winners it's usually because they are accidentally both of those things at once! I always wish the "Hairstyling" part would get more attention since that would complicate predictions. 

I want to start with an unexpected question before we get to things we're rooting for (however unlikely) and actual predictions…

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The 2023 Gold Digger Mid-Year Awards: Nominations Announced!

by Cláudio Alves

With 17 different citations, Wes Anderson's ASTEROID CITY is the nomination leader.Since 2018, Patrick Gratton has been organizing the Gold Digger Awards, welcoming fellow critics and cinephiles to vote on the year's best achievements in film. Though no such voting was done in 2021 or 2022, the Gold Diggers are back with a new group of over forty folks who write about the cinematic arts, including some members of Team Experience, like Nick Taylor, Ben Miller and myself. Diversity of identity and thought is prized above all else, a plurality of opinions coming together in idiosyncratic fashion, widely different ballots all around, even if just the first half of 2023 was considered. Specifically, US release dates were judged, despite the voting body including numerous nationalities. Whether they opened in theaters or streaming, these films reach nearly 800 eligible titles – a fantastic bounty of cinema.

Without further ado, I leave you with the 2023 Gold Digger Mid-Year Awards nominations in 24 categories. Enjoy the ride...

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Weekend Box Office: Chris Pratt Makes Money

By Ben Miller

It was a Chris Pratt-dominated weekend as the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 easily won the weekend box office with around $114 million.  It's certainly below the norm for other MCU films, but largely positive critical reviews (81% on Rotten Tomatoes) and an "A" CinemaScore should give the film legs compared to other recent Marvel films.  The Super Mario Bros. Movie continues it's box office reign as the highest grossing film of 2023.  The Nintendo adaptation is now sitting at 17th all-time in the domestic rankings and at $1.1 billion worldwide, sits at 25th all-time.  By the way, fifty-one films have made over $1 billion and Pratt has been in six of them...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) May 5th-7th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
GUARDIANS VOL. 3	JOYLAND
1 🔺  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3 $118.4 *NEW* 4450 screens	1 SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS (US) $78k (cum. $1.5) 122 screens

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Link Lasso

• Time Timothée Chalamet profile
• EW first look at Scream 5 - Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox both return
• Pop Culture Happy Hour insightful piece on the black lady therapist on TV with Ted Lasso, White Lotus, and In Treatment all arriving at that crowded trope party
• AV Club 5 reasons to be optimistic about season three of Ted Lasso

More after the jump including Dave Chapelle's controversial comedy show, Disney-related deaths, new projects for Jake Gyllenhaal, and MCU journeys for Kumail Nanjiani and Will Poulter...

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