Oscar Volley: Who will win Song & Score?

by Team Experience

NATHANIEL R: Hello Matt, Eurocheese, and our special guest Thomas Mizer, who has guest blogged here before and who is an Emmy-nominee as a lyricist for The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. We won't ask Tom to sound off on the Best Song nominees (too close to home) but we do need his input on Best Original Score. In fact, I personally need all of your input on Original Score. I recognize fully that Scores are way up there with Editing in how they can make or break a movie, but unlike with editing (which I am fairly well versed in), I am not particular adept at noticing what composers are doing or how they're doing it. I hate to admit this because I love Nicholas Britell's work (generally speaking) but I honestly didn't realize Don't Look Up had a score. I thought while watching it that it was mostly song cues and dialogue. So I need your collective help. Who are you rooting for and why and who do you think might win? 

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Should music be judged outside of the film for Best Original Score?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Abe Friedtanzer and Timothy Lyons on Best Original Score

Abe Friedtanzer: The Best Original Score category is an interesting one since we have only fifteen films left in consideration, which in one way is great because it's a smaller field from which to predict but also means that some terrific soundtracks are no longer in contention. I like to take the opportunity to listen to as many of the scores as I can after I see the films, to see if there's anything I pick up on or enjoy more as I hear them in a different context. This year, that has been beneficial for a film I didn't love, Don't Look Up, since Nicholas Britell's orchestrations really are a marvel, and also for Being the Ricardos, which reminded me that Daniel Pemberton's music drove the rhythm of the story just as much as Aaron Sorkin's script. I'm also intrigued by the inclusion of Candyman on the finalist list. I generally avoid horror films but the score is quite haunting. There's no chance it shows up, but it's good to see that voters are at least listening to a variety of films! My main issue has been with The Harder They Fall, a film I liked a lot but where I have trouble differentiating between score and song. That's also true for Encanto.

Do you think songs are a disadvantage or actually more likely to get voters to give the music love?  

Click to read more ...

Original Score Oscar Finalists: Listen to the Soundtracks

By Abe Friedtanzer

The fifteen finalists for Best Original Score are here, and I always enjoy this time of year because I have a constant playlist going whenever I’m not watching something so that I can familiarize myself with all the cited scores. I had hoped Benedetta (listen to this track) would make the finalist list, and also thought that Last Night in Soho (here’s the main theme) would be here, but overall it’s a decent list and worth indulging in to choose your five favourites. But for now, check out a track from (almost) every shortlisted film as well as some relevant stats for the composer behind them. For reference: a composer appearing twice on this list is not uncommon. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross beat themselves last year, triumphing for Soul (with Jon Batiste) over Mank...

Click to read more ...

Link Trip

• Boy Culture took on a massive and fascinating project: A "brief" (haha) history of LGBTQ moments on television starting from TV's beginnings! (I Love Lucy might contain the first actual gay joke on TV... but things really pick up in the 1970s). It's a must-read if you care about these things
• The Grio Get Out takes four prizes at the AAFCAS while Girls Trip and Detroit both take home two
• Deadline reports on the Sci-Tech award where there was a an impassioned speech and a transgender winner
• IndieWire MoviePass is driving its subscriber base to Oscar-nominated movies

Lots more after the jump including Oscar news, Sarah Jessica Parker making headlines, Quentin Tarantino's response to Uma Thurman's story, and three memorable actors passing away...

Click to read more ...

The Joyful Nominations. Which were yours?

by Nathaniel R

img srcIt's part two of our Team Experience Oscar Nomination response... and then we can move on to both Oscar chart fun and back to cinema proper. The latter some of you will surely be itching for if you're not all-the-way obsessed with Oscar minutiae.

This morning we shed final tears for the snubs and now, the nominations that brought us the most joy in the acting categories and elsewhere.

WHICH (NON-ACTING) NOMINATION GAVE YOU THE MOST JOY?

CHRIS FEIL: Agnès Varda is finally a competitive Oscar nominee, which is doubly rewarding considering Faces Places will likely be her final film. (We love you too, JR.) With Jane out of the way she may even be the frontrunner, giving her Honorary Oscar a friend on its shelf - a lovely thought considering Faces Places is partly an ode to partnership.

GLENN DUNKS: Rachel Morrison becoming the first nominated woman in Achievement in Cinematography is pretty great and a major win for Netflix considering most people would have seen it on their smaller screens...

Click to read more ...