Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 2:13PM Today, The Academy tweeted this image of David Fincher's filmography and asked which three you'd choose to watch in a marathon.
But even before they did we were thinking about David Fincher...
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 12:01AM 
Despite some semi-shocking results in the major categories, this year's Oscars were relatively surprise-free. Sure, the Best Original Song choice was unexpected, but there are very few precursors for that particular category, leaving it always a bit up in the air. Only one "below the line" or "technical" category managed to shock me. That was the Cinematography race. While David Fincher's Mank had nabbed the ASC prize, I assumed Nomadland would get an easy win on Oscar night. After all, it swept the critics' prizes, won the BAFTA the production went into the ceremony as the Best Picture frontrunner. Nomadland even won that last one. Nevertheless, Joshua James Richards' poetic landscapes were ignored in favor of Erik Messerschmidt's silvery monochrome for Mank...
The conclusion to this specific race is even crazier when one considers that the Fincher flick was Messerschmidt's first feature. That being said, Mank's in black-and-white, making it part of a trend to (over?)reward grayscale cinema at the Oscars. If you want to win a Cinematography Oscar, don't forget to drain the color out of your picture. Would Nomadland have won if it had been shot in black-and-white? Last year, I explored how AMPAS has been infatuated with monochrome cinematography, going so far as to nominate such a hostile, complicated art film as The Lighthouse. Furthermore, because Parasite was re-released in black-and-white, I also made a photo collection examining how each Best Picture nominee would look in glorious black-and-white. Inspired by those past write-ups, here's a collection of screenshots from the other Best Picture nominees, four of which were defeated by Mank in this category...
Thursday, April 22, 2021 at 11:31PM by Daniel Walber
Is it a good year for the Best Production Design category at the Oscars? Is it a bad year? What does the word “good” even mean? Or, for that matter, the word “year”? Certainly not the same thing as “eligibility period,” given the way things have shaken out with the 93rd Academy Awards. Pour one out for First Cow.
But I digress. We have five films nominated for Best Production Design, and they’re a relatively modest batch. There’s the eternal joke about the Oscars nominating movies for “most” rather than “best” design, but by some miracle that hasn’t happened this year...
Monday, April 19, 2021 at 2:05PM 
by Lynn Lee
The weirdest aspect of this year’s Best Picture race may be its lack of weirdness. For an Oscars season that the COVID-19 pandemic first threatened to derail and then expanded, in which the vast majority of voters saw none of the contenders in theaters and almost no traditional Oscar campaigning, the path to the Academy’s biggest prize has been, on the whole, remarkably smooth. With few real curveballs either in the nominations or in the precursor awards, some might even call it a little dull (especially when compared to how bonkers some of the other categories have been). On the bright side, the final lineup of BP nominees is pretty solid, even if I’d rate First Cow above them all and would happily swap out The Trial of the Chicago 7 for at least a half dozen other films. Here’s my take on each of the nominated movies, in ascending order of personal preference.
Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 11:14AM 
Costume illustrations by Gloria Young Kim (left) and Matthew JLeFebvre (righ)
After last year's dispiriting domination of Best Picture contenders in craft categories, this year's Best Costume Design lineup feels like a breath of fresh air. While the branch is resistant to contemporary narratives, their reluctance to honor new names has alleviated a bit. For the first time since 2006, we have three first-time nominees among the costume designers competing for gold. Better yet, the five achievements honored by AMPAS offer a dizzying variety of film styles, aesthetic strategies, genre, and tone. From Disney remakes to Italian literary adaptations, from biopics to biting period comedies, this batch of nominees has it all.
Still, in the end, one must win. With that in mind, here's how I'd rank the five Best Costume Design nominees at the 93rd Academy Awards…
