The 13th Annual Team Experience Awards: WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT!

by Cláudio Alves

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG | © NEON Rated

A couple of days before AMPAS announces their winners, it's time for the Team Experience to do the same. Nominations were announced ten days ago, with The Brutalist leading the tally board, earning mentions in seven different categories. However, unlike last year, the nomination leader did not take the top prize. Instead, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is our Best Picture pick, with Brady Corbet's Oscar-hopeful and Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light tied for runner-up honors. Speaking of ties, we have three to report this year, including in the Best Director race.

Like always, remember that these honors are decided by The Film Experience writers, except Nathaniel, whose Film Bitch Awards are their separate thing. With that out of the way, here are our winners…

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Winners of the 40th Independent Spirit Awards

by Nick Taylor

Last night, the 40th Indie Spirit Awards came and went. The SAG Awards could begin at any moment, meaning we'll have a better sense on whether certain wins here might reverberate into the Oscars next week. Even taking the Oscar-adjacency of several winners into consideration, this is a solid pack of winners, with a couple pleasant surprises along with some disappointing rubber-stamping. Here's the list of winners from this year's Indie Spirit Awards, with some delightful commentary from yours truly. If you want to go back and watch the show, Film Independent has uploaded the ceremony in its entirety on YouTube. Click here to watch it!...

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Split Decision: "Nickel Boys"

In the Split Decision series, two of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, Nick Taylor and Nathaniel R discuss Nickel Boys...

NICK: Hello Nathaniel! Hope you’re doing well on this fine day. We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re . . . . I can’t think of another rhyme. What I can think of is Nickel Boys, and how blindsided I was to see it show up in this year’s Best Picture lineup after only showing up in Adapted Screenplay.

I’m happy for the film and RaMell Ross but also confused, and a little annoyed it didn’t make a bigger showing. It’s one of my favorites from this year’s Oscar nominees, and though I get the divisiveness around its first-person POV and how the film actually uses it, I’m a very big fan of what Nickel Boys achieves. That’s been the biggest point of discussion around the film, so maybe it’s best to dive in there? I’m not sure I actually know what you think of Nickel Boys, so lemme hand you the mic. 

NATHANIEL: It's funny how personal feelings are often distracting static when it comes to Oscar expectations, whether you're on the pro or the con side of any given film.  I wasn't the least bit surprised about Nickel Boys crashing Oscar's biggest category after all the breathless raves and its solid if unspectacular showing in the precursors. I'm Still Here was the only Picture nomination that threw me. Sadly,  trust me I didn't want to feel this way, Nickel Boys is my least favourite of the nominated ten...

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Team Experience Oscar Prediction: Final Scores

by Cláudio Alves

No one predicted I'M STILL HERE in Best Picture. | © Sony Pictures Classics

We're still reeling from this morning's Oscar nominations announcement but it's time to check predictions and assess the numbers. Like last year, various members of the Team Experience put forward their best guesses. While the point of this exercise is to see how different folks see the race, it's also a little competition of sorts, with a pundit ranking at the end. Overall, our collection of writers did better than last year, averaging a 75% success rate when excluding those tricky short film categories. These predictions also help us grasp what the day's big surprises truly were, both in terms of shocking selections or notorious snubs. Without further ado, here's the final score…

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"I Saw the TV Glow" leads the 16th annual Dorian Award nominations

by Nathaniel R

I SAW THE TV GLOW © A24

Oopsie. While celebrating Paul Newman's centennial we forgot to mention another round of nominations. This time it's GALECA: THE SOCIETY OF LGBTQ ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS taking on the challenge of naming "best" this and than of the year. This group, which includes over 500 entertainment journalists (including some of us here at TFE) and media personalities, showered I Saw the TV Glow with nominations. Perpetually overperforming gonzo horror satire The Substance was a close second.  

For my part I'm grateful that the category list has been expanded to make the awards more LGBTQ centric, because what is the point of any critics groups if they don't have a specific point of view/ place of origin apart that differentiates them from other critics groups? See the nominee list after the jump...

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