Oscar Volley: Which Foreign Films Will Voters Choose for Best International Feature?

Before we get the shortlist on Thursday, here’s today’s volley, on Best International Feature, from Elisa Giudici and Abe Friedtanzer...

THE ZONE OF INTEREST feels like a lock in this race.

ABE: Hi Elisa! I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite categories, Best International Feature! This year we have 88 submissions from all around the world. While I'm still hoping to catch more in the next few weeks, I think I've managed to track down a good number of the top contenders. Interestingly, this year's likely frontrunner is from a country that rarely gets noticed, in part because most of its films simply aren't eligible. That would be the United Kingdom, which has quite an intense feature in The Zone of Interest, a haunting portrait of the commandant of Auschwitz and his family, who live right next to the infamous concentration camp but live quite the serene life...

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Oscar Volley: Costume Design Needs More Modernity

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Elisa and Cláudio to talk Costume Design...

Will MAESTRO bring Mark Bridges back into the Oscar fold?
CLÁUDIO: To borrow an idea from Nathaniel, let me introduce the conversation with an imaginary outfit. Please think of me in a Priscilla powder blue suit tailored to Ferrari Italian perfection. There's a Wonka scarf in there, too, and Tomas' bearish coat from Passages on top. On my wrist, Felicia's pearls from Maestro, on my feet pink rollerblades from Barbie. For other accessories, I shall pick a revolutionary rosette from Napoleon to pin to my lapel and a pair of Victorian sunglasses from Poor Things. To complete the ensemble, Oppenheimer's hat with a Killers of the Flower Moon beaded band, everything topped by some showgirl-ready plumes straight out of Shug Avery's wardrobe. Do I look even more clownish than Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry at the 91st Academy Awards? But I also look fabulous...maybe…

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Oscar Volley: It’s Whimsy vs History in Production Design

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nick and Cláudio to talk Production Design...

BARBIE sails to a sure nomination, but can it win?

CLÁUDIO: Last year, the trenches took gold, but what will even be nominated this season? The gloomy days of WWI behind us, Barbie shines a pink promise on the plastic horizon, with Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer providing some period seriousness. Maybe it'll be Wonka or Poor Things, colorful lunacy with a candied twist. There are other musicals to contend with, more biopics than your mind can process, sci-fi, diorama-land, and even a detour into mid-00s opulence. Yes, this is the Best Production Design race, where anything is possible until it isn't. May the odds be ever in your favor…

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Oscar Volley: Best Editing is Now Best Picture-lite

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Ben and Abe to talk Film Editing...

The Trinity Explosion editing from Oppenheimer

BEN: Abe, it's time for another talk about one of the most confounding categories at the Oscars...Best Editing!

Last year, I talked about this category with Nick Taylor and we talked specifically about how non-Best Picture nominees don't show up in this category, no matter how special their editing might be. Last year, they went 5/5 again. They even went with a nominee (The Banshees of Inisherin) with relatively unremarkable editing.

Why do you think the Academy is so apprehensive to care about the craft of the actual editing process?...

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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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