Academy bans Will Smith for 10 years

by Nathaniel R

Two weeks too late the Academy has essentially asked Will Smith to leave the building. The only appropriate time to do that would have been immediately post-slap, if you ask us. But after letting him stay and deliver a tearful speech in which he apologized as well as blamed the devil, and giving him a standing ovation, they don't really have much of a moral high ground to do so now. But they had to say something... 

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That's a wrap on the 2021/2022 film awards season!

Another film year has wrapped up here at The Film Experience. Though we go by the calendar year for all awards purposes, when it comes to the film year, we think of it as as running from the day after the Oscars through to the next Oscar night. So Happy 2022 to all of you. We're about to start all over again.

THE BIG SHOW
• The Ceremony Reviewed
• The Slap
• Best Dressed Polls
• 5 Best Speeches
• Top 10 Fashions
• On the 3 Hosts: Amy, Regina, and Wanda
• Ranking the Clips
• Appeal to the Academy re: Lady Gaga
• Podcast Discussion

EXTRAS
• Chris James' Fabulous Annual Oscar Party
• The Help as Good Luck Charm
• Records & Trivia
• What's Next for the Directors
• What's Next for the Actors
• What's Next for the Actresses
• Winners List & Charts

And of course there was a lot before that as well if you click on any tag for various actors and films!

Best of 2021 - Off-Oscar

• Nathaniel's Top 12 - from Flee to The Power of the Dog
• 22nd Annual Film Bitch Awards - Our annual celebratory medals party in 40 categories from the Oscar parallels to Diva of the Year, Best Cameos, Musical Sequences, and more.
• 10th Annual Team Experience Awards - Voted on by all of our contributors
• Year in Review Lists - Entertainer of the Year, etc...

Previous Highlights
May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | Feb 2022

WHAT'S NEXT?
If you've ever considered subscribing (see right hand sidebar --> ) now would be a perfect time. The site operates on the barest of shoestrings and it's been really tough for a few years now. We'd like to keep going until our 25th anniversary but we need help. 

COMING THIS SUMMER IF YOU'LL BE HERE TO SUPPORT US

✅ Supporting Actress Smackdown Season (and companion 'year of the month' festivities for 1951, 1997, 2004) - dates TBA

✅ Emmy Coverage - we're hoping to do more than we've ever done (the budget thing again -- gotta sell more advertisements!) so let us know what series you'd to see more on right here. Which are 'most cinematic' to you?

✅ CINEMA: Cannes Film Festival, Elvis, The Northman, Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen, BROS, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Mrs Harris Goes to Paris among others.

✅ "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" weekly film club -- join in!

✅ Centennial Parties: Doris Day (early April), Judy Garland (early June), and Eleanor Parker (late June)

✅ And much randomness. You know how we do 'off season'

Podcast: Past (first Oscar nights), Present (Oscar aftermath), and Future

Nathaniel welcomes back Nick Davis to talk about making peace with Oscar night such as it was. It's the only Oscar podcast you'll hear that doesn't discuss The Incident! Instead we talk about our first Oscar nights as children as well as what we liked about Sunday's show (yes, there were a few things) and then the conversation drifts towards what's next. What do we hope to see from some of the actors and directors in the future?

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify or download the attachment below. 

Oscar Aftermath

An appeal to the Academy (and the wonder of Lady Gaga)

by Cláudio Alves

The 94th Academy Awards were marked by a scene that will surely live in infamy, one of those immortal Oscar moments destined to overshadow everything else about the ceremony, its winners, and the overall season. Whatever one might think about it, AMPAS wasn't to blame for it. However, there's no way to deny their responsibility for the night's other failings. Indeed, The Slap wasn't the reason I'd call the 94th Academy Awards the worst ceremony of my lifetime. That would be its overall contempt for the art of the movies. This came through in the ceremony in ways that Nathaniel and Eric have already written about.

And yet, hope is everlasting.  The 94th Academy Awards ended on a positive note that might point us towards a better future, a return to form...

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The 5 Best Oscar speeches from Sunday night...

by Cláudio Alves

When it comes to the 94th Academy Awards, the exclusion of eight categories from the live ceremony will always cast a dark shadow over the proceedings. This is especially true when considering the evening's best speeches. As it happens, a good percentage of them are unavailable to us, existing only in the edited versions that ABC aired. Riz Ahmed gave a powerful speech, but it's hard not to notice that Aneil Karia's words were utterly excised from the final edit. Other highlights include Joe Walker with the night's funniest acceptance and Alberto Mielgo's loving tribute to the art of animation… 

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