Oscar Volley: Biopic Breakout or Heartfelt Comeback in "Best Actor"?

Team Experience has been teaming up to discuss the various Oscar races. Here's Christopher James, Abe Friedtanzer and Nathaniel R...

CHRIS: It's been a while since Best Actor was the most exciting and unpredictable race of the evening. Heading into last weekend, it was truly a three man race between Austin Butler (Elvis), Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin). Now that both BAFTA and SAG have made like Brendan Gleeson and passed over Farrell, I sadly feel like he has dropped out of contention for the win. Of the nominated five, he was my personal vote. He knows how to dramatize Pádraic's hurt, while also finding the comedy in his tragedy. With just the crinkle of an eyebrow, he communicates such emotional vulnerability, a level to which we don't often see men rewarded for showing.

The race is now a photo finish with BAFTA/Globes winner Austin Butler and SAG/Critics Choice winner Brendan Fraser. This mirrors the 2011 Best Actress showdown, where Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) had both BAFTA and Golden Globes wins and Viola Davis (The Help) took home SAG and Critics Choice prizes. In the end, Streep won, which is hopeful for Butler. However, the SAG/Critics Choice combo was a successful path to victory for Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) last year, so Fraser is certainly not out of the running...

Click to read more ...

Presenters set for Oscar night. (But who else would you love to see?)

By Nathaniel R

The complete list of presenters is in for the 95th Academy Awards. They are… Riz Ahmed (best live action short 2021), Halle Bailey (the new Little Mermaid), Halle Berry (best actress 2001), Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain (best actress 2021), John Cho, Glenn Close (perennial bridesmaid and future Honorary Oscar recipient obviously you don't need to be psychic to know that), Jennifer Connelly (best supporting actress 2001), Paul Dano, Ariana DeBose (best supporting actress 2021), Cara Delevingne, and Harrison Ford. And that's not all...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Best Documentary Feature captures the real world

Team Experience is teaming up to discuss each Oscar category. Here's Glenn Dunks and Baby Clyde...

GLENN: Hi Baby Clyde, are you ready to talk documentaries? I just published my best documentaries of the year feature here at The Film Experience so I am ready to tie this year's world on non-fiction in a bow.

Will Laura Poitras win a second Oscar to go with her Golden Lion?

First things first, what do you think of this year's batch of nominees for Best Documentary Feature? As is pretty common for this category as of late, I don't think there's a bad film in the bunch, with a good coverage of American and international fare. It's a line-up that even has the added bonus of featuring the best documentary of the year in its ranks (that would be Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed). Last time that happened was just two years back with Collective so the category, for me, continues to remain strong and getting stronger as the number of contenders rises and rises...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Supporting Actress confounds and divides

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Eurocheese, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Cláudio Alves on the volatile Best Supporting Actress race.

EUROCHEESE: Hello Gents - With the SAG awards throwing us a curveball, this might be the most exciting race this year! I have no idea who's taking the win. Before we get into it, any thoughts on these five nominees? 

MARK: Any thoughts? All the thoughts!

I honestly did not expect for this race to be as exciting and, dare I say, unpredictable as it appears to be now. A month ago, it seemed like Angela Bassett’s to lose, a long coronation to a storied—and underrewarded—career, and now…I don’t know what to make of it, following Kerry Condon’s win at BAFTA and Jamie Lee Curtis’ gobsmacking upset at SAG...

Click to read more ...

Will history repeat itself?

Please welcome new contributor Danny Cox.

by Danny Cox

At this moment, the fate of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is the least settled of the acting  categories. Will Jamie Lee Curtis ride the wave of her SAG win? Does Kerry Condon’s BAFTA  upset suggest wanting to award at least one actor from the much lauded film? Or does the earliest  front runner, the winner of the Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice Award, Angela Bassett rally back around to take home the prize? While there is definitely momentum for both Curtis and Condon,  one thing Bassett has over the two of them is a strange parallel to a former win. If Bassett pulls  this off, this would not be the first time a highly respected actor gets a late career nomination for  a film that is popular with the general public in a category with split competition. Does that sound familiar?

If Bassett wins, it would be Jack Palance in City Slickers all over again.  Unexpected comparison I know, but hear me out...

Click to read more ...