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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Who's the Diane Warren of Every Category?

by Cláudio Alves

Another year, another Diane Warren campaign to finally get herself that Oscar. She's already got an Honorary Award, but the competitive prize eludes her. This year, the songwriter's best bets are Flamin' Hot and 80 for Brady, though Warren also penned an original tune for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. After she got a in for the virtually unreleased Tell It Like a Woman, anything's possible.

This got me thinking about the other people the Academy nominated constantly without ever giving them the win. Who's the Diane Warren in the categories beyond Best Original Song? Trying to answer that question, I dove deep into Oscar history, counting who's the most honored person who never won their respective race for gold. I focused on feature films and living artists, those who still have a chance to win or increase their record. Like Warren, some names are back in contention this season. From Picture to Documentary, here they are...

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Gotham Awards 2023: De Niro Censored and Gladstone Crowned

by Cláudio Alves

With the Gotham Awards ceremony, the season is officially underway. It was a night marked by studio intrusions into a space heretofore reserved for indie filmmaking, a "spread the wealth" attitude, and one controversy. When introducing a prize to Killers of the Flower Moon, Robert De Niro found his speech censored – presumably by Apple – but that didn't stop him from saying everything he had in mind. As soon as the video package wrapped, De Niro made sure to read his original text, complete with anti-Trump sentiment and John Wayne shade.

Some surprising results included a victory for A.V. Rockwell's A Thousand and One over Past Lives in the Breakthrough Director category, though the Celine Song film still took home the night's biggest prize. On the acting front, Charles Melton won Outstanding Supporting Performance for May December and charmed the whole room, while Lily Gladstone took the Lead Performance prize for The Unknown Country. Even when she's not representing Martin Scorsese's latest, voters are eager to recognize the actress…

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A Quick Hello + Updated Oscar Charts

by Nathaniel R

As the long holiday weekend comes to a close I wanted to come in and surprise you with a quick hello. I've been very absent. I'm fully aware. I've even written about the existential crisis but opted not to publish (for now, he said ominously? playfully?). Anyway, since it's gratitude season and a long holiday weekend I have to thank Cláudio for holding down the fort so beautifully. And thanks also to Nick, Juan Carlos, Eric, Glenn, Abe, and Chris for their November articles!  I thought briefly about writing a big sequel to Cláudio's "thankful for" post, but I will still be doing the Film Bitch Awards even if I do nothing else (hopefully I'll do something else) so don't want to give everything away just yet as to what excited me most this year's movie haul. So instead I opted to spend the spare hours inbetween holiday commitments to update the Oscar charts.

PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SCREENPLAYS | VISUALS | SOUND | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE | ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Awards season is about to hit full throttle. So it was long past time and there's quite a bit of movement on each chart. The big festival surprise was of course American Fiction so that has disrupted several charts. Overall it feels like a messy volatile year, punditry wise, which is my favourite kind of year. So many movies feel like they could get a lot of nominations... or come up much shorter than people were expecting.  I have things to say about Ferrari, Maestro, The Holdovers, The Taste of Things and Killers of the Flower Moon but I keep trying to learn my lesson about over-promising. Wish me luck. xoxo

"The Color Purple" and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

A shadow of uncertainty has loomed over the awards season for a long time. It was the enigma of a major contender yet unwatched until last week when the first screenings of The Color Purple movie musical finally took place. Now, it feels like the race is truly on, with the Blitz Bazawule's picture firmly established in the run for gold. And of the categories it might compete in, Best Supporting Actress is the surest bet. Indeed, some folk are already predicting Danielle Brooks for a sweeping victory thanks to Sofia, the sing-and-dance version of the same role that earned Oprah Winfrey a nomination 38 years ago. On stage, both Brooks and Felicia P. Fields have earned nods for the part, too. But will Taraji P. Henson's Shug Avery follow her into the 96th Academy Awards ballot? 

These matters make one think about the history of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, its embrace of musicals, and its propensity for nominating multiple people from the same film…

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