VistaVision @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

With The Brutalist, Brady Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley revived VistaVision for a 21st century cinema. In the process, they also brought the format back to the Oscar stage, becoming the first film since Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief to win the Best Cinematography Oscar for a VistaVision lensing. If you've read my reviews over the years, you might have noticed I have a passion for film form. This fascination encompasses the innovations that took over the medium in the midcentury, with the introduction of new aspect ratios, processes, and techniques after decades under the 4:3 Academy ratio hegemony. 

I really love VistaVision, a happy medium between more extreme widescreen propositions and the classical square-ish proportions that dominated pre-1950s cinema. It's quite beautiful, harmonious and the technique itself lends itself to rich images, full of detail, crisp yet not in the sometimes bloodless way of digital filmmaking. But what is VistaVision exactly? And how have films shot in this widescreen variant performed at the Oscars? Let's find out…

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Film Bitch Awards: Yellow Coats, Breathy Vocals, and Facial Reconstruction, Oh My!

by Nathaniel R

In an alternate reality somewhere I am a punctual cinephile, delivering his own personal awards with metronomic precision, one category per day for a month before the Oscar nominations or at least between the nominations and the big night. But we are in this reality and there are never enough hours in the day and always last minute screenings to shove in to try to see everything that people are talking about. While you'll have to wait to see my personal acting ballots until after the Oscar aftermath fades (as I'm still writing up star turns and need to have a clear head) but the rest of the 'traditional' i.e. Oscar parallel categories of my own awards are now up for your viewing / thinking / comparing-to-your-own-faves pleasure. I know it's Oscar day but I thought I'd throw this up if you're tired of talking predictions but are still hopped up with movie fever...

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Oscar Volleys: Three still standing for Best Picture. Who wins tonight?

The penultimate Oscar Volley. This morning, Abe Friedtanzer, Eric Blume, and Nathaniel R discuss the category at the top of the Academy mountain.

NATHANIEL: "BEST PICTURE!" He shouts with horror, as Team Experience reaches the final day of Oscar season with this category not yet volleyed. By now readers have had a chance to see all of our Predictions, and my own multiverse grappling with what might play out tonight  along with most of my own alternate ballot. Best Picture may well be the last award presented on regular Oscar nights, but it's far from the least. In fact, one could argue you should always BEGIN with Best Picture in your discussions since all awards are affected by it. "Trickle down" is a scam in economic turns, but it's very real at the Oscars where voters have historically voted for their favourite in as many 'lesser' categories as they can justify, often with ridiculous results in terms of the nominations and statuettes in  craft categories. Because we have reached the end of the season, apologies to the filmmakers behind Dune Part Two, Nickel Boys, I'm Still Here, Wicked, A Complete Substance, and even nomination leader Emilia Perez... but I think we can safely say that none of these films have a prayer in hell of taking the top prize.

Consensus, history, and momentum (in various quantities) suggests that only the epic drama The Brutalist, papal thriller Conclave, and raw and reckless indie Anora could win Hollywood's highest prize. BUT preferential balloting always throws a fascinating wrench into the popularity contest that is the Oscar race. Not only do you have to have a lot of votes in the end, but you also have to be ranked highly on ballots you don't win if the race is close. And won't it be? So what say you gentlemen? Who has the advantage and do pundits put too much stock into the "ranking" of preferential ballots.

ABE: Nathaniel, I think you meant A Complete Unknown, not A Complete Substance, but I think that speaks to how that those films aren't going to be major players. I think that, prior to Karla's tweets coming up, Emilia Perez could have competed, and both Wicked and The Substance could have been in play too had they done better on nominations day. But it's down to the three you mentioned...

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Nathaniel's Top Ten List. The Film Bitch Awards Begin...

by Nathaniel R

 

For this cinephile, the film year doesn’t officially end until the naked gold men are handed to their blessed new owners, deserving or otherwise. (If you’re looking for my predictions that article is here or in various Oscar volleys) So as we enter the third month of 2025 the books must now close on 2024. It’s time for even champion procrastinators like myself to participate in their mandatory subjective “Best” proclamations. For the next week or three I’ll be posting the Film Bitch Awards, the public honors for my private darlings, beginning with this Top Ten List / Best Picture, announcement today. These awards are the site's most enduring annual tradition and though I agonize over them (call it ‘permanent record’ anxiety as I never change them after the fact because I want them to feel respectable in a time capsule way) I deeply love the process of listing and favoriting and ranking. It’s one small ritual to bring order to the chaos of life. I imagine I’ll still do it even after the world collapses in three years time and we’re all living in a hellish installment of the Mad Max Saga. What will there be to rank… Rocks? Cancerous growths? Abandoned ruins? Who knows but I’ll do it. Until then we have civilization and the movies...

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Nathaniel's final predix: What kind of Oscar night will we be having?

by Nathaniel R

The big story from the SAG Awards last weekend was the continuing rise of Conclave and A Complete Unknown in the awards race. The fires in Los Angeles had previously wreaked havoc on people’s lives, many of whom work in the industry we obsess over so the event carried that story forward. More superficially (we recognize that this hardly matters in context!) the fires disrupted the usual flow from December’s mandatory “Best of” list explosion through the call and response of the various precursors and on to Oscar night. This makes it far more difficult than usual to predict what’s coming as there’s not necessarily any cause and effect from one event to the next given the messy timelines of voting. 

How much did the Emilia Perez scandal hurt a film oscar voters clearly loved in January? How many more voters watched I’m Still Here AFTER its surprising success on nomination morning? Do people love The Brutalist or merely admire it? Is Anora really out front as the DGA and PGA suggest? Will Conclave prove the adult contemporary tune that tops the charts amongst a sea of rowdy garage band hits (Anora, The Substance), folksy callbacks (A Complete Unknown) and would-be operatic bangers (The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, Dune Part Two)? I have so many questions...

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