Oscar Trivia: Concerning double-acting nods. How many films could do that this year?

by Nathaniel Rogers

How many films will be nominated for acting this year? That question reads odd on the surface as there are 4 acting categories with 5 slots each. So the answer is obviously 20?. Nope! Usually at least a few films will score multiple acting nods, so 20 different films just doesn't happen.

But what we want to talk about specifically today is double-nominations within a single category. That's very common, happening more than half the time. In 55 of Oscar's 93 years to date, at least one acting category offered up a double from a single film. Sometimes more than one of the four categories will offer up a double nomination.  So what about this year...

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Dead Man Walking @ 25: Susan Sarandon's long road to the Oscar

by Cláudio Alves

25 years ago, Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking opened in theatres. The film dramatizes the true story of Sister Helen Prejean, the close relationship she forged, as a spiritual adviser, with convicted murderers on death row. Here, they are made into the composite fictional figure of Matthew Poncelet. Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn take on the lead roles, delivering two of the best performances of their respective careers. He received his first Oscar nomination out of it. She was honored with her fifth nod and, presently, her last. And she finally won the Best Actress trophy. 

The actress may be a controversial figure, but I'm not here to litigate her politics or the way she chooses to express them. Instead, I'd like to look at her achievements as a performer, specifically the five works that paved the way to that triumph on the night of the 67th Academy Awards. Join me – won't you? – as we explore Susan Sarandon's long road to the Oscar… 

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Vintage '91

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1991 is just a week away so get your votes in! Before we get there it's time for more context of that year in showbiz history. Ready? 

 

Great Big Box Office Hits:
The year's biggest hit by an enormous margin was James Cameron's Terminator 2 Judgment Day (which has aged spectacularly well). The other major blockbusters were Kevin Costner's hit Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and Steven Spielberg's Hook. The big sleeper hit of the year was The Silence of the Lambs. Other hits that year included City Slickers, Backdraft, Sleeping With the Enemy, The Addams Family and the remakes of Father of the Bride and Cape Fear.

Oscar's Best Picture Nominees: 
Most people remember 1991 as the year of Silence of the Lambs (7 noms / 5 wins) but many Oscar fanatics remember it just as clearly for another milestone...

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Worst Best Picture Snubs Ever?

by Nathaniel R

This week on Las Culturistas I froze on the question of "Greatest Oscar Snub of All Time?" so with 5 days out until the nominations (we know we know final predictions coming at'cha starting tomorrow), let's answer it! Restricting ourselves to Best Picture here because you gotta keep it tight when answering loose questions. 

SO WHAT WERE THE DOZEN WORST BEST PICTURE SNUBS EVER? Let's group them according to types of injustice...

TYPE 1. PLENTIFUL NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST DIRECTOR. SO WHY COULDN'T OSCAR GO THAT ONE SIMPLE HAPPY STEP FURTHER?  My Man Godfrey (1936) and Some Like it Hot (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969) and Thelma and Louise (1991)

In all five of these cases the Best Picture snubs are puzzling. It's not just that the movies are all so grand that you watch them with jaw dropped -- from laughter, cathartic despair, or sheer awe. It's also that the Academy loved them enough to recognize them across multiple branches...

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Wonder Women: Geena Davis

We're cheering on Hollywood's super heroic women this week. Here's Lynn Lee!

Geena Davis at Sundance this past JanuaryIf they’d made a Wonder Woman movie back in the ’90s, Geena Davis would have been on the short list for the lead role.  Or if not, she should have been.  Statuesque beauty?  Check.  Commanding physical presence and natural athleticism?  Check and check.  A convincing don’t-fuck-with-me quality, tempered by a divine set of dimples that suggest she’s not taking herself too seriously? Check and mate.

Davis’s premature relegation to the sidelines of Hollywood is one of the great recent WTFs for movie lovers and actressexuals everywhere.  To be fair, maybe we should have seen it coming, given her string of box-office bombs, the fact that she passed up roles she probably shouldn’t have, and her reputation for not being the easiest to work with. Yet it’s pretty shocking, when you look at her filmography, to see how abruptly her movie career sputtered and stalled out round about the turn of the millennium.

She still does TV work, though, and continues to be an active force for improving women’s roles in the entertainment industry—including launching her very own Institute on Gender in Media a decade ago to help increase awareness of the issue...

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