Something "Wicked" this way comes!

by Cláudio Alves

Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu and Cynthia Erivo photographed by Giles Keyte on the set of WICKED: FOR GOOD | © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In 1900, L. Frank Baum published the first book in what would become a series and a cultural monument – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Two years later, he'd adapt Dorothy's adventure into a musical extravaganza for the stage, and six years after, that Kansas girl would walk the yellow brick road into the silver screen for the first time. But it would take MGM's 1939 Technicolor miracle of a movie for The Wizard of Oz to reach its full potential. In 1995, Gregory Maguire used Baum's creation to question the workings of American propaganda through a revisionist tale. In 2003, Wicked reached the stage, reimagined as a mega musical that would take the world by storm. Last year, Jon M. Chu's film adaptation of the show's first act wowed audiences and, next week, the story ends, For Good.

It's been a long journey to get here, and I was lucky enough to attend the London premiere of Wicked: For Good, experiencing one of 2025's most anticipated movies firsthand, along with the fervor of die-hard fans and the media fanfare of a promotional roll-out the likes of which we rarely get to witness...

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First Oscar Predictions of the Year - Complete!

Whew. That took longer than expected but you can now see all of the "April Foolish" first-round predictions for this Oscar year, albeit compiled in May & June and delivered to you in early July. Since the first wave of 20 categories takes so long to compile (updates are easier) we should note up front that James Vanderbilt's Nuremberg, another film centered on the Nuremberg Trials, was scheduled for a November 2025 release after the weeks of research for these charts so it is not yet included.  That said we can hardly claim it a certainty as a competitor. World War II is no longer automatic "Bait" for voters, Vanderbilt is not (yet) an Oscar player and though the cast has four previously nominated actors none are the sort that Oscar voters ALWAYS watch regardless. Anyway, we'll save it for the next up date.

What follows are a dozen key questions were asking ourselves in July about the upcoming competition before things really heat up during the fall film festivals. We've love to hear your thoughts on these 12 questions...

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Eye Candy Predix Pt 2: Will "Wicked" be crowned again in Costume Design?

by Nathaniel R

WICKED FOR GOOD

I cheered when Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design and Nathan Crowley won Production Design for Wicked and yet I also felt a sense of dread. One of my great popculture fears in this franchise era is that the Oscars will one day lose their identity and become something akin to the Emmys with the same achievements winning again and again. Naturally then I'm excited to see new variations on the pinks and greens and golds and blacks of Wicked's color palette in Wicked For Good but also don't want to see it win back to back Oscars in the eye-candy categories, since it's essentially one long film, split into two. (It's the same reason I rolled my eyes that the Academy felt the need to nominate Stuart Craig and Stepheni McMillan for a full half of the Harry Potter franchise films even though their work was strong).

So what might oppose total Wicked dominance in the eye-candy categories come Oscar time?  Specifically costume design...

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Team Experience Oscar Predictions: Final Scores

by Cláudio Alves

Let us be glad. Let us be grateful. Let us rejoicify... that the awards season is over.

The Oscars have come and gone, and it's time to settle some scores. Nothing too dramatic, of course, just the matter of who, in the Team Experience, was best at predicting the 97th Academy Awards winners. Eric Blume took the honors for the nomination period, but the tables have turned. The king has fallen, and a new queen has risen – all hail, Lynn Lee! She correctly predicted 18 out of 23 categories, accounting for a roughly 78% success rate. On the other hand, I did the worst of the lot, with only ten correct predictions, or a 43% success rate. It's pretty dire, but that's what you get when you go "no guts, no glory" on some of these…

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Oscar Night in Review: Highs, Lows, and "What Just Happened?" Head Scratching

by Nathaniel R

Conan O'Brien hosts the 97th Academy Awards. Photo © Myung J. Chun for the Los Angeles Times

It was one of the great livery-stableman's most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.”
-Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

Another cinematic year has ended. Another eagerly awaited Oscar night's credits roll over clips of the key moment. Out there in the dark, at home and at Oscar parties, everyone immediately wishes to put it all behind them. I am also that livery-stableman, but shouting "Wait, wait! There are a few things we should talk about before we depart!" So please bear with us, dear reader, as we think aloud at you and with you (should you choose to join in the conversation) and wrap up this cinematic year and twisty awards rollercoaster. We'll try to 'get away from (this) amusement' within a week's time and move on to 2025 (and other years as we do for mini celebrations). That's the goal.

So let's talk Oscar night's highs and lows and wtf moments...

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