Oscar Actor Hierarchy 2024 Edition

by Nathaniel R

Just one more nomination and the Poor Things men will make the list!

When we last updated the male version of this list Anthony Hopkins had yet to win his second Oscar for The Father (2021). Also moving up the list since then are Denzel Washington (who forced an expansion of the throne room itself with his 9th acting nod via Tragedy of Macbeth) and Robert De Niro with his 8th nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. Despite a few moves up the latter the only "new" entry is Bradley Cooper, scoring his 5th acting nod for Maestro though that poor things duo Mark Ruffalo (just nominated) and Willem Dafoe (just missed)  both feel likely to enter in the next year or three given how often they work and the plum roles that come there way. They have identical Oscar stats with 4 nominations and 0 wins each.   

What follows is a list of Oscar's 35 All Time Favorite Actors. As with the women this royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...

Click to read more ...

How was your holiday weekend at the movies?

by Nathaniel R

Labor Day weekend is not traditionally big box office though people almost always turn out for Denzel Washington and his third Equalizer film did very well given how Labor Day usually goes. Instead people head outdoors historically this weekend, desperate to catch the last rays of summer. Accidentally I was the latter this time even though I am decidedly not a summer person and avoid the sun like a vampire much preferring the dark cold of the movie theater. I was miserable on Monday with the heat but my friends wanted a picnic. So my moviegoing was home-bound. How about you? 

Weekend Box Office Sept 1-4 Holiday Weekend 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 600 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM  (spotty reporting this holiday week from the indie set)
EQUALIZER 3	THEATER CAMP
1 🔺 THE EQUALIZER 3 $42.8 *NEW* 3965 screens	1 🔺 THE GOOD MOTHER (US, drama)  $367k *NEW* 423 screens

Click to read more ...

Almost There: Don Cheadle in "Devil in a Blue Dress"

by Cláudio Alves

Noirvember can't end without a noir-themed write-up here at The Film Experience. It falls on the Almost There series to consider a style born in shadows, that cinema which came into its own in the aftermath of war and persists in perpetual reinvention. Though it'd be nice to look back on the origins of noir, most of the classics fell outside the Academy's radar. So it's only logical to wander into the depths of neo-noir, searching for a title that embodies the best of it all, combining classical sensibilities with a modern perspective. Thus, one arrives at Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress, a 1995 adaptation of Walter Mosley's book where a 1940s-set crime drama is reframed through the centering of a Black protagonist. 

However, it wasn't the film's hardboiled anti-hero who caught the attention of awards voters. Instead, those honors befell on a supporting player – Don Cheadle in his breakout role as a dangerous man called Mouse…

Click to read more ...

What's next for this season's Oscar-nominated actors?

We already looked at what's next for 2021's most celebrated directors so let's turn our attention to the actors who received those coveted Oscar nominations. Whatever will they do for encores? Let's start with the winners...

WILL SMITH
Before his long-awaited Oscar win and that unfortunate slap, he'd already completed work on Antoine Fuqua's action film about a runaway slave called Emancipation (due at some point this year) and then Bad Boys 4 thereafter. Because he's a massive star he is attached, as an actor or producer, to another 40+ movies or television projects though obviously most of them won't get made. It's a miracle any projects get made really given how difficult it is for the stars, money, and scheduled to align in Hollywood on anything! People might need a break from Smith after this week of controversy and thinkpieces but they won't get a long one. 

TROY KOTSUR
The true test about whether CODA meant anything to Hollywood beyond a chance to feel proud of themselves  and inclusive while voting for it, is if they actually take deaf talent seriously thereafter. We hope they do...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: A deep dive into Best Actor

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Cláudio Alves, Michael Cusumano, and Elisa Giudici to discuss Best Actor.

ELISA GIUDICI: Last year, we thought this Oscar was locked by Chadwick Boseman's intense performance. Yet we were surprised by the outcome, with Anthony Hopkins winning the golden statuette. The Academy was so confident about Boseman’s victory they moved the Best Actor category after Best Picture, the traditional one that closes the ceremony… only to stare at an empty stage, because the winner Anthony Hopkins was at home, sleeping. In 2022, Will Smith is the frontrunner in the Best Actor category. The odds are clearly in his favor…

Click to read more ...