As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, all but delaying a slew of this year’s would-be Oscar contenders, the Academy Awards are still scheduled to happen in 2 months’ time, meaning that certain movies need to be discussed. Is it so surprising that nearly all of the following 13 Best Picture contenders are available on either Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus or Amazon Prime? Of course not. This will be the strangest Oscars yet and, for that, consider us absolutely intrigued at the prospect of seeing them pull this ceremony off.
Read more‘The Father’: Anthony Hopkins Triumphs in Devastating Dementia Drama [Review]
Anthony Hopkins is gunning for that second Best Actor trophy for his brilliant work as Anthony in “The Father.”
Read moreDenmark's ‘Another Round' Leads the 2021 International Film Oscar Shortlist
With the Oscars still three months away, there’s the growing sense that this coming year’s ceremony is going to be one of the stranger awards events in recent years. And now, the latest revelation that the International Film Oscar’s shortlist, which usually narrows down the 90+ submissions from countries all over the world to just five nominees, has been announced.
Read more‘Crip Camp’ Wins Best Feature at IDA Documentary Awards
The International Documentary Association has announced the winners of the 36th annual IDA Documentary Awards, and the Barack Obama-produced “Crip Camp” has been awarded the Best Documentary Prize.
Read more‘Mank' is a Playful, Technically Marvelous, But Slight Affair [Review]
David Fincher’s “Mank” will not be a movie with very much mass appeal. It will, however, adhere to the tastes of the producers in the Academy voting body who’ve always had a nostalgic yearning for the Golden-Age milieu depicted in Fincher’s film. This is a very dry, dialogue-driven ode to a bygone era of industry guys wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. Shot in black and white, and semi-inspired by the making of “Citizen Kane,” “Mank” chronicles a forgotten era of Hollywood lore, all seen through the eyes of its misunderstood screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz.
Read moreAretha Franklin Biopic ‘Respect’ Moves To Summer 2021
MGM, much like many of its competitors, has moved the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” from Christmas Day to Summer 2021. It was set to be a potential Oscar player, especially for Jennifer Hudson’s performance, playing the “Queen of Soul.” Regardless, you can now scratch off Directed by Liesl Tommy’s film from this year’s Oscar race.
Read moreBest Actor: Kaluuya, Hopkins, Oldman, Hanks, and Lindo?
Steven Yeun‘s performance in Lee Isaac Chung‘s “Minari” Is solid, but squeezing him as one of the five Best Actor nominees? Nah. It’s a stretch, but a 10.23 Clayton Davis Variety piece about how Yeun “could become the first Asian American Best Actor nominee” is setting down a narrative for the upcoming awards season. However, there’s fundamentally nothing stunning about Yeun’s performance in the film. in which he plays a struggling South Korean man-of-the-house who moves his entire family to the American heartland.
Read more10 Oscar Contenders Actually Being Released This Fall
Just because most of the big movies this year have had their theatrical releases delayed until 2021 doesn’t mean that Oscar season is canceled. No, au contraire, due to this year’s Oscars allowing digitally-released films to compete, we have plenty of films to look forward to in November and December.
Read moreNetflix Set to Buy Aaron Sorkin's ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7'
Studios are quite clearly panicking at the moment, which means streaming platforms such as Netflix are trying to take advantage of that panic by buying up 2020 releases. After all is said and done, we might have to call next year’s Oscars, the Netflix awards.
Read moreBest Picture
FRONTRUNNERS:
1917 (Universal)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony)
The Irishman (Netflix)
Marriage Story (Netflix)
The Two Popes (Netflix)
The Farewell (A24)
Parasite (Neon)
Joker (Warner Bros.)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Sony)
Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight)
Little Women (Sony)
Oscars 2020: The Contenders
This looks like an atrociously bland year for Hollywood (in terms of Oscar contenders). Tarantino, Scorsese, Soderbergh and then what? Do people seriously think yet another version of "Little Women" (courtesy of Greta Gerwig) will turn out to be an artful surprise? A new film by Kasi Lemmons sounds interesting on paper. Maybe the Safdies can sneak into the race with their Adam Sandler heist picture Uncut Gems,” but they are a little too radical for the Academy’s tastes. Looks like another year where the best movies will be foreign and mostly come from Cannes and Venice (Bong Joon-ho, Almodovar, Dardenne, Larrain, Puiu, Kore-eda, Hansen-Løve). Fine by me. My top ten lists have become more foreign-oriented the last few years, the American studio system is all but dead with Netflix now in charge of mid-budget dramas.
Read moreSteven Spielberg To Make His Case Against Netflix Movies Qualifying For Oscars At Next Academy Board Meeting
Netflix and the idea of what is a “real movie” has been at the forefront of the cinematic conversation from Cannes to this past year’s Oscars. The answer is not that complicated. Of course a Netflix original should be deemed a movie, it’s an unequivocal non-dilemma. The reason why this question is even being asked to begin with is because a monetary loss is involved for Hollywood bigwigs, they are too scared Netflix will take over and empty their bank accounts.
Read morePresident Trump Slams Spike Lee For Putting a “Racist Hit” On Him at the Oscars
These are truly fascinating times to live in. So much that has been parodied on SNL and The Onion, for years on end, has come full-circle and become reality these last few years, to the point where satire has taken a major hit. SNL is not that funny anymore because, quite frankly, we’re living in an SNL skit and with The Onion having been faced with major layoffs. not to mention filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, these satirically-based entities can't compete against today’s reality.
Read moreVisibly Angry Spike Lee Turned His Back to the Stage in Protest After “Green Book" Won Best Picture
“Driving Miss Daisy” is Spike Lee’s Vietnam, and “Green Book” gave him flashbacks.
Read more“Green Book" Crowned Best Picture at 91st Academy Awards; Critics Instantly Bash the Win as an “Embarrassment"
You can’t say I didn’t call it.
Read moreFinal Oscar Predictions: “Green Book” Will Win Best Picture.
Cue in the outrage police. Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” might set back the Oscars by a few years when and if it wins Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards tonight. All the “progress” that happened with “Moonlight",” “12 Years A Slave,” and “Shape of Water” winning might be destroyed, according to wokers, of course. No diss intended to Farrelly’s lovely film, but the amount of hate it has garnered throughout awards season is enough to send Twitter into outrage-overdrive when Peter “I flashed Cameron Diaz" Farrelly and Nick “Muslims celebrated on 9/11” Vallelonga get on-stage to accept their award at around midnight EST (Yes, that’s when the Oscars will likely finish broadcast).
Read more“Roma” Oscar Frontrunner? Does That Mean the Oscar-Bait movie dead?
I wrote a little entry for IndieWire concerning the best and most pleasant surprise of this Oscar season:
“The silver lining for me is the fact that an artful and completely plotless film such as Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” is the Best Picture frontrunner. A film that, if it wins the top prize on February 24th, will have most mainstream moviegoers scratching their heads in total and utter confusion. This would have surely never happened in any other decade. You can feel the influence of the great neorealist filmmakers like Vittorio de Sica and Roberto Rossellini all over this film, which justifiably leads me to believe that a win by “Roma” would be akin to an “Umberto D” or “La Strada” winning a Best Picture Oscar back in the ’50s. Unthinkable! Has the “Oscar-bait” film finally died? Can a “Roma” win finally put to rest the idea of what an “Oscar movie” should be? Maybe, just maybe, the academy’s tastes in film are being refined with each passing year. Of course, this theory could be completely sabotaged by a “Green Book” win, and we’re right back at square one.”
Of Course, Regina King Doesn't Deserve the Oscar for “Beale Street”
Listen, Regina King’s performance in “If Beale Street Could Talk” was perfectly fine, but worthy of a Best Supporting Actress win? Of course not. Pundits and critics going the King route are either a) virtue signaling and/or b) a social media-backed wolf pack of Jenkins aficionados. Talk to most normal moviegoers that have nothing on the line except their unadorned and honest taste on movies and they will tell you King doesn’t deserve it. It doesn’t help that she was snubbed by SAG two months ago, ditto BAFTA.
Read moreThe Upcoming 91st Academy Awards Could Very Well Be a S****Show For the Ages
We all know the months that have led up to the upcoming 91st Oscars telecast have had the kind of veracity that can only be described as nothing but a shitshow. Forget about the incredulous backlash towards films such as “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” for a sec, I’m talking more about the three major faux-pas that the Academy did, starting from August of 2018 until this past week. (a) the Best Achievement in Popular Film Oscar idea, (b) the Kevin Hart fiasco, and (c) handing out Cinematography and Editing during commercial breaks.
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