Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I think Downey would make a fine winner. But I also think Gosling would make a fine winner. Or the non-nominated Melton. So, my problem, as always, is with the hive mind that sets in and makes any other outcome unthinkable. Occasionally a performance rates that status -- Christoph Waltz in Ingloriou...

but given the all-time low this category has been in over the past decade (except for Hopkins and I guess Affleck), he wouldn't be a bad winner at all. You know, I hadn't really looked at the past decade as a unit, and, yeesh!, you're right. The only one besides Hopkins/Affleck I might exempt is Ph...

Elemental is the weakest of the group -- which isn't to say it's horrible; just that the Pixar formula is starting to really stick out. (I found myself wondering what life subdivision would be their next project: the major food groups?) The characters were likable enough to carry things along, but i...

The nominees: Io Capitano Perfect Days Society of the Snow The Teachers' Lounge The Zone of Interest This category appears a slam dunk -- in the 10-wide best picture era, no film nominated for best film has ever lost best Foreign/International Film. So, start with, The Zone of Interest wins. It's st...

This category this year proves once and for all most Oscar predictors aren't seers, they're aggregators. Prior to the SAGs, a good many on O'Neil's site were heavily touting Paul Giamatti -- a few, in fact, had been loudly predicting him from before Christmas. Then Murphy goes and wins SAG and, whoo...

Yet more presenters. The five-wide teams for the acting awards have obviously beefed things up, but this year seems to have a stronger batch of credentialed folk (as opposed to up-and-comers) than has been customary of late:

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The nominees: Barbie (Jacqueline Durran) Killers of the Flower Moon (Jacqueline West) Napoleon (Janty Yates & Dave Crossman) Oppenheimer (Ellen Mirojnick) Poor Things (Holly Waddington) Since Apple finally gave me freebie-access to Napoleon, I'm qualified to judge this category whole. Napoleon i...

This is mostly a pretty classic Best Sound line-up -- a couple of loud/dumb action movies, a music film, a big best picture favorite with major techs -- and then there's The Zone of Interest, to wild card things up. I think, had Zone not won BAFTA, everybody would be going Oppenheimer without a seco...

As it turned out, I could have addressed this category prior to the SAG/BAFTA rounds, because each went precisely as I'd expected, setting up the only truly up-in-the-air acting category this year. (Barring upset, which is always possible -- though not as much in this millennium.) You can make the a...

Hey...remember the Satellites? They mostly stay in the predictable zone above the line, but show refreshing independence below. Best Motion Picture – Drama: Oppenheimer Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical: The Holdovers Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer Best Actor in a Motion Picture...

Oppenheimer as expected, though the absence of Zone of Interest from the nominees leaves that race faintly alive.

We somehow neglected to note that The Creator won the top prize here. But, since Godzilla wasn't among the contenders, it's hard to know how dispositive that is.

As noted elsewhere, American Fiction is the winner. Once again, Oppenheimer, despite a quite commendable script -- and being seemingly poised to trounce at AMPAS -- can't win over the writers. The comparison I come up with is The English Patient, which had a finely textured screenplay but couldn't g...

The nominees: Bobi Wine: the People's President The Eternal Memory Four Daughters To Kill a Tiger 20 Days of Mariupol Variety had an article a few weeks back: US documentarians complaining their branch had been so opened up to international filmmakers that they found themselves boxed out in this yea...

Another set of presenters:

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