This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2024

Apologies to Eric H. for starting this thread without him, but he hasn't posted in a while. And today kicks off detrius season with the Gotham Awards nominations.

ANORA ANORA ANORA

Full Gothams lineup:

Best Feature

Anora
Babygirl
Challengers
A Different Man
Nickel Boys

Best International Feature

All We Imagine as Light
Green Border
Hard Truths
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Vermiglio

Best Documentary Feature

Dahomey
Intercepted
No Other Land
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
Union

Best Director

Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light
Sean Baker, Anora
Guan Hu, Black Dog
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys

Best Screenplay

Between the Temples
Evil Does Not Exist
Femme
His Three Daughters
Janet Planet

Breakthrough Director

Shuchi Talati, Girls Will Be Girls
India Donaldson, Good One
Alessandra Lacorazza, In the Summers
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker
Mahdi Fleifel, To a Land Unknown

Outstanding Lead Performance

Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Nicole Kidman, Babygirl
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Saoirse Ronan, Outrun
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow

Outstanding Supporting Performance

Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow
Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Adam Pearson, A Different Man
Brian Tyree Henry, The Fire Inside

Breakthrough Performer

Lily Collias, Good One
Ryan Destiny, The Fire Inside
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass
Izaac Wang, Dìdi
Brandon Wilson, Nickel Boys

Conan hosting the Oscars:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/business/media/conan-obrien-oscars-host.html

Don't think I'm going to do as well in Movie Fantasy League as I did last year, so now I'm just hoping that my team, Saoirse and Destroy, beats the team Saoirse and Rescue.

Cahiers du Cinema top 10:

1) Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
2) May December (Todd Haynes)
3) In Water (Hong Sang Soo)
4) The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
5) All We Imagine As Light (Kayal Kapadia)
6) The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno)
7) Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
8) Ma Vie Ma Gueule (Sophie Fillieres)
9) Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)
10) The Other Way Around (Jonas Trueba)

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2024/11/28/cahiers-du-cinmas-top-10-of-2024-topped-by-alain-guiraudies-misericordia-includes-shyamalan-glazer-and-haynes

[9) Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)

Da fuck?

2023 releases and shyamalan. good start to the season

I didn't know about the new Guiraudie. Yah on the Hamaguchi, possibly his best.

I'm just hoping that my team, Saoirse and Destroy, beats the team Saoirse and Rescue.

Well you’re ahead of me (I’m Tom Holland Drive).

Follow along as NYFCC announces awards:

https://bsky.app/profile/nyfcc.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/nyfcc.bsky.social/post/3lcfxdocia22q

BEST ACTRESS: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys

BEST FIRST FILM: Janet Planet

BEST ACTRESS: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths

yesss

Forgot to post the Gotham Award winners yesterday. Full list here, but notable winners were A Different Man for feature, RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) for director, Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) for lead performance, and Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing) for supporting performance.

Back to NYFCC:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Carol Kane, Between the Temples

oh god more fucking category fraud. Kane is a LEAD. Like Culkin.

Kane's my vote for Best Actress actually.

BEST ACTOR: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

BEST SCREENPLAY: Sean Baker, Anora

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM: All We Imagine as Light

BEST DIRECTOR: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys

BEST FILM: The Brutalist

xxpost Cahiers has a weird thing for Shyamalan and Eastwood. They tie themselves into knots describing the auteurist marvels those two create (in their eyes).

I watched Trap last night, inspired by this post and uhh

I am a Trap apologist. It's ridiculous fun.

National Board of Review

Best Film: “Wicked”

Best Director: Jon M. Chu, “Wicked”

Best Actor: Daniel Craig, “Queer”

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”

Best Supporting Actress: Elle Fanning, “A Complete Unknown”

Best Ensemble: “Conclave”

Breakthrough Performance: Mikey Madison, “Anora”

Best Directorial Debut: India Donaldson, “Good One”

Best Original Screenplay: Mike Leigh, “Hard Truths”

Best Adapted Screenplay: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar, “Sing Sing”

NBR Spotlight Award: Creative Collaboration of Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “No Other Land”

Best Animated Feature: “Flow”

Best International Film: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Best Documentary: “Sugarcane”

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu”

Outstanding Achievement in Stunt Artistry: “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

Oh no the Wicked train begins

John Waters' Top 10

Over the paywall: https://web.archive.org/web/20241206153936/https://www.vulture.com/article/john-waters-best-movies-of-2024.html

Golden Globe nominations!
https://variety.com/2024/film/awards/golden-globes-nominations-2025-full-list-1236236911/

Nice to see Challengers and Zendaya show up.

Also, my initial positive reaction to Emilia Perez has soured somewhat, but I'm happy for the sake of my fantasy league team that it scored 10 noms.

How are these two different people?

https://i.imgur.com/jXV0iGq.png

Emilia Perez is just loathsome as a queer film and as musical.

I like the idea of it being a musical, but no, the songs are not very good. Some of the things about the movie that didn't work made more sense when I learned it was originally written as an opera libretto.

LA Film Critics:

Best Picture
Winner: Anora
Runner-up: The Brutalist

Best Director
Winner: Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best Lead Performance
Winners: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths, and Mikey Madison, Anora
Runners-up: Demi Moore, The Substance, and Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Performance
Winners: Yura Borisov, Anora, and Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Runners-up: Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing, and Adam Pearson, A Different Man

Best Screenplay
Winner: Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best Documentary/Nonfiction
Winner: No Other Land
Runner-up: Dahomey

Best Cinematography
Winner: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Runner-up: Lol Crawley, The Brutalist

Best Music/Score
Winner: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers
Runner-up: Eiko Ishibashi, Evil Does Not Exist

Best Production Design
Winner: Judy Becker, The Brutalist
Runner-up: Adam Stockhausen, Blitz

Best Editing
Tie: Nicholas Monsour, Nickel Boys, and Hansjörg Weissbrich, September 5

Best Animation
Winner: Flow
Runner-up: Chicken for Linda

Best Film Not in the English Language
Winner: All We Imagine as Light
Runner-up: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize
Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3

New Generation
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker

I thought RaMell Ross's documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) was an incredible film, abstract but totally accessible. I also loved Colson Whitehead's book Nickel Boys, so am looking forward to Ross's interpretation of it

I've been meaning to watch Hale County. Thought it was on Criterion, but it's not (or at least not now).

Way better than Nickel Boys

Florida Film Critics Circle ballots due tomorrow.

I highly recommend All We Imagine as Light and the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat.

what didn't you like about Nickel Boys, Alfred?

The subjectivity of the POV cramped the movie's resonances imo. For a limited intelligence the subjectivity works, but Elwood's so smart that I wanted the film to honor his empathy and observational powers. Let him access the full range of his responses. It worked a couple places: the laundry room, the elder Elwood's bar chat with a fellow inmate.

Sight and Sound Top 50:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-films-2024-all-votes

Oscar shortlists for international, documentary, shorts, score, song, sound, VFX, and makeup:
https://press.oscars.org/news/97th-oscarsr-shortlists-10-award-categories-announced

from ScreenSlate's 'favourite first viewings' megapoll, Vera Drew on Unfrosted:

One of the most perverted films I have ever seen. The Right Stuff parody fair-use boomer fetish art. The cinematic equivalent of a sociopath. Sarah Cooper and a Cereal Mascot January 6 sequence. Grandma’s Holes, frooty goopy fetishy marshmallow fluff “what’s the first thing a baby tastes” “applesauce.” “Milk.” Watching Jerry lip sync the end credits song by Jimmy Fallon and Meghan Trainor is like staring into Azathoth.

Our winners: https://x.com/FLFilmCritics

And we did Best Actor right, dammit.

The Guardian’s 50 best films in the UK #1 - All Of Us Strangers

The Guardian’s 50 best movies in the US #1 -The Brutalist

AV Club has been featuring some good film writing lately, like this:

https://www.avclub.com/mufasa-the-lion-king-disney-live-action-problem-faces

Just took the kids to see it and yeah I agree with all that. Don’t get me wrong it was incredibly impressive, the attention to detail was insane, but at the end of the day they just looked like animals. I couldn’t really tell some of the characters apart either. Also there was hardly a still shot the whole time, felt like the camera was constantly spinning in circles for like half of the runtime, made me dizzy to the point where I almost considered walking out. Wasn’t just me either, even my son said “it made my brain hurt”

Golden Globes making things interesting. Feel like Demi Moore has sewn up an Oscar nomination, but that category is stacked. Torres's win makes this an eight-person race, I'd say. I wonder if, for instance, Jolie doesn't make it in.

Anyway...

BEST DRAMA
"The Brutalist"

BEST COMEDY OR MUSICAL
"Emilia Pérez"

BEST MALE ACTOR, DRAMA
Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist"

BEST FEMALE ACTOR, DRAMA
Fernanda Torres, "I’m Still Here"

BEST MALE ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Sebastian Stan, "A Different Man"

BEST FEMALE ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Demi Moore, "The Substance"

BEST MALE SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"

BEST FEMALE SUPPORTING ACTOR
Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"

BEST DIRECTOR
Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist"

BEST ANIMATED FILM
"Flow"

BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM
"Emilia Pérez"

BEST SCREENPLAY
Peter Straughan, "Conclave"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, "Challengers"

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"El Mal," "Emilia Pérez"

CINEMATIC AND BOX OFFICE ACHIEVEMENT
"Wicked"

And here's the National Society of Film Critics, announced a few days ago:


Best Picture: “Nickel Boys”
Runners-up:
“Anora”
“All We Imagine As Light”

Best Actor: Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
Runners-up:
Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”

Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”
Runners-up:
Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Ilinca Manolache, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”

Best Supporting Actress: Michele Austin, “Hard Truths”
Runners-up:
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Nickel Boys”
Natasha Lyonne, “His Three Daughters”

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Runners-up:
Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”
Adam Pearson, “A Different Man”

Best Director: Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine As Light”
Runners-up:
RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys”
Sean Baker, “Anora”

Best Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”
Runners-up:
Radu Jude, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”
Sean Baker, “Anora”

Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys”
Runners-up:
Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist”
Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu”

Best Nonfiction Film: “No Other Land”
Runners-up:
“Dahomey”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”

Best Foreign-Language Film: “All We Imagine As Light”
Runners-up:
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Best Experimental Film: “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire”

Film Heritage Award: Scott Eyman

Film Heritage Award: IndieCollect

Film Heritage Award: To Save and Project: The MoMa International Festival of Film Preservation

Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: “No Other Land”

Marianne Jean Baptiste also won Best Actress from the NY and LA critics, which makes her one of the eight Oscar contenders. The others are Mikey Madison, Angelina Jolie, Karla Sofia Gascon, Cynthia Erivo, Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, and Fernanda Torres. (And I'm not even considering the possibility of Globe nominees Amy Adams or Kate Winslet, who are weaker but I could imagine also sneaking into the SAG nominations.) Who gets left out?

It's still a wide open year for Best Picture: no frontrunner, just frontrunners (Anora, The Brutalist, etc.)

I'd say Best Actress consists of these four locks: Gascon, Jolie, Madison, Moore.

I'm quite curious to read the ILX reaction to the disappointingly inert Nickel Boys.

I'm curious to see it, mostly seems to be getting raves but I hear your cautionary notes.

I got about an hour into The Brutalist last month until I realized I had watch it on the big screen.

I'm eager to see Nickel Boys but wasn't able to get to it this past weekend. I do have a ticket to The Brutalist a week from tonight.

Saw Babygirl yesterday and liked it, Kidman should absolutely be on the Oscar slate.

She would be in the running on my ballot. Oscar needs more fun uninhibited performances.

The Brutalist in 70mm for me was a fantastic experience, and I've thought about it a lot since I saw it. It's a capital M Movie but I'm surprised how much it reminded me of Mad Men, of all things. By contrast, it prompted me to finally check out Corbet's Vox Lux and I thought that was significantly weaker.

I don't see it winning a single Oscar though. Same for Anora, other than maybe best screenplay.

Pretty sure the Best Actor race is b/w Brody and Chalamet.

I actually bailed on Vox Lux, thought it was dull. But still want to see The Brutalist.

I admired The Childhood of a Leader and thought Vox Lux pretty much a farrago.

I'd say Brody and Corbet are the frontrunners for actor and director.

I don't remember much about Vox Lux, which may be partly due to the fact that I watched it on a plane.

Oh I forgot about Childhood of a Leader, that was interesting.

Corbet joints Todd Field in the actor-directors-who-have-developed-a-visual-sense category.

Is Emilia Perez a good movie? thing won a lot of golden globes but everything I've read about it sounds fucking awful. Also someone needs to give Zoe Saldana a sedative, did she really go up onto the stage when the film won director?

It's terrible.

thanks, that confirms my suspicions.

If you pay for Netflix, by all means watch it, though.

Also someone needs to give Zoe Saldana a sedative, did she really go up onto the stage when the film won director?

She went up on stage when "El Mal" won best song. She sings the song in the movie, and it looked to me like she ran up so that she could be the one to actually hand the award to the songwriters.

I didn't hate the movie. I get why people are bothered by it, and not all of it worked for me, but I admired the big swing and mostly enjoyed watching it.

ah ok, that makes more sense I guess.

Flow is a thrilling and deserving winner. (Though I never managed to catch Wild Robot during its three-month-or-so run.)

I rarely see Kidman flicks - it's all been downhill since her unmannered performance in BMX Bandits - but really liked Babygirl, and obv her usual buttoned-up, hard-to-determine-interiority mien is a feature rather than a bug.

I've been steadily becoming if not a fan then an appreciator of her work. Just watched Portrait of a Lady again (it's on Criterion Channel).

Loved Flow! I’m also hearing a lot of word of mouth buzz about it on FB etc, from people who aren’t necessarily animation fans (or parents of young kids). It only played here for like a week, assuming it gets an Oscar nomination I wonder if it’ll get another run.

Can anyone point me in the direction of the YouTube channel where someone posts their top films of the year in a skilfully edited montage. I’ve enjoyed them the past few years but seem to have missed it now that I’ve ditched twitter.

I know this is super vague but hopefully someone knows what I mean.

Bit of searching and it’s David Ehrlich’s channel. The 2024 review premiering on Monday 13th.

oh yeah I've enjoyed those too

Armond ➡️ White

[The Substance > Wicked, Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat gives the Me Too movement the outrageous treatment it deserves, while hacks John M. Chu and Jacques Audiard both exploit ethnic and trans feminism in two perfect parallels of stupid ineptitude.

The Substance > Wicked, Emilia Pérez

Coralie Fargeat gives the Me Too movement the outrageous treatment it deserves, while hacks John M. Chu and Jacques Audiard both exploit ethnic and trans feminism in two perfect parallels of stupid ineptitude.

Uh...

That gem aside, this seemed a tad less looney than previous years's. Maybe he's losing his touch.

Meanwhile, Walter's Chaw's yearly round-up is a typically great read, and contains a number of things that are new to me: https://filmfreakcentral.net/2024/12/the-50-best-films-of-2024-by-walter-chaw/

DGA nominees:

Feature Film

Jacques Audiard, EMILIA PÉREZ
Sean Baker, ANORA
Edward Berger, CONCLAVE
Brady Corbet, THE BRUTALIST
James Mangold, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN

First-Time Theatrical Feature Film

Payal Kapadia, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
Megan Park, MY OLD ASS
RaMell Ross, NICKEL BOYS
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, ARMAND

Documentary

Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev, PORCELAIN WAR
Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie, SUGARCANE
Johan Grimonprez, SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ÉTAT
Ibrahim Nash'at, HOLLYWOODGATE
Natalie Rae & Angela Patton, DAUGHTERS
Sean Wang, DÌDI

----

My main takeaway is that if Jon Chu didn't make it with this group, he definitely won't be an Oscar nominee. But I'd also be surprised if Mangold is. The directors' branch has been trending more international/arty lately, so I'd expect him to be replaced with Kapadia, Ross, or Coralie Fargeat.

I'm hoping for Kapadia. I'm sure Fargeat's in.

SAG nominees:

ENSEMBLE
A Complete Unknown
Anora
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked

MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig, Queer
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, “Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance

MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jonathan Bailey, Wicked
Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Jamie Lee Curtis, The Last Showgirl
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

---

Oscar takeaway: Bad news for Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman. Clarence Maclin also seems to be toast. A little surprised not to see The Brutalist compete outside of Brody (i.e., Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones snubbed), but it seems like the kind of movie that would do better among Oscar voters than SAG.

bummer about kidman, thought she was pretty great in babygirl. and if mikey madison doesn’t win against that mickey mouse competition I’ll scream

still wonder if Oscar will nominate and finally give Fiennes something

Pretty sure he's in for the nom, though.

FYI - Oscar nominations get pushed back to Jan. 19.

Looks like The Brutalist 70 mm is playing here for one night only, got tix. I don't know whether I'll like the movie, but figure it'll at least look good.

it does in a PTA way

I'm seeing it in 70mm tomorrow

I saw it last night, and OH MY GOD Brody is such a blatant piece of Oscar™ bait. But yes, it does look good.

The David Ehrlich video countdown (mentioned by Dan Worsley upthread) is now up: https://vimeo.com/1046284152

caught the Last Showgirl last night. It's not genius, but it's a decent character study and well acted by everyone. It's certainly the better Coppola film from 2024.

I'll be seeing The Brutalist in 70mm on Thursday, can't wait.

Writers Guild Award nominees (note that several big Oscar players were ineligible, including Emilia Perez, Conclave, Sing Sing, and The Substance ... glad that this cleared room for My Old Ass!)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
Anora (Sean Baker)
Challengers (Justin Kuritzkes)
Civil War (Alex Garland)
My Old Ass (Megan Park)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
A Complete Unknown (James Mangold and Jay Cocks)
Dune: Part 2 (Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts)
Hit Man (Richard Linklater & Glen Powell)
Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes)
Wicked (Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox)

BAFTAs!

BEST FILM
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Bird
Blitz
Conclave
Gladiator II
Hard Truths
Kneecap
Lee
Love Lies Bleeding
The Outrun
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

LEADING ACTRESS
Cynthia Erivo - Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón - Emilia Pérez
Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Hard Truths
Mikey Madison - Anora
Demi Moore - The Substance
Saoirse Ronan - The Outrun

LEADING ACTOR
Adrien Brody - The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet - A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave
Hugh Grant - Heretic
Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Selena Gomez - Emilia Pérez
Ariana Grande - Wicked
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist
Jamie Lee Curtis - The Last Showgirl
Isabella Rossellini - Conclave
Zoe Saldaña - Emilia Pérez

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Yura Borisov - Anora
Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain
Clarence Maclin - Sing Sing
Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce - The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice

DIRECTOR
Anora - Sean Baker
The Brutalist - Brady Corbet
Conclave - Edward Berger
Dune: Part Two - Denis Villeneuve
Emilia Pérez - Jacques Audiard
The Substance - Coralie Fargeat

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR, OR PRODUCER
Hoard
Kneecap
Monkey Man
Santosh
Sister Midnight

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
All We Imagine As Light
Emilia Pérez
I'm Still Here
Kneecap
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

DOCUMENTARY
Black Box Diaries
Daughters
No Other Land
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Will & Harper

ANIMATED FILM
Flow
Inside Out 2
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

CHILDREN'S AND FAMILY FILM
Flow
Kensuke's Kingdom
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anora
The Brutalist
Kneecap
A Real Pain
The Substance

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing

RISING STAR AWARD
Marisa Abela
Jharrel Jerome
David Jonsson
Mikey Madison
Nabhaan Rizwan

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Brutalist - Daniel Blumberg
Conclave - Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez - Camille, Clément Ducol
Nosferatu - Robin Carolan
The Wild Robot - Kris Bowers

CASTING
Anora
The Apprentice
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Kneecap

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu

COSTUME DESIGN
Blitz
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Nosferatu
Wicked

EDITING
Anora
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Kneecap

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked

MAKE-UP AND HAIR
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked

SOUND
Blitz
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II
The Substance
Wicked

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked

BRITISH SHORT FILM
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
Marion
Milk
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Stomach Bug

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
Adiós
Mog's Christmas
Wander to Wonder

I thought The Brutalist was good fwiw. Certainly not perfect, but a thoughtful film and also just a real experience. Definitely glad I saw the 70mm, it looked fantastic.

Agreed on all of that except for maybe the 70mm part. It *did* look great, and I liked seeing something on actual film stock, but I'm not sure I would've been able to tell the difference between 70 and 35mm.

Fair. The IMAX screen probably did as much work as the 70mm.

PGA nominees:

Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
Wicked

Feel like Sing Sing or Nickel Boys could replace one of those (maybe September 5) in the Oscar lineup.

So are we discussing The Room Next Door here, or anywhere else. I got things to say.

let’s hear em

Go for it!

I liked it better the second time.

I reviewed it here. It took a minute to realize he'd stress unusual beats.

Nickel Boys seems to have barely made any waves at all. I don't think I've seen a single trailer for it and release still seems very limited

I'm going to see it tomorrow. It's still only in 26 theaters around the country, according to Box Office Mojo, so it hasn't made much money. But it won some critics' prizes and was nominated for best drama at the Golden Globes. I get the feeling that its base of supporters is small but passionate.

I’ve been meaning to see NICKEL BOYS for weeks now, it was playing at my local theater a couple of weeks ago, but I never got the chance and then when I planned on seeing it the fire stuff happened and I was too far away. it’s playing another theater nearby, almost saw it this morning but didn’t have the energy. it’ll be on apple+ soon so maybe I’ll just stream it

I reviewed it here. It took a minute to realize he'd stress unusual beats.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, January 18, 2025 6:02 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

great review, alfred

twenty minutes in i was like "ah shit this is gonna be terrible" but then it really turned things around. i'm glad i watched it in a cinema because i probably would've turned it off or started looking at my phone if i'd screen.

i loved the hangout vibe and moore's performance especially. wasn't as crazy about swinton but despite some bone chillingly pretentious line reads she kept the spark of their chemistry going

a family friend who i was fairly close with recently underwent medically assisted euthanasia (it's been legal in canada for a few years) in a similarly willful way as swinton's character

i loved the hangout vibe and moore's performance especially. wasn't as crazy about swinton but despite some bone chillingly pretentious line reads she kept the spark of their chemistry going

That's what ground my gears about this movie. The story is urgent and key as the baby boomers face their own mortality. But Moore and Swinton's performances are so wordy and precise that it felt like an overly literal translation. Plus their New York is so clean and well-appointed that I couldn't suspend my belief.

i fault the script for that mostly. watching moore make a meal out of such badly written dialogue was part of made her performance so good. i was in awe, like how is she making this work so well lol

I mean, Almodóvar's Spanish dialogue is pretty affected too!

Let's do this!

The academy sure likes that Dylan film that nobody likes.

Pretty drab lists overall imo. Funny that we get another Roman Roy v. Kendall Roy matchup, which Roman will most likely win.

Figures that the first explicitly trans film honored by the Academy is a cretinous one.

can't believe I forgot to tune in live!


Best Picture

“Anora”

“The Brutalist”

“A Complete Unknown”

“Conclave”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Emilia Pérez”

“I’m Still Here”

“Nickel Boys”

“The Substance”

“Wicked”


Best Director

Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”

Sean Baker, “Anora”

Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”

Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”

James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”


Best Actor

Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”

Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”

Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”

Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”

Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”


Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”

Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”

Mikey Madison, “Anora”

Demi Moore, “The Substance”

Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”


Best Supporting Actor

Yura Borisov, “Anora”

Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”

Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”

Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”

Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”


Best Supporting Actress

Monica Barbaro, “A Complete Unknown”

Ariana Grande, “Wicked”

Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”

Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”

Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”


Original Screenplay

“Anora”

“The Brutalist”

“A Real Pain”

“September 5”

“The Substance”


Adapted Screenplay

“Conclave”

“A Complete Unknown”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Nickel Boys”

“Sing Sing”


Animated Feature

“Flow”

“Inside Out 2”

“Memoir of a Snail”

“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”

“The Wild Robot”


Production Design

“The Brutalist”

“Conclave”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Nosferatu”

“Wicked”


Costume Design

“A Complete Unknown”

“Conclave”

“Gladiator II”

“Nosferatu”

“Wicked”


Cinematography

“The Brutalist”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Maria”

“Nosferatu”


Editing

“Anora”

“The Brutalist”

“Conclave”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Wicked”


Makeup and Hairstyling

“A Different Man”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Nosferatu”

“The Substance”

“Wicked”


Sound

“A Complete Unknown”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Wicked”

“The Wild Robot”


Visual Effects

“Alien: Romulus”

“Better Man”

“Dune: Part Two”

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

“Wicked”


Original Score

“The Brutalist”

“Conclave”

“Emilia Pérez”

“Wicked”

“The Wild Robot”


Original Song

“El Mal” (“Emilia Pérez”)

“The Journey” (“The Six Triple Eight”)

“Like A Bird” (“Sing Sing”)

“Mi Camino” (“Emilia Pérez”)

“Never Too Late” (“Elton John: Never Too Late”)


Documentary Feature

“Black Box Diaries”

“No Other Land”

“Porcelain War”

“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”

“Sugarcane”


International Feature

“I’m Still Here,” Brazil

“The Girl With the Needle,” Denmark

“Emilia Pérez,” France

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Germany

“Flow,” Latvia


Animated Short

“Beautiful Men”

“In the Shadow of the Cypress”

“Magic Candies”

“Wander to Wonder”

“Yuck!”


Documentary Short

“Death by Numbers”

"I Am Ready, Warden"

“Incident”

“Instruments of a Beating Heart”

“The Only Girl in the Orchestra”


Live-Action Short

“A Lien”

“Anuja”

“I’m Not a Robot”

“The Last Ranger”

“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”

The academy sure likes that Dylan film that nobody likes.

it's made $58 million at the domestic box office, with a 96% audience score on rotten tomatoes

Shows the bubble I live in: I've heard almost nothing but bad things.

best actress has been the hardest category to predict all season because of so many viable contenders, but I kind of had a feeling it would shake out this way after Torres won the Golden Globe and Kidman and Jolie missed out on BAFTA nominations. sad that Marianne Jean Baptiste didn't make it in, tho.

big surprise to see I'm Still Here in the picture lineup over Sing Sing and A Real Pain. definitely need to see that. glad to see Nickel Boys made the 10.

It's Moore's to lose.

I'd say Best Actor and of all things Best Picture are harder to predict.

not a shock to see Mangold sneak into director after he got a DGA nomination, interesting that it came at Edward Berger's expense and not at Coralie Fargeat's. the fact that The Substance landed in both picture and director is kind of wild tbh.

Shows the bubble I live in: I've heard almost nothing but bad things.

― cryptosicko,

Even here it has its fans.

It's Moore's to lose.

I'd say Best Actor and of all things Best Picture are harder to predict.

agree with this.

three Black actors were nominated (Domingo, Erivo, Saldana), though it could've been more with Jean-Baptiste, Danielle Deadwyler, Clarence Maclin, and Denzel Washington (and maybe also Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor all on the bubble and missing out.

sorry Luca, nothing for Challengers or Queer. I was hoping Challengers could get into score or screenplay. Craig was the only possibility for Queer, but he deserved the nom imo. he probably finished 6th.

certainly over Stan (and imo Domingo).

very happy to see Daniel Blumberg (ex-Cajun Dance Party and Yuck(!) - then released some much better records on ATP and now Mute) up for best score for The Brutalist.

Thought this was interesting, from Kyle Buchanan:

"Though I predicted that Jean-Baptiste would just barely make the best-actress lineup, it was hard to shake the number of male voters I spoke to who simply didn’t like the character. When a woman suffers nobly, it’s Oscar bait. But when she makes others suffer, not so much."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/movies/oscar-nominations-snubs-surprises.html

whoa, Daniel Blumberg was in Yuck??? I loved that band. and the Brutalist score is indeed great.

Oh shit, I had no idea that Blumberg was the guy from Yuck!

it has surprised every person i've told so far.... "remember Daniel from Yuck? yes that Yuck"

congratulations to emilia perez, whose 13 nominations tie it for the most ever

We've talked shit about the Best Documentary Feature category for years, but a round of applause to the Academy for recognizing two examples of what Americans would consider radical politics like No Other Land and Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat.

I have not heard a single good thing about Emilia Perez, so kind of surprised.

congratulations to emilia perez, whose 13 nominations tie it for the most ever

not true. 14 is the most ever.

https://i.imgur.com/7CMrPVs.gif

Emilia Pérez is a movie with a far more positive reputation in the industry than among people on social media. It got 11 BAFTA nominations and 10 Golden Globe nominations, so its performance this morning isn't a shock.

Shows the bubble I live in: I've heard almost nothing but bad things.

― cryptosicko, Thursday, January 23, 2025 9:15 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

my friend who is the biggest dylan fan i know absolutely loved it. he also has the corniest film taste of anyone i know and has been trying for years to get me to watch the director's cut of batman v superman, so take that information however you would like.

Vanity Fair's David Canfield said on a recent podcast episode that he could see Emilia Perez doing well at the Oscars because Hollywood wants to support trans people during the first months of a Trump presidency and (I'm paraphrasing) many voters aren't sophisticated enough to perceive the flaws in how it portrays the trans experience. In this sense, the film's lack of subtlety works in its favor.

https://bsky.app/profile/oldfilmsflicker.bsky.social/post/3lgg6za7xts2w

on the upside of things, more women (6) have been nominated for best director at the Oscars in the last 8 years than in the whole 90 years before it (there were only four (4) before 2017)

What I've heard is there's actually gonna be an upset and they're giving the best movie oscar to Gremlins 2: The New Batch. You heard it here first.

Big if true

Another interesting bit of trivia, via Chris Feil on Bluesky: "Anyway, this is the first time in almost 50 years (1977, Diane Keaton’s win) that the Best Actress lineup is 5/5 Best Picture nominees!"

re: A Complete Unknown - please, I don't want another biopic to win best picture.

re: Emilia Perez - I haven't seen it, but have read that we should think of it as an opera. That sounds good to me. It also sounds like a film that is a response to our current ruling regime. I love Selena Gomez and wish she had been nominated. I'm ultimately expecting it to be disappointed by it though

re: Conclave - The film is watchable, it is very self-serious but on the whole the Vatican thing interests me and it has a ridiculous but satisfying ending. It is not a Best Picture though. I'm glad Isabella Rossellini finally got a nomination, but it was for a kind of turgid and inconsequential role. She should have been nominated for Blue Velvet in 1986.

re: The Substance - I just posted on that thread. Worthy, but too extreme to win Best Picture. I will be happy if Demi Moore wins best actress, but something tells me it will go to Fernanda Torres

re: Anora - I'm very much looking forward to this film, but when I tried to show The Florida Project to my friends they literally went running from the room. Child abuse!

re: Wicked - haven't seen it but really liked Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights. I know it's going to be kind of dumb

re: Dune: Part Two - zzzz

re: I'm Still Here - a total surprise. I loved Central Station

re: The Brutalist - this sounds like a real bore, but it will probably win best picture, and Adrien Brody will probably win another best actor award for playing a holocaust refugee (maybe deserved). I'm interested in seeing it though

re: Nickel Boys - this is the film that I'm really interested in seeing. The book was worth reading. Hale County This Morning, This Evening was one of the best documentaries I have ever watched. RaMell Ross didn't make that film to be straightforward in any conventional way or to make literal sense, and my understanding of this film is that it also uses subjectivity in the same way

people really credit Mikey Madison in Anora and I'm looking forward to seeing the film, but her winning over Demi Moore (when her role is explicitly a criticism of how women are treated as they get older) or Fernanda Torres, that would be a bad look

Well, it's a comedic role, which itself is significant. That's all I got.

I think all signs point to moore winning, even if I think madison was significantly more impressive

Watched a bunch of these this past week. Favorite was Nickel Boys followed closely by Anora. Nickel Boys should have been nominated for editing and cinematography. A Real Pain was enjoyable. Emilia Perez was an incoherent mess. The Substance is obviously great. Conclave was dull imo.

Emilia Pérez is a movie with a far more positive reputation in the industry than among people on social media. It got 11 BAFTA nominations and 10 Golden Globe nominations, so its performance this morning isn't a shock.

― jaymc, Thursday, January 23, 2025 10:43 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh Lord--will the Academy take it as a good treatment of transgender issues they way they took Crash and Green Book as good treatment of race issues?

You know, I remember enjoying critically acclaimed movies 'Green Book' and 'Three Billboards' and then watching them get absolutely milkshake-ducked for doing tropes. I was kind of eye-rolly about it because if you look past their obviously retrograde politics, they are still entertaining and well-made films that have a lot to appreciate. Emelia Perez, however, is an objectively irredeemable piece of shit by any megtric and I have no idea wtf is going on here

David Canfield on Emilia Perez:

Yes, in my years of covering the Oscars, I cannot recall a disconnect as severe as this one. It's strange covering the season in LA and interacting with casual Oscar watchers (and general movie fans), because I am pretty directly dealing in that contrast every day. I have a lot of thoughts on this, but to start, the film's performance pre-Netflix release should tell you a lot. The movie won two prizes at Cannes, where critics were largely (certainly not uniformly!) positive. On the ground over there, it was talked about right alongside Anora and The Substance as among the most obvious breakouts. In Telluride, I heard so many people rave about it. In Toronto—I'd argue the most important data point—it placed highest for the People's Choice Award of any 2024 releases. And then all hell broke loose.

My perhaps controversial take is that people respond, initially, more positively to this film than social media would have anyone (including myself on some days) believe, and that social media has informed the public conversation significantly. I don't mean that in a negative way; it's introduced a lot of viewers to the perspectives of trans and Mexican audiences, and generally broadened the reaction spectrum. But Academy members (or Globes voters, or the European Film Academy members, etc) were seeing these movies in the same kinds of screening rooms as those in Cannes, TIFF, Telluride, etc. Which is to say, a kind of bubble. The fact that Greta Gerwig's jury responded so rapturously to the movie way back in May says a lot about where we are right now.

I saw at the Chicago film festival in October, when its reputation was still as a movie with a lot of festival acclaim. Maybe I was influenced by that context, but I generally liked it. I get why people don't, but I didn't go into it with any of the criticism in mind.

I watched it in late October after a local colleague told me they couldn't stand it. They didn't mention the quality of the songs or the backhalf twists.

I watched it in late October after a local colleague told me they couldn't stand it. They didn't mention the quality of the songs or the backhalf twists.

I will concede that the songs are particularly interesting or memorable on their own, outside of the context of the film.

My perhaps controversial take is that people respond, initially, more positively to this film than social media would have anyone (including myself on some days) believe, and that social media has informed the man to woman. Penis to vaginaaaaaaa

xp NOT particularly interesting or memorable, rather

I liked how the music contributed to the overall delirious spectacle, but Michel Legrand it ain't

I understand the first half of your sentence, not the second xp

It lost me a little at the end but I liked Emilia Perez overall, and I liked that the songs were very understated, not full on Broadway musical-type songs. And Audiard's direction was good I thought.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/emilia-perez-star-racist-tweets_n_679d07d5e4b0e238e448778c

Yikes

her twitter history is a fucking shitshow of awfulness; she also trashed Selena Gomez like, five months before they started shooting that film? It's weird to me that she never went and wiped her social media history prior.

I think her prospects for winning are toast

I don't think she was ever really in the running unless the Emilia Perez wave was that strong (which I don't think it is). More interested to see if this sinks Emilia Perez's Best Picture chances.

Agreed. Despite all of the nominations for Emilia Perez, Zoe Saldana has always been a stronger candidate than Gascon for an acting win from the movie. And Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres have the momentum in the Best Actress race at the moment.

As far as Best Picture goes, it definitely seems like the kind of movie that could be hurt by the preferential ballot. It clearly has a lot of industry support, but I suspect that the controversies around it could lead some people who didn't even hate it but weren't particularly enthusiastic about it to rank it lower than they otherwise would have.

Zoe will probably get it but yeah, I think despite it's weird run of festival accolades and then the golden globe, I think there's gonna be a large enough portion of the academy voters who saw the immediate puzzlement from the populous on how the hell this got nominated, plus the outcry from Mexico and the trans community, and now the Gascon stuff that is truly toxic. There will be the rabid holdouts, but enough other people will switch that this might favor (unbelievably) A Complete Unknown or maybe Anora or the Brutalist.

If I had to conspiracy brain it, though, it has a chance because it's Netflix. While they always got a lot of nominations, they never won the big prizes partly because the industry didn't like their anti-theatrical stance. But in a post-strike world where jobs are scarcer, and Netflix basically announced they're not gonna be concentrating so hard on prestige pictures (i.e. Scorsese won't get another $150m to make a movie), the industry people might be desperate to show the studio with basically the biggest bank that they do like them and they really should keep funding "art" pictures.

Zoe will probably get it

I don't think so. This is Moore's to lose, and Torres is the strongest competition.

Oh, never mind, she's in Supporting Actress, I'm sorry.

the line going around about how this Oscar race has mirrored the plot of Conclave is pretty entertaining

It is very suprising that Zoe is up for supporting actress because she feels like the main character in the film!

The only worse example of cat fraud this year is in Supporting Actor.

I'm looking at ScreenTimeCentral.com:

Ariana Grande is actually in slightly more of Wicked (44.59%) than Saldana is in of Emilia Pérez (43.69%). But Saldana has more screen time than Gascon (39.54%).

Either Grande or Saldana would have the most screen time of any supporting actress winner since Tatum O'Neal for Paper Moon, who holds the record (65.49%) -- and was basically only nominated in that category because she was a kid.

As for supporting actor: "When Kieran Culkin collects his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for A Real Pain, he will make history as the category’s first champion to have appeared in more than 60% of his film. The current supporting male record of 58.59% has been held for over half a century by Jack Albertson (The Subject Was Roses), who was fairly obviously miscategorized and thus should never have raised the bar so high in the first place." https://www.screentimecentral.com/post/a-real-pain

Wait, I take that back about O'Neal -- Grande or Saldana would have the most screen time of a supporting actress winner since Alicia Vikander in 2015.

And the fourth most of all time, after O'Neal, Patty Duke, and Vikander.

the Patty Duke nom/win is maybe the worst in Oscar history.

The Patti What?

Patty Duke was nominated and won and oscar for the Miracle Worker.

you're not a De La fan, are you

https://theonion.com/karla-sofia-gascon-apologizes-after-emilia-perez-resurfaces/?fbclid=IwY2xjawILk0BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHXudqUUG8nPtwM82hjn2d781Id0oAtAYkkbwP934KqrsF8Qfkd1ETskOEw_aem_NpdnjLG7fqZZDtd3WMiaxw

Beatrice Straight won best supporting actress for just 5 minutes of screen time in Network. The whole idea of supporting actress/actor that it is comprised of those performers who are not top billed or are too young or don't feature in the name of the film or don't seem like they are the driving force of the film, regardless of screen time. I haven't seen A Real Pain so don't know about Culkin (it seems like that is a starring role), but I can totally see Saldana in the best supporting actress category

Tatum O'Neal's win still seems great to me, it was a shockingly good performance for someone who was only 8 years old at the time

I guess Eric has left us for good

Gascon may have tried to apologize but she also posted this, a message she received from someone: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1ifcqib/karla_sofia_gasc%C3%B3n_shares_via_instagram_a_message/

""I dare to share a message that moved me this morning ❤️"

"I imagine it can't be easy for you to go through all this. I've been reading all the tweets from those accusing you of being racist, and in my opinion, they are not understanding... They are literally translating without grasping humor or sarcasm.

Your messages are pro-women's freedom and against the oppression of women in Islam... They don't understand Spain's situation.

The same thing happened with George Floyd... they have twisted it.

They've turned it into a circus that has nothing to do with the movie or your work...

Anyway, no one can take away what you've achieved... but this situation is unfortunate... And I'm very disappointed with the criticism coming from the Latino community in the US... it's a shame they don't understand that the success of a Spanish or Latina actress is a success for all Latinos...

Sending you a big hug."

This is a huge bag of fucking nonsense. "the success of a Spanish ... actress is a success for all Latinos" wtf?

Americans are often confused about Spanish people -- cf. Antonio Banderas being labeled a "person of color" when he was nominated for Pain of Glory -- but I would expect a Spanish speaker to know better.

especially when my fellow Cubans often claim Spanish ancestry as a way to purify their blood

The whole idea of supporting actress/actor that it is comprised of those performers who are not top billed or are too young or don't feature in the name of the film or don't seem like they are the driving force of the film, regardless of screen time.

Much of this nonsense comes from studios who promote actors when they think they have a better chance in the supporting category. It goes both ways too: think Anne Baxter nominated against Bette Davis in All About Eve; they canceled each other out. Or Louise Fletcher in One Few Over the Cuckoo's Next, which, to me, is a supporting performance promoted to actress. Jessica Lange is the female co-lead in Tootsie, but the studio promoted her in Supporting Actress, and it worked, especially since she got a Best Actress nod the same year.

Was Thelma and Louise the last time that two people from the same movie were nominated in the same lead category? Hard to argue that Davis and Sarandon aren't co-leads, though I wonder if the studio would try to position them in different categories now.

I'm pretty sure they were the last.

Ok, I’ve seen 9 of the 10 Best Picture noms. Don’t know if I really want to take the 5-hour commitment for the worm movie

Saw Emilia Perez without being aware of any of the surrounding controversies and felt about it the way some felt about Megalopolis - I support its existence as an ambitious bit of highly-original bonkers gonzo filmmaking, and also it was shit

Welcome to the resistance

I liked that the songs were very understated, not full on Broadway musical-type songs

This was what i liked best about it too. I wish there were more space for musical films that arent always so indebted to theater, where characters sing but don't always have to engage in fully-developed songs. I get why people say it didnt have good songs, bc it didnt, but I don't necessarily need a musical to have "good songs" that work outside the film any more than I need a drama to have "quotable lines"

That's fair. They sucked as mobie songs too.

*movie

I mean, it was more like an opera than a musical

As Audiard originally conceived it

The Gascon scandal is worse than I thought:

But now, as a result of her behavior, her chances of winning the best actress Oscar, which were mixed to begin with, have been extinguished, and it’s possible that the same can be said for her future in the business altogether. And she has also severely damaged the Oscar prospects of her film — which was arguably the frontrunner for the best picture Oscar, having received a field-leading 13 nominations, just one shy of the all-time record — and, most unfairly of all, the prospects of her colleagues who were also nominated for the film, including Saldaña, who has been the best supporting actress frontrunner for months. Based on my conversations in recent days with Academy members, many are going to have a hard time voting for Emilia Pérez in any category, given that Emilia Pérez herself has become toxic.

I still like the film and am not sure it's been damaged all that much, but if Emlia Perez doesn't win, what is it going to be?

I'm not sure I like the idea of a 3+ hour film winning, a film about an architect that Richard Brody says is empty ambition, failing to infuse its characters with the stuff of life.

Maybe Anora is the safe win. I wouldn't hate it if Conclave won

Brutalist has some problems and I get where Brody is coming from (this film wears its ambition and I can see it kind of invites skepticism) but I love a swing and I'd be fine with it winning. Emilia Perez was really divisive before the Karla controversy as it was that I wouldn't have put money it winning. Due to ranked voting I think Anora does have a shot. But it's really about trying to determine what would Emila and Brutalist fans agree on as the second best film.

I still like the film and am not sure it's been damaged all that much, but if Emlia Perez doesn't win, what is it going to be?

It's as wide open as I've ever seen it. Any one of the nominees (except Dune Part Two and I'm Still Here, unseen by me) is better than EP.

It is a kind of wide open best picture contest, which I haven't seen in years

Yeah, it's nuts. I could see any of five movies winning.

Not mentioned here, but I've seen some speculation that A Complete Unknown could succeed on the preferential ballot, given that it seems to have some momentum (overperforming in nominations) and is generally well-liked by industry voters (few people outright hate it). Points in its favor: it's a movie about a real-life musical legend played by a charismatic young star who's in another Best Picture nominee; it's not a conventional cradle-to-grave biopic, but it's also easy to watch and handsomely made; and it's proven to be popular with actual audiences at the box office.

really, a biopic winning best picture? whatever

If at first your James Mangold directed mid-century boomer-bait music biopic fails to win Best Picture, try try again.

Finally saw "The Brutalist." I might describe it as a great film that was pretty good. It might have been the first movie I've seen where I thought, huh, this reminds me of something Paul Thomas Anderson might make.

really, a biopic winning best picture? whatever

― Dan S, Monday, February 3, 2025 10:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

that hasn't happened since...2024

I know I'm opening myself up for clowning, but I'd be fine with The Brutalist winning. I absolutely loved it and it's probably one of the best new films I've seen in the last 2-3 years. A few minor quibbles, but honestly the performances and the cinematography were outstanding.

And I realize I am right in the target audience for a flick about architecture, but I was impressed how well Corbet fucking nailed it. In the drudgery and monotony of construction slowly trudging towards an actual structure on the day-to-day; in the reality of overbearing clients, budgets/delays, everyone that gets involved assuming only *they* know best, and how the most tangentially connected issue can sink a project; but most importantly the awe of pulling raw materials from the earth and shaping them into something wholly new.

I found a certain sexual so uh brutally stupid that it almost threw me out of the film

*sexual act

As in, the film had dealt with ambiguities, and it wanted .e to rethink motivations in the most dollar book Freud manner?

Like I said, there are definitely problems and you nail how one of them was handled for sure, but moments like the guy pouring water on the huge slab of marble in the Tuscany quarry? Chef's fucking kiss imo.

Sure. By far the most imaginative of the nominees. And for an American film it's slippery if not ironic about what Israel represents.

Yeah, I'm fine with The Brutalist winning. Also fine if Anora slipped through, or Conclave for that matter. I haven't seen Nickel Boys so don't have an opinion, although its chances seem slim anyway.

Nickel Boys would be an incredible win but it's got no shot. Can't believe it didn't get a Cinematography nod.

Correct. Of the movies with a shot, I'm probably rooting for the The Brutalist. It's hard for me to believe that the controversy around its use of AI will amount to much; its bigger problem among Oscar voters will be its running time.

Would be fine with Conclave or A Complete Unknown, too. Sure, they're middlebrow, but I had a good time.

Oh, I forgot Anora! That would be a fun win, but it doesn't seem that likely to me (even though I'm including it among the five films that have a chance).

My question is, does Adrien Brody deserve a second Academy Award for playing a WWII refugee? He was good in The Piano, is he as good in this? I haven't seen it

He's good in The Brutalist. I haven't seen The Pianist, so can't compare.

The Pianist, sorry

Manohla Dargis loved the Guy Pearce in this, and I'm very happy that he finally got an academy award nomination, but my movie friend Bob who loved the film thought he was overdrawn. It makes me want to see the film myself

My question is, does Adrien Brody deserve a second Academy Award for playing a WWII refugee? He was good in The Piano, is he as good in this? I haven't seen it

― Dan S,

He's fine. Pearce is better in that it's a culmination of the entitled white guys he's been expert at playing. Conclave doesn't excite me in the slightest, but it's Fiennes' first nomination since 1996 and he's solid and smart and it's a compensation prize for the first-rate work he's done in the last 20 years.

It should please Alfred (and others) here to know that a few of my students were going on in class yesterday about how terrible Emlia Perez is (still haven't watched).

Feel like that's not an unusual view among normal people, whether because they pressed play on Netflix and just found it too weird or off-putting or because they've been immersed in social media posts that have villainized it for its politics.

I should add that I teach in a Gender Studies department, and a lot or even most of my current students identify as queer. This hardly rules out the latter scenario, but many of them have displayed good bullshit detectors when it comes to queer-targeted media.

Of course, I'll probably end up loving the movie now...

Feel like that's not an unusual view among normal people, whether because they pressed play on Netflix and just found it too weird or off-putting or because they've been immersed in social media posts that have villainized it for its politics.

― jaymc, Wednesday, February 5, 2025 4:55 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't know if normal people even had it in front of them. Like days after the announcement that this Netflix movie has more Oscar nominations than Schindlers List, I went to Netflix to watch it and it was trying to get me to watch like stand-up specials and Vince McMahon documentaries and I had to scroll down like eight horizontal tabs to even see it. You'd think they would be proud of it?

It was at the top of the screen when I turned on Netflix on Monday night to watch Black Doves.

In general, though, I do think Netflix does a lousy job of promoting its movies within the app.

I was actually surprised to see Gascon's face front and center on my screen since my understanding is that Netflix is distancing itself from her. (Someone pointed out that the hero image on its FYC page for the movie is Saldana alone.) But I suppose there aren't that many scenes in English that Netflix can use to trick Americans into watching a mostly foreign language film.

Karla who?

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fnetflix-releases-new-fyc-poster-for-emilia-perez-best-v0-0ldc8cdgoyge1.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D7da5bbe1946963592ba9b6f4609c9454e434481f

https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/EmiliaPerezad.jpg

If I had to conspiracy brain it, though, it has a chance because it's Netflix. While they always got a lot of nominations, they never won the big prizes partly because the industry didn't like their anti-theatrical stance. But in a post-strike world where jobs are scarcer, and Netflix basically announced they're not gonna be concentrating so hard on prestige pictures (i.e. Scorsese won't get another $150m to make a movie), the industry people might be desperate to show the studio with basically the biggest bank that they do like them and they really should keep funding "art" pictures.

― Gukbe, Saturday, February 1, 2025 8:06 AM

Honestly I dont even think industry people like real movies enough to want to protect them

But yes, I agree there's some cynical political reason they're rewarding Netflix, plus they also probably just like the movie

I don't think the industry wants to protect movies, they want to protect jobs.

But yeah, it's probably just that they like that movie.

OK, first things first, I know next to nothing about architecture. I can name about as many hockey players as I can name architects. That said, I went into "The Brutalist" having not read a single review or seen a single interview or anything, just knowing the very basic beats (architect, holocaust survivor), and I watched the entire thing *thinking it was based on a true story.* Like, I kept wondering how, growing up in the Philly area, I knew nothing about this world-renown Doylestown structure, or the man that built it. I just assumed this movie was a traditional biopic! Needless to say, much to my chagrin, my mind was kind of blown when I did a quick google. What a trip. I think it made me like the movie more!!!

I totally thought Toth was a real person too. I wondered how the Van Buren estate was going to react to this portrayal.

Ha.

A technical question for film folks. A handful of movies get released in 70mm for IMAX screenings. When I was growing up, 70mm seemed reserved for huge widescreen epics like "Lawrence of Arabia" or "2001." Now it often seems reserved for films that feature a lot of faces, like this or "Hateful Eight" or "The Master." Is the idea of 70mm that if it's projected on a huge screen, like IMAX, it retains its sharpness, and has ... better sound? I suppose the other question is, what am I missing when I see one of these movies in a theatre *not* equipped for 70mm? Like, I often see (on the screen or at home) the aspect ratio shift to adapt the format, but what am I missing? I liked "The Master" and this and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," but there wasn't too much in either (for example) that seemed designed to wow or awe like Lean or Kubrick or even Nolan.

It's that sharpness (or at least the depth) of the image and the texture. The Brutalist, like most Vistavision, was shot in 35mm but blown up to 70mm, so it's less about the sharpness and amount of information on the frame than it is about the brightness and the texture that 70mm allows (more light gets shone through).

I think. I'm not a projectionist or work in this field at all.

xxp i knew this was fictional but the way it switched to video in the biennale scene at the end definitely reminded me of that hacky biopic trope of having it end with some brief clips of the real person at some celebration of their 80th birthday party or whatever, which made me grin

The embarassing thing is that I read a very long (and good) New Yorker profile of Brady Corbet and how he made the film, but somehow missed it was all fictional. But one distracting takeaway from the article was that it was all filmed in Hungary. It really looked more like Budapest than Philadelphia!

Also, while Brody was raised without religion, not only does he have Jewish roots, his mother was born in Budapest!

I'm trying to think if I've ever seen a fake biopic before, a fictional drama with all the familiar beats of an Oscar contender. Fake documentaries, sure, mockumentaries, comedic fake biopics, but something as convincingly rich and detailed and specific as this? I must be forgetting something obvious.

Tar is an obvious comparison (where apparently many people thought she was a real composer) but Tar didn't have the typical biopic plot structure at all.

does citizen kane count?

Walk Hard

I did think of "Citizen Kane" as an obvious antecedent, but as with "Tar," maybe, its structural audacity sets it apart. This one, something about the way the details are doled out just nails it.

Things are getting interesting: Anora won both the Producers' Guild and Directors' Guild awards last night.

It was being proclaimed an Oscar frontrunner nine months ago when it won the Palme d'Or but then fell a bit as awards season progressed and other movies entered the mix. But maybe it will be the one to benefit from Emilia Perez's fall from grace.

Personally, I've always been skeptical of its Best Picture chances. As much as I liked it, it just doesn't seem like the kind of movie that the Oscar voters would throw their weight behind. But this year, who knows!

Yeah, it's got as solid a chance as anything. I'm one of the few ilxors not blown away by it but I'll always root for a comedy.

Tough-but-vulnerable protagonist gets taken for a ride in more ways than one by gangsters who promise things they don't deliver — it's now a political allegory!

I was slightly disappointed in it, but mostly because my expectations were so high. I still liked it a lot.

I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed The Brutalist, whatever that counts for. I don't think either are masterworks, but I'm also fine with either winning Best Picture, there have been a lot worse.

It's not my favourite of Baker's but I'm in the *very good* camp. Maybe doesn't hit all the tonal shifts and it drags a little in parts but so many great details (the put-upon local fixer's anxiety about parking tickets, etc) and an incredible final scene. I'd be happy to see it win in a year where I didn't love any of the nominees but I liked most of them quite a bit.

Interesting that the PGA votes were in before the Sofia tweets came out. I can publicly be snobbish about the Oscar race every year but I'll admit it's fun to not really know what's going to happen.

Sean Baker won best director at the DGAs.

yeah both PGA and DGA were last night

So I finally saw I'm Still Here. I don't see it winning anything unless 1) voters split on certain frontrunners, or 2) the voters think this is a way to give Donald Trump the finger. (Assuming they remember how Trump reacted to Parasite, and that I'm not giving them more credit than they deserve.)

She's gathering momentum. It's her or Moore.

I watched Emilia Perez last night with a film friend who is visiting me. What was reinforced for me watching it for a second time was how emotional so many of the scenes are between the four actresses. I can see why it won a group best actress award at Cannes. The heightened emotion of those moments completely outweighed all of the convoluted plot contrivances and social controversy for me. And I realized in seeing it the second time that I really liked the music.

I'm watching Anora with my visitor film friend tonight, we are both looking forward to it

I'd say the absurdity of the way it handled the transition and why it happened in the first place generated the social controversy but ymmv

yes, I guess that is part of what I meant by plot contrivances

Just saw Anora, really gripping in ways I wasn't expecting. And funny? It had a bit of The Big Lebowsky absurdity of ridiculous freakouts that was extremely entertaining and almost felt nostalgic... while keeping both feet firmly planted in the cynical present. I hope it wins Best Picture, but maybe it's too "Parasite" like?

Haven't seen I'm Still Here, A Complete Unkown or The Brutalist yet, though

I actually mentioned Parasite to a friend the other night when trying to think of a precedent for a Best Picture with a similar tone to Anora. Given that Parasite won, I'm not sure "too Parasite like" is a problem. But I think it had a clearer social message/narrative that voters wanted to support. There are some similar class dynamics going on in Anora, but it's not as allegorical.

It's barely allegorical imo. It's selling a surface (this isn't criticism).

It's why I preferred it to other Baker films that to me sold surface as depth.

Yeah, I don't personally think of it as a criticism, either. But voters want to latch onto something as a reason for a movie to earn their vote.

That said, Kyle Buchanan (the NYT awards pundit) was on the Prestige Junkie podcast today and said that he sees a lot of excitement for Anora among Oscar voters and think it will get a lot of #1 votes. He is less bullish on The Brutalist in part, he said, because he hasn't met any women who are ranking it first.

It would earn my vote for being very immersive, incredibly well acted, written and directed. The few parts where it "drags" (I didn't think it did really) actually works to express the growing tension and stress of the situation.

I loved all the quick editing and how casually some scenes were interspersed depicting certain lifestyle disparities, like the scene where they get IV drips to cure their hangovers and re-hydrate for another night of partying

Yeah Baker is at least as good at limning luxury as poverty.

My friend and I have had multiple discussions about Anora. He liked it ok but thinks it's basically the Hangover and no better, and he's been increasingly irate at it getting award consideration. He's now convinced its insular film nerds cut off from reality making up any "depth" in the film because they like Sean Baker.

that's a weird evaluate that film. it's a good story, well acted, well written.

I'm not sure it's a particularly good story, but it's definitely a good tale. I think what he does best is capture the details (sometimes foregrounded, sometimes or even often subtly backgrounded) of certain walks of life and types of working people and living situations, often in the context of desperate capitalism, that many of us don't encounter or think about. That seems to be his biggest gift, and maybe why "Anora" doesn't seem (to me, at least) like a dramatic improvement over what he's been doing all along. His casting is always great, though, and I suppose in that regard this might be the first of his films with a real breakout, star-making performance.

Quick ranking from critic Whiney G

1. The Substance
2. Nickel Boys
3. Anora
4. The Brutalist
5. I'm Still Here
6. Conclave
7. Wicked
8. A Complete Unknown
9. Emelia Perez
10.

I haven't seen Dune 2

1. The Brutalist
2. Anora
3. The Substance
4. Conclave
5. Nickel Boys
6. Anora
7. Dune 2
8. Emilia Perez

I haven't seen Wicked or I'm Not Here; hope to watch the latter on Thursday.

Your list has Anora twice, I hope #6 is A Complete Unknown

A Complete Nora

Looking at Sean Baker's filmography, I realize I hadn't seen any of his movies until Anora. Any I should see? Or is this is "best" at this stage?

A Complete Nora

― *The Anime＼(*^β^*)/ Ring (Whiney G. Weingarten),

you should see the florida project

...and Starlet and Red Rocket and Tangerine!

I finally saw Anora. I like that it is about a woman who as a sex worker has to be transactional in every interaction in her life, so that it becomes all that she knows, but then encounters someone who doesn't want to relate to her in that way.

I think each of the sections of the story go on too long, and so many of the scenes are hectoring, with people screaming at each other over club music.

But I like the concept of it, that a woman who is disrespected is given a chance to reach for something else and completely embraces it, only to then have to go through an ordeal

She at the end is returned in some ways to her previous life but this time everything is different. The last scene of the film is all-time great I think

Sean Baker knows how to end a movie

Unrelated to "Anora" (not least because I think "Anora" is shot really well):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTUM9cFeSo

I'm Still Here acquires poignancy as it nears its last half hour. The quotidian reality of keeping a family together -- ice cream outings, fixing dolls -- while bottling up the hysteria borne out knowing your husband's been killed by your own government is handled quite well. All the actors playing the kids excel. If I were an Academy member, Fernanda Torres would get my vote.

BAFTA winners

Film: Conclave
Director: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Actress: Mikey Madison, Anora
Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Pérez
Original Screenplay: A Real Pain
Adapted Screenplay: Conclave

More:
https://deadline.com/2025/02/bafta-film-awards-winners-list-conclave-emilia-perez-2025-1236291491/

Okay, who's seen the Oscar-nominated shorts (animated and liveaction), and are we concerning ourselves with spoilers?

What's the best way to watch them?

https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/

I went to Landmark E Street yesterday.

Of the Sean Baker movies I’ve seen, Tangerine is the must see.

I loved Tangerine

I know A Real Pain is supposed to be a film about generational trauma, but it celebrates two very annoying guys making the holocaust all about themselves.

Kieran Culkin does his Succession schtick with a vengeance. How is he already anointed as the presumed winner of the academy award?

Because he's good.

Conversation here: A Real Pain (the film)

Independent Spirit Awards

BEST FEATURE
Anora

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Mikey Madison, Anora

BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker, Anora

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
Flow

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

BEST EDITING
Hansjörg Weissbrich, September 5

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Sean Wang, Dìdi

BEST SCREENPLAY
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Dìdi

BEST DOCUMENTARY
No Other Land

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass

I finally saw Anora, and am wondering why anyone who looks so much like the Boston Marathon bomber is to be trusted. I'd ask if she was in a Pretty Woman fantasy, but I didn't see any indication that that film exists in the Bakerverse.

Watched A Different Man, which I thought was pretty good if a bit overdetermined. Would be an interesting pairing with The Substance. Adam Pearson is very good.

so after SAG, I'm gonna say that Moore, Saldana, and Culkin feel like locks. actor is back to a two-way race between Brody and Chalamet. and best picture is unsettled as ever. the PGA-DGA twofer gave Anora some momentum, but now BAFTA and SAG ensemble have gone for Conclave.

Wonder if an actual conclave will be happening during the Oscars.

Can’t believe the AACTA sweep two weeks ago hasn’t been factored in yet as a precursor to the Oscar results

oh wow, Australia really loved the Robbie Williams monkey movie

When I heard about the concept for it I couldn't help but think it was some crazy narcissist move to try and draw more attention to it. I don't think I'll ever get myself to watch it.

a different man was great. haven't seen the substance yet but might tonight

I'm Still Here acquires poignancy as it nears its last half hour. The quotidian reality of keeping a family together -- ice cream outings, fixing dolls -- while bottling up the hysteria borne out knowing your husband's been killed by your own government is handled quite well. All the actors playing the kids excel. If I were an Academy member, Fernanda Torres would get my vote.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 14, 2025 2:31 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I must have skimmed this post since I hadn't seen the movie yet. Now that I have, I agree with it entirely.

i finally got around to "a different man," i loved it. maybe too many ideas but sometimes "maybe too many ideas" are the best movies. i thought it was interesting that it has obvious but superficial parallels with "the substance," but it also had some echoes with "hard truths" in terms of having a central character who seems to be inherently miserable and contrasting him with a similar character with similar experiences but a completely different worldview.

just watched Nickel Boys. thought it was a beautiful film, the best of the 7 nominees I've seen so far

For posterity, the Oscar winners
Oscars 2025

Best picture
Anora

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Mikey Madison, Anora

Achievement in directing
Anora, Sean Baker

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Original Score
The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg

Best international feature film
I'm Still Here, Brazil

Achievement in cinematography
The Brutalist

Best live action short film
I'm Not a Robot

Achievement in visual effects
Dune: Part Two

Achievement in sound
Dune: Part Two

Best documentary feature film
No Other Land

Best documentary short film
The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Original Song
"El Mal" from Emilia Pérez

Achievement in production design
Wicked

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Achievement in film editing
Anora, Sean Baker

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
The Substance, Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Conclave, Screenplay by Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Anora, Written by Sean Baker

Achievement in costume design
Wicked

Best animated short film
In the Shadow of the Cypress

Best animated feature film
Flow

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

I'm glad I didn't stick around to see Mikey Madison win over Demi Moore

Yeah, I'm sad that Moore couldn't pull it out in the end. At the same time, I do like a good Oscars surprise, and that was a pretty big one (even if foreshadowed by the BAFTAs).

Felt bad for Moore, yeah. It would've meant a lot to her, and who knows if she'll get another shot. Hard to be mad about Madison winning though, she lights up the movie.

I spent so long railing against the Academy tossing out legacy or make-up awards to people that I'm surprised I'm a little upset that Moore didn't get it. Maybe it's because this was a better performance than most of those and, without Marianna Jean Baptiste, I don't know that I think I could really choose between her or Mikey's.

One argument for Madison is that her performance is a huge part of what makes Anora what it is, and so if you're going to give the movie Best Picture, it would be odd not to give her Best Actress. I suspect that logic may have carried the day for a lot of voters.

Sue would have smiled and won all the awards!

out of the Actress noms, I’ve only seen Anora and Substance, but they’re both great performances that the films depend on. And each actress has been in the same number of good movies, so it’s just as fair to give it as a legacy award to either.



oh wow, Australia really loved the

nb that the Australian awards are for Australian films. the Furiosa shut-out is egregious though.

I'm happy the Academy recognized a lead comedy performance.

xp but it won the AACTA International Award for best film, too, beating out Anora, Emilia Pérez, Dune 2, and The Brutalist

really happy for ANORA, baker, and mikey madison. deserved wins regardless, but hard not to think hollywood caught a break with the timing of the gascón stuff

I'm way less crazy about Anora than most of ILX is but Madison's comic chops made the first act and half of the second one a delight. I don't at all mind her win even if I rooted for Fernanda Torres.

pretty impressed by sean baker's ability to stay charming and not really repeat himself over 4 different speeches

The sex worker essay Josh linked is good, I was thinking about the portrayal of the work and the workers throughout the film. I do think there's real narrative sympathy there, the story doesn't condemn or judge Ani. There's immorality in the story, but none of it connected to sex work except in the exploitation of it. But of course it's not "realistic," it's a kind of fable, and it doesn't suggest much possibility for Ani or her co-workers outside the confines of their current economic situations. Nor does it in any serious way examine those situations, it just implies or stipulates them. So it's not Pretty Woman, but it's also not a Dardennes film.

Mikey is incredible in that movie, but Moore is maybe the best performance in anything that came out last year?

oh oops I referred to the link Josh posted but it was actually in the Sean Baker thread: https://angelfoodmag.com/romance-labor

I'm one of those dimwits who had to scurry home and search up "ending of Nickel Boys explained"--at least I was right...I may or may not see it a second time. The technique did wear on me at times (more so early on), but it's ambitious and you know you've seen something when it's over. The long collage near the end reminded me of the best parts of 20th Century Women. Between A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, and Nickel Boys, I don't get how Anora won the AA.

I think the film benefits from us having read the book first. It was beautiful, but it downplayed the horrors of the Nickel Academy as presented in the book, and the ending was confusing if you haven't read the book.

I just loved the camera-work, the presentation of the two boys with the camera seeing things from their opposite points of view, the music, and the many interpolated home movies, archival films, and abstract images, all of which seemed so heartfelt

Think it might benefit from a second viewing at home with captions--I lost some dialogue, mostly attributable to my poor hearing.

I wasn't at all happy with the film. I loved the novel, one of the decade's best, and the subjectivity didn't work: it actually shriveled the film for me. But I'm also glad it didn't get the usual realist treatment.

I thought the subjectivity was the strength of the film, I just thought it could have used more drama