Costume Design has been for the longest time a category all but reserved for period pieces. No matter the quality of whatever movie is put forward, for the better part of the last 70 years, if there's a movie that's set at least 50 years in the past, odds are it's going to get nominated … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Costume Design
It's appearing that the acting categories are going to be well sewn up long before Oscar Night arrives. The results from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild are identical, which means really, only the BAFTAs can create any real intrigue. That's what happened last year with Best Actress, as Olivia Colman's upset of … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Best Actor
Of all the technical categories, this might be my favorite, mostly because it's the one I could basically never do. I mean, my days of high school A/V class and eventually college taught me a thing or two about how to operate a camera. Hell, I even worked for my school's video department taping classes … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Cinematography
When I did my very first Blitz on this blog two years ago, I started with this category as the simplest way to explain my thought process, as at the time it was the only Oscar field that defaulted to three nominees, with four or two on rare occasions. But no more. This year, the … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Makeup & Hairstyling
Just over a week ago, I completed my annual quest to see all of the shortlisted entries up for the Oscar for Documentary Feature. I recapped the journey here on the blog, and gave my alphabetical top five, i.e. the films I would nominate were I a member of the Academy's Documentary Branch. But the … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Documentary Feature
The orchestral score of a film is one of the subtlest, yet most essential elements. Sometimes, if the composer is doing his or her job right, you don't even notice it's there, as it simply complements the action on the screen. At times, the perfect scene gets the perfect little bit of punctuation with a … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Original Score
This is the rare year in the Academy that Original Screenplay is the lesser of the two Writing categories. And it's not just in the quality of writing, but in the competition for the prize. Almost certainly the award will come down to Sam Mendes vs. Quentin Tarantino. One will win here, the other will … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Original Screenplay
I will admit that I was quite surprised when the nominations for this category were announced. Part of the reason I went on the mini quest to see as many submissions in the category as possible was to see which independent and foreign films would make it into the final field, as I was assuming … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Animated Feature
Every year I feel like I have to explain the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, and why the categories have near-identical nominees. The simple TL;DR is that Editing happens in post, while Mixing happens live on set in most cases. The slightly deeper dive is to say that Editing is much more about … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Sound Mixing
Editing is more than just piecing all the various shots together. It's about incorporating video, sound, special effects, music, and color into one seamless whole. Whatever disparate elements go in to a production, it all comes together in the edit room. I know this first-hand, as I've done professional edit work since 2006, mostly in … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2020 – Film Editing
I Actually Paid To See This 