Today is Veterans' Day (or Remembrance/Armistice Day if you're not in the U.S.), otherwise known as 11/11 (make a wish!). And you may think it's waaaaaaay too early for coverage of next year's Academy Awards. And you would be right. But I don't care. It's never too early to get started on the Blitz! If … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – First Submissions Announced!
Hey folks! It's Oscar time! So I'll offer some thoughts while the ceremony is going on. Hopefully I can continually update this during the show, so you can see thoughts as they appear. If not, it'll be (hopefully) a good read once everything's done. Before we begin, last night was the Independent Spirit awards, and … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Live Diary
It's time to put up or shut up, folks! For the last several weeks I've been trolling theatres, streaming services, and DVD rentals to complete another Oscar Blitz. Every nominated film, every category, and over that time I've been lucky enough to share my assessments with all of you reading. You know how I feel … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Who Will Win?
We've come to it at last, the final award after weeks of analysis. It's time to rank the nine nominees for Best Picture. And because the voting is different for this than for the rest of the categories, we're going to do things a little bit different tonight. In the other 23 categories, a simple … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Best Picture
I guess it's appropriate that I'm doing the Directing category today, especially after I spent the early part of yesterday's review of Annihilation calling B.S. on Natalie Portman's complaints about the category at the Golden Globes. This is a category long mired in controversy, and not just for gender bias, though the fact that it took … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Best Director
We're down to the final three categories, and tonight we deal with the last one that I actually finished this year. It's always interesting to me to see which category ends up being the final one to wrap up the blitz. Two years ago, the first time I completed every film, it was Foreign Language, … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Best Actor
This is the most important technical category in all of film. Without brilliant men and women behind the camera and lighting the scenes, there literally is no movie. Strictly speaking, you don't need sound, editors, visual effects, or even actors. But with no camera, film cannot happen. Even the most visionary directors and auteurs cannot … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Cinematography
Year in and year out, this is the hardest category to track down. That's because of the eligibility cycle and rules that govern this category, which differ from the rest of the field. Right off the bat, there's no requirement that the films be publicly screened in the United States. Eligible films must be in … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Foreign Language
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, there's a distinct difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Editing has to do with special sound effects, while Mixing is a focus on the overall audio balance, bet it live on the set or in post-production. I'm certainly no expert in the matter, but that's always been … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Sound Mixing
Tonight we enter the home stretch of this year's Oscar coverage. There are seven categories left to dig into, plus one more omnibus post on Friday, March 2, where I'll actually predict the results, whether they concur with my analysis and preferences or not. We have two more technical categories and two more specialty film … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Live Action Short
I Actually Paid To See This 