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
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
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
There's a lot of interesting history associated with this award. Most famously, Hattie McDaniel's win for her role in Gone with the Wind made her the first black performer to take home an Oscar. We've also seen youth get rewarded, as both Tatum O'Neal and Anna Paquin won as children. And of course, we'll always have … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Best Supporting Actress
This is, technically, another category where you don't need to actually see the movies to get the nominees. You can literally go to YouTube right now and hear the soundtracks to all five nominated films and get the gist of it. Hell, I did that myself before I wrote this just so I'd have a … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Original Score
I've spent close to a decade as a video editor over the years, particularly in sports television. I learned how to edit reel-to-reel in high school, and non-linear editing began in college when I first was trained on Final Cut. I've used that system, as well as AVID, Quantel, and Edius over the course of … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Film Editing
As a writer, this is my favorite award. As an overall fan of film, it can be the most infuriating. This is mostly because a) original ideas are hard to come by in Hollywood these days, and b) more often than not, the award becomes the consolation prize for a Best Picture also-ran. Since 2000, … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Original Screenplay
How does your film look? That's the basic question of the Production Design category, known as Art Direction until 2012. It seems like a simple question, and the broad scope of the category seems equally cut and dry. This award recognizes the "interior look" of a film, specifically the artistic atmosphere of a film, as … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Production Design
It's arguably the most glamorous award of the entire ceremony. It's the be all, end all of the "Who are you wearing" red carpet shtick. It brings us the most emotional of acceptance speeches, from Halle Berry name-dropping every black actress ever, to Julia Roberts telling the band to fuck off, to Gwyneth Paltrow nearly … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2018 – Best Actress
I Actually Paid To See This 