With my house decorated in all the festive beauty of Christmas, my kids singing their hearts out to every carol, and the usual talk of presents and “Black Friday” shopping, you’d think my heart would be filled with the joyous spirit of the holidays… but here I am, just days away from Thanksgiving and the busiest month of the year, and getting into the spirit feels like a mountain to climb. Maybe that will change as the season speeds up—it usually does—but...

A hot take by Jim Cameron recently laid into Netflix in a podcast with Matthew Belloni at The Ringer, covered at The Playlist - you can listen to it here: “I know, but it’s sucker bait, right. ‘We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.’ See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they...

Look, you can trash the Astras all you want, but from where I sit, there isn't much of a difference between any of these awards now that they've all been fundamentally transformed as something other than what they once were. We're essentially looking at a consensus vote of like-minded people, and if the Academy voters are like-minded as the Astras (they probably are), then you can't complain too much about them. I mean, unless you're also complaining about the entire awards race...

The talk of the entire Oscar ecosystem (for as large or small as it may be) has been centered on Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good. Opening with an incredible worldwide total (one of, if not the best, of the year for an opening weekend), many would say its awards prospects would be high in both quantity and quality, reflecting the first film. However, the biggest takeaway from critics, not audiences, is that it doesn't quite match the first Wicked. While the...

The CCA announced the short lists for several below the line categories this year, a notable change from past awards seasons. Ryan Coogler's Sinners leads with 13 while Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein, Jon M. Chu's Wicked: For Good, and Joseph Kosinski's F1 follow close behind. The most notable snub is James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash but the CCA notes that the film hasn't been screened yet and can still get nominated via write-in, as can other films that "haven't been available for viewing before November 24th, as...

Anthony D'Alessandro reports the good news that Wicked: For Good broke all of the box office records with its weekend opening. With Thanksgiving week coming, it looks to become among the year's only massive hits. Avatar: Fire and Ash and The Housemaid should also do good business, which might help elevate this mostly depressing year at the box office. Wicked: For Good opened to $150M domestic, and $226M around the world, besting Wicked‘s $112.5M domestic, and $164M global start. Therefore, Wicked: For...

I was listening to a podcast on my road trip to see my daughter over Thanksgiving. I highly recommend it. It's called It's the Pictures That Got Small and it's about old Hollywood. It's impossible to find just by googling. That's because there is another podcast called It's the Pictures That Got Small, and the host is the much more famous Karina Longworth. But this isn't that podcast. This is a different podcast, and it's well worth your time (the other one...

Anne Thompson has always said you build a Best Picture contender "branch by branch." That makes sense when you think about how the Academy votes. Each branch can vote in its own category, but they all vote for Best Picture. It would be odd to separate how they vote in their categories with their favorites to win Best Picture, but it obviously does happen. When Selma was nominated for Best Picture, it only earned a Best Song nomination. A Best Picture contender...

Wicked: For Good might be on the ropes for an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, at least if the reviews are to be believed. Pundits have been holding a place for the film for months, assuming it would be as good as the original. But it looks as though it is perhaps a miss. The only possible upside is if it makes so much money it becomes too big to ignore. Maybe that's possible. But by the looks of it, at least...

I had to laugh when I clicked on Deadline and saw Ben Shapiro smirking on an FYC ad. This, after the internet threw a fit because Gold Derby interviewed him. I'm guessing the Daily Wire spent big on a splashy ad campaign with Penske Media, and they took it because I assume Penske and Co. aren't as puritanical as their writers. "Gold Derby Staff" wrote the piece, and in the Making of the Ben Shapiro Show is none other than Marcus James...