Cinema and Popcorn

1. SOUL It's not perfect, but it does have a soul! Disney's Soul is a mature and reflexive animated feature that deals with the "true meaning of life", always backed by a wonderful score, great voice work and beautiful visual effects. Soul is a delight for eyes, ears, mind and heart! 2. MINARI Tender, heartfelt and sweet, Minari' s biggest achievement is its ability to connect with the audience by portraying moments that easily might recall each viewer's own personal memories. It's a child's tale, the tale of a marriage on the rocks and a man's personal journey in search of the American dream while he tries to carry his family on his shoulders. Award worthy ensemble acting, a sensitive directing touch and some of the most emotional last acts of the year. 3. VITALINA VARELA It's a movie of great beauty and a lot of detail. Leonardo Simões' cinematography work is breathtaking, making Vitalina Varela almost "painting looking". Pedr...

Best Director feels like a wide-open category this year if you think about the win, but it seems locked in terms of nominees. Martin Scorsese leads the race with The Irishman – he has the name, the prestige passion project that received critical acclaim, strong box-office numbers (despite Netflix release strategy), a streaming giant backing the campaign and enough precursor awards love – in fact, The Irishman is one of the only 3 movies this year that secured nominations with the major guild awards (PGA, DGA, WGA and SAG). Bong Joon-ho directs Parasite and the movie is enough of a worldwide hit in order to generate Bong an Oscar nomination for Best Director – a Palme d’Or winner, multiple prizes winner and a cultural phenomenon – and he has just been nominated for the DGA (and the BAFTA, and the Golden Globe, and…). Quentin Tarantino is back to the Best Director race this year with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and he also feels like a lock in this category since the movie is expe...

Well, it was a Golden Globes edition full of surprises. From the Missing Link win over the Disney giants Toy Story 4  and Frozen II to the win of 1917 over The Irishman , Marriage Story or Joker . Pleased to see the HFPA didn't go for Jennifer Lopez ( Hustlers ), but for Laura Dern ( Marriage Story ) instead - not that I don't like JLo's performance, but it would be too cliché! The Irishman was completely defeated and it went home empty handed. Even Marriage Story underperformed here! This edition made one thing clearer: Best Picture is anyone's race and Laura Dern & Brad Pitt seem to have an Oscar win waiting for them (they're having the biggest sweeps of the season between the Globes and the critics prizes). I just got a 43% prediction accuracy this Golden Globes, which is extremely low when compared to other ye ars, but I really didn't see 1917 winning Best Drama and Best Director coming. But 3 of my predicted spoilers made the win, so...! Well...

As you know (or as “you should know” at least), Best Picture category is a special one: it’s all about the #1 votes of each member of the AMPAS! So, how does it affect the choosing of the nominees?  Well, people tend to go for movies they love rather for movies they “just” respect unless they recognize the movie they respect is undeniably good: and that’s why I have Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in first place for a Best Picture nomination. It’s a movie some might not fall in love with, but it is a movie no one seems able to say “it’s bad” and it also benefits from the all-star names involved in the project: Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino or Joe Pesci… I know it is a Netflix movie, but I can’t picture a scenario where The Irishman is left out of Best Picture nominees shortlist.   The other movie I feel pretty confident about is Parasite – the international foreign language phenomenon, Bong Joon-ho’s latest movie is one of the most critically acclaimed movie i...

The frontrunners are showing! Critics picks do say a lot about which movie is taking the lead of the awards race, since their picks are the early ones - which will influence the major industry awards' choices! Right now, it seems The Irishman is losing some heat, while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is getting a boost and Parasite is taking the lead in the Best Picture race (besides being the obvious frontrunner for Best Foreign Language Film prizes). Little Women , a movie that was overlooked by a big couple of early awards organizations, is starting to show here and there and it even managed to win Boston - but it seems Best Supporting Actress ( Florence Pugh ), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Score are its best bets. Marriage Story is also getting some love and while it misses some Best Picture prizes it seems to be getting stronger in Best Actor ( Adam Driver ), Best Actress ( Scarlett Johansson ), Best Supporting Actress ( Laura Dern ) and Best Origi...

BEST PICTURE: Parasite ; Runner-up : The Irishman BEST DIRECTOR: Bong Joon-ho , Parasite ; Runner-up : Martin Scorsese , The Irishman BEST SCREENPLAY: Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story ; Runner-up: Bong Joon-ho & Han Jun-won, Parasite BEST ACTRESS: Mary Kay Place , Diane ; Runner-up : Lupita Nyong'o , Us BEST ACTOR: Antonio Banderas , Pain and Glory ; Runner-up : Adam Driver , Marriage Story BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Lopez , Hustlers ; Runner-up : Zhao Shuzhen , The Farewell BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Song Kang-ho , Parasite ; Runner-up : Joe Pesci , The Irishman BEST EDITING: Todd Douglas Miller,  Apollo 11 ; Runner-up : Ronald Bronstein & Bennie Safdie, Uncut Gems BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:  Barbara Ling,  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ; Runner-up : Ha Jun Lee,  Parasite BEST DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM: American Factory ; Runner-up : Apollo 11 BEST ANIMATION: I Lost My Body ; Runner-up : Toy Story 4 BEST SCORE: I Lost My Body , Dan Levy; R...