Cinema and Popcorn

We are days away from the big Oscars night and it's time to publish my final winner predictions for each category. My picks were based not only in the movies' performance during the precursor awards and, specially, the guild awards and BAFTA, but also based on the general conception around the movie since every voter votes for every category, which means that each winner is the result of a consensus of all branches. So, have a look: So, as you can see I expect a big night for Everything Everywhere All At Once for not only taking home Best Picture but also for being the movie with most wins ( 5 total ), followed by Elvis ( 4 wins ) and then All Quiet On the Western Front and Top Gun: Maverick ( 2 wins each). So, no sweeps here... I believe the Academy voters will continue with the "spread the wealth" thinking they've adopted these recent years - in fact, I believe they will be kind with EEAAO in the above the line categories and then manage to give an Oscar he...

The EE BAFTA Film Awards took place last Sunday (February 19) at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and it didn't bring that much clarity in terms of Oscar predictions. In fact, I must say I consider BAFTA went mostly for the "challengers", while it also carried All Quiet On the Western Front to the top seats of many categories. The German-speaking anti-war movie took home 7 trophies, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Film Not in English Language, besides Best Adapted Screenplay - is Netflix Best Picture Oscar closer than we expect? BAFTA Awards are a reliable Oscar indicator, specially in terms of wins. The Brits clearly loved All Quiet On the Western Front - the movie is splendid, indeed - but is this win also a political message? A movie about the horrors of war, about the lives lost, about how pointless it can be! Could the AMPAS go the same way? The 1930's adaptation took home Best Picture and Best Director back in the time when the Nazi regime was trivi...

Here are the complete list of the Academy Awards 2023 nominees. Everything Everywhere All At Once overperforms here, getting surprising (yet quite deserving) nominations in Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. Could this strong showing be an indicator of widespread love and support from all the branches of the Academy, which might lead to a Best Picture win? I believe so. Still in the running for the top prize, The Banshees of Inisherin also managed to get all the key nominations that show strong support from the Academy branches and so did Tár ! As for Elvis ... a strong showing in the technical categories, just like All Quiet On the Western Front which also got a deserving (yet still kinda surprising) Best Adapted Screenplay nomination - getting its title already engraved in the Best International Film Oscar trophy. I am also quite happy about some nominations: Women Talking in Best Picture (its chances were fading in the last weeks); Paul Mescal for Best Actor for Aftersu...

2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards nominations were announced. First thoughts? Well, if the British Academy went completely wild in its picks last year (with many refreshing, inspired and out of radar choices) this year's nominees shortlists are more conventional and in-line with Oscar predictions. I was expecting All Quiet On the Western Front to get a lot of love from this award body, but I would never expected it to set a new BAFTA record with 14 NOMINATIONS! Award bodies really are s*ckers for war movies - and that's all right, because this one is pretty great! On the other hand, I predicted Aftersun to have a strong showing here, but it didn't break in the main categories with the exception of Paul Mescal for Best Actor - no Best Film, no Best Director, no Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography or Editing. Shockingly... The Fabelmans only scored 1 nominations... for Best Original Screenplay. As you can check in the nominees shortlist, Everything Everywhere All At Once , The...

Golden Globes night is almost there and it comes with a lot of expectations surrounding its winners choices. If the nominees shortlists were, in fact, a kind of a letdown considering how the HFPA didn't quite embrace diversity as I was expecting it to do considering how it should try to prove the world it is a different (and more diverse) organization now.  So, a few notes about some categories: I do believe Best Motion Picture - Drama will be between The Fabelmans and Elvis , but the later seems to have a more passionate fanbase and it is a box-office hit biopic (but we have the box-office titans Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick also contending and the trifeca winning Tár also in the run, so it feels like anyone's game); Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama can go in many different ways, but the HFPA usually go for either fresh new female actresses or titanic acting veterans, which makes me believe it will be a Ana de Armas vs. Cate Blanchett ... but I exp...

Well... this is it! Golden Globes are coming and here are my predictions for the motion picture categories (except Best Animated Feature). Have a look: