Cinema and Popcorn

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS This year's Best Supporting Actress race features some of the very best performances of the year regardless of being lead or supporting, male or female: Ruth Negga ( Passing ), Kirsten Dunst ( The Power of the Dog ), Aunjanue Ellis ( King Richard ), Ann Dowd ( Mass ) and Jodie Comer ( The Last Duel ) are some of the year's best acting turns (from what I've already watched). West Side Story , Belfast , The Tragedy of Macbeth and Nightmare Alley remain unseen by me (unfortunately), but there's no way to deny the universal acclaim of the performance, with Blanchett being (oddly) the least praised of the bunch. So, for #1, there's Ariana DeBose , the Broadway actress who took on the iconic Anita role in Steven Spielberg's  West Side Story and she's collecting rave reviews from critics. She's not famous (yet), but the nature of the role plus the level of acclaim she has been getting make me believe she's the frontrunner right now...

BEST ACTRESS "The bloodbath". Best Actress 2022 race is simply a warzone for predictions folks. I believe there are 5 spots for 10 legit contenders plus Jennifer Hudson ( Respect ), who didn't make my shortlist. The safer player here is Kristen Stewart , who portrays Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín's Spencer - her performance was met with universal critical acclaim and she's having a killer early awards season, with tribute prizes, critics groups nominations and tons of Oscar buzz as the only "serious" candidate for a win (since Venice Film Festival, actually). But what about general audiences aren't embracing the movie as critics? Still, a nomination seems locked for her (and she's in the right moment of her career after raved turns in small indies post- Twilight career phase). Next, it comes Nicole Kidman who plays Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos ... and while the movie is not being received with rave reviews from crit...

Now that the 2021's editions of Venice Film Festival and TIFF have announced their winners and there are the first reviews of NY Film Festival's major award hopefuls releases, I believe it's safe to start predicting which titles will compete for some major Oscar gold. A note about The Power of the Dog and Belfast which got the audiences' recognition at TIFF (with the later taking the People's Choice and The Power of the Dog received the Silver Lion at Venice). King Richard also got a lot of love at Telluride Film Festival and The Tragedy of Macbeth is getting rave reviews at New York Film Festival the moment we talk. A note to Sundance hit Sian Heder's CODA - which took home the Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic - and Asghar Farhadi's A Hero , which got lots of love during Cannes Film Festival and won the film festival's Grand Prix (but since it is a foreign language film, will it get stuck in Best International Film category? I believe and I hope not). D...