Cinema and Popcorn

I know these categories come a bit late, but to be honest nothing has changed that much since I first drawed these charts. In fact, the awards race seems like the pundits consensus in these fields, with some titles eyeing a surprise ascension at this point of the race. Funny how so many Cannes-titles have managed to enter the awards race: Anatomy of a Fall ( Anatomie d'une chute ), The Zone of Interest , The Taste of Things ( La passion de Dodin Bouffant ), Asteroid City , May December , Perfect Days or, from a certain perspective, Killers of the Flower Moon . Also, the Summer titles Oppenheimer and Barbie also managed to live-up their critical and box-office successes and their studios are campaigning them successfully. I don't remember a season with so many early titles under the consideration for the top categories, recently. It amazes me and it defies the concept of "Oscar-baity release date" - it shows that if a film is good, then it will stand the test of Su...

I'm one of those who believes in Da 5 Bloods Oscar chances... so, as you can see, I'm predicting a Best Director nomination for Spike Lee - not only has the AMPAS unlocked some love for him and his work recently ( BlacKkKlansman ), but I'm sure the movie will have a heavy awards campaign from Netflix. Don't get me wrong: I do think Lee deserves the nomination, since Da 5 Bloods is fueled by the energy Lee instilates in the movie (and it is more ambitious filmmaking than his Oscar nominated work in BlacKkKlansman 's). David Fincher also directs another big Oscar contender coming from the "Netflix factory" - Mank , the story about the many struggles to get the classic Citizen Kane made and released. Not a lot of news about this project until today (it got an official instagram page it seems), but given the talent involved and the way Fincher was able to balance style/narrative/acting in both his previous Best Director nominated works ( The Curious Case o...

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...