Cinema and Popcorn

A24's Everything Everywhere All At Once was the big winner of the 95th Oscars - and the biggest winner in years! It took home a total of 7 golden statuettes - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Curtis), Best Supporting Actor (Quan), Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing (Rogers) - out of its 11 nominations. I believe it will be remembered as one of the best Oscar triumphs in cinematic history! In fact, A24 also took home Best Actor (Fraser, The Whale ) and Best Makeup & Hairstyling ( The Whale ), while Netflix also had a strong showing with All Quiet On the Quiet Front winning 4 Oscars (Best International Film, Best Cinematography and the "upsets" Best Original Score and Best Production Design), while The Elephant Whisperers took Best Documentary Short and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio won Best Animated Feature - what an accomplishment! So, it seems the Academy likes to nominate critically raved movies, but voters do...

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...

Genre: Comedy; Drama Director: Damien Chazelle Writers: Damien Chazelle Starring: Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Flea, Olivia Wilde, Li Jun Li, Max Minghella &  Tobey Maguire It took me a while to understand my own opinion about Damien Chazelle's Babylon and I still can't figure out if I like it more than I hate it. To be clear: Babylon is able to reach brilliance sometimes, but it also can go low, very low. An exciting first act with a chaotic energy and a beautiful last act full of heart and nostalgia aren't really matched by what goes in between. It's a mess, but it is a visually stunning mess with what might well be the richest score I've ever heard since La La Land - Justin Hurwitz did it again! Babylon is composed by four parts: a 30 min prologue that gives you a boost of energy right before the title card pops on-screen and then three acts: the discovery and rise to stardom of Nellie LaRoy & Manny's entrance i...

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...