Matt Drufke

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, part XI: The Secondsies! Plus, final prediction tallies

March 10, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Most years, I do a column about who the Oscar nominees should be, and that is always fun for me, mainly because it allows me to feel smart and smug and self-righteous. But, you know what? In 2023, the Academy did a pretty good job picking the nominees. I don’t agree with all of them, but I’m onboard with most. So, I gave myself a challenge: Could I pick a slate of films and performances who deserved to be nominated while excluding all of those who were?

Like that, The Secondsies were born.

There is only one rule for The Secondsies. Anyone who is nominated for an Oscar in their category is ineligible to be nominated. This is a nice way to make sure that not just the obvious snubs got mentioned, but also to include some deserving nominees who never had a chance. I’ll present the nominees for The Secondsies and then end my Oscars prediction recap.

Let’s get re-nominating!

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part X: Picking the winners, part 6- Best Director and Best Picture

March 8, 2024March 8, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When Oppenheimer came out of the nominations with 13 noms, you had to wonder if it would be the kind of film that would keep it’s role as behemoth (Everything Everywhere All At Once) or lose steam and limp to the finish line (The Power Of The Dog). Will Christopher Nolan and his powerful biography win it all? Will Nolan win his first Oscar for directing?

Let’s see.

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Music/Movies, Oscars, Uncategorized

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part IX- Predicting the winners, part 5- The lead acting categories

March 7, 2024March 5, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Remember when my predictions started and I said Best Animated Feature was the closest major race? If that’s true, then Best Actress is a close second. There are two woman who each have an excellent chance of winning. Best Actor is a little (well, a lot) easier to pick.

Let’s get leading!

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part VIII: Predicting the winners, part 4- all the below the line categories

March 6, 2024March 5, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Before we get to the lead acting categories, as well as Best Director and Best Picture, let’s take a look at all of the smaller categories. I get that some believe that there are no small categories if you love movies (and I do), but you know what I mean: we know actors and movies and even some directors. No one could tell me what Rodrigo Prieto, cinematographer, looks like.

These are the categories that can make or break your Oscar bracket. Let’s knock them out!

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part VII: Predicting the winners, part 3- the screenplay categories

March 5, 2024March 3, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When Killers Of The Flower Moon was the only Best Picture nominee not nominated in the screenplay category, that kind of let you know that it’s stock was dropping. Still, the nine other nominees (plus May December) have made up one of the strongest years for screenplays in a very long time. Both the original and adapted categories have felt very fluid and it still kind of feels like a toss-up. But, the votes are in and predictions need to be made.

With that said, let’s get original and adaptive!

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2024 Oscar Coverage, part VI: Predicting the winners, part 2- The supporting acting categories

March 4, 2024March 3, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Normally, I would do screenplays before I even thought about getting into the acting categories, but I’m mixing it up. I’m doing so mostly because the screenplay categories feel very wide open while the two categories we’re delving into today are very solid locks. Basically, I need one more day to help decide who I want winning the harder categories.

Let’s get supportive!

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Music/Movies, Oscars, Uncategorized

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part V: Predicting the winners, part 1- Animated & International Feature

March 3, 2024March 3, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

As we are days away from the Oscars, let’s get into predicting! All this week, I’ll be laying out my choices for who will (and who should) be winning the nominations. I used to have a category called “Upset Special”, but I’m now changing that to a simpler question: “Does anyone else have a chance to win?” And, as always, I’ll be letting you know who got absolutely snubbed by not even being nominated (and, for every snub, I saw what should have replaced it).

Who will be walking home with Oscars on Sunday, March 10? Let’s do some predicticating!!!!

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Music/Movies, Oscars, Uncategorized

FBC 2024 Oscars Coverage, Part IV: Ranking Robert De Niro’s acting nominations

February 27, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With his nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Killers Of The Flower Moon, Robert De Niro moved into a tie for tenth of most acting nominations by an actor or actress. And while he is nowhere close to Meryl Streep and her TWENTY-ONE fucking nominations, he’s still in some pretty good company, including Cate Blanchett, Jack Lemon and Marlon Brando. De Niro has two Oscar wins, and while there doesn’t seem like much of a chance he’ll be getting his third this year, when you’re talking about the greatest actors to ever do it, you have to include Bobby D.

Where does his nomination for Killers rank amongst his work? Let’s rank, baby!

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Comedy

An open letter to comedy…

February 4, 2024by Matt Drufke4 Comments

My name is Matt Drufke and I have been doing standup comedy while based in the Chicago suburbs for almost eighteen years. I love being a suburban comedian. I have always found the scene out here so supportive and caring and filled with people who care as much about how you’re doing as they care about how much you make them laugh. And perhaps this is why I find myself needing to write this. Because something happened this week and it bothered me enough where I wanted to write this.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2024 Oscar Coverage, Part III: Recapping the nominations- Winners and Losers (and something in-between)

January 23, 2024by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When it was all said and done this morning, we got all of the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards. Overall in my predictions, I did ok (43/55). There were a lot of surprises, so let’s just get into who is happy right now, who is bummed out, and who is feeling… well, kind of muddled.

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