Well, we’ve done it! The Oscars are just a few days away. and we only have two categories left to go. Let’s get predicating!
I am super-bummed out that Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans isn’t going to win any Oscars. Also, it made no money. It’s all super sad because this was the brilliant director’s look back at his childhood and how his parents helped shape the way he is. It’s a brilliant film (I had it as my #2 film of last year) and deserved a bigger audience and an Oscar for Michelle Williams had Universal put her in the supporting category as opposed to lead, which they did not.
It was a rough year for Steve all over in terms of his most personal movie.
However, The Fabelmans does have one thing no other film made last year can say. It has the best moment in all of 2022 cinema. It’s a moment that blew me away when I saw it, and I don’t know that a week has gone by since then when I haven’t thought about it. I’d like to share it with you. Maybe you haven’t seen the movie yet and this will change your mind. Maybe you did see it but glossed over it. Maybe you just liked Lyle Lyle Crocodile more. But nothing impacted me more in movies last year.
Best Animated Short. Editing. Costume Design. Original Score. These aren’t the sexy categories, but if you’re going to win you’re Oscars bracket, you’re going to have to take some of these down. Here’s where I think how some of (what some people consider) the “smaller awards” will pan out…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, Part XI: Predicting the winners, part 4…”
The biggest story among this year’s acting nominations is just how new so many of these actors will be new to the Oscars stage. Of the 20 nominated thespians, only 4 have been previously nominated. However, of those four with prior nominations, one of them just happens to be one of the best working actresses in the whole goddamned world.
With her Tár nomination, Cate Blanchett now has eight nominations over her amazing career, which brings her into a tie for 9th place of total acting nods. Her company includes Glenn Close, Geraldine Page, Jack Lemmon, Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole and Marlon Brando, which is pretty good company to keep. If she can win, and this race feels like a knock-down brawl between her and Michelle Yeoh, it will be her third victory, and that company would be even more impressive. A third Oscar for the Australian actress would have her tied for second for all-time acting Oscars and just one behind the leader who you get the feeling she can probably catch and surpass (Katharine Hepburn). Watching Blanchett is truly watching one of the best be amazing, and Tár may be a perfect example of that.
Let us rank all eight of her nominating performances and just marvel at what a brilliant force Ms. Blanchett is.
This is a year when I am absolutely stunned that the lead acting categories are both so close. It’s easy to make a case for five people to be taking home one of these two trophies a week from Sunday. Which thespian will be walking away with acting’s biggest prize? Let’s get right into it…
In the last few years, all of the major locks have come from the supporting acting categories. There have been no real surprises or upsets. You don’t see Olivia Colman winning over Glenn Close or Anthony Hopkins stealing Best Actor from Chadwick Boseman. There is something nice to know I can just check these off as guarantees, but also kind of a bummer to know there’s really no home for an upset.
Will 2023 be the same? Let’s take a look…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscars Coverage, Part VIII: Predicting the winners, part 2…”
Ok, so normally, I start predicting winners a week earlier, but ya boi caught the COVID and it sucked butt. So, let’s not waste any time and jump right into the sweet, sweet screenwriting categories. This year, I will be brief in my remarks about what films should have been nominated, as I gave you my thoughts on the matter a few weeks ago.
So, let’s begin…
Continue reading “FBC Oscar Coverage, Part VII: Predicting The Winners, Part 1…”
When the sun rose and the dust settled on the announcement of the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, Everything Everywhere All At Once was the big winner with eleven chances to win a shiny gold naked dude holding a sword. All Quiet On The Western Front continued to gain steam and go from the best chance to win International Feature to now seeming to be a legit contender for Best Picture. Women Talking, a movie which underperformed at SAG and BAFTA, thankfully got nominated for both Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Jackass Forever was robbed for Best Documentary. And I was 39/50 in my predictions. Not great, but serviceable.
Here are my immediate takeaways from today’s announcements…
With the nominations less than 24 hours away, you can feel the excitement in the air, and by that, I mean the air around me!
I’ve been predicting the Oscar nominations for Fancy Boys for three years with a very respectable 80% success rate. I think 2022 has the chance to be the most unpredictable Oscars in years, but that could also make it the most fun. Every year, I have a pick from my heart, whether it is Lupita Nyong’o for Us or Nicolas Cage for Pig, and I’m gonna try and avoid that and just go with my gut of what I think the Oscar voter is going to say.
Unfortunately, that is challenging in 2023. This feels like the one year where every category has some wild cards. Each category has about 3-4 locks with then another 2-5 hopefuls going for the other spots. And there are some real dogfights here. Remember how I said Michelle Williams running for Lead Actress was going to ruin the chances of a worthy actress? I did not realize it, but the actress getting hosed was Williams herself! Universal should have listened to me.
So, here we go. The nominees will be…
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, part V: Predicting the nominations”
So here we are, eight days away from the announcement of the Oscar nominations, and that’s gonna be a lot of fun for me. I’ll get to my predictions a week from today. But first, instead of writing about what the Academy is going to screw up, I thought I would talk about what would happen if there was one lone member of the Academy: me. I will be giving my nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, the four acting categories, the two screenwriting categories, and Best Animated Feature. Though, let it be said here and now: I would have nominated Jackass Forever for Best Documentary Feature.
This would be my 2023 Oscars ballot. It is perfect. Come @ me, you film nerds:
Continue reading “FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, Part IV: What the nominees SHOULD be (but most definitely won’t)”
Fancy Boys Club 