#support you wga faves

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Ayo! The WGA is officially on strike!

Lots of your favorite creators are striking for fair wages. These people, like so many of us pour their hearts into their work, and deserve fair pay!

As @dotthings rightly pointed out, a lot of them have also written books and comics. Go peep their bibliographies, and if you can, drop some bread on their other works!

[montanabohemian]

if i see a single one of you pissed that your faves canceled an event or a con appearance because they're striking for fair wages then imma come for you in your sleep 🔪🔪🔪

(direct that fury where it belongs: AMPTP and the execs)

[moff-karna]

"no content bcuz of the strike" "all my fave shows getting pushed back bcuz of the strikes". corporations are greedy and writers and actors are done with being exploited and underpaid !!!

[abnerkrill]

apparently alfred molina is picketing with the wga right now and there are NO PICTURES YET?

[witchern]

aight anon is going off, some of y'all don't know how to behave.

[thegeekyartist]

I think you can be worried about your fave shows AND support the WGA strike. Both things can be true.

[aleatoryw]

saw an exchange where one person said "i hope the writers strike doesn't destroy my fave show" and the second replies "i hope the strike goes on so long it obliterates that show and others" and like.

i think some of you are misunderstanding the point of the strike. the goal isn't "writers strike as long as physically possible, yippee!", it's "writers' strike and widespread support for it makes companies realize real quick that they need to meet the writers' demands". wga members have said they hoped to avoid a strike and would like to return to work, we shouldn't be hoping for writers to be out of work for months on end - especially since some will start facing pay cuts.

also it's okay to hope the things you enjoy aren't collateral! the writers that created them don't want to see shows cancelled or poorly ended either! just make sure you direct your anger about this at the corporations that are forcing this strike.

[spnfanficpond]

Weekly Pond Newsletter

Welcome to June! Sadly, this month started off with the news that our beloved spinoff, The Winchesters, has not found a new home and we won't be seeing any more of it. Considering the WGA strike, with a SAG-AFTRA strike looming, it was a long shot. Now, we can only hope that the SPN reunion that Jensen and Jared are always talking about happens someday! And when it does, there will be hugs!

Old Business:

The New Member Spotlight for May was posted! Click here to check it out and meet our newest members!

This weekend is Fishing For Treasures weekend at the @fanficocean! Head over there to see fics with LGBTQIA+ and POC characters!

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompt was (via @writerswritecompany):

There was some discussion on Twitter if Sam would even fit in a Tesla or not. What do you think?

New Business:

The Angel Fish Awards for May will be posted in the next day or so! If you haven't submitted a nomination and you want to be eligible for an entry into May's raffle for fabulous prizes, you still have time! (Admin Michelle is busy, so you've got until she gets caught up!)

#SPNCHI and Fan Expo Philadelphia are both this weekend! Three of the Core Four from The Winchesters are in Chicago with a long roster of SPN faves, while Tom Welling is in Philly with some fellow Smallville cast members.

Have you thought about your role in the Pond recently? Maybe you joined as a Guppy, but feel more like a Jelly Fish, now? Maybe you're a Jelly Fish who wants to take on some responsibility and support other writers by being a Manta Ray? If you haven't considered how you feel about your current designation in a while, take some time this week and think about where you are and where you want to be in our fishy family. If you decide you'd like to make a change, just let us know!

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! We try to keep it as up to date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, or cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @princessmisery666, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @katbratsupernaturalwhore!

[incarnateirony]

Every time I hear someone go "but my author fave can do this because Technicality And Guild Difference."

Just. Did you guys even listen.

"Add to that, no promotion of movies or television shows and famous faces on the picket lines and social media speaking directly to their customers. For the tech companies and the mega corporations, that should be their nightmare scenario: WGA and SAG-AFTRA side by side. Our bargaining agenda may not be identical, but our cause is the same. Our army of labor, defending labor has increased 17-fold in the past two weeks alone."

Did they fucking stutter. is this unclear. or will fandom realize Well Technically Specifically My Fave's OG Limit Lines Makes This Ok If Turned Sideways is not. fuckin. it.

Also, since this was July 26, please remember this in context to some recent posts here:

"

So what can we expect from the companies as all of this plays itself out? They will try to convince Wall Street that taking a strike, prolonging it unnecessarily, losing their content stream in the process—that all of that is just smart business and no reason for investor concern. We will be talking to Wall Street too, and reminding them that for all these companies, all of 'em including Netflix, the bill, the price for making nothing, will eventually come due. And Wall Street is listening already. Here's Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush on Yahoo Finance the other day: “I think the studios are completely wrong on this one. Content is their lifeblood. They're feeling really foolish about this."

Wall Street isn't the only one listening. We've been talking to union pension funds too about the risks the companies are taking. We talked to CalPERS, the largest public pension plan in the country, talked about the loss of programming and the cost to the industry, and we heard strong support from its board for our struggle and the promise that the companies will be hearing from them, from CalPERS, and demanding answers on behalf of its 2 million members."

I wonder what fandom thinks the endgoal of this part of leverage is:

"Two unions on strike willing to exercise their power, despite the pain, to ensure their members get the contract they deserve. For us, that means addressing the relentless mistreatment of screenwriters, which has only been exacerbated by the move to streaming; the continued denial of full MBA protection to comedy variety and other appendix A writers when they work in streaming; and the self-destructive unsustainable dismantling of the process by which episodic television is made and episodic television writers are paid.

It means addressing the existential threat of AI and the insufficiency of streaming residual formulas, including the need for transparency and a success-based component. All of these will need to be addressed for there to be a deal because in this strike it is our power and not their pattern that matters, not their strategy. Their strategy has failed them. Now they're in the midst of a streaming war with each other, an admittedly difficult transition. And as they face the future, their interests and business models could not be more different from Disney to Sony to Netflix to Amazon.

We root for their success, all of them. They root for each other's failure. We are the creative ammunition through which they will succeed. They are each other's apex predators. And yet, in a singular shared dedication to denying labor, they have shackled themselves together in what increasingly seems like a mutual suicide pact, as the 2023-24 broadcast season and the 2024-25 movie schedule and its streaming shows disappear, melt away week by week."

Can't wait for fandom to figure out they've been fighting against the obvious to the point of embarrassing.

[maxwellatoms]

Who were some of your fave writers you worked with on Evil Con Carne or Billy and Mandy. We know you’re best buds with Greenblatt but who else did you have fun writing with?

Here’s a list for ya.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292800/fullcredits

Just looking at the prolific “top five”(Apologies to Nina-through-Chris):  Gord Zajac went on to write books and work at Teletoon. Greenblatt went on to make Chowder, Harvey Beaks, and some fun giggling noises. Alex Almaguer went to Dreamworks, and I don’t know what he does there exactly, but I do know that his art has gotten “wicked sick”. Brett Varon is currently working across the parking lot from me and is one of the people bringing you more Animaniacs. And Mike Diederich has storyboarded for everything ever, but you’re probably most familiar with his recent work on Phineas and Ferb.

Sadly, these credits aren’t 100% accurate. Billy & Mandy was a “premise” show, so the storyboard artists would usually get an outline (usually written by Gord or myself) and then be tasked with turning it into visual entertainment. Even though they legitimately write the dialog as well as tell the story through pictures, animators are not considered “writers” in Hollywood. The credits shown here are probably based on who wrote the outline, but there’s no way to know. The credit on the show was usually “story by” for the outline and “storyboard by” for writing.

And, unlike the WGA, the animation union doesn’t support royalties for its members, so there would be no benefit to getting a proper writing credit anyway.

B&M had a very talented and fun crew. Look how fancy they’ve all gotten. I couldn’t get them back for a reunion if I wanted to!

[weekendwarriorblog]

Welcome to Awards Season Part 2 – The Movies 2019 (Chapter 1)

Hopefully, you’ve already read Part 1 of this semi-weekly series and already know some of the players when awards season begins in early December. A few of them have already announced their awards for the year.

I was going to use this second installment to talk about the various Oscar categories and what they signify or represent, and how they are selected, but that can clearly wait until January. Instead, I’m going to get into some of the movies being bandied about this awards season, and there seems to be more than ever.

Mind you, this won’t be one of those, “These are my eight to ten picks to get nominated for Best Picture,” since you can keep track of that over at GoldDerby, even if my reasons and analysis aren’t listed.  I may do something akin to that closer to January once we get some precursors. (See Part 1.)

In each section, I’m going to list the movies in alphabetical order but I’m also going to give a number to each in terms of its Oscar potential. While I’ll talk a little about some of the factors in play for each movie, I’m going to try to not get too deeply into the performances, since that will be saved for a future installment. I’m also going to leave off the desire to talk about animated films or documentaries much, even though the latter is definitely one of my specialties – the former, not so much.

SUNDANCE FAVES

Even before the Oscar nominations are announced for the previous year, the movie biz kicks into high gear with the movies that will be talked about over the next year with the annual trip to Park City, Utah for the newest independent films, including from many who have already established themselves at Sundances past.

Plenty of Sundance premieres have gone onto get awards (or at least nominations) on Oscar night including Little Miss Sunshine, Precious,Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Bone (whatever happened to that “Jennifer Lawrence” girl?) and more, but it feels like every year, it gets tougher and tougher to make it through the whole year, especially when movies are released during the summertime.

Clemency (NEON) (5)

It’s almost hard to believe that Chinonye Chukwu’s prison drama, her second movie, premiered all the way back in January, because distributor NEON (who is having a fantastic year!) is waiting until the very tail end of December to release it. The movie stars Alfre Woodard as a prison warden who is trying to juggle her own domestic issues with the impending execution of an inmate, played by Aldis Hodges (who was also excellent in the overlooked Brian Banks). Both performances are solid, having already gotten a few Gotham and Independent Spirit nominations.

Late Night (Amazon) (3)

This Mindy Kaling comedy vehicle, which she wrote and stars with the always wonderful Dame Emma Thompson is a fantastic example of films that come out of Sundance that are based on personal stories but told in an entertaining way. This comedy about Kaling’s character becoming a bit of a diversity hire in the writers’ room for a legendary late night talk show host (played by Thompson) comes from out of Kaling’s time as an intern for Conan O’Brien. It’s a wonderful and very entertaining film, although Amazon hasn’t been supporting its award chances by sending out screeners, maybe since it only made $15.5 million in its early summer theatrical run despite getting a wide release. I really like this movie a lot and in any other year, Kaling’s screenplay would get recognized – it really should have been this year’s The Big Sick*– but at this point, its best bet is a Golden Globe comedy nod for Thompson. (*Remember how everyone thought Holly Hunter would get an Oscar nomination for this that year?)

The Farewell  (A24) (8)

Lulu Wang’s family dramedy based on her own true story (or based on a lie, going by the opening title) is easily one of the year’s best films. The movie burst into Sundance with many raving about the performance by Awkwafina and Chinese vet Shuzhen Zhao, who are both wonderful, but I’m not the only person who absolutely loves this movie, which I expect to do decently among critics groups. It also has that personal thing of The Big Sick,but it’s also a movie set mostly in China, mostly in Mandarin, yet it still has found a fairly wide appeal among moviegoers despite only making slightly more than Late Nightin theaters, peaking in less than 900 theaters. Wisely, A24 is giving this another seasonal push with Wang and Awkwafina doing the rounds, which will guarantee awards voters check out those screeners. It’s a wonderful movie with a fantastic script, and hopefully its support at the Gothams and (less so) at the Independent Spirits will help its Oscar chances.

The Report (Amazon) (4)

Frequent Steven Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z Burns’ second feature as a director took on the CIA’s use of torture techniques to get info out of Iraqi detainees, which makes it a pretty serious film. Many people at Sundance were raving about the performances by Adam Driver as Daniel Jones, the man writing the report for years, and Annette Bening as Senator Dianne Feinstein, more than for the overall movie. The Reportjust hit Amazon Prime a few weeks after its so-so theatrical showing. (Actually, Amazon took a cue from Netflix and didn’t REPORT (rimshot) its box office.) I feel like Driver’s performance in Marriage Story(see below) has been taking away from this equally great performance and Bening’s performance while great as always isn’t too groundbreaking. In any other year, Burns’ fantastic screenplay would get attention and maybe the WGA will do so, but it’s playing in a tough adapted screenplay year.

Beyond those four films mentioned above, there are also a lot of strong docs that premiered at Sundance and will go all the way to Oscar night, as well as a number of genre films, some which will become popular favorites but not necessarily be in the awards conversation.

CANNES SHENANIGANS

(Actually, there were no actual shenanigans, but it rhymed, so the subtitle sticks!)                       

As the summer movie season begins in May, the Cannes Film Festival brings many industry insiders to the beach-side Croisette to see some of the fanciest world premiere galas of the year. I personally have never been but it sure looks like a nice working vacation.

There are quite a few strong festivals in between Sundance and Cannes: Berlin, SXSW and Tribeca being three, but to date, they haven’t proven to be particularly strong for delivering Oscar winners or even nominees. Movies like Olivia Wilde’s Book Smart, which premiered at the middle of the three, has proven popular among younger critics but just didn’t take off at the box office

Cannes is another story, and again, in alphabetical order, this year’s festival presented…

Atlantiques/Atlantics (Netflix) (2)

Mati Diop’s feature narrative debut left Cannes with the Grand Prix award, which got it a lot more attention with its look at a love affair between a construction worker and a 17-year-old promised to another man. This is Senegal’s selection for the International Film category, and it has a good chance of getting into the shortlist and nominations, although probably not into other categories persé. It will be interesting to see if this can win any of the critics’ awards in the foreign language category over Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) just awarded it as a debut feature, so that’s a start.

The Lighthouse (A24) (3)

There was a lot of buzz out of Cannes for Robert Eggers’ follow-up to his horror-thriller The VVitch, this one a two-hander starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as two men taking care of a remote lighthouse where they get stranded as they both start to go insane. (Actually, Dafoe’s character is already halfway there, which might be why his performance is a likely awards contender.) It’s a weird movie that certainly has its fans but it really will need some critical support this week to be taken seriously for anything other than another Dafoe nomination.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (NEON) (3)

This French drama from Céline Sciamma (Girlhood) about a lesbian love affair between a painter and her subject found a lot of fans at Cannes and subsequent festivals. Many of the film’s fans were upset when France decided to go with Les Misérablesfor its “International Film” selection, and it’s hard to think that this French film will do very well except among critics. The only problem is that it will continually be competing against Parasitein the Foreign Language category, and the best it can do is maybe get a Golden Globe nomination. The New York Film Critics Circlejust awarded it a Cinematography award, so maybe that’s somewhere it might get more attention, but more likely, it’s in the same boat as Atlantics.

A Hidden Life (Fox Searchlight) (4)

Terrence Malick’s latest film debuted at Cannes out of competition, and oddly, it didn’t get nearly as much attention as his previous few films, although it’s amazing how prolific he’s been in the last decade since last being in the awards race in 2011 for The Tree of Life. Not all his movies since then have been great, and he’s made a few forays into documentary, but A Hidden Lifeis a real return to form in terms of dramatic filmmaking. It takes place during World War II when an Austrian farmer refuses to hail allegiance to Hitler and though it’s long at three hours, it certainly is beautiful, and the Academy has frequently gushed over Holocaust films, which this is. It should get some attention for its Cinematography, and we’ll have to see if it might get other awards.

Les Misérables (Amazon) (3)

Ladj Ly’s French police thriller proved that #BlackLivesMatter is not just a United States phenomenon, as it follows a trio of police officers who get involved with the attack on a young boy in the projects and the attempted cover-up. It’s a movie that’s maybe not one that people might think of an “Oscar movie” but France did pick it as its selection in the “International Film” category, and we’ll have to see how much of a push Amazon will give this over its English narrative films. Again, we’ll have to see how things shake out once the Golden Globes announces if it made their own foreign language category.

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (Sony) (10)

One of the big Cannes World Premieres and a huge coup for the festival was getting previous winner and jury leader Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film quite a few months before its July theatrical debut by Sony Pictures. Every Tarantino release is a bit event, but this one reunited him with Django Unchained’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Inglourious Basterds’ Brad Pitt, except that this time they were both playing much larger roles. It also brought on Oscar-nominated starlet Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, and as you can guess, it took place in Hollywood in 1969 revolving around the time of the famous Tate-LaBianca murders by the Charles Manson family. This was another true original from Tarantino that has been well-marketed by Sony to gross $141 million domestically and another $230.9 million overseas. That’s more than Basterdsbut just behind Django, although the film’s Cannes debut vs. Oscar chances shouldn’t be a shock when you realize that both Pulp Fiction and Basterdsdebuted there on their way to the Oscars.

Pain and Glory (Sony Classics) (6)

Pedro Almodovar’s latest film entered the Cannes competition and walked away with a Best Actor award for its star and Almodovar’s frequent leading man Antonio Banderas, who is thought to be in the Oscar race for Lead Actor. (More on him in the next installment.) But the movie itself was such a remarkable comeback for Almodovar who hasn’t been in the Oscar race since 2003’s Talk to Her, although the film’s other star, Penelope Cruz, whose first Oscar nomination was for Almodovar’s 2007 film Volver. There’s always hopes that Almodovar will once again be nominated for his original screenplay (which is excellent) or direction, but those are both crowded fields this year.  It’s a shame because this really is among Almodovar’s best films and the NYFCC picking Banderas as their Best Actor gives the actor a nice boost at the start of awards season.

Parasite (NEON) (9)

Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho’s sixth feature film burst into Cannes much like the impoverished family in the movie who wheels and deals their way into the home of a wealthier family. It would walk away with the coveted Palme d’Or prize, and with tons of rave reviews from the critics that have helped the movie make its way to theatrical release in which it’s become the highest grossing import from Korea (movie-wise, anyway). The movie is still sitting at 99% on Rotten Tomatoeswith only 3 negative reviews out of 300, and audiences seem to like it almost as much. The only negative is that it is a foreign film with mainly unknown actors and the Academy has never nominated a Korean film for ANY Oscars EVER… isn’t that crazy? Director Bong’s movie will change that as it’s this year’s Amor, Michael Haneke’s Palme D’Or which was nominated for a number of Oscars, only winning one for Foreign Language film. Parasite is so far ahead of the competition in the “International Film” competition, it’s scary, and it’s begun its run of critics awards by taking the Atlanta Film Critics Society’s top honors.

The Traitor (Sony Pictures Classics) (2)

Marco Bellochio’s crime drama (which I haven’t yet seen) premiered in competition with generally decent reviews, and like many other Cannes premieres, it’s best bet is in the International Film category where it will lose to Parasite. It will be the 80-year-old Bellochio’s submission by his country after a number of well-respected films.

Outside the Festival Circuit

There are quite a few movies released in the summer and early fall that aren’t necessarily considered awards movies, the big one being Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame (Disney), which I’ll probably write more about o6ver at The Beat.  Focus Features managed to have the biggest hit of their 16-year-plus career with the movie incarnation of the popular BBC show Downton Abbey from previous Oscar nominee (and Emmy winner) Julian Fellowes, and they’re likely to try to push that into the awards race especially if some of their other offerings (see below) don’t click.

Okay, this is already getting too long. So I’m going to cut it off here and get to the rest of the year in Part 2… yes, there will be a Chapter 2, Part 2. Deal with it.

[weekendwarriorblog]

It’s Oscar night and I’m writing something...

I hope you appreciate that amazing anti-clickbait title that doesn’t even remotely take SEO into account. In fact, this is one of the few and very rare blog posts for this Tumblr blog that I’m writing directly into Tumblr rather than writing in Microsoft Word offline before copying/pasting it here. The reason? I decided I’m going to spend exactly 30 minutes writing something as we’re roughly seven hours before the start of the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony, and I’m going to try to write something far more freeform than usual. It’s an experiment that may or may not work, but we’ll see how it goes. 

Of course, there are some pretty big races tonight, including Best Picture and what the winner might say about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as it enters a new decade (or ends the decade, depending on your point of view).   The big story will be whether Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite can finally break the 92-year streak of no foreign language film ever winning Best Picture after many valiant tries like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma last year. That had ten Oscar nominations to Parasite’s six, and it ended up winning three, including Best Director, Cinematography and Foreign Language Film. It’s already assumed that two of those will go to 1917 (partially since Parasite wasn’t nominated for cinematography, oddly). On the other hand, Parasite was nominated for Film Editing where as 1917 wasn’t. That’s what happens when you make a “one-take” movie as Allejandro Inarritu learned when Birdman won him Director and Best Picture six years ago but wasn’t nominated for its editing. 

A win for Parasite would also be a big boost for the fledgling distributor NEON, who has its first Best Picture nomination, and its strongest contender in other categories, including Foreign Language and Doc where it landed Honeyland in a very rare twofer. I really liked NEON’s output in 2019 i.e. Year Three, and if you’re an awards voter and received NEON’s screener package, it’s hard not to be impressed. The fact that two of my favorite docs of the year, Apollo 13 and The Biggest Little Farm, were distributed by NEON and did quite well box office wise and yet, STILL did not receive Oscar nominations in the doc category (let alone editing or cinematography, which every year, aren’t even consideration for docs), is a fucking crime.

 But let’s get back to Parasite and its Best Picture battle against 1917. If you’ve been reading everything I wrote in 2019 and in the first month of 2020, you know that 1917 is by far my favorite of the nine Best Picture nominees. It’s a movie I’ve watched three times in theaters despite having a screener sitting right next to my bed that I can watch whenever I want. You also hopefully read my piece about my odd quandary in seeing two of my long-time directing faves finally getting national and industry recognition. If Parasite wins Best Picture tonight, it would not just be a huge victory for Bong Joon-ho and NEON but it will be a victory for the entire country of South Korea, who has gotten used to being absolutely spurned and ignored by Hollywood and the Oscars. It may or may not happen but it might end up being the most joyous Best Picture victory since that crazy La La Land/Moonlight switcheroo a few years back. And again, if you know me or have read any of my writing, you know how I felt about those two movies and what happened. So yeah, Parasite is essentially Moonlight all over again, but in this case, it’s a far better movie by a far better director... so win/win? While the acting and directing and maybe even screenplay wins seem to be in the bag already, there are so many other interesting races to keep an eye on, maybe not to the general public but definitely to cinephiles and awards prognosticators. Let’s look at Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, for example. There’s already been talk of them being combined into one category, which would mean less time/speeches at the awards ceremony for an incredibly important and underrated role in the moviemaking business. If both those awards go to the same movie (as has been the case for roughly seven of the past ten years), then it will add fuel to that fire, that the two categories should be combined. But there are two really amazing movies that deliver so much in terms of their sound, 1917 and Ford v Ferrari. While I think the latter will win for overall Film Editing, if it wins for Sound Editing as well but 1917 gets Sound Mixing, it will warrant separate categories. It may or may not happen.

Production Design is an equally interesting category since you have a movie that is almost directly catering to Oscar voters in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, which recreated Hollywood in 1969... to something like Parasite, an amazing visual film that brings to the forefront one of Korea’s most formidable filmmakers and his crew. Then you have 1917, which is another amazing achievement at creating the environment of WWI, both in the locations/sets used for filming and the Visual FX used to create them. Personally, I think it stands a better chance at being recognized for its visual FX and cinematography, but as I mentioned earlier, these three categories often go hand-in-hand. (Remember when Pan’s Labyrinth won two of those categories but failed to win Foreign Language Film? In some ways, The Shape of Water’s wins helped make up for that oversight. )

Even though there are “frontrunners” in both Screenplay categories, those have also become increasingly interesting categories, especially when you see Parasite being favored over previous winner Quentin Tarantino and his equally distinct (and genuinely loved) screenplay. For a while, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women was thought to be a strong contender to win for Adapted Screenplay since it was such a unique take on a frequently-adapted book. The USC Scripter seemed to confirm this, but then Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit beat it both   at the WGA Awards and BAFTA, just as Academy members were casting their votes. They’re both going up against previous winner Steven Zallian and his exceptional screenplay for Scorsese’s The Irishman, a movie that might have to settle for an Oscar for Brad Pitt just like Little Women might have to settle for the consolation prize of Costume Design. Again, those kinds of things make tonight’s Oscar ceremony far more interesting than past years. If Parasite wins Screenplay and Production Design and beats Ford v Ferrari for Film Editing, does that mean it’s guaranteed to win for Best Picture? No, but it gives it a much better chance. The other thing I want to discuss is the Netflix in the room, because the company went so far above and beyond any other studio to get its many nominations but it just doesn’t seem likely to win in many of its categories... except two: Documentary and Animated Feature. In the first category, Netflix has American Factory by two multiple Oscar nominees, but it’s going against two strong docs from distributors who are probably on equal playing fields as Netflix: NEON’s Honeyland and National Geographic’s The Cave by the director of the recent nominee, Last Men in Aleppo. Frankly, I’ll be thrilled if The Cave wins, as it was in my top 3, and NatGeo proved last year with Free Solo that they have what it takes to win. You just have to wonder if the semi-America-centric Academy will go for an American story (it says the word right there in the title!) over foreign ones, even with the support for Parasite.

Animated Feature is even more interesting, because so many Oscar prognosticators are going with Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4, because Disney has always been a powerhouse in this category. I’m sure there are more Disney animators and execs. in the Academy than Netflix, but that movie Klaus and even I Lost My Body has gotten so much support, the former winning Annies and even the BAFTA for Best Animated Film. (LAIKA’s Missing Link won the Golden Globe in a rare bit of support for the stalwart stop-motion studio.) Again, a win by Klaus (a movie I cared for as little as I did Missing Link) would be a huge coup for Netflix... but there are very few Oscar voters who will be voting in that regard. It’s all about whether they liked or didn’t like the movie... or maybe even about whether they even watched the two Netflix offerings over the fourth movie in a previous Oscar-winning franchise.

Well, that’s thirty minutes and my time is up. In ten hours, we’ll know all of the answers to all these questions before we can finally put the 2019-20 Oscar season to rest and start thinking about next year. Who knows if I’ll even be writing about movies a year from now, as this has proven to not be the greatest career decision vs. a job that will actually allow me to live a comfortable life where i can eat a proper meal at least once a day (let alone once a week), so we’ll just have to see where things go from here. The movie business (and the Oscars) will survive just fine without me, I’m sure.