Pre-reads for the 97th Academy Awards
The Oscars are this Sunday night (tonight, as I am writing this), which, for a cinephile, means all of a sudden, everyone else wants to talk about the movies and compare their relative merits (yay!).
I’ve traditionally been cynical about the Academy Awards, and with good reason. But I recently finished Michael Schulman’s book Oscar Wars, and it’s changed my perspective quite a bit. I plan to write about that later this week. That plus the chance to see a personal favorite, Conan O’Brien, have a moment on a big stage has me looking forward to this evening much more than the last few years.
In the lead-up to the festivities, here’s my usual dump of links rounding up the past year in film.
My erstwhile film website is still (still!) around for sole purpose of the annual best-of list put together by myself and dear friend Steve Cimino. We’ve been doing this for 12 years, and it’s as reliable as ever, although one of our favorite films of the year will have no presence at tonight’s ceremony.
As usual, we pair that fancy-stinky-cheese of an experience with the fine wine of an audio format, in which we drink, make stupid jokes and pick our film of the year. Our track record remains unimpeachable, going back over those 12 years.
Is that all you’ll need to get through Sunday night? How am I to know?
Since we don’t do the list in order, here is my personal ranked top 10 as well as a ranking of the Best Picture nominees.
The best, ranked
Challengers
Dune: Part Two
My Old Ass
Anora
Rebel Ridge
Love Lies Bleeding
The Dead Don’t Hurt
Evil Does Not Exist
Civil War
Nosferatu
The Best Picture nominees, ranked
Dune: Part Two
Anora
Wicked
Conclave
Emilia Perez
The Brutalist, I’m Still Here, The Substance, A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys (haven’t yet seen ‘em)
I’m planning to open up the chat this evening. See you then!