Earlier today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for this year’s Oscars ceremony. It’s a solid if unsurprising list: Birdman and Boyhood earned big nods, and Jake Gyllenhaal is sadly nowhere in sight. For a full list of nominees that you’ll have to start learning the names of, check out […]
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The film event of the year: We update our Best Pictures Pinterest!
Tonight, nine films will battle for the ultimate honor in cinema: a place on our Best Picture Winners Pinterest board.* This esteemed list contains 83 of the greatest films of all time, as voted on each year by the film community. From modern successes like No Country for Old Men to classics like Gone of […]
Continue readingWhat you won’t see at the Oscars this Sunday
We love the Oscars, but we admit that they’re imperfect. With the ceremony only three days away, it’s time to be a little critical. The Academy frequently overlooks specific types of films that, in retrospect, we often consider to be some of the greatest. Comedies, for the most part, are rarely nominated and win even […]
Continue readingWho was Oscar? The story of Emilio Fernández
Once again, as the Academy Awards are less than a week away, Oscar fever is reaching a frenzy. This time, we turn our attention to the statuettes themselves. Who was Oscar? Why is he naked and holding a sword? Pop culture radio website Studio 360 recently unearthed the story of the man on which the […]
Continue readingWe’d like to thank the Academy for this infographic
The Oscars are almost upon us, and with only a little over one week to go (!), the floodgates have opened on Oscar trivia. Every year we find a new batch of unusual award-related studies, like last year’s breakdown of trailer lengths. This year, Slate has analyzed twelve years of actors’ and actresses’ Academy Awards […]
Continue readingThe Random Oscar Winner Generator is hilarious, necessary
We still have over a month to go before the Oscars, but we’re already excited! Questions about their authority aside, the Academy Awards are a fun time to celebrate nearly a century of great films. Let’s be serious though: there’s a lot of hot air involved too. With so many award contenders dealing with serious […]
Continue readingSeasonal question: How are the Oscar nominees picked?
In case you missed it, the Oscar nominees came out this morning. By all accounts it’s a pretty good list, featuring a wide cut of the most acclaimed films of the year. And Matthew McConaughey stands a chance to win his first Oscar! The question, of course, is how these nominees were even selected. Is […]
Continue readingIt’s the Oscars!
The Oscars are tonight! After weeks of buildup, speculation, and the most use of the word “Argo” on record, the Academy will reveal the results of the most prestigious and contentious film awards ceremony at 8pm in the Dolby Theatre. We’re very excited in Media Services, if you couldn’t tell from our weeks of Academy […]
Continue readingThe New York Times breaks down Oscar trailer timelines
The art of the crafting a movie trailer has recently become a science. Every smash cut, cliffhanger, fade to black, and fancy shot of an actor’s name has been reduced to a formula that seemingly every studio follows. The New York Times adds a new wrinkle to that analysis by splitting apart trailers for this […]
Continue readingBurning question: Does Best Picture matter?
With all the Oscar hullabaloo (of which we’re guilty as well), it’s easy to accept that the Oscars matter, that the acting winners represent the fines that Hollywood offers, and that an institution as venerated as the Academy is the official tastemaker. Take a step back and read this interesting and controversial opinion from Rob […]
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