97th Academy Awards Recap

Another one down.

This was an interesting year because in the end, there was a consensus, even if it didn’t feel (to me) like there necessarily was one throughout the process. But they got there.

Also another year absent any major surprises. The biggest surprise was, “Oh, so they went all in on Anora.”

Otherwise — not a whole lot of note for me about the awards or the show. Felt like it went crazy long again, even with the earlier time slot. Conan did exactly what Conan does. They went for a more classical ‘movies are magic’ feel. Definitely doesn’t feel as innovative as last year’s ceremony, though they did a few things that felt like they were trying to be innovative (having one presenter talk about all the nominees — though notice they distinctly didn’t do that for the lead acting categories — or having the filmmakers discuss aspects of the film during the video packages).

Mostly this is just a ho hum kind of ceremony to cap a ho hum kind of year. (more…)

March 3, 2025 | Categories: Movies, Oscars | Tags: 2024, 97th Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Short, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Documentary, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Editing, Best International Feature, Best Live-Action Short, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Visual Effects, Film, Movies, Oscar, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Votes, Oscars | Leave a comment

The B+ Oscar Ballot: Guide to the 97th Academy Awards

It’s that time again.

This is such an interesting year because it feels like we’ve had such a wild swing throughout the season. We’ve had a general consensus of films throughout the race, but unlike most years, we usually start down the path with the likely winners winning from the jump and then it’s just jockeying for position or shoring up the lead. Here, we had two films win at the top, and then proceeded to see very different films pull through the rest of the way. It makes things feel like we’ve got a fairly wide open Best Picture race on our hands, the likes of which I haven’t seen in a decade.

Most times on these ballots, you’ve got a lot of automatic winners at the top, and that allows you to play around and take chances with the handful in the middle that could go one of a few ways (and then hope for the best on the ones that always can go one of a few ways). Here, all the open categories seem to be the ones at the top. That’s gonna be high risk for the people who only measure their ballots on how many they got right. But, good luck. Let’s see how we can do and let’s see what chaos 2024 hath wrought.

As I always say, if I can get the analysis right and be on track with how things play out, even if I personally guess wrong, I’ll be happy. Plus I do the Scorecard now anyway and that’s my measuring stick. Still, my goal here is to lay the foundation for other people to do well on their ballots. I’m just here to have fun. (more…)

March 2, 2025 | Categories: Movies, Oscars | Tags: 2024, 97th Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Short, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Documentary, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Editing, Best International Feature, Best Live-Action Short, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Visual Effects, Film, Movies, Oscar, Oscar Predictions, Oscar Votes, Oscars | 1 Comment