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2020 Oscars Predictions and Preview I was not planning on making Oscar predictions this year because I'm in London for the semester and I have better things to do. But I'm doing laundry and have some time to kill, so I figured I'd give it a shot. While I have not been following awards season as closely this year as in past ones, I did get the closest to it than I've ever been before when I had the opportunity to be in the red carpet viewing area for the BAFTAs last weekend. What a thrill it was seeing all of this year's big players maneuver through the crowded carpet and pose for photos. Renee Zellweger was there, as was Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie, Bong Joon Ho, Quentin Tarantino, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Saorise Ronan, Florence Pugh, Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Laura Dern, Al Pacino and Joaquin Phoenix, all of whom are also Oscar nominees.  As for what's going to happen this Sunday, I'm not anticipating many surprises. For instance, t...

2019 Oscars Recap and Review  As I said in my Oscars preview , the biggest question of the night would be how the show would fare without a host for the first time in thirty years. Twitter seemed to think it fared very well, with many commenting on how smoothly the show went and some even hailing it as the best Oscar ceremony in years. However, I found it to be a little boring. Without a host, it lacked a certain energy. It just went from award to performance to award without much room to breathe. There weren't any big laughs or any cathartic moments. There were no montages or appearances that paid tribute to Hollywood history. Sure, it moved along at an efficient pace, but it felt business-like in a way. It's the Oscars, give us some pageantry! The show kicked off with a performance by Queen and Adam Lambert, because Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was up for several awards. That was a terrible idea. I understand that some people think Queen's music is good, but ...

2019 Oscar Preview and Predictions The conversation around this year's Oscars has been more focused on the show itself rather than who the winners will be. After the outcry from the film community over changes that the Academy planned to make the ceremony last only three hours, the Academy has capitulated on most of those issues. All 24 categories will be shown live on TV, last year's acting winners will return as presenters, and all nominated songs will be performed. But somehow the show will still be only three hours. [Side note: Why are the producers obsessed with getting the show to be three hours? Do they think it being long is contributing to declining ratings? Well, the ceremony hasn't clocked in at under three hours since 1972. The show's been long for a lot longer than ratings have been going down. So let the Oscars be long. They should be long - there's a lot to do!] Another aspect of this show that has been generating more buzz than the actual...

The Oscars are losing relevance or so says the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which announced Wednesday a batch of changes to its annual telecast. The changes, designed to reverse a ratings dip in recent years, are the kind of desperate attempt to stay relevant that threatens the integrity of the whole affair.  The first change, consistent with the Academy's desire to create a three-hour telecast, is that some awards will be presented during commercial breaks, with edited (meaning condensed) versions of the acceptance speeches airing later in the broadcast. It has not been determined which categories will be bumped, but I'll tell you right now it ain't gonna be Best Actress. The categories where celebrities are nominated will be shown live, and the tech categories won't be. This move is flat-out disrespectful to the men and women nominated in the below-the-line categories who deserve recognition for their vital contributions to movies. The Tony Awards...