BAFTA and TFF #51 / MTFB Oscar Update-It's in Flux-Updating the Big Eight / Writers Guild and TFF #51 / Interviews and Profiles

BAFTA AND TFF #51

First came the longlists and now we have the actual nominees from the British Academy of Film and Televisions Arts (BAFTA).  The Brits have nominated 14 films that played at TFF #51 for a total of 45 nominations.  Conclave and Emilia Perez had the most noms with a dozen and 11 respectively.  Here's the complete rundown of BAFTA nominations and TFF films:

Conclave (12): Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini), Casting, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Score and Costumes.

Emilia Perez (11): Best Film, Best Film Not in the English Language, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Supporting Actress (Gomez), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score and Makeup/Hair.

Anora (7): Best Film, Direction, Actress (Madison), Supporting Actor (Borisov), Original Screenplay, Casting and Editing.

The Apprentice (3): Best Actor (Stan), Supporting Actor (Strong) and Casting.

A Real Pain (2): Best Supporting Actor (Culkin) and Original Screenplay.

The Outrun (2): Outstanding British Film and Best Actress (Ronan).

All other films have a single nomination as follows:

Nickel Boys: Best Adapted Screenplay.

No Other Land: Best Documentary.

Will & Harper: Best Documentary.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig: Best Film Not in the English Language.

All We Imagine as Light: Best Film Not in the English Language.

Bird: Outstanding British Film.

Santosh: Outstanding Debut.

Better Man: Best Special Visual Effects.

The BAFTA Awards will be handed out on Feb. 16th.

The complete set of all BAFTA nominations is linked here.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE-IT'S IN FLUX

It's all pretty messy now.  Oscar nominations are now set to be announced on Jan. 23rd.  Today I'm updating the nomination predictions for the Big Eight categories: Picture, Direction, all four acting categories and the two screenplay categories.  My plan at the moment is to focus on updating close races in Monday's post and do a Special Final Oscar Nom post on Wednesday the 22nd assuming that the Thursday, Jan. 23rd date remains in tact.  I'll do some sort of post on Thursday after the nominations are announced.

That said, here are updated predictions for the Big Eight with their last posted ranking to the right of each title in parentheses.  And, as always, TFF films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Conclave (1)

2) Anora  (2)

3) Emilia Perez (3)

4) The Brutalist (4)

5) Wicked Part 1 (5)

6) A Complete Unknown (7)

7) Dune Part Two (6)

8) The Substance (-)

9) A Real Pain (9)

10) Nickel Boys (10)

Others: Sing Sing, All We Imagine as Light.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Brady Corbet/The Brutalist (1)

2) Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez (4)

3) Sean Baker/Anora (2)

4) Edward Berger/Conclave (3)

5) Coralie Fargeat/The Substance (-)

Others: James Mangold/A Complete Unknown, RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys and Payal Kapadia/All We Imagine as Light.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Demi Moore/The Substance (5)

2) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)

4) Cynthia Erivo/Wicked Part 1 (4)

5) Fernanda Torres/I'm Still Here (-)

Others: Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths, Angelina Jolie/Maria and Pamela Anderson/The Last Showgirl.

BEST ACTOR

1) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (3)

2) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (1)

3) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (2)

4) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (4)

5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice, Sebastian Stan/A Different Man and Hugh Grant/Heretic.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Ariana Grande-Butera/Wicked Part 1 (2)

3) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)

4) Monica Barbaro/A Complete Unknown (-)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (4)

Others: Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson, Jamie Lee Cutis/The Last Showgirl and Margaret Qualley/The Substance.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Edward Norton/A Complete Unknown (4)

3) Yura Borisov/Anora (3)

4) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (2)

5) Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice (-)

Others: Denzel Washington/Gladiator II, Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing and Jonathan Bailey/Wicked Part 1.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (2)

3) A Complete Unknown (-)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Sing Sing (3)

Others: Dune Part Two, Wicked Part 1 and Hit Man.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)

2) The Brutalist (2)

3) A Real Pain (3)

4) The Substance (4)

5) September 5 (5)

Others: All We Imagine as Light, Hard Truths and Challengers.

Comment: Conclave, A Complete Unknown and The Substance make big moves up.  Tough sledding for Sing Sing, Denzel and Deadwyler.

WRITERS GUILD AND TFF #51

The Writers Guild of America announced its nominees for Best Screenplays for 2024 yesterday.  Three TFF films earned nominations.  A Real Pain and Anora  made the list for Original Screenplay while Nickel Boys was nominated for Adapted Screenplay.  It's worth noting that a number of screenplays that are thought to be Oscar contenders were not eligible under the WGA's rules including: Conclave, Emilia Perez, The Outrun, All We Imagine as Light, The Seed of the Sacred Fig and September 5.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Director Michael Gracey for Better Man from Next Best Picture.

Stanley Tucci for Conclave from Variety.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Shorts / The Precursors' Tale / Oscar Voters: Hear My Plea(s) Please / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SHORTS

For the first time I'm taking a stab at the most difficult Oscar categories to predict both in terms of nominations and ultimate winners.  These may or may not change prior to my final Oscar nomination predictions on Jan. 16th.  This year of the short listed shorts TFF had two films make those lists: A Swim Lesson in Documentary Shorts and  Beautiful Men in Animated Shorts.

Here's where I'm guessing the nominations will land on Jan. 19th:

ANIMATED SHORTS

1) Me

2) Maybe Elephants

3) Bottle George

4) Magic Candles

5)Wander to Wonder

Others: In the Shadow of the Cypress, The 21 and Yuck.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

1) Makayla's Voice: A Letter to the World

2) The Only Girl in the Orchestra

3) A Swim Lesson

4) Incident

5) Once Upon a Time in Ukraine

Others: The Quilters, Death by Numbers and Instruments of a Beating Heart.

LIVE ACTION SHORTS

1) The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

2) Dovecote

3) An Orange from Jaffa

4) Room Taken

5) The Masterpiece

Others: Crust, I Am Not a Robot and Clodagh.

THE PERCURSORS' TALE

A bunch of us that try to tell you what's going to happen when Oscar nominations and winners are announced take a look at various "precursor awards".  It's a way to try to divine what the film industry is thinking as we move closer to the nomination reveal and then the Oscar ceremony itself.

And there are, if you choose to look at them, a ton of precursors.  My buddy Mark Johnson of The Awards Alchemist (housed at Erik Anderson's Awards Watch) annually puts together what he refers to as the Big Board of Precursors You can find its current status here.  Mark's Awards Alchemist predictions are linked here.

Next Best Picture's Matt Neglia does a super job of tracking and posting a ton of regional critics organizations choices. For example, Matt posted the results from the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association last week.  Your best access to that coverage is through Matt's X account or his Bluesky account.

I look at precursors too but not nearly at the depth that either Mark or Matt do.  

My focus goes to these precursors:

National Board of Review (NBR)

American Film Institute (AFI)

New York Film Critics Circle (NY)

Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LA)

Critics' Choice Awards (CC)

Golden Globes nominations (and wins) (GG)

National Society of Film Critics (NF)

BAFTA longlist (and nominations list) (BF)

Screen Actors Guild (cast nominations)  (SAG)

Directors Guild of America (DGA)

Producers Guild of America (PGA)

Still to add are the Writers Guild and the actual nominations from BAFTA.  That said, here's where this set of precursors are pointing at the moment (with TFF films in Bold).

On top is Sean Baker's Anora with nine of these precursors naming the film one of the Best of 2024.  Anora makes the following lists (an * indicates that body has named the film Best of 2024): NBR, AFI, CC, GG, NF, LA*, SAG, DGA, BF

Other films break down as follows:

Two films with seven mentions:

The Brutalist: AFI, CC, GG*, NY*, LA, DGA, BF

A Complete Unknown: NBR, AFI, CC, GG, SAG, DGA, BF

Three films with six mentions:

Conclave: AFI, CC, GG, SAG, DGA, BF

Emilia Perez: AFI, CC, GG*, SAG, DGA, BF

Wicked: NBR*, AFI, CC, GG, SAG, BF

Two Films with four mentions:

Dune Part Two: AFI, CC, GG, BF

Nickel Boys: AFI, CC, GG, NF*

Two films with three mentions:

Sing Sing: NBR, AFI, CC

The Substance: CC, GG, BF

And those could well be your 10 Oscar Best Picture nominated films. 

The only other film with more than one mention is A Real Pain with two (NBR, AFI).  

It looks to me like this list of precursors suggest that the six films with six or more mentions are locked for a Best Picture nomination with Dune Part Two, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, The Substance and A Real Pain duking it out for the other four slots.  It also seems to me that both A Complete Unknown and The Substance are both pretty hot right now.

The films with single mentions:

Babygirl: NBR

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: NBR

Gladiator II: NBR

Juror #2: NBR

Queer: NBR

September 5: GG

Challengers: GG

All We Imagine as Light: NF

The Apprentice: BF

Kneecap: BF

The Apprentice BF

We'll see how the Writers Guild and actual BAFTA nominations alter this picture next week (depending on possible further delays because of the L.A: wildfires).

OSCAR VOTERS: HEAR MY PLEA(S) PLEASE

I would love to see:

From Conclave: Tucci and Rossellini which are both possible but not at all certain.  I'm also an advocate for Sergio Castellitto who plays the role of Cardinal Tedesco...the "villain" of the film.

Some love...any love for September 5 or Saturday Night.

And, again, I will bemoan the fact that Zurawski v. Texas wasn't on any shortlist and isn't eligible for Best Picture.  Write it in!

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice from Gold Derby.

Robbie Williams for Better man from Pop Culture Confidential.

Behind the Scenes of All We Imagine as Light from IndieWire.

Sebastian Stan on The Apprentice from Awards Watch.

Robbie Williams for Better Man from Time.com.

Conclave writer Peter Straughan from Awards Radar.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / MTFB Predicted Nomination Totals / SAG and DGA Nominations and TFF / IndieWire's 50+ Most Anticipated and TFF

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE

Before we get to this post's Oscar nomination predictions, The Academy last night extended the nomination voting window by two days and moved the announcement of nominees to Sunday, January 19th due to the L.A. fires.  Now, onto the predictions which seem sort of a small consideration in light of what's going on in Southern California.

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories as well as for Best Costume Design, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects. These categories were last predicted on Dec. 26th.  A film's previous rank appears to the right in parentheses. TFF #51 films are in Bold.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (2)

3) Sing Sing (3)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Dune Part Two (5)

Others: A Complete Unknown, Wicked and The Room Next Door.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)

2) The Brutalist (2)

3) A Real Pain (3)

4) The Substance (4)

5) September 5 (5)

Others: Hard Truths, All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1) Wicked (1)

2) Dune Part Two (2)

3) Gladiator II (4)

4) Maria (3)

5) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (5)

Others: Nosferatu, Conclave and Blitz.

BEST MAKEUP/HAIR

1) The Substance (1)

2) Wicked (2)

3) Dune Part Two (3)

4) Nosferatu (4)

5) A Different Man (5)

Others: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Emilia Perez, The Apprentice.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune Part Two (1)

2) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (3)

3) Wicked (4)

4) Gladiator II (2)

5) Better Man (-)

Others: Twisters, Mufasa: The Lion King and Alien: Romulus

MTFB PREDICTED NOMINATION TOTALS

As we look down the barrel, we're only eight days away from Oscar Nomination morning.  As of the latest MTFB predictions, these are your accumulated totals:

I'm expecting Emilia Perez to lead all films with 11 nominations: Best Picture, International Feature, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Song (x2) and Sound.

The Brutalist (10): Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Brody), Supporting Actress (Jones), Supporting Actor (Pearce), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score and Production Design.

Dune Part Two (9): Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Sound, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

Wicked (8): Best Picture, Actress (Erivo), Supporting Actress (Grande), Production Design, Sound, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

Conclave (7): Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini), Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Score.

Anora (6): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Madison), Supporting Actor (Borisov), Original Screenplay and Editing.

Gladiator II (5): Best Supporting Actor (Washington), Production Design, Sound, Costumes and Visual Effects.

Nickel Boys (4): Best Picture, Direction, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography.

A Complete Unknown (4): Best Picture, Actor (Chalamet), Supporting Actor (Norton) and Sound.

A Real Pain (3): Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Culkin) and Original Screenplay.

Sing Sing (3): Best Picture, Actor (Domingo) and Adapted Screenplay.

Maria (3): Best Actress (Jolie), Cinematography and Costumes.

The Wild Robot (3): Best Animated Feature, Score and Song.

The Substance (3): Best Actress (Moore), Original Screenplay and Makeup/Hair.

Nosferatu (3): Best Cinematography, Production Design and Makeup/Hair.

Challengers (2): Best Original Score and Song.

Single nominations for:

The Seed of the Scared Fig: International Feature.

I'm Still Here: International Feature.

The Girl with the Needle: International Feature

Vermiglio: International Feature.

Inside Out 2: Animated Feature

Flow: Animated Feature

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: Animated Feature.

Memoir of a Snail: Animated Feature.

Sugarcane: Documentary Feature.

No Other Land: Documentary Feature.

Daughters: Documentary Feature.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat: Documentary Feature.

Dahomey: Documentary Feature.

Queer: Actor (Craig)

The Piano Lesson: Supporting Actress (Deadwyler).

September 5: Original Screenplay.

The Six Triple Eight: Song.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice: Costumes.

A Different Man: Makeup/Hair.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Visual Effects.

Better Man: Visual Effects.

All told MTFB says 11 TFF #51 films land 40 total nominations.

On Monday, I'll have predictions for the Shorts categories and then full predictions for all 23 categories on Thursday the 16th.

SAG AND DGA NOMINATIONS AND TFF

The Screen Actors Guild announced their 2024 nominees for film yesterday via a press release as opposed the originally planned live announcement.  That was scrapped as a result of the massive wild fires that are still ablaze this morning in the Los Angeles area.

In each of the six film categories here were the nominees from TFF #51 films:

Best Actor: Ralph Fiennes/Conclave.

Best Actress: Mikey Madison/Anora and Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez.

Best Supporting Actor: Yura Borisov/Anora, Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain and Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice.

Best Supporting Actress: Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson and Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez.

Best Cast: Anora, Conclave and Emilia Perez.

TFF had no films nominated in the Action/Stunt Ensemble category.

Kind of surprising omissions: Angelina Jolie (Maria) in Lead Actress and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave) for Supporting Actress.

Lots of strength for A Complete Unknown and Wicked.

The complete set of SAG nominees are linked here.

Meanwhile the Director's Guild of America (DGA) named its five nominees for Outstanding Directing for 2025 yesterday as well.  Three TFF #51 directors were nominated: Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez, Sean Baker/Anora  and Edward Berger/Conclave.  The other two nominees are Brady Corbet/The Brutalist and James Mangold/A Complete Unknown.

At present, the Producers Guild is set to announce their nominees on Friday but that could change due to the fires as well.

INDIEWIRE'S 50+ MOST ANTICIPATED AND TFF #52

IndieWire published its list of 50+ films that they're most excited about for 2025 last week and from the list here are the films that, on their face, seem Telluride-friendly:

The Bride/Gyllenhaal

Bugonia/Lanthimos

Marty Supreme/Safdie

Die, My Love/Ramsay

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother/Jarmusch

Frankenstein/Del Toro

Materialists/Song

The Phoenician Scheme/Anderson

Untitled Baumbach

The complete article is linked here.

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Golden Globe Winners and TFF / MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and More / BAFTA Longlists and TFF / National Society of Film Critics and TFF

 GOLDEN GLOBE WINNERS AND TFF

The Golden Globe Awards for Film and Television were handed out last night and here are your winners with TFF films/performers in Bold.

Best Picture (Drama): The Brutalist

Best Picture (Musical or Comedy): Emilia Perez

Best Director: Brady Corbet/The Brutalist

Best Actress (Drama): Fernanda Torres/I'm Still Here

Best Actor (Drama): Adrien Brody/The Brutalist

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy): Demi Moore/The Substance

Best Actor (Musical or Comedy): Sebastian Stan/A Different Man

Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain

Best Screenplay: Conclave

Best Animated Film: Flow

Best Non-English Film: Emilia Perez

Best Original Score: Challengers

Best Original Song: El Mal/Emilia Perez

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement: Wicked

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING AND MORE

I'm updating the Supporting Acting categories today as well as Original Score, Original Song And Sound. These categories were last updated on Dec. 23rd.  An actor's/film's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Ariana Grande-Butera/Wicked (2)

3) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)

4) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (4)

5) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (5)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Margaret Qualley/The Substance and Aunjanue Eillis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (2)

3) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (3)

4) Yura Borisov/Anora (4)

5) Edward Norton/A Complete Unknown (-)

Others: Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and Stanley Tucci/Conclave.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Conclave (2)

2) The Brutalist (1)

3) Emilia Perez (3)

4) The Wild Robot (4)

5) Challengers (5)

Others: The Room Next Door, Wicked and Blitz.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) El Mal/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Mi Camino/Emilia Perez (2)

3) Kiss the Sky/The Wild Robot (3)

4) The Journey/The Six Triple Eight (4)

5) Compress/Repress/Challengers (5)

Others: Harper and Will Go West/Will & Harper, Never Too Late/Never Too Late and Piece by Piece/Piece by Piece.

BEST SOUND

1) Dune Part Two (1)

2) Wicked (2)

3) A Complete Unknown (4)

4) Gladiator II (3)

5) Emilia Perez (5)

Others: Blitz, Deadpool and Wolverine and The Wild Robot.

Comments:  Slight change in Supporting Actor as Edward Norton ( A Complete Unknown) enters my top five for the first time.  Conclave and Brutalist flip flop at the #1 and #2 spots in Original Score.  A Complete Unknown moves up a spot in Best Sound. 

BAFTA LONGLISTS AND TFF

The British Association of Film and Television Arts announced their longlists for all of their film categories for 2024 on Friday.  The step is the pass through for any actual BAFTA nomination.  18 TFF films were mentioned in at least one category with TFF #51 films pulling a collective 66 mentions. Emilia Perez and Conclave leading all films with 15 and 14 mentions respectively.  All told TFF films earned Here's the film by film breakdown of BAFTA longlist mentions:

Emilia Perez (15): Best Film, Film Not in the English Language, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Supporting Actress (Gomez), Supporting Actress (Paz), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Casting, Costumes, Editing, Makeup/Hair, Score and Sound.

Conclave (14): Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini), Supporting Actor (Tucci), Adapted Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Costumes, Editing, Score, Production Design and Sound.

Anora (9): Best Film, Direction, Actress (Madison), Supporting Actor (Borisov), Supporting Actor (Eydelshteyn), Original Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography and Editing.

The Apprentice (6): Best Film, Actor (Stan), Supporting Actor (Strong), Original Screenplay, Casting and Makeup/Hair.

The Outrun (5): Outstanding British Film, Direction, Actress (Ronan), Adapted Screenplay, Score,

All We Imagine as Light (3): Best Film Not in the English Language, Direction, Original Screenplay.

A Real Pain (2): Best Supporting Actor (Culkin), Original Screenplay.'

La Chimera [from TFF #50] (2): Best Film Not in the English Language, Direction.

And TFF films with single nominations:

Bird: Outstanding British Film.

Santosh: Outstanding Debut of a Writer, Producer or Director.

Piece by Piece: Best Children's or Family Film.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig: Best Film Not in the English Language.

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressberger: Best Documentary.

No Other Land: Best Documentary.

Will & Harper: Best Documentary.

Memoir of a Snail: Best Animated Film.

Nickel Boys: Best Adapted Screenplay.

Better Man: Best Special Visual Effects.

Here's the link to the complete BAFTA longlists.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AND TFF

The National Society of Film Critics announced their awards for 2024 on Saturday and, as expected, TFF films fared well.  TFF #51 films earned "Best of" status in these categories:

Picture: Nickel Boys.

Direction; Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light.

Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain.

Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain.

Film Not in the English Language: All We Imagine as Light.

Non-fiction Film: No Other Land.

Cinematography: Nickel Boys.

Other films/performers landed in runners-up spots.  The categories and runner-up status:

Picture: Anora and All We Imagine as Light tied for runner-up to Nickel Boys.

Direction: RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) was runner-up and Sean Baker (Anora) was second runner-up.

Actress: Mikey Madison (Anora) was runner-up.

Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys) was runner-up.

Actor: Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) was second runner-up.

Screenplay: Sean Baker (Anora) was second runner-up.

Film Not in the English Language: The Seed of the Sacred Fig was second runner-up.

No Other Land also received a Special Citation for Best Film awaiting U.S. distribution.

The complete list of winners from the National Society of Film Critics is linked here.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting and More / THR's Most Anticipated for 2025 / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING AND MORE

I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today as well as Cinematography, Editing and Production Design.  These categories were last updated on Dec. 19th.  An actor's/film's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS

1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)

2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (4)

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)

4) Cynthia Erivo/Wicked (2)

5) Demi Moore/The Substance (5)

Others: Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths, Nicole Kidman/Babygirl and Fernanda Torres/I'm Still Here.

BEST ACTOR

1) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (2)

2) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (1)

3) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (3)

4) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (4)

5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice, Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain and Sebastian Stan/A Different Man.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) The Brutalist (2)

2) Maria (3)

3) Dune Part Two (1)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Nosferatu (5)

Others: Conclave, Wicked Part 1 and The Girl with a Needle.

BEST EDITING

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (4)

3) The Brutalist (2)

4) Dune Part Two (3)

5) Anora (5)

Others: September 5, Gladiator II and Wicked Part 1.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Wicked Part 1 (1)

2) Dune Part Two (2)

3) The Brutalist (3)

4) Gladiator II (4)

5) Nosferatu (5)

Others: Conclave, Blitz and Emilia Perez.

Comment: The Golden Globes are on Sunday.  It'll be interesting to see how they shake out.  Maybe they give us some sense about the how the Oscar wind is blowing.  Oscar nomination voting begins next week on Wednesday, Jan. 8th.  I'll have some TFF Golden Globes coverage here on Monday.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S MOST ANTICIPATED FOR 2025

The Hollywood Reporter put up their list of most anticipated films for 2025 this week.  from that list there are six films that could be TFF #52 players:

After the Hunt/Guadagnino

The Bride/Gyllenhaal

Bugonia/Lanthimos

Frankenstein/Del Toro

Marty Supreme/J. Safdie

Untitled Baumbach/Baumbach

Here's the complete list from THR.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from The Playlist.

Behind the Scenes of Better Man from Gold Derby.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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MTFB Oscar Update: Best Picture and More / Gold Derby Best Picture Breakdown and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND MORE

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Best Picture Direction, International, Animated and Documentary Features.  These categories were last predicted on Dec. 16th.  A film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold. 

BEST PICTURE

1) Conclave  (2)

2) Anora (1)

3) Emilia Perez (5)

4) The Brutalist (4)

5) Wicked Part 1 (3)

6) Dune Part Two (6)

7) A Complete Unknown (8)

8) Sing Sing (9)

9) A Real Pain (7)

10) Nickel Boys (10)

Others: The Substance, September 5 and Gladiator II.

Comment: Conclave moves to the top spot for the first time.  Sensing some momentum.  Wicked's surge driven by its release and huge success seems to have paled a bit over the last two weeks.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Brady Corbet/The Brutalist (1)

2) Sean Baker/Anora (2)

3) Edward Berger/Conclave (3)

4) Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez (4)

5) RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys (5)

Others: Jon M. Chu/Wicked, Coralie Fargeat/The Substance and Denis Villenueve/Dune Part Two.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Emilia Perez (1)

2) The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2)

3) I'm Still Here (3)

4) The Girl with the Needle (4)

5) Vermiglio (-)

Others: Flow, Kneecap and Dahomey.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) The Wild Robot (1)

2) Inside Out 2 (2)

3) Flow (3)

4) Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (4)

5) Memoir of a Snail (5)

Others: Moana 2, Piece by Piece and Chicken for Linda

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1) Sugarcane (3)

2) No Other Land (1)

3) Daughters (2)

4) Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (-)

5) Dahomey (-)

Others: Will & Harper, Black Box Diaries and Union.

GOLD DERBY BEST PICTURE BREAKDOWN AND TFF

Oscar prediction website Gold Derby has a fairly lengthy piece focusing on assessing the strngths and weaknesses of what they perceive as the films with the best chances of landing a Best Picture nomination on Jan. 17th.  Their analysis was posted on Dec. 26th.  TFF films that are included in the article include:

Anora

Conclave

Emilia Perez

Nickel Boys

A Real Pain

September 5

Check our the entire rundown here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from The Playlist.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / The MTFB Nomination Totals / Interviews and Profiles: Eisenberg, Baker and Gracey

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories as well as for Best Costume Design, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects. These categories were last predicted on Dec. 12th.  A film's previous rank appears to the right in parentheses. TFF #51 films are in Bold.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (2)

3) Sing Sing (3)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Dune Part Two (5)

Others: A Complete Unknown, The Room Next Door and Wicked Part One.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)

2) The Brutalist (3)

3) A Real Pain (2)

4) The Substance (5)

5) September 5 (4)

Others: Hard Truths, All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

BEST COSTUMES

1) Wicked Part One (1)

2) Dune Part Two (2)

3) Maria (4)

4) Gladiator II (3)

5) Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (-)

Others: Nosferatu, Conclave and A Complete Unknown.

BEST MAKEUP/HAIR

1) The Substance (2)

2) Wicked Part One (3)

3) Dune Part Two (1)

4) Nosferatu (4)

5) A Different Man (-)

Others: Emilia Perez, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and Maria.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune Part Two (1)

2) Gladiator II (2)

3) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (3)

4) Wicked Part One (4)

5) Twisters (5)

Others: Better Man, Mufasa: The Lion King and Alien: Romulus.

MTFB NOMINATION TOTALS UPDATED

At the moment I am predicting 12 TFF #51 films to earn 40 nominations with another four films that could sneak into a nomination.  Also among those 16 films are 20 other possible nominations.  The following totals for nominations and possibilities:

Emilia Perez (11 nominations and another three possibles): Best Picture, Direction, International Feature, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Song (El Mal), Song (Mi Camino) and Sound.  Possibles: Supporting Actress (Gomez), Cinematography and Makeup/Hair.

Conclave (Seven nominations and another four possibles): Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini),  Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Score.  Possibles: Supporting Actor (Tucci), Cinematography, Production Design and Costumes.

Anora (Six nominations): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Madison), Supporting Actor (Borisov), Original Screenplay and Editing.

Nickel Boys (Four nominations and one possible): Best Picture, Direction, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography.  Possible: Supporting Actress (Ellis-Taylor).

A Real Pain (Three nominations and one possible): Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Culkin) and Original Screenplay.  Possible: Best Actor (Eisenberg).

Maria (Three nominations and one possible): Best Actress (Jolie), Cinematography and Costumes.  Possible: Makeup/Hair.

September 5 (One nomination and two possible): Best Original Screenplay.  Possibles: Best Picture and Editing.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (One nomination and one possible): Best International Feature.  Possible: Original Screenplay.

Will & Harper (One nomination and one possible): Best Documentary.  Possible: Song (Harper and Will Go West)

Memoir of a Snail (One nomination): Best Animated Feature.

No Other Land (One nomination): Best Documentary.

The Piano Lesson (One nomination): Best Supporting Actress (Deadwyler).

Other films with the possibility of a nomination:

The Apprentice: Best Actor (Stan) and Supporting Actor (Strong).

Piece by Piece: Best Animated Feature and Song (Piece by Piece).

All We Imagine as Light: Best Original Screenplay.

Better Man: Best Visual Effects.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from Pop Culture Confidential.

Sean Baker for Anora from Pop Culture Confidential.

Michael Gracey for Better Man from IndieWire.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and More / The Film Stage's Hot 100 / Interviews And Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING AND MORE

I'm updating the Supporting Acting categories today as well as Original Score, Original Song And Sound. These categories were last updated on Dec. 9th.  An actor's/film's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Ariana Grande/Wicked (4)

3) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (2)

4) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

5) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (3)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Margaret Qualley/The Substance and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)

3) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

4) Yura Borisov/Anora (5)

5) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)

Others: Edward Norton/A Complete Unknown, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and Stanley Tucci/Conclave.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) The Brutalist (2)

2) Conclave (1)

3) Emilia Perez (3)

4) The Wild Robot (4)

5) Challengers (-)

Others: The Room Next Door, Blitz and Wicked.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) El Mal/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Mi Camino/Emilia Perez (2)

3) Kiss the Sky/The Wild Robot (3)

4) The Journey/The Six Triple Eight (5)

5) Compress/Repress/Challengers (-)

Others: Never Too Late/Elton John: Never Too Late, Piece by Piece/Piece by Piece and Harper and Will Go West/Will & Harper.

BEST SOUND

1) Dune Part Two (1)

2) Wicked (2)

3) Gladiator II (3)

4) A Complete Unknown (4)

5) Emilia Perez (5)

Others: Blitz, Deadpool and Wolverine and The Wild Robot.

THE FILM STAGE'S HOT 100

A few posts back I ran through The Playlist's 100 Most Anticipated Films for 2025 looking for clues as to possible TFF #52 films.  Today it's The Film Stage's list that I'm combing through.  Here are some films from their list that might be TFF possibilities:

94) The Bride/Gyllenhaal

81) The Twilight World/Herzog

71) Anemone/Day-Lewis

69) Bugonia/Lanthimos

67) Hamnet/Zhao

64) Orphan/Nemes

59) Young Mothers/The Dardennes Bros.

58) Frankenstein/Del Toro

54) The Actor/Johnson

51) Untitled Noah Baumbach (Jay Kelly???)/Baumbach

44) The History of Sound/Hermanus

41) After the Hunt/Guadagnino

35) Jupiter/Zvyaginstev

29) The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol/Chomet

14) Paper Tiger/Gray

11) Marty Supreme/J. Safdie

8) Die, My Love/Ramsay

7) The Phoenician Scheme/Anderson

5) The Mastermind/Reichardt

2) The Way of the Wind/Malick

The complete Film Stage list is linked here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Ethan Herisse for Nickel Boys from The Hollywood Reporter.

Ethan Herisse for Nickel Boys from IndieWire.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for Nickel Boys from The Playlist.

Pablo Larrain for Maria from Film at Lincoln Center.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

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