Monday, February 2, 2026
The Playlist 150 / Visitations: The Secret Agent
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Looking to TFF #53 / BAFTA Nominees Announced / Behind the Scenes: Hamnet and H Is for Hawk / Visitations: The Secret Agent
Monday, January 26, 2026
Oscar Odds and Ends / Trailer for Tuner / Visitations: Sentimental Value
OSCAR ODDS AND ENDS
*MTFB goes 95/125 in predicting the nominees. That's a 76% accuracy rate and slightly below my average percentage for accuracy.
*By comparison my accuracy would have tied me for ninth among Gold Deby's 45 Experts and second among their editors. Not as good as last year, but still not bad...again Gold Derby, waiting on my invitation to be on the panel next year.
*Best categories (where I got all the nominees correct) were: Adapted Screenplay and Animated Feature. Of categories where I missed one nominee, four had the fifth nominee listed as the first "other" possibility: Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress and International Feature.
*Worst category for me was Animated Short where I went an abysmal one out of five. As a matter of fact the "Shorts" categories again were the biggest boondoggle to my prediction success as I only got seven right of the possible 15 in those three categories. Leaving them out I was at 80% accuracy for the feature categories.
*Biggest surprise and disappointment was Paul Mescal missing for Supporting Actor in Hamnet. I would have also liked to have seen Oscar Isaac in Best Actor and Guillermo Del Toro for Best Direction for Frankenstein. A Supporting Actor nomination for Andrew Scott in Blue Moon would have been nice too.
*TFF's five Oscar Best Picture nominees (again a TFF record for number of films that played the fest and then were nominated for Best Picture) and where they landed on MTFB's People's, Pros and Composite polls:
*CORRECTION...An eagle-eyed reader of the blog was kind enough to point out that TFF #51 short Two People Exchanging Saliva was a nominee for Best Live Action Short. That moves to 10 the number of TFF films nominated for a total of 40 nominations.
TRAILER FOR TUNER
Here's a new trailer for Tuner. The film premiered at Telluride on Aug. 30th, 2025. Here's its official trailer from Black Bear via YouTube:
VISITATIONS: SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Writer-Director Joachim Trier from Pop Culture Confidential.
Oscar nominee Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas from Pop Culture Confidential.
Thursday, January 22, 2026
2026 Oscar Nominees Announced
2026 OSCAR NOMINEES ANNOUNCED
TFF #52 films are in Bold.
Best Picture
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Best Director
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best International Feature
The Secret Agent
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirât
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Best Animated Feature
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
Best Documentary Feature
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor
Best Original Screenplay
Blue Moon
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
Best Casting
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners
Best Film Editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Best Cinematography
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
Best Production Design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Best Costume Design
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister
Best Original Song
"Dear Me," Diane Warren: Relentless
"Golden," KPop Demon Hunters
"I Lied to You," Sinners
"Sweet Dreams of Joy," Viva Verdi!
"Train Dreams," Train Dreams
Best Original Score
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Best Sound
F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World: Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners
Best Live-Action Short
Butcher's Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen's Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best Animated Short
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
Best Documentary Short
All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: "Were and Are Gone"
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
MTFB'S Final Oscar Nomination Predictions for All 24 Categories / The Experts Weigh In
MTFB's Final Oscar Nomination Predictions:
Monday, January 19, 2026
MTFB Oscar Take: Shorts / Oscar 2026 Commentary / Trailer for H Is for Hawk / Visitations: Mescal, Buckley and More
MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SHORTS
Here's the first, and perhaps only, MTFB predictions for nominees in the three Shorts categories. The shorts categories are often the categories that determine winners of Oscar pools owing to the limited availability of viewing. So take these all with an incredibly large dose of salt... TFF #52 Shorts are in Bold.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
MTFB Oscar Take: Updates to Above the Line Categories / Online Film Critics Nominees / Visitations: Hamnet
Monday, January 12, 2026
MTFB Oscar Take: 3rd predictions for Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair, Sound and Visual Effects / Golden Globes '26 and TFF #52 / BAFTA Longlists and TFF #52 / PGA and TFF #52
MTFB OSCAR TAKE: THIRD PREDICTIONS FOR PRODUCTION DESIGN, COSTUMES, MAKEUP/HAIR, SOUND AND VISUAL EFFECTS
Thursday, January 8, 2026
MTFB Oscar Update: Cinematography, Editing, Score and Song / SAG Nominees / ADG Nominees
MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATES FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITING, SCORE AND SONG.
Here are MTFB's third predictions for nominations for cinematography, editing, score and song. All TFF #52 films are Bold.


























