By Matt Neglia 
​
For Episode 110, myself, Will Mavity, Michael Schwartz, Ryan C. Showers & Kt Schaefer talk about the films we have seen so far in the Oscar conversation at various film festivals including the beginning of the New York Film Festival. We also go over the polls, answer your questions on the air and more!

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

Our review this week on the podcast is the last...err, I mean latest film starring the legendary Robert Redford, "The Old Man And The Gun," also starring Casey Affleck & Sissy Spacek and written and directed by David Lowery ("A Ghost Story"). Joining me for this review is Beatrice Loayza (who saw the film at this year's TIFF) & Tom O'Brien.
​
Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

​​Today marks the beginning of the 56th New York Film Festival (NYFF). As my hometown festival, I have a special relationship with this festival. I have gone through many experiences positive experiences while attending the festival, from the people I meet, to the Q&A's I attend, to the countless subway rides through New York City and of course the films which I have seen there. I highly recommend it to anyone within the New York area to attend if they can. While press screenings began a few days ago (and some reviews are already up on the site) I wanted to share with all of you, the Top 10 films we here at Next Best Picture are most looking forward to at this year's festival.

By Michael Schwartz 

As we did with our look back on 15 years of "Avenue Q," the Next Best Theatre team is back to look back on the 20th anniversary of "Ragtime." Join us as we discuss Act I of the famous musical featuring myself, Dan Bayer, Nicole Ackman, Cody Dericks and for the first time ever on an episode of NBT, Beatrice Loayza. An episode discussing Act II will follow at a later date.

As always we appreciate your feedback as we continue to expand this exciting section of the Next Best Picture family. Please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox or you can have a listen down below.

By Ryan C. Showers 

A trend has developed in recent years. For as long as I can remember, Best Actor was always the most competitive acting race of the four, always outpacing the supporting races and Best Actress. Since 2014, Best Actress has outmatched Best Actor in the number of quality performances in the race, and each year, Best Actor has become weaker and weaker. This year has materialized with a whimper rather than a bang to the point where I’m at the bottom of a barrel, scraping for traces of Best Actor possibilities. Now that we have gone through Venice, Telluride, and Toronto (and are currently underway with New York) film festivals, we have an idea of what we’re dealing with.

By Matt Neglia
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For our Patreon supporters, we asked them to pick a film related to "The Old Man & The Gun" for the month of September that had not been nominated for Best Picture. We are happy to see that they chose to be our Throwback Review for this month, David Lowery's last film "A Ghost Story." The next fan voted podcast for October's Throwback Review can be voted on here until the end of the month of September.

Joining me for this in-depth review into the film's themes, philosophical questions and and lack of Oscar success is Josh Parham, Danilo Castro & Josh Williams. This is a preview of the podcast which is an exclusive to our Patreon members. For the small price of $1 a month, you can get the full episode and more exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 
​
For Episode 109, myself, Michael Schwartz, Ryan C. Showers & Tom O'Brien discuss our current Oscar Predictions in key categories, the first days of the New York Film Festival (NYFF), go over the polls, give our reactions to the trailers for "Captain Marvel" and "Stan & Ollie," answer your questions on the show and more!

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

Our review this week on the podcast is the divisive, controversial and potentially new cult classic film from first-time director Sam Levinson titled "Assassination Nation." Joining me for this review of the Sundance hit film is Beatrice Loayza, Dan Bayer & from InSession Film: Kate Boyle.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Daniel Howat 

​We’ve officially come to the end of the Toronto International Film Festival, which means we’ve seen the premieres of almost every major Oscar contender for the year. While Venice and Telluride had plenty of high profile premieres, like “Roma,” “A Star Is Born,” and “First Man,” Toronto saw plenty of debuts itself. These debuts have greatly shaken up the Oscar race. Let’s break down what we learned from the films that premiered at TIFF.

First, a note...There were concerns over the changes to the voting system for Toronto’s People’s Choice Award. This award is seen as a great indicator for the upcoming Oscar contenders. Since 2008, all but one winner of this award was nominated for Best Picture, and three have won. This year, however, Toronto publicly posted a link to vote on the award. Anyone, regardless of whether they attended the festival, could enter their email and submit a vote. And they could vote as many times as they wanted. This seemed concerning.

Toronto responded to these concerns on Twitter stating: “Once we receive an online vote, we take many steps to ensure the submissions are legit - including checking the origins of the votes and if they are coming from ticket holders. Don’t worry, we got this.”

This makes sense, even if it seems like there would be less confusing methods to tally these votes.

By Matt Neglia 
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After giving our predictions last week, myself, Michael Schwartz and Ryan C. Showers are back to give you our instant reactions to the 70th annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Some of our predictions turned out to be true but the Emmys still had plenty of surprises in store for us including one of the most memorable award show moments we've ever seen involving Oscar director Glen Weiss and his (now) fiancé Jan. All of this and more are discussed in this episode.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

​By Ryan C. Showers 

Most Oscar pundits and people who write about awards races have had a common thread when discussing the Best Supporting Actress race of 2018: Amy Adams. Period, the end, moving on. Little did we know just how competitive would become. The three festivals so far (Venice, Telluride, and Toronto) have ushered in serious Best Supporting Actress players. Ironically, we’ve seen almost all of the contenders except the one everyone has and probably will continue to talk about: Amy Adams.

By Matt Neglia 
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For Episode 108, we have a jam packed episode as myself, Will Mavity, Michael Schwartz, Ryan C. Showers, Kt Schaefer & Tom O'Brien are joined by the returning Beatrice Loayza from TIFF. She gives us her thoughts on the film festival along with our guest Jorge Birnam from SplashReport.com who also attended this year's Toronto Film Festival along with Telluride. We also go over the polls, answer your questions on the show and more!

*We had a few audio glitches with this recording. The majority of the cleanup was done in post however, we do apologize if you hear breaks or unexpected sounds in the audio throughout the episode.*​

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

Our review this week on the podcast is the new film from "71" director Yann Demange titled "White Boy Rick" starring Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry and a few others in the true story of Richard Wershe Jr., a young boy who became a drug pusher, FBI informant and crime kingpin in Detroit in the mid 80's all before he turned 16. Joining me for this review is Kt Schaefer & Josh Parham.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Edward Douglas 

​With over forty years as an author and screenwriter under his belt, Ian McEwan is considered one of the top British authors, his biggest claim to fame being his 2001 novel “Atonement,” which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. This year, two movies based on McEwan novels, both adapted by himself, were released, the first being “On Chesil Beach” and the latest one being “The Children Act.” 

Based on McEwan’s 2014 novel, “The Children Act” gets its title from a number of British legislations made dating back to 1908, set to protect the welfare of minors who might not be able to make decisions for themselves. The movie adaptation reteams McEwan with similarly acclaimed filmmaker Richard Eyre (“Notes on a Scandal’) who directed McEwan’s very first screenplay for “The Ploughman’s Lunch” back in 1983.

The drama stars Oscar-winning actor Emma Thomas as British High Court Judge Fiona Maye, who presides over some of the most difficult domestic cases in family court, such as deciding whether to separate conjoined twins. Her latest involves a teenager (Fionn Whitehead from “Dunkirk”) whose beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness forces him to refuse life-saving transfusions needed during his treatment for leukemia.  In order to decide the case, Fiona visits the boy in the hospital and makes a decision that will change both their lives. At the same time, Fiona’s husband (Stanley Tucci) has decided to have an affair with a younger work colleague, feeling like he’s unable to get any sort of attention or time from his busy wife.

NextBestPicture.com sat down with the author and filmmaker for the following interview. As you can expect, it was all very proper, even with my mentions of Monty Python, and the two long-time friends were good at playing off each other, as we got pretty deep into the adaptation process.

By Danilo Castro 

​What can you say about Matthew McConaughey? The man has given us some of the most generic films of the 2000s and some of the best performances of the 2010s. He’s characterized as carefree and cool, yet lauded for his method acting and intense commitment to his roles. Upon accepting the Best Actor Oscar for playing an AIDS patient, he signed off with “alright, alright, alright,” a catchphrase from a teen comedy made 20 years earlier. 

Calling him an enigma would be like calling his “Dazed and Confused” character a stoner. Some things just go without saying. But it's this very quality that makes McConaughey such an exciting performer. You never really know where he’s going or what he’s going to do next, just that it’ll be different. His latest release, the real-life drama “White Boy Rick,” is now in theaters, and to celebrate, we’ve decided to look back at his ten best performances. Break out the bongos if you got ‘em.

By Ryan C. Showers 

​Venice. 
Telluride. 
Toronto. 
Check, check, and check. 

Now that we’re well into phase one of the 2018-19 awards season, the races are starting to take shape with an abundance of clarity. Critics and pundits have found common ground about which performances will put up a good fight upon their release for the awards circuit. From my understanding and analysis, the Best Actress race comes down to eight performances, four frontrunners, and four possibilities.

Eleven months ago, I wrote a piece published on this blog where I summarized last year’s Best Actress race as being “the mystery of the fifth slot.” This meant I was confident that Meryl Streep, Sally Hawkins, Frances McDormand, and Margot Robbie would be nominated in the Academy Awards lineup. (I was correct.) The final slot in Best Actress was an enigma to me, and I listed Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan, and Judi Dench as the actresses who could end up occupying it. In the conclusion of that piece, I predicted Ronan for the last spot, which was right before the “Lady Bird” buzz took off. (Again, I was correct. I predicted all five of the Best Actress nominees last year in October.) After Venice, Telluride, and Toronto, this year’s Best Actress race breaks down along a similar structure as the category did last year. I see four frontrunners with ideal roles and critical reviews, and then I see another thorough group of actresses who all stand a decent shot at filling the final spot. I’m not ready to say I’m confident in any of the frontrunners since the autumn films haven’t been released theatrically yet, but the principle similarly applies.

By Matt Neglia
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The 70th annual Primetime Emmy Awards, rewarding the best in television for 2018, will be held next Monday on September 17th. Myself, Michael Schwartz and Ryan C. Showers are back to bring you our final predictions for this year's winners hot off of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards which were held this previous weekend. Will "The Handmaid's Tale" be victorious again? Will "Game Of Thrones" come roaring back? Who will prevail in Best Comedy Series between "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Atlanta?" Where does "Barry" fit into all of this? Give us a listen and find out what we think.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Daniel Howat 

With the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals wrapped up, we’ve now got plenty of insight into the Oscar race. Most of the major contenders have premiered, giving us a clear picture of which films to keep an eye on. The Best Director race is heating up with previous winners, directorial debuts, unexpected hits, and more entering the fray.​

By Daniel Joyaux 

Hello! My name is Daniel and I’ll be one of your TIFF tour guides for the next few days along with Next Best Picture's own Beatrice Loayza. This is my ninth straight TIFF and I had tickets for 42 films. I saw a lot of the major Oscar-y stuff including "Roma," "First Man," "If Beale Street Could Talk," "Widows," "Boy Erased," and "The Front Runner," along with a good amount of foreign films, indies, documentaries, and various other weird little things that randomly seemed interesting to me a few weeks ago when I tried to plow through over 250 film descriptions and plot a coherent schedule in under five days.

By Will Mavity 

​Almost two years ago we ran an earlier version of this article, focusing on the people, by the number of nominations, who are most overdue for an Oscar. A lot has changed since then: Kevin O’Connell and Roger Deakins, two of the industry’s perennial bridesmaids finally took home their long overdue Oscars for “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Blade Runner 2049” respectively. We also learned recently that 8-time Academy Award nominee Kathleen Kennedy, who was previously on this list with a record 8 nominations and no wins, will be on the receiving end of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (along with her producing partner, Frank Marshall), which will be presented at the this year's Governors Awards.

​And now the internet is focusing on who the next overdue candidates could be. A lot of people are mentioning Amy Adams. But let’s be clear, from a sheer numbers perspective, Adams isn’t even near the top of the list. As with last time, for the definition of ‘overdue,’ I’ll be sticking to our previous method of relying entirely on the sheer number of nominations for each individual listed here for our method of ‘overdue.’ These will primarily be the men and women who work in tech categories, simply because, unlike actors and directors, their names don’t appear on Oscar ballots. Therefore it is difficult for them to ever manage to take advantage of their overdue status. Here’s to hoping this piece can bring them some attention instead. 

By Will Mavity 

Joseph Fraioli is a sound designer who has worked in the industry for the past decade. His latest film "Kin," was recently released in theaters. With his thunderous and dynamic work on display, he has showed us all that he is a creative talent to watch out for as he continues with new projects. Please take a moment to listen to our discussion about his work in the movie "Kin."

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 
​
For Episode 107, myself, Michael Schwartz, Ryan C. Showers, Kt Schaefer, Josh Parham & Tom O'Brien give our thoughts on the reactions coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival. We also discuss the winners from the Venice Film Festival, the current state of the Oscar race, the trailers for "22 July" and "At Eternity's Gate," the polls and answer your questions on the show.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below. Please take a moment if you like the show to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts here. Also be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive exclusive podcast content.

By Matt Neglia 

We have now come to the point in our Last Best Picture series, (where we review a Best Picture winner or nominee selected by you), where we have our first podcast review for a film that did not win the Oscar for Best Picture. Winner of three Academy Awards, "The Social Network" remains director David Fincher's most critically acclaimed film to date with an unparalleled screenplay by Aaron Sorkin which introduced the world to many new and up and coming actors. Now, myself, Kt Schaefer and Josh Parham have the chance to finally look back on "The Social Network" and to reassess its themes, characters and Oscar run where it ultimately lost to "The King's Speech." The next fan voted podcast review for October will be announced at the end of the month and can be voted on here until then.

This is a preview of the podcast which is an exclusive to our Patreon members. For the small price of $1 a month, you can get the full episode and more exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.

Thank you and please feel free to subscribe on either ​SoundCloud, Tunein, GooglePlay, iTunes, Stitcher, Player FM, CastBox, Acast, or you can have a listen down below.

By Will Mavity

​In 2010, The Academy finally chose to expand the Visual Effects Category to allow 5 Nominees. Why? Because all but one other category had 5 nominees, and in a given year, quite a few more than just three movies utilize exemplary visual effects. You know what is even more frequently used in films that visual effects?

Makeup & Hairstyling.

99% of films utilize makeup in some capacity, and a whole lot of them use it in fairly showy fashions. And still, while every other category has expanded to allow 5 nominees, Makeup & Hairstyling is content to sit with 3.

And for what end? To keep mediocre films from getting Oscar nominations? Perfect. We still get nominees such as "Norbit," "The Lone Ranger," "Click," and "Suicide Squad," while films like "Cloud Atlas," "The Shape Of Water," "Tropic Thunder," "American Hustle," "Black Swan," "Lincoln," "IT" and so many more are entirely ignored due to the bloodbath of an elimination process leading to only 3 nominees. Any year offers a wealth of choices for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup. And time and time again, these choices are ignored.

But this year is particularly egregious. The field is already so deep and only 3 of those films will get nominated. What's even worse, is that with a category containing an abundance of riches such as this, we can only speculate that their achievements will be one of the Oscar categories moved to a commercial break during the ceremony.

AMPAS, you’re still deciding what rules to make in this new age…it’s not too late to make another change. Expand to 5 nominees for this category, so we don’t see these exemplary makeup achievements fall by the wayside.

By Matt Neglia 

​​A few weeks ago, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences sent shockwaves through the industry when they announced three major changes: A date change for the 2020 Oscar Ceremony, the removal of certain awards from the main show which are to edited into a montage to be shown later in the evening and the creation of a new Oscar category: Best Popular Film.

The news was met with questions, criticism and debate from the team here at Next Best Picture, members of the industry and the public itself. Now, after another meeting held by Academy members, we have finally received some clarification regarding these changes.