By Dan Bayer 

I’m definitely feeling the burn of the non-stop schedule of the past three days. I’ve seen so many movies that my head is starting to spin, and I’m worried that I don’t have an original thought left in my head to write any more reviews. I’m feeling a bit weighed down by it all, which makes me even more ready for my first screening, Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” The reviews last night were ecstatic, so I get to the theater an hour early, coffee in hand. I’m not the only one, but they haven’t even started the line yet since they haven’t yet let in the big line of people here to see “Judy.” I’m glad that I will be more towards the front of the line and feel validated as twenty minutes later, with our line full, they let us into the theater. I feel a little less glad when a woman sits down next to me in the middle of a row and brings out her emotional support dog. I’m allergic and don’t want to spend half the movie sneezing. But she’s so sweet, and the dog is so well-behaved, that I can’t bring myself to say anything.

By Matt Neglia 

For Episode 158, Michael Schwartz, Casey Lee Clark, Josh Parham, Lauren LaMagna & myself are back! Three years and we never missed a podcast weekend until last week due to my time at the Telluride Film Festival. But now, we are here to give you two week's worth of content in one episode including a recap of Telluride, Venice (including the surprising Golden Lion winner), and part of TIFF (with a phone call from Dan Bayer who is currently at the festival). We also go over the trailers for "The Aeronauts," "Waves," "The Two Popes," "The Laundromat," "The King" and "Just Mercy" along with the polls, your fan submitted questions and more! We are so happy to be back and we hope you appreciate this jam packed episode of awards season content.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Dan Bayer ​​

​Day three of this damn festival is over and I never thought I’d say this, but if I never see another film as long as I live, I might be okay with that. The sheer glut of movie-watching is definitely taking its toll, but this is also my busiest day of the fest. If I survived this, I can survive anything...hopefully.

By Matt Neglia 

The 76th Venice Film Festival has ended with its annual prizes handed out by the jury for the best of the festival. There were some very bizarre choices made this year which took the internet by storm, officially kicking off the 2019 awards season with quite a bang.

​Click below to see a partial list of the winners.

By Matt Neglia 

For this week's main podcast review, Kt Schaefer, Lauren LaMagna & Cody Dericks, and myself travel back to the Stephen King town of Derry and confront our fears and trauma in the second part to the terrifying story of "It," titled "It Chapter Two." Starring an all-star cast which includes Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader & Bill Skarsgård, along with the kid cast from the first film, this nearly three hour horror film has a lot to offer both good and bad. What did we think? Tune in below to find out.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Picture Podcast on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, GooglePlay, Tunein, PlayerFM, Acast & Castbox or you can listen down below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you're feeling generous and you enjoy what you hear and want more, please help to support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month and you'll receive some exclusive podcast content.

By Dan Bayer ​

​I miraculously wake up just before my 6:30 AM alarm. I say “miraculously” because I did not go to bed until after midnight and I was tired all day the day before. I want to make sure I am up early enough to get coffee before getting in line early for the day’s first screening, which I am sure will be popular: The first screening of Marjane Satrapi’s Marie Curie biopic “Radioactive”, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. I perhaps did not need to get in line quite as early as I did, as the screening ends up being packed but not completely full, but I’m glad I had a lot of seats to choose from, at least! About five minutes into the film, I was worried that it was going to be “The Iron Lady”: Science Edition, but thankfully it got better as it went along. Rosamund Pike is terrific, and hopefully this will land her back in the Oscar conversation whenever the film actually gets released.

By Dan Bayer ​

​Over the past couple of weeks, my Inbox has been flooded with emails - press releases, inquiries about interviews, festival info, even a few party invites! There have been so many that I have barely had time to read them all! It’s been frustrating because it made me more aware of even more films that sound interesting that I simply won’t have time for during my five days at TIFF. Arriving Wednesday afternoon at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a massive theater complex that includes a restaurant and a gift shop in addition to five screens, is like I’m entering Film Fantasyland, but it’s after I pick up my press pass and head to the Press & Industry Box Office at the hotel down the block that I feel like I’ve truly entered a different world. The Industry Centre is like my TIFF Inbox folder come to life, covered almost wall to wall in posters for films trying to get distribution, industry magazines out for anyone to take, food and drink… and lots of people milling about and chatting.

By Josh Parham 

Every lover of film has a particular entry point that kickstarted their passion for the art form. The gestures can be grand or small, but there is always some kind of origin point that can be traced back. For myself, old school horror and science-fiction films were a big part of my early cinema education. These classic films were a favorite of my parents, and as a child with a burgeoning interest in the world of movies, it became a regular bonding experience to connect with them. There are so many that I could not possibly name everyone that has meant so much to me, but there is one particular film that is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, and I felt compelled to discuss a film that’s meant so much to me.

By Will Mavity 

After a good deal of anticipation (and controversy), Joaquin Phoenix’s standalone “Joker” film has premiered to primarily strong reviews. And for the most part, even reviews that do not praise the film itself praise Phoenix’s performance. There is a long way to go until Oscar Nomination morning, so it remains up in the air as to whether or not Phoenix will snag an Oscar nomination. Historically, the Academy has been cold towards superhero films in above the line categories ("Black Panther" notwithstanding). As such, there is an idea that awards season as a whole is unfriendly to superhero movie performances. What is interesting though, is that even if Phoenix does not make it all the way to the Oscars, history has shown that other awards season groups (especially regional critics groups) are much more friendly to superhero movie performances than AMPAS.  

Admittedly, superhero performances typically are relegated to obligatory mentions in the “best action movie performance” category at the critics choice awards (Robert Downey Jr. has like 5 of those). And of course, organizations like the Saturn awards, which specialize in sci-fi and horror films are friendly to them. But what we care about here, in regard to Phoenix, are which performances have gone beyond those areas to nominations in major categories from groups that we in the Awards world typically consider to be part of “awards season.”

By Dan Bayer ​

I have never really been one for film festivals. I have come to be wary of how films can build big buzz in the heat of a festival only to fizzle out completely when they get released, sometimes a year or more after they premiered. As a film lover and Oscar watcher, it has been frustrating to watch the conversation about a film go through an entire lifecycle before it’s even available for most of the public to see, at which point the very critics who strongly praised or disparaged a film have already moved on from the conversation.

So of course when Matt asked me if I was interested in covering this year’s Toronto International Film Festival for Next Best Picture, I said yes without hesitation.