By Matt Neglia 

For this week's main podcast review, Josh Parham, Josh Williams, guest Daniel Brilliant & I put on our best sweaters and try to solve filmmaker Rian Johnson's whodunit mystery thriller "Knives Out" by answering a simple question: is it any good? We discuss the performances from its large ensemble cast, the intricate screenplay from Johnson, the technical craft on display from his crew and more in this week's review. Take a listen and find out what we think.

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 Will Mavity 

Some years the Best Original Song category is so thin that you bring up the usual “Is it time to get rid of the Original Song Category?” question. And then the next year, we end up with a massively packed field (like last year). This year is somewhere between a packed year like last year, and the barren wasteland like the two nominees in 2011. Unlike last year, no one is saying “why do we even care about the nominees because we know 'Shallow' is winning” months before nominations are even announced.

There's a moderately deep field without a clear frontrunner, and accordingly, many studios are taking advantage of that fact to attempt to make a splash. Many films already have listed their songs on their campaign sites, featured them in their print FYC ads, and others have promoted their songs in the press extensively. Most of the songs below have been singled out by studios and publicists as being campaigned (although a few are just conjecture).

Click below to see the list of songs in contention this year for Best Original Song.

By Nicole Ackman 

For this month's review, Michael Schwartz, Casey Lee Clark, Dan Bayer and I are back during this holiday season to discuss "She Loves Me." Inspired by Miklós László’s Parfumerie, the show follows in the tradition of "The Shop Around the Corner" and "In the Good Old Summertime" by placing the classic Hungarian play in a new context. With a score by the legendary Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, accompanied by a perfect Joe Masteroff book, "She Loves Me" has stood the test of time to remain one of the most perfect musical comedies to ever grace the Broadway stage. So why does it still feel underrated? We explore that and many other questions and themes around this musical gem. A terrific way to kick off the holiday season.

This is a preview of the podcast, the full version of which is only available to those who subscribe to us on Patreon. For the small price of $1 a month, you can receive this review along with other exclusive podcast content, so be sure to subscribe here.

Thank you so much for listening. You can subscribe to the Next Best Theatre 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 Ryan C. Showers 
 
Films about women – and explicitly feminist films – are usually treated with little respect by awards bodies. A recent ugly example in recent years happened in 2014 when films like “Gone Girl” and “Wild” were washed over across the board in favor of controversial, masculine-focused stories like “American Sniper.” This was a year where there were no Best Picture nominees with women protagonists, despite there being options. Gender bias comes through all the time. Even within discourse in pundit and award show fan circles, the few films that do actually make an impact are not necessarily treated with the respect they deserve. The most successful feminist film at the Oscars in the past 20 years was “The Hours.” Yet, when Film Twitter discusses 2002, it’s almost completely skipped over in the discussion despite winning Best Actress, accumulating nine Oscar nominations, winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama, and the Best Adapted Screenplay Writer’s Guild Award. There hasn’t been a film like “The Hours” nominated since then; a movie adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning source material that’s based on a novel by a female literary legend; and where the plot is about female protagonists struggling with depression, the internal wars of their identity, and reflection of their life choices as women.

By Matt Neglia 

For this week's second podcast review, Casey Lee Clark, Dan Bayer, Amanda Spears & I review director Marielle Heller's latest film "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" starring Matthew Rhys and Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. Presented with a very unique narrative structure, this is not your typical biopic. As a result, the NBP team has a wide range of opinions on this Thanksgiving holiday drama. Take a listen below to find out what we thought.

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 Josh Parham 

With the onslaught of high-profile film festivals in the rear-view mirror, the full immersion of awards season is upon us. We’ve already seen a slew of precursors announced already, but many of the major awards have yet to be revealed (Check out our Awards Calendar page for all of the important dates). It’s still a long journey through the critics’ awards, industry prizes, and eventually, to the Oscar nominations themselves.

At this point, I wanted to take a moment to share some observations from last year’s race and how those lessons might be applied to this year. A disclaimer must be mentioned: every year produces its own unique set of results, so these “lessons” should not be taken as gospel. These are merely trends that seem to be applicable to the Oscar race, and I find it interesting to reflect on them before the race truly begins.

By Daniel Howat 

Mark Duplass has had a successful career with a fair share of decent performances but for this specific interview, he's not interested in talking about himself. Mark took a few moments  out of his day to specifically talk to us about his co-star Ray Romano's work in the Netflix film "Paddleton." He expresses why he believes Ray's work deserves to be up for awards consideration, his thoughts on the current state of how awards season is run and more. It's the most selfless interview you'll hear all year. Take a listen.

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 Edward Douglas 

Scott Z. Burns has made a name for himself by being part investigative reporter and part screenwriter, which has allowed him to create quite a solid working relationship with Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, the two of them collaborating on a number of movies: 2011’s “Contagion,” 2013’s “Side Effects,” and this year’s “The Laundromat.” In fact, it’s been almost 13 years since Burns directed his earlier film “Pu-239,” but his latest film “The Report” is probably his most complex screenplay yet, although Burns decided that was the one he should direct.

It stars Adam Driver as Daniel Jones, an assistant to Senator Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening) who is assigned to write a report about the CIA’s misuse of torture techniques to get information from Iraqi detainees post-9/11. Without the help of the CIA – despite having an office in their headquarters – Jones works diligently to get information from all avenues, creating an enormous document that might never get seen by the public as it gets caught up in political red tape.

The movie was all the talk at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January, mainly for the performances by Driver and Bening, but it still stands up months later due to the cast Burns assembled, which includes Jon Hamm, Corey Stoll, Tim Blake Nelson, Matthew Rhys (from “The Post”) and Michael C. Hall.

Next Best Picture spoke to Burns over the phone for the following interview.

By Daniel Howat ​

In an awards season without any real certainties, Best Actress might be the most confounding category of them all. Our own Ryan C. Showers wrote an excellent breakdown of the category last week, highlighting the three likely frontrunners: Renée Zellweger in “Judy,” Scarlett Johansson in “Marriage Story,” and Charlize Theron in “Bombshell.” He laid out the possible narratives and paths to victory for each of them. He also explained the pros and cons of each. There are plenty of reasons to bet against each of these three women this season, which makes this category all the more confusing.

My pitch: What if in this unpredictable Best Actress race, without a clear frontrunner, we’re underestimating someone who could win the whole thing? ​

By Dan Bayer 

After recently receiving Gotham and Spirit Award nominations for Breakthrough Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively, we are now sharing with you our interview with Jonathan Majors, the star of the critically acclaimed independent film "The Last Black Man In San Francisco." Jonathan was kind enough to take a few minutes to discuss with us what his experience was like working with co-star Jimmie Fails and writer/director Joe Talbot, what the story means to him, what he has coming up next and more! Give it a listen and definitely keep him in mind for Best Supporting Actor this year.

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 Matt Neglia 

The Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) have announced their nominations representing the best in film for 2019. The winners will be announced on January 9th 2020.
​
Click below to see the nominees.

By Matt Neglia 

For Episode 169, myself, Casey Lee Clark, Josh Parham, Cody Dericks, and our newest contributor to Next Best Picture Rebecca Daniel discuss the nominations for the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards, the latest at the FAI Film Festival, give reactions to the trailers for "Emma," "Antebellum," go over the polls, answer your fan questions and more!

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 Matt Neglia 

For this week's main podcast review, Lauren LaMagna, Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks & I discuss the sequel to Disney's mega worldwide hit "Frozen," titled "Frozen 2." With the returning cast and creative team, is this animated sequel more of the same or something as fresh, new and exciting as the first film? How are the songs? The animation? We discuss all of these topics and more on this week's review.

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 Casey Lee Clark 

​On November 21st, the Film Independent Spirit Awards announced their 2019 nominees, highlighting the best of independent film this year. Every year, the Spirit Awards put on a unique and fun show, particularly in their continued efforts to highlight much smaller, underseen films rather than instantly going for awards season frontrunners or mainstream titles. With such an incredibly strong slate of independent films, this year’s crop of nominees are no exception. However, no line-up is perfect and there are clear omissions and head-scratchers found in this group. Here, we’ll take a look at the surprise highs, lows, and WTF's, as well as what this might mean for the awards season ahead.

By Matt Neglia 

​The Film Independent Spirit Awards have announced their nominations for the best in independent film for 2019. The winners will be announced the day before the Oscars on February 8th 2020.

​Click below to see the nominations.

By Ryan C. Showers 
 
“Frozen 2,” has been met with a rapturous response from its screenings thus far. The general consensus is that the highly anticipated sequel actually surmounts the original’s quality and storytelling. This is somewhat surprising for fans of the original and those of us who remember just how consequential “Frozen” was on popular culture two years ago. It won both Oscars it was nominated for (Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for the legendary “Let It Go”) and it’s been reported that the song “Into the Unknown” will be the second film’s claim to fame.  
 
These developments have upended the direction of the Best Animated Feature race for this year. Most of us believed Pixar would waltz their way to yet another win with “Toy Story 4,” despite its underwhelming expectations and proving to be the weakest entry in the series. But with “Toy Story 3” being so beloved that it earned a Best Picture nomination in 2010, the whole “Toy Story 4” outing was generally underwhelming. Comparing the lukewarm praise of “Toy Story 4” with “Frozen 2” defying expectations, the latter may find itself well-positioned to undermine Pixar’s latest attempt at the category, and “Frozen 2” could find itself repeating the wins of its predecessor.

By Daniel Howat 

After getting his start at the beginning of the millennium with David Gordon Green's "George Washington," musician and composer David Wingo has silently been building a strong body of film scoring work for nearly two decades. With scores for "Take Shelter," "Midnight Special," "Brigsby Bear" and the Emmy winning HBO show "Barry," he has certainly made himself known to us and now he's back with  Scott Z. Burns political drama "The Report." David was kind enough to take a few minutes to talk to us about his work on the film which you can listen to below!

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 Lauren LaMagna 

​​Everyone always says that age is nothing but a number; in reality, that’s not the case. During awards season, people are always talking about age. The general audience and voters are so obsessed with age that there are records about the oldest and youngest person to be nominated – something that’s constantly trying to be beaten every year. Even though people say age doesn’t really matter, it defiantly plays a role in who gets nominated and who doesn’t, especially when it comes to actors.

By Matt Neglia 

For this week's third podcast review, myself, Nicole Ackman, Dan Bayer & Josh Parham discuss the latest film from filmmaker Noah Baumbach for Netflix, "Marriage Story" starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta. The film tells the personal story of a modern divorce between an artistic couple bouncing back and forth between New York and Los Angeles. There is a multitude of topics to discuss with this one including the writing, performances, Baumbach's direction, the absurdity of a taxing divorce within the legal system, the use of Stephen Sondheim, the complexities of human relationships and more! Take a listen and enjoy the show!

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 Ryan C. Showers 

Nearly every year, this decade has had a crowded field of Best Actress contenders, where worthy performances were elbowed out of the Oscar lineup due to a high degree of competition. As each year passed, roles for women kept getting better and better, until this year, where the field read as noticeably thin. In fact, many pundits have found themselves scrambling to fill the final spots in their predictions because it seemed like the best choices all had some definitive weakness.