By Nicole Ackman ​

Here at Next Best Picture, we also cover Theatre from time to time on the Next Best Theatre Podcast. With this post, I want to merge both film and theatre into one and give those who love both something exciting to read.

​There’s something very special about being able to see a film or television actor that you admire give a great performance live on stage in front of you. Of course, there are many talented theatre actors but there are some actors who have made a great career of performing both onscreen and onstage. We have rounded up a list of where you can see your favorite film and television actors on stage in New York City from now through the spring.

By Tom O'Brien 

​On Monday, the 30th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival came to a close after offering screenings of 226 films from 78 countries in 12 days. Attendance figures from this year's festival have yet to be released, but last year the Palm Springs fest drew over 135,000 attendees, making it the third most-attended film festival in North America.

Positioned as it is after the first of the year, Palm Springs doesn't have the same influence on the major Oscar categories as, let's say, the Telluride, Toronto and New York festivals, which annually premiere many of the films that go on to contend for the marquee Oscar categories. As unfriendly as the calendar might be to Palm Springs in uncovering potential Best Picture winners, it does afford this event two opportunities that no other festival can provide.

​By Michael Schwartz 

​When used effectively, a film setting has the potential to feel like a character of its own. Think about the use of New York in films such as "When Harry Met Sally" and "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," to the role Los Angeles plays in "Chinatown" and "La La Land." A great city can play a big role in how we respond to particular movies. However, sometimes we tend to respond more when our own home is prominently featured. As a proud native and current resident of suburban Philadelphia, I am always thrilled to see my community on the big screen. Not just because I know the sights on display, but I believe that the best films that are set in Philadelphia truly highlight the warmth and community on display.

By Dan Bayer 

​The ballots are in, and all we can do is wait. Wait and see what movies get nominated for this year’s Oscars. There’s something that has been bugging me ever since the season started, though. Will "Black Panther" get a Best Picture nomination?

It’s seemed like a long shot ever since it was released way back on February 16, 2018, for a few reasons, most notably that a superhero/comic book movie has never broken into the Best Picture category before. The film rode the wave of stellar reviews and word-of-mouth to become the type of critical and popular hit that seems too big to ignore, and sure enough, it’s gotten nominated at nearly every guild it could have been.

​But even still, the question has been bugging me...Will AMPAS really vote for a movie that opened so early in the year?

​So I did some digging.​

By Cody Dericks 

​With Oscar nominations fast approaching, everybody is working and stressing to solidify their predictions. But this year is a weird one. So many races are still up in the air, least of all the performance categories. The general consensus for these races is that all of the categories have a solid four nominees that are seemingly a sure thing, with the fifth slot (in other words, your predicted nominee that stands the smallest chance of actually getting nominated) less easy to pin down. Let’s go through all four of these categories and try to determine the fifth slots using both cold hard statistics and general awards trajectory. ​

By Will Mavity 

With the Critics' Choice Awards announcing winners last night, the critics awards portion of awards season is essentially over. With 80 percent of the groups providing either nominees or runner-ups in addition to wins, we’ve decided to tabulate the results from each group into rankings category by category of who received the most mentions throughout the season.

To be clear...THESE ARE NOT PREDICTIONS. These are a ranking of who has the most critic group mentions throughout the season. Seeing such a broad consensus from so many different people can be telling as far as what a large voting body like the Academy may go for yes. But this is not set in stone. The Academy will undoubtedly differ from the critical consensus. Nonetheless, it’s fun to see who has the most mentions on the critics' circuit.

One other thing I want to mention: This is a tally from critics groups only. No guild associations, no Golden Globes, no BAFTA's, no Indie Spirits. Just critics groups.

Click below to see if anything surprises you.

By Danilo Castro ​

Faith is an increasingly difficult thing to come by these days, and few directors have tackled it as honestly and consistently as Paul Schrader. For over 40 years, Schrader has made films about intense, isolated men who are broken down by their spiritual conflicts. Whether it be "Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters," "Light Sleeper," or his script for "The Last Temptation of Christ," Schrader’s characters are haunted by a sense of guilt that reflects his strict religious upbringing. "First Reformed" acts as both rumination and a culmination to this career-long study.

By Josh Williams 

I am a firm believer that the medium of film has the ability to change an audience's beliefs. Whether it be a political belief, a religious belief, or even influencing someone to become vegetarian. Simply through placing images on a screen at twenty-four frames a second, film can change a person's life. The language of splicing together images holds more power than we realize. Certain filmmakers have the ability to capture this magic throughout their entire career and these filmmakers are endlessly on a quest to show the world this magic through the looking glass that is a camera lens. Barry Jenkins, is a director who I think is constantly searching for this magic and with each film he provides us, he re-discovers this bliss in a new and meaningful way. With his first feature, "Medicine For Melancholy", his Best-Picture winning "Moonlight," and now his critically adored "If Beale Street Could Talk," Jenkins has an eye for romance. Not just with his characters but with the act of filmmaking itself. Barry Jenkins isn't just a director, he's a magician. A magician who has the ability to make us wonder and feel.

By Matt Neglia ​

The 2019 EE BAFTA nominations were announced this morning. Being the last major stop on the road to the Oscar nominations on January 22 (and with Academy members currently voting on their ballots as we speak), many pundits were looking to them for help to clear the air on several categories.

Honestly, I believe we were left with more questions than answers.

​By Ryan C. Showers ​

​Nicole Kidman. Woman director. Rule-bending gender roles. Film noir. Physical transformation. These are some of the terms that have built the profile of Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer” on the national stage over the past few months. The buzz for Kidman’s performance commenced as soon as the first reactions dropped out of the elite Telluride Film Festival in September. While Kidman’s characterization of the protagonist has been universally praised, the film itself has divided viewers and critics in every which way. For instance, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times — two of the largest national newspapers in the country — split in the way they interpreted the film: Manohla Dargis (NYT) wrote one of the most positive reviews the movie received and Justin Chang (LAT) one of the most negative. After seeing the film, I can report that the movie lives up to that distinction. “Destroyer” is the most interesting motion picture of the year, one that deserves to be analyzed, debated, and discussed.

​By Liam Heffernan ​

​If there’s one thing you can no longer criticize about the 2018-2019 awards season, it’s entertainment value. From the drawn-out Oscar hosting saga to the previously announced and rapidly redacted plans for a Best Popular Film award, to the emergence of several surprising contenders who, especially following the Golden Globe results, appear to be staking their claim in a major awards run.

By Will Mavity 

Every year, the Academy Visual Effects branch determines the five Best Visual Effects nominees through a 4-hour event known as the “bake-off.” Ten pre-selected films present 10-minute reels of VFX-heavy footage along with a 3-minute introduction and a Q&A afterward. Typically, voters vote in the room, meaning your bake off performance is the end all be all. In 2010, “Tron: Legacy” had an infamously bad presentation, and shockingly missed a nomination, while in 2016, “Deepwater Horizon” defeated more obvious contenders by virtue of an amazing reel.

This year, unlike previous years, the bake-off features 3-minute behind-the scenes-reels prior to the main reels. Each of these behind-the-scenes reels showed before and after footage and ended up being a highlight.​

Click below to read about how this year's presentation went for the Best Visual Effects Oscar hopefuls.

​By Celia Schelekewey 

Modern horror movies are known for borrowing heavily from “pop culture" trends occurring in the real world. Sometimes, the quote above indicates a strange definition of trends, like last year’s truly fun-to-hate movie based on "Truth Or Dare," a game pre-teen children have been playing for decades, not a hot new fad. Sometimes, those quotes indicate a strange definition of popular, like the unwatchable "Slender Man" film, which was also released last year. It had its roots in niche creepypasta forums and only gained popularity after a tragedy occurred in Wisconsin, involving the attempted murder of a girl. While “Slender Man” avoided speaking about the incident in detail, it also did not talk about it either. The protagonists are still young girls who are asked to sacrifice their friend, and it was close enough that Wisconsin’s largest theater chain decided against showing it in theaters near Milwaukee, where the crime took place. The decision to adapt this story was definitely odd, but not too far out of left field for a genre that will do anything to cash in on buzzwords. This year, we are hitting the ground running with another trendy part of the zeitgeist: escape rooms. But is this concept a flash in the pan, or does the idea have more legs than we could anticipate?

By Ryan C. Showers ​

Sometimes the split categories at the Golden Globes create feelings of unworthiness and, specifically, many people view the Comedy/Musical categories as inferior to the Drama categories. This year, that’s not the case. The competition in the Best Picture Comedy/Musical category is one to write home about. “The Favourite” “Green Book,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” and “Vice” all have a viable chance to triumph. Any one of the masterclass contenders could win this category in a cakewalk in a weaker year. Though it deserved its nomination, “Crazy Rich Asians” is not in contention to win the prize. It should be happy it was nominated here to begin with. “Vice” overperformed and earned six nominations; “The Favourite” and “Green Book” each accumulated five nominations; and “Mary Poppins Returns” scored four nominations. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

​By Ryan C. Showers ​

​It’s increasingly becoming clear that “A Star Is Born” is being positioned to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It avoided controversy from the time of its early release in October through now, after scoring across-the-board love with Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and SAG nominations. Along with “Black Panther” and “BlacKkKlansman,” it’s one of the few Best Picture contenders to garner a SAG Cast Ensemble nomination, which until last year, was an ironclad award to measure Best Picture possibility. When I saw “A Star Is Born” opening day, it struck me as a film like “Birdman,” something the Academy will love because of the subject matter, talent involved, and style. How it will perform on a preferential ballot remains up in the air, while pundits disagree over whether it will do well or poorly. I believe it’s going to do just fine on the preferential ballot, as opposed to films like “Green Book,” “The Favourite,” and “Roma.” I remain constant in that prediction, and no other film has proven it has the gusto to really fill the mold of a Best Picture winner.