By Lauren LaMagna 

Every awards season, one of two actors finds themselves in a unique situation where two or more of their films receive award season buzz. It is not uncommon, but it’s certainly a pleasant surprise. Throughout the years, respected actors have found themselves in this position like Kate Winslet in 2009 (for her works in “The Reader” & “Revolutionary Road”) and newcomers such as Jessica Chastain in 2011 ("Take Shelter," "The Tree Of Life" & "The Help"), Alicia Vikander in 2016 (“Ex Machina” & “The Danish Girl”). This year, one of the actors to find themselves in a strange yet exciting position is Scarlett Johansson, who is projected to earn her first Oscar nomination.

By Ryan C. Showers 

In the world of Oscar Buzz right now, there are two performances that are dominating the conversation: Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker” and Renée Zellweger in “Judy.” These performances are inextricably linked, despite out of the context of the world of awards season, they may appear to have nothing in common. They vary in ways, but they will likely proceed along the same trajectories for the next four months. It’s a very early, some may say irresponsible prediction that these are our Best Actor and Best Actress winning performances this year.

By Ryan C. Showers ​

The recent trend in awards seasons has seen very few films with late release dates make it through to a high amount of nominations. There are some obvious examples, like “American Hustle” and “Vice,” which both skipped the festival circuit and went straight to theatrical release in late December. But these are few and far between. The flip side of that is “Selma” and “The Post,” which were released too late in the game to gain the traction those films deserved. Over the past ten years, I would say this has been the overall trend. Festival exposure and pre-ordinated campaigns have become more essential than having a big release very close to Oscar voting. For example: In the early 2000s, mid- to late-December was considered to be the prime time for release. Take 2002 for example: all five Best Picture nominees were all released in December, 4/5 of them hit theaters in the second half of December, and 4/5 of them debuted in limited release for the first month in theaters. That’s a rule from the playbook of yesterday.

By Michael Schwartz 

As the New York Film Festival is underway and Telluride and Toronto have come and gone, the 2019 Best Picture lineup is beginning to take shape. After nearly claiming victory last year with Roma, Netflix is back with a vengeance in the form of three top tier contenders. Noah Baumbach’s "Marriage Story," Martin Scorsese’s "The Irishman" and Fernando Meirelles’ "The Two Popes," make up a lineup that seems to have something for everyone, at least if you’re an Academy member. Between a brilliant publicity team and star power enough to make the old studio system jealous, the big prize this year could be Netflix’s for the taking.

By Tom O'Brien ​

Thank God for documentaries. In a summer when few narrative features have clicked with art-house audiences (with only "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" and "The Farewell" really breaking through), it was a steady stream of top-notch documentaries that kept the lights on in many of the nation's limited-release movie theaters.

In 2018, five different documentaries ("RBG," "Free Solo," "Three Identical Strangers," "They Shall Not Grow Old" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor?") each grossed over $10 million in the U.S., an almost unheard-of achievement. Although no non-fiction film this year has reached that mark yet, the crop of 2019 documentaries have proven to be of very high quality, thus setting the table for what promises to be an extremely competitive race for this year's Best Feature Documentary Oscar. Several favorites are already playing in theaters, while many more, which have screened at film festivals, are awaiting release. Let's take a look at 10 that we have seen already that should not be forgotten come Oscar voting time.

By Will Mavity 

With James Gray’s interstellar sci-fi film "Ad Astra" receiving positive reviews as it opens in theaters this past weekend, there is, as always, the question of Oscar potential. While it is a default to say “The Academy” doesn’t go for sci-fi, that is not entirely true. Certainly, AMPAS are more predisposed to lean towards a period piece in Best Picture than it is a sci-fi, but across all 24 categories, especially in the below the line categories, sci-fi is better represented than one might expect. While it would be excessive to attempt to list “every sci-fi film ever nominated for ANY Oscar,” it is feasible to look at every movie about space travel ever nominated for an Oscar.

I have been liberal in my definition of space travel (IE is the film primarily set on one planet, but the protagonists had to travel through space to reach the planet, that would count). I will not include films set in “cyberspace” (“Ready Player One”) or films involving encounters with aliens who were merely hidden on earth (“The Abyss”). There needs to be some degree of actual travel through space in the film in order to qualify here. Films that are not sci-fi (“First Man” & “Apollo 13”) count, since they involve space travel, even if the space travel is not fictional. Finally, I will not be counting “special achievement” Oscars, but only competitive ones.

With all that said, here are the biggest takeaways.

By Ryan C. Showers ​

The schedule outlined in a typical awards season has produced a contradictory pattern: if you want to win, especially Best Picture, your film must be widely seen, yet it can’t be released too early as to be fresh in voters minds or become subject to controversies or a “frontrunner” status. In my mind, October would be the ideal time to fit this characterization. Think about “The Departed.” But even prime October releases from last year, “A Star is Born” and “First Man,” despite the unique qualities and success and failures of each film, were stilted by the time the Academy Awards came around. There is an incentive for the Oscar-contending films to grow a profile with moderate buzz at film festivals in September and October and then hit theaters in November and December. It seems to what worked for the success stories. Some recent examples are “The Shape of Water,” “Roma,” “The Favourite,” and “Green Book.”

By Will Mavity

Almost every Oscar season, we can count on at least a few films that offer pundits near-endless opportunities for haggling over whether or no a film constitutes an “Original Screenplay” or an “Adapted Screenplay” as defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

AMPAS offers a loose definition of what constitutes an adapted screenplay. And it is a definition that often differs with the definitions of other writing awards, such as the WGA, the USC Scripter, and BAFTA. Years ago, the Best Original Screenplay category was named “ Best Story and Screenplay - Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced,” which would of course by extension mean that Adapted nominees were based on material that was in fact previously published or produced. Additionally, it left the door open for Screenwriters to argue (like "Spotlight") that though the film was based on extensive research into real-life facts, it was technically still an “Original Screenplay.” The specific title for Best Adapted Screenplay was previously “Based on Material from Another Medium.”

By Daniel Howat ​

With potential contenders “Jojo Rabbit” and “The Laundromat” getting decidedly mixed reviews out of Telluride and TIFF, are their Oscar hopes dead and buried? It may not be so simple. Reviews may be a strong indication of how well a film will last in awards season, while many films have overcome a tepid reception to score some Oscar attention. Let’s take a look at the recent history of mixed reviews at the Academy Awards.

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 Ryan C. Showers ​​​

Happy August, Next Best Picture readers. And it is a happy time because we have yet to enter phase one of award season this year. Before the festivals begin and the films that go on to become big dogs in the awards conversation are actually screened for critics and audiences, everything is speculation. We’re all speculating right now. While some find this process annoying, others find it invigorating. Anything can happen at this point. And despite however the individual facts and trends develop once we really get started, sometimes you can sense larger trends in the structure of the season based on the information available at this point. There’s one grim trend about which that we all deserve a forewarning.

By Will Mavity 

​After the initial Twitter reactions to “The Lion King” dropped, there were many online saying “this has the Best Visual Effects Oscar in the bag” and “all other VFX contenders can go home now.”

And then the actual reviews dropped. And reactions were much much more divided. Some people blamed all of their problems with the film as a whole on the film’s effects. Terms like “uncanny valley” kept getting thrown around, along with comparisons to the Peter Cushing CGI work in “Rogue One.” And then people started thinking…maybe we’ve been looking at the wrong giant cat movie in this category. Maybe we should start looking at “Cats.” Surely, it will look bet-- Oh my god, kill it with fire!

So…obviously, the “Cats” VFX work is incomplete, and it could be dramatically improved by December - who knows. But right now, it seems like it might be too creepy looking to win the category as well. So who does that leave as viable contenders?

As far as I can tell, aside from “Cats” and “The Lion King,” neither of which are sure things, there are only 9 other films that feel as though they end up in the hunt to win the Visual Effects Oscar…and they all have detractors as well.

By Ryan C. Showers ​​

​I’m about to suggest something a few weeks ago I was dismissing right and left: Lupita Nyong’o could earn a Best Actress nomination for “Us.” As a disclaimer, I’m writing this piece before seeing “Us,” as to not bias myself and instincts based on an objective case that can be made for Nyong’o’s Best Actress chances. I’m writing this purely because I see potential in a possible staying power with this performance.

​By Daniel Howat 

The 91st Academy Awards are behind us now and "Green Book" claimed victory in a wildly contentious season. Oh, you thought that meant a break from awards season? Never! Awards season 2019 has only just begun! You've heard about some of the films which premiered earlier this year at Sundance and along with those, this is our official 2019 easy Oscar contenders preview!

​Let’s take a look at the films to keep an eye on this year that could make big plays at the 92nd Academy Awards.

By Liam Heffernan​ 

In the 91 year history of the Academy Awards, only three films have succeeded in winning Best Picture in isolation, without any additional Oscars to its name. To find them you need to look a long way back in the archives. Could the same thing happen tomorrow night? In the age of the preferential ballot and with this particular awards season being as unpredictable as ever, perhaps it is time that we should expect the unexpected.

By Matt Neglia 

​After looking at the acting categories and the categories I personally deem to be locks for the 91st Academy Awards, we now come to the final remaining categories. These are the categories which have been giving me sleepless nights these past few days, especially when the guilds decided to truly go their own way this year and many of the precursors we rely on to tell us about these categories rewarded films which didn't end up receiving Oscar nominations in the end anyway. For these articles, I typically tend to rely on stats with a hint of gut instinct thrown in there. Today, I'm going to mostly be relying on my gut because for these categories, stats have truly failed us this year....or have they?

​You may have heard me deliver my final Oscar predictions on Episode 130 of the podcast but after some thoughtful reflection and going through these one more time, I can honestly say that after this post goes up, these will be my final locked in Oscar predictions for the 91st Academy Awards.

​By Matt Neglia 

​I know. I know. Is anything truly a lock on Oscar night? Shockers happen all the time. Contenders sweep the entire season, winning every award possible, like Jason Reitman's "Up In The Air" for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2009, and then out of the blue "Precious" wins on Oscar night. Since these posts are more rooted in stats than gut feeling (though, that sometimes plays a role as well), I think it's very fair to call certain categories locked and loaded for Oscar night on February 24th. There's not many but they do exist this year and while we wait for some of the final guilds to chime in for those categories, let's take a look at these.

Click below to see my in-depth analysis on the categories I deem to be locks for the 91st Academy Awards and be sure to check out my previous article on the acting categories.

By Matt Neglia 

We have heard from the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actor's Guild Awards and most recently, the BAFTAs. Now, all that's left are the Academy Awards. As I've done the past couple of years, I will be doing a deep dive into each category to analyze who I think might win the Academy Award on February 24th using a combination of stats from the creation of the SAG Awards in 1994 to today along with gut instinct and intuition (which this year certainly requires). First up are the acting categories which have thrown us a few curveballs this season. Let's take a look.

Click below to see my in-depth analysis on each of the four acting categories.

By Liam Heffernan​ 

​If the Academy commits to presenting some categories during commercials, the shorts will certainly be three of them. They suffer from a lack of exposure and by proxy, a lack of interest from audiences. After all, if you haven’t seen the nominees how do you know what to root for, or who to care about?

Well, here’s a badly kept secret – most of us have never see the short films before the Oscars either. Predicting them is often a complete guess based on hype and previous award tallies.

However, short films shine a spotlight on some of the biggest new filmmakers around the world. These categories celebrate diversity, technical bravery, and innovative storytelling, from those who will one day redefine what good looks like for a new generation of moviegoers. In 2006, Martin McDonagh won the Oscar for his live-action short "Six Shooter." He has since received three Oscar nominations for "In Bruges" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri." Previous winners also include Andrea Arnold ("American Honey") and Taika Waititi ("Thor: Ragnarok").

Luckily, whether you genuinely want to take an interest in the shorts or you just want to sound like you know anything, we have you covered this year.

​Here is a rundown of the live action short film nominees.

By Daniel Howat ​

The morning is finally here! After months and months of deliberation, campaigning, and plenty of arguing, the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards are here. As per usual, they came with plenty of surprises, more than a few snubs, and plenty to talk about.

Let’s dive into our initial reactions to the nominations!