Nine films received honors at the 2017 Academy Awards for Best Picture. That means the Academy deems these films to be the best of the year. Hands down. Are they right about this distinction? An argument can be made to the opposite. But that is a conversation for a different day.
For now, let’s look at what they did pick as the best of 2016. More importantly, let’s rank the nine from worst to best. Continue reading Ranking the Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees
Best Foreign Language Film is one of those categories that I don’t feel qualified to discuss, mainly because I’ve only seen one of the five films. But…I think I’ve got this.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Foreign Language Film
Production Design is great. It is necessary. Without it a film would be like Neil Breen taping garbage bags up in his garage as a set. But it is also not an easy Oscar category to predict.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Production Design
Predicting one of the Oscar short film categories having only seen one of the five films is like calling your shot while wearing a blindfold. It’s like being a movie nerd badass, you know? Or…it’s like understanding what the term Pixar refers to…movie nerd badass is oxymoronic…moronic, really…What were we talking about?
Update: I have now seen all five of the nominated Animated Short Films. You can find a review of all five (save for Piper, a link for that review is below) here.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Animated Short Film
All right, Best Makeup & Hairstyling. It’s only three movies, you can’t screw up. Come on, Alex! It’s just haircuts! You can judge haircuts!
Ahem, sorry. I didn’t realize you had…clicked through already.
The Academy Award for Best Makeup & Hairstyling is…ah man now I’ve lost my train of thought. Let’s see…there’s that Swedish movie. I think there’s some old-age makeup in that one. The guy wears a hat most of the movie…does he even have hair? Star Trek is aliens…now is that makeup or CGI? Chris Pine has nice hair…Suicide Squad…they’re all painted white like clowns…her hair’s kind of rainbow…
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Visual effects, for some films, are pivotal. They make or break the film’s success. When effects are being honored by the Academy or elsewhere, it is often because the film’s either push the boundaries of the form, exemplify a careful precision to the craft, or utilize the vfx form to create immersive dynamic worlds that don’t exist in reality.
In regards to 2017, we have five films that all do at least one of these things very well. But I think there is one film that does all three…
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Visual Effects
It is perhaps serendipitous that the second anniversary of the CineFiles website coincides with the Christmas of film nerds: the announcement day for the Academy Awards nominations. This is also, quite coincidentally, the site’s 500th post.
It is only fair then that I do my best to roll out predictions for who or what will win in every category.
Below are links to articles on who will win in each category.
Continue reading 2017 Academy Awards Predictions – All 24 Categories
The Academy Award sound categories are always very interesting. Where many of the other Oscar categories share many films, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Design allow for other films to get some Oscar love.
This year is no different (although, the major films are still more likely to win).
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Sound Mixing & Best Sound Editing
A Best Animated Feature Oscar category without a Pixar film? Blasphemy, you say? Well, tell that to the animators of My Life as a Zucchini.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Animated Film
Certain Academy Award categories are hard to predict simply because each use of the given film technique can be so different. Best Original Score is one of these categories in my mind. A sonic complement to a film can be so unique to the experience of a given film that it is hard to compare that score to scores of other films. It is a qualitative comparison that can be quite difficult in Oscar predicting.
Luckily, this year’s Academy Awards has a strong musical.
Continue reading Academy Awards Predictions 2017 – Best Original Score
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