Tag Archives: Arrival

The sound design Academy Awards. Oft overlooked and conflated, the sound editing and mixing are pivotal aspects of a film. A good soundtrack mix is seamless and unnoticeable, which is why the Academy likes to reward films with many sound elements that must be mixed. A good sound edit may also involve many sound effects on the soundtrack, or it may be something more subtle.

Here are my picks for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

Best Sound Editing

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2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Film Editing

January 1, 2017 Alex Brannan

The idea of a Best Film Editing award is strange. While editing is an arduous task that certainly deserves to be rewarded, the concept of judging a film’s editing is counter intuitive. The success of an edit is determined by the editor’s ability to hide the fact that cuts are occurring. A seamless experience is what marks a good editing job.

How do you judge a film by its editing, then? Part of it is a rhythm, a pulse in the cuts that contribute to the overall effect of a scene. In the case of a film like La La Land, it is an edit that has musicality and adds energy to a musical number. Another part of it is the editor’s ability to create that seamless experience.

Best Film Editing

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2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Cinematography

January 1, 2017 Alex Brannan

Where I find it difficult to compare the merits of screenwriting between films, I think judging the cinematics of a batch of films is somewhat easier. Quality cinematography strikes you in specific and noticeable ways, whereas a good script can sneak up on you. In 2016, we came across a number of visually striking movies. Let’s take a look at which ones will get Oscar nods.

Best Cinematography

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2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2017 Academy Awards Nomination Predictions – Best Adapted Screenplay

January 1, 2017 Alex Brannan

Let’s talk about writing. More specifically, adapted screenplays. Now, I find it rather difficult to judge what film warrants an award for writing over another film. How do you objectively judge what film is better written than all the other films in a year? I guess in the case of an adapted screenplay, it is about the adequacy of translation, but even this is an unclear metric.

In the case of this year, I think there is a clear batch of films that could get a nomination. Who will emerge as the winner, on the other hand, is a different story.

Best Adapted Screenplay

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2017 Golden Globes, Award Ceremonies, Movie News

2017 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Original Score

December 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Scores are the under-appreciated backbone of tone in cinema. Composers control the emotional arcs of scenes. They reinforce important motifs. Music makes some films feel more full. A composer has to know what is at the heart of any script in order to properly do his/her job. The composers on these films understand this process. Let’s take a look at the nominees for Best Original Score.

Best Original Score

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2017 Golden Globes, Award Ceremonies, Movie News

2017 Golden Globe Awards Predictions

December 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Golden Globe nominations are out, and that can only mean one thing: extremely early predictions. We’re about a month out from the ceremony, so anything could happen between now and then. For now, though, let’s crack into these categories and see who will win, who could win, and who could come from behind and surprise everybody. Continue reading 2017 Golden Globe Awards Predictions →

2017 Golden Globes, Award Ceremonies, Movie News

2017 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Actress

December 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Taking a look at the Best Actress races for the 2017 Golden Globes, and we finally have ourselves at least one tight race. Relatively.

Best Actress – Drama

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All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Arrival (2016) Movie Review

November 11, 2016 Alex Brannan

Before getting started with my review of Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, I would like to take a quick moment to address some website housekeeping. This review marks my 400th article on CineFiles, this tiny blog I began almost two years ago.

Incidentally, today also saw the site surpass 100,000 site views. I understand 100,000 seems minuscule in a worldwide internet environment, but given the large number of outlets for movie reviews and entertainment news online, it is a number I never expected to reach. Continue reading Arrival (2016) Movie Review →

2017 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies, Movie News

2017 Oscar Movie Season Preview

September 11, 2016 Alex Brannan

The first weekend of September 2016 has brought us two major disappointments (The Disappointments Room and When the Bough Breaks) and one movie with some early Oscar buzz. Clint Eastwood’s biopic Sully is earning attention, particularly for Tom Hanks’ usual strong performance. With Summer behind us and the mediocre lot of September ahead, I feel the need to look a few months down the line at some movies that promise to be some of the best of the year.

Oscar-nominated movies can come around at any time during the calendar year. We will more than likely see Continue reading 2017 Oscar Movie Season Preview →