Tag: oscars

Why Wicked just took a step back as an Oscar Best Picture frontrunner

Wicked has more of a hill to climb for Best Picture at the Oscars next year.

If you’re hoping for Wicked to win Best Picture at next year’s Academy Awards, you might want to sit down.

The smash-hit adaptation of the Broadway musical surprisingly took home the National Board of Review’s Best Film award on Wednesday, which puts Wicked well in line to land a Best Picture nomination next month.

Most of the NBR’s recent winners, sans 2020’s Da 5 Bloods and 2014’s A Most Violent Year, over the last decade have gone on to get nominated in the Oscars’ biggest category.

However, only one film since 2008 has actually won Best Picture after winning the NBR’s Best Film honor: 2018’s Green Book.

That puts Wicked at a historical disadvantage, as the NBR’s Best Film award is a rather curious note of bad luck for any Best Picture contender.

The honor only lined up with the Academy in Best Picture during the 2000s on two occasions: 2007’s No Country for Old Men and 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.

If you’re looking for an idea of how the New York City-based NBR operates, know their Best Film category typically rewards distinctly American films with its top prize and isn’t afraid to honor a blockbuster like it did in 2022 with Top Gun: Maverick and in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road. 

Wicked is a classic crowd-pleaser, but it’s also a work of American intellectual property and adapted from a gigantic Broadway show. Best Picture hasn’t gone to a work of IP since 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and hasn’t gone to a Broadway adaptation since 2002’s Chicago. The broadening international impact in the Academy’s voting body doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a film like Wicked winning Best Picture, either, as international voters typically prefer more auteur-driven, arthouse-friendly fare like 2019’s Parasite, 2020’s Nomadland, 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and 2023’s Oppenheimer. 

However, 2021’s CODA proved how crowd-pleasing films with a musical slant can succeed in Best Picture as of late. But that’s a film firmly grounded in reality and surged late in the Best Picture process.

These historical stats slip up all the time, so don’t assume this as Wicked‘s kiss of death. Meanwhile, the NBR’s inability to predict where Best Picture is going over the years does make you wonder if Wicked has a ceiling.

Wicked is most certainly going to be a popular film at this year’s Oscars, but don’t necessarily count on it as the clear frontrunner. This one has much more to defy than you might expect, and the “NBR Best Film curse” is now one of them. It’ll be one of the contenders, but really don’t call it a lock right now.

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John Mulaney overexplaining the Field of Dreams plot while at the Oscars was a perfect bit

John Mulaney was right: The plot of ‘Field of Dreams’ is truly wild.

During the 2024 Oscars, comedian John Mulaney presented the Academy Award for Best Sound.

While this easily could have become a monotonous moment in the broadcast if left in the hands of another presenter, Mulaney turned this one of the most memorable segments from the show.

The comedian began by talking about sound design as a concept before eventually detouring to a non-sequitur about the 1989 film Field of Dreams. It was a masterful summary of a beloved baseball movie that, in retrospect, has a plot that makes no sense at all.

Here is just a sampling of Mulaney had to say:

“Or what about the moment in Field of Dreams when we hear: ‘If you build it, he will come.’ And then Costner does it. He builds a baseball field. Or I guess he doesn’t build it. He mows down corn and then there is a field and then he’s like: ‘I’m going to watch ghosts play baseball.’ And the bank is like: ‘You want to play your mortgage?’ And he’s like: ‘Nah, I’m going to watch ghosts play baseball.’ And then he finds James-Earl Jones, who wrote The Boatrocker, which I thought was a real book deep into my 20s.”

Mulaney continued providing even more details about the film (and his suspected rules about “ghost baseball”) and it was so perfectly silly.

It was also yet another reason why Mulaney is considered a favorite to eventually replace Jimmy Kimmel as the host at the Oscars in the future.

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Was John Cena really naked at the 2024 Oscars? 1 photo tells you the real answer

Here’s the answer!

It’s the question you were wondering the moment you saw John Cena peek from behind the set of the 2024 Oscars: was the actor and WWE legend really naked for the bit in which he presented the Best Costume Design award in the nude?

We have an answer, thanks to one photo snapped backstage: of course he wasn’t. Cena was wearing some kind of undergarment covering his front and some of his backside, which makes complete sense. There’s no way the Academy or the broadcast would have let a full on nude Cena go out there.

Here’s the photo that was shot (WARNING: This may be NSFW!)

(Photo by RICHARD HARBAUGH/AMPAS/AFP via Getty Images) 

 

25 films that could contend for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars, including Dune: Part Two

Let’s take a look at 25 films that could contend for Best Picture at the Oscars next year.

The 96th Academy Awards have come and gone, as Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer dominated this year’s ceremony.

However, it’s never too early to look ahead to what next year’s Oscars could have in store for us (okay, maybe it is, but we’re doing it anyhow).

We’ve got some major filmmakers returning to the director’s chair this year, as well as some big sequels and promising indie dramas alike.

With 2024 already in full gear at the movies, we’ve taken a look at 25 films we think you should keep an eye on this year for the 2025 Oscars.

While this list is not definitive and will likely add films as the year goes on, this is our best glance a year out at what next year’s ceremony could offer.

Jimmy Kimmel got in a last-second Oscars dig at Matt Damon featuring Messi the dog

Did we really think Jimmy Kimmel would go the whole Oscars without making fun of Matt Damon?

We really didn’t think Jimmy Kimmel would go the entire Academy Awards without getting in a dig at Matt Damon, did we?

Right as the show was ending, it looked like Kimmel wouldn’t keep his ongoing fake feud with Damon alive in his fourth Oscar hosting stint.

In the amended words of Lee Corso, not so fast, my frenemy!

A brief gag closed the show right before the credits of Messi the dog from Anatomy of a Fall pretending to hoist his leg up to pee on Damon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as Kimmel got in his annual roast.

Like, c’mon, that’s easily Kimmel’s best joke of the night!

Messi was one of the stars of the evening, and we’re so glad he got to play a part in helping Kimmel make fun of Damon to keep the tradition alive.

Now, Damon must retaliate with a Messi the dog gag of his own. It’s only what’s right.

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The Godzilla Minus One team brought baby Godzillas to the Oscars and it’s totally awesome

Baby Godzillas for the win!

The staff behind Godzilla Minus One brought baby Godzillas to the Oscars, plus Godzilla-themed shoes and it’s the best thing we’ve seen all day.

If you’re going to show up to the Academy Awards, THIS is how you do it. The director of Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki, started the party by showing up on the Oscars red carpet with a golden Godzilla that was also dressed for the occasion. His team was not far behind him, with Godzillas of their own and matching Godzilla-themed shoes.

If that wasn’t enough, when Godzilla Minus One received the award for Best Visual Effects, the group celebrated with their baby Godzillas.

Oscars viewers thought Lance Reddick and others were snubbed during the ‘In-Memoriam’ because of an awful presentation

Burt Young, Ray Stevenson, Sinead O’Connor and others were shoved into a list of names at the end that hardly anyone could read.

During its show each year, the Academy Awards always runs a montage of actors, directors, producers and other contributors to film that have died in the past year. The “in-memoriam” sequence is a staple of the Oscars and can often be a bit of a tearjerker.

At For The Win, we try to do some of these tributes on our own, like remembering Lance Reddick’s work in The Wire, or the iconic moments of Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

But sometimes – oftentimes, unfortunately – the Oscars forgets to include some folks. Last year, they forgot about Paul Sorvino.

This year, the Academy sprinted through the montage fairly quickly and never brought it to full screen. At the end, several names flashed on the screen, but they were difficult to read because they were small and far away.

And so, a lot of folks online thought that many actors and contributors to film were snubbed, overlooked or forgotten. There was a significant outcry for Reddick.

Reddick and other big-name contributors to film – Ahsoka’s Ray Stevenson and singer Sinead O’Connor among them – were technically included in the montage, but only very briefly at the end, shoved into a long list of names that hardly anyone could read.

Simply put, the late folks like Reddick, Stevenson, O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Burt Young, Treat Williams and others deserved so much better than this. If we could make time for the song from the movie about Flaming Hot Cheetos, couldn’t we find time to honor these people properly?

Emma Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress and delivered the most gracious speech

Emma Stone is the best.

Emma Stone has earned her second Academy Award.

After winning in the category in 2017 for La La Land, Stone won Best Actress for her leading role in Poor Things.

Stone was in clear shock over the victory and delivered an incredibly gracious speech where she extolled her fellow nominees and praised her Poor Things team and filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos in particular.

Stone now joins the legacy of women who have won two Oscars for acting, like Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Frances McDormand and Katharine Hepburn.

This was a really moving moment for one of the defining actors of her generation.

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Christopher Nolan finally won a Best Director Oscar, and Steven Spielberg was the one to give it to him

Legendary filmmaker Christopher Nolan has finally won his Oscar.

One of the best directors of all time has finally won his Oscar, and he got it in the absolute best way possible.

Christopher Nolan, the auteur behind such classic films as The Dark Knight, Memento, Inception and Dunkirk, won the Academy Award for Best Director on Sunday night for his latest masterpiece, Oppenheimer.

Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg presented Nolan the award, which shows highlights a fantastic generational passing of the torch from one all-time director to another.

Nolan has only been nominated for Best Director once before for Dunkirk, so this makes his first victory on his second attempt in the category.

His win is notable not only because of his stature in the industry, but because of his status as one of the few household name filmmakers left working.

Nolan gave a very commendable speech after accepting his long-awaited Oscar, one where he praised his producing partner and wife Emma Thomas and thanked his Oppenheimer cast and crew.

So many have been eagerly awaiting Nolan’s Oscar win after he got infamously snubbed for The Dark Knight back in 2009, but it’s better late than never. Nolan really has finally won his Academy Award.

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Cillian Murphy gave a delightful speech after winning Best Actor for Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy is the latest actor to win an Oscar for playing a real-life person.

Cillian Murphy has finally won his Oscar.

The veteran actor, best known for hit films like 28 Days Later and Batman Begins and his leading role on Peaky Blinders, won the Academy Award for Best Actor on Sunday night for his performance in Oppenheimer.

The longtime collaborator and close friend of filmmaker Christopher Nolan finally got a lead role in one of the auteur’s films, and he didn’t waste his chance in playing J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.

Murphy delivered a very endearing speech after winning his Oscar, one in which he thanked his family, his collaborators and specifically Nolan and his wife, Emma Thomas, for their years of support.

Murphy is one of the best actors of his generation, and it’s always a delight to see someone as talented as he is receive such a prestigious honor.

Oppenheimer has dominated Oscar night, and its lead star is just the latest to soak in the Academy Award glory.

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