Oscar Podcast #54: Post-Cannes Wrap Up and the State of the Oscar Race
Finally!
After two months of no podcasts, I return for #54 with special guests Júlia Guimaraes and David Acacia. David is an AW member as well as a member of the International Cinephile Society. He guested on last year’s post-Cannes podcast and he’s back to spill some tea on his faves, what he didn’t like and the general ‘meh’ feeling of this year’s festival.
Bear with this podcast, folks, as David’s connection goes in and out so much he sounds like he’s reporting from the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks. Júlia, however, comes up with a clever tactic to overcome this.
The podcast covers the Cannes prize winners and their possibility as awards contenders as we move through the season. With The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Wonderstruck there are certainly some that could find themselves with Oscar attention. We also talk about the foreign language film contenders from the festival, including Palme d’Or winner The Square, Grand Prize winner 120 Battements par minute and Jury Prize winner Loveless. We dig into the female representation of the in competition films, which jury member Jessica Chastain found disturbingly lacking (her press conference convo started a viral firestorm).
We finish up, of course, talking about Nicole Kidman’s 70th anniversary prize, bestowed on her for her body of work in this year’s festival (The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer – both in competition – plus How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Top of the Lake: China Girl.
This podcast runs about 1h 45m and if you make it all the way to the end despite David’s dropping in and out I heartily salute you.
Intro music: “Going Green”
Outro music: Thomas Newman’s “New York City By Day” from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan
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He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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