AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 233: ‘Furiosa’ Review, Cannes Winners, First Oscar Predictions

On episode 233 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson to discuss director George Miller’s latest film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, talk about the winners from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and preview the 2024-2025 Oscar season.

We are getting close to the halfway point of the film season, and you know what that means; Oscar season is around the corner. Before talking about the season though, Ryan and Erik give their thoughts on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and has been buzzed as one of the best films of the year so far. Erik would strongly disagree with that statement while Ryan, who wrote the review on the website, would say that Furiosa is “one of the greatest prequels of all time” as well as consider it one of the year’s best. After have a well-rounded conversation about the film, they transitioned to talking about the winners at the Cannes Film Festival, which saw director Sean Baker take home the Palme d’Or for his latest film, Anora. This sparked a discussion that got Ryan and Erik talking about the impact this year’s Cannes Film Festival will have on the rest of the award season, what films from the first half of the year have a shot at breaking into the race, and which films to keep an eye out for at the fall festivals, as studios start to get into their positions for another race towards a Best Picture win. The films discussed ranged from Dune Part 2, Sing Sing, Kinds of Kindness, Blitz, Conclave, Queer, Maria, The End, A Real Pain, Gladiator 2, We Live in Time, Emilia Perez, The Nickel Boys, Wicked, The Piano Lesson, The Fire Inside, Inside Out 2, Joker: Folie à Deux, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h34m. On our next episode, we will be doing a tier ranking episode based on Best Director winners at the Oscars to determine who the greatest winners of the category are.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

• Author
• Recent Posts

Ryan McQuade

Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.

Latest posts by Ryan McQuade (see all)

• Director Watch Podcast Ep. 96 – ‘Braindead’ (Peter Jackson, 1992) - April 24, 2025
• AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 284 – Reviewing ‘Sinners’ and Discussing Horror Films of the Last 25 Years - April 21, 2025
• Director Watch Podcast Ep. 95 – ‘Ishtar’ (Elaine May, 1987) - April 17, 2025