Oscar Podcast #55: New Academy Members, Fall Festivals and July Oscar Predictions

This 55th Oscar podcast I’m joined by no less than three esteemed Gold Rush Gang members – Jason Osiason, Richard Anthony and Matt Dinn.

We open on a discussion of the 774 Academy invitees announced two weeks ago and some of the backlash against names some felt were diluting the membership. We talk about how last year’s new group impacted Moonlight‘s Best Picture win this year and how this new group will shape future nominees and winners.

Then it’s onto the Venice and New York Film Festivals and who we think will show up. Between previous director and studio relationships there’s a wealth of opportunities for films to make their big awards breakthroughs here. Films like The Shape of Water, Suburbicon, Wonderstruck and mother! are all aiming for prime time spots in world’s bests fests.

Throughout we discuss Oscar potential for films but we close on some more specific categories and films. Detroit, Blade Runner 2049 and Dunkirk get a lot podcast play, as does Supporting Actor and the Screenplay categories, where Original is overstuffed with contenders and Adapted is struggling for five that make sense.

With music this podcast runs 2h 7m.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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