Oscar Podcast #56: Fall Festivals, Pre-Festival Release Contenders and Oscar Predictions Take Shape (of Water)

With the Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals all having announced their slates for this year it was the perfect time to podcast. I am joined by Gold Rush Gang member Bryan Bonafede and we drill deep into who is playing where and even Telluride, which doesn’t announce until the weekend of the fest. Based on the type of premiere a film gets at one those other three gives us information on who is going to Colorado.

We dig into Best Actress after it became official this week that Sony Pictures Classics has picked up FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL, giving Annette Bening the best shot of her career at an Oscar win. This unfolds to Supporting Actress where Melissa Leo dominates with NOVITIATE but we recognize that the category is pretty open in terms of nominations.

We discuss four films outside the scope of the fall festivals that are (or, in one case, were) potential Oscar contenders: DUNKIRK, GET OUT, DETROIT and THE BIG SICK.

READ: 2018 Oscar Predictions from the Gold Rush Gang

We have a lot to say about Fox Searchlight’s THE SHAPE OF WATER from Guillermo del Toro, which we think could be the real Best Picture contender this year and certainly has the best chance at the highest nomination total come January.

We close mentioning the new president of the Academy, John Bailey, and his predecessor Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who leaves behind a legacy unlike any president before her.

This podcast runs 1h 45m with music.

Intro music: Going Green

Outro music: “New York City By Day,” by Thomas Newman from the film Desperately Seeking Susan

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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), 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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