A lot can change on a campaign trail in a matter of weeks, days even.
How could the essentially non-political 1917 not arrive as sweet solace in our cultural moment?
Given the academy’s long history and resurgent embrace of technical triumphs, we’re not holding our breath for an upset here.
One of the realities of the Oscar race is that you never want to peak too early.
Oscar voters are suckers for scale, throwbacks, ostentation, and, above all, a sense of prestige.
The path of least resistance and most chronological distance almost always wins here.
The attractional dimensions of Roger Deakins’s work will have no problem finding favor with today’s Oscar voters.
The Oscars have a long history of awarding war films in this particular sound category.
Luckily for Joaquin Phoenix, he’s not up against anyone playing a real-life individual.
It’s not difficult to rationalize picking the same film to win both sound editing and sound mixing.
Brad Pitt winning here will seem like the stars are lining up given what went down when he was first nominated in 1995.
When it rains, it pours.