With all of the episodes submissions in for Drama Series and individual performers, the first Emmy winner prediction podcast is here, tackling the guest, supporting and lead acting acting categories as well as the big one itself. I am joined once again by Amanda Spears, who correctly predicted the path for Game of Thrones to earn its historic and record-breaking 32 Emmy nominations this season. While it's kind of a forgone conclusion that the incest and dragons page-turner will triumph in Drama Series, there's a lot of room for spoilers, upsets and surprises in the acting categories. Can Peter Dinklage make history and win his fourth? Will Pose's Billy Porter be the first out, queer, black man to win Lead Actor in a Drama Series? Will Lead Actress go to Killing Eve's Jodie Comer or Sandra Oh? Or is Emilia Clarke going to fly in destroy their chances? All these questions and more get answered. With music, this podcast runs 1h 16m 38s with music. Opening: Into to FX's Pose Closing" "Home," sung by Mj Rodriguez, Billy Porter and featuring Our Lady J from FX's Pose

Is Game of Thrones running away with the Drama Series Emmy win? All signs point to yes but that doesn't mean there isn't a conversation to be had about this year's drama races.  I am joined once again by Amanda Spears to break down Drama Series, Lead Actor and Actress and Supporting Actor and Actress (guest, writing and directing categories will be tackled later).  In this podcast we tackle if GOT can break NYPD Blue's all-time record for most nominations by a show in a single season, how the acting races could play out for Killing Eve's Jodie Comer, Pose's Billy Porter and the Emmy fate of This is Us and House of Cards and much more. This podcast runs 56m 30s with music. Opening: The theme from Game of Thrones by Ramin Djawadi Closing: "New York City By Day,' by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

We're right in the middle of the Emmy voting period for the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards, making it high time for an Emmy podcast. Returning champion Amanda Spears and I discuss the likely nominees, if When They See Us can dominate the acting categories, how Deadwood, Chernobyl, Fosse/Verdon and Sharp Objects will fare and if there's any room for major surprises.  This podcast runs 57m 10s with music. Opening: Trailer for When They See Us (Netflix) Closing: "New York City By Day," by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

In our first Emmy podcast of the 2018/2019 season, I am joined by Amanda Spears, who has been detailing her Emmy predictions here over the last few weeks. In this episode we tackle the Comedy Series categories and the battle that seems to be between Veep's final season and the second season of the history-making winner from last year, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Will this focus on only these two shows (and their acting components like Julia Louis-Dreyfus vs Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein vs Anna Chlumsky) make room for a surprise third to come in and shock? We look at the possible demise of the regular networks in the top category, with ABC's black-ish barely hanging on and NBC's The Good Place possibly coming in to take its place in the final lineup of seven shows. Netflix has been enormously successful at the Emmys...with nominations. With so many comedies, new and previously established for it to push, how many can it realistically get in? 2? 3? 4?? And can it ever win? I know I say at the beginning of the podcast that we'll be doing both Comedy and Drama categories but I decided to split them up so Drama cats will be coming soon. This podcast runs 1h 7m 45s with music. Opening: "Change for the World" by Charles Bradley from HBO's Barry Closing: "New York City by Day" by Thomas Newman from the original motion picture soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

The 2018-2019 awards season pulled itself across the finish line last night with the 91st Academy Awards giving Best Picture to Green Book.  The night gave us the widest spectrum of wins where Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book sit beside BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther and If Beale Street Could Talk as Oscar winners in the same year, from the same voting body. On this 74th podcast, the Oscar post-mortem, I am joined by New York film critic Tomris Laffly of Time Out and RogerEbert.com to work our way through this bizarre season of over the top controversy and scandal, of show producers' tone deaf ideas and how it ultimately fed into a telecast that gave us inspired wins, unique moments and tearful speeches.   Tomris and I also dig into the how the producers listened to the backlash (albeit seemingly oblivious to it), what we thought of the show having no host, our favorite wins and moments and what we hope and want for next year's show. This podcast runs 1h 30m with opening 2019 Oscar moments and closes with, as usual, "New York City By Day," by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Desperately Seeking Susan.   

Welcome to the AwardsWatch Final Oscar Winner Predictions Podcast! I am honored to be joined by Amanda Spears, the creator of the #PresentAll24 hashtag and movement that brought film and Oscar fans together when the Academy and show producers announced it would be pushing four categories to commercial breaks. The wave of social media support to keep all 24 categories on the live broadcast moved actors, directors and filmmakers to join the push and late last Thursday night, they reversed their decision.  On this 73rd podcast, first time guest Amanda and I break down this year's race not just its controversies but how we talk about the Oscar race, including how the controversies of Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody have impacted how we do that. We work our way into categories that are up in the air such as Supporting Actress where Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) are neck and neck.  The technical categories give us a lot to talk about, especially in Production and Costume Design that see a close race between The Favourite and Black Panther and how closely other categories, like Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound Mixing and Editing are closely tied to Best Picture nominees.  As we move into the more locked categories (like Supporting Actor, Best Director) we find ourselves at Best Picture, where we reveal our rankings from #8 to #1 and the ins and outs of why and how.  Amanda Spears can be found on Twitter at @msamandaspears and her writing can be found at GoldDerby.  Keep an eye out for my FINAL Oscar winner predictions at awardswatch.com this week.  This podcast runs 1h 53m with music. Enjoy! Opening: "And the Oscar goes to..." montage Closing music: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But without a definitive Ginsburg biography, the unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior's rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG is a revelatory documentary exploring Ginsburg 's exceptional life and career from Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and co-produced by Storyville Films and CNN Films. I spoke with Betsy West and Julie Cohen, the directors of RBG, the double Oscar-nominated documentary of the life and victories of the judicial powerhouse. In our conversation we talk about the directing duos first meetings with RBG, her unique relationship with fellow Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and what it could tell us about how we interact with each other today. RBG is currently available to rent or buy on DVD or streaming on Amazon. The 91st Oscars will take place on Sunday, February 24th, 2019 and air live on ABC.

The 2019 Oscar nominations happened less than 12 hours ago and on this 72nd podcast I am joined by the awesome Valerie Complex to talk about the nominations we liked, what we didn't like and where we think the Academy is heading with these choices.  We dig in on the good (Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, LGBTQ character inclusion) but also talk about how a group that makes impressive and inclusive choices like nominating Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira (ROMA) can continue to fall back on safe, easy 'traditional Oscar bait.' Does the Academy hold back on 'too many' black or female or LGBTQ stories and need to coalesce around one or two? Why wasn't there room for If Beale Street Could Talk or Disobedience? Where's Crazy Rich Asians or genre films Hereditary and performances likes Toni Collette's? All of this and more is covered. This podcast runs 51m 45s with music. Opening: Theme for 2019 Oscar nominations announcement Closing: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

Here it is. The FINAL Oscar nominations predictions podcast and, as usual, it's a big one.  I am joined by Next Best Picture's Will Mavity for this 71st Oscar Podcast and we dig in on how wild this season has been so far, with films being hit with controversy, the continuing chasm between critics and audiences and where we think the Academy is going to lean as a result. Predictions start off with Visual Effects and build up through the techs into the top 8 of Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and finally Best Picture. Regrettably, we didn't hit Animated Feature, Documentary Feature or Foreign Language Film but you can find those predictions at each of our respective sites. We spent time on the hows and whys of films like A Star Is Born, Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody hitting the guilds and audiences whereas If Beale Street Could Talk not finding that same love. We also ask: will First Man become the most nominated film in the expansion era to not hit Best Picture? Can Barry Jenkins be a lone director nominee a la Bennett Miller? These details, utilizing guild nominations, box office, branch history and more help guide us through our predictions, with both Will and I making changes on the fly during our conversation.  This podcast runs 2h 23m with opening and closing music.  Closing music: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan.

This 70th AwardsWatch Oscar podcast I am joined by someone I've followed and enjoyed listening to for a long time, Isabel Custodio. You may know her better as be kind rewind from her fantastic YouTube videos that deconstruct the Best Actress Oscar races over the last 90 years. Always succinct and thoughtful; thorough and completely engaging, Isabel's passion for the Oscars, and especially, the history of actresses, is a natural fit for the AW podcast and I am so happy she was able to come aboard in a year with such a bandwidth of roles, performances and women heading up female-fronted films and controlling the narrative in them.  The podcast opens with Isabel talking a bit about why she loves the Oscars and actresses so much and how it got her into creating her wonderful videos.  As we start to dig into this year's race we quickly settle on the prevailing belief that the top 3 of Glenn Close (The Wife), Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite) are as closed to locked in as can be and that it's nearly a dozen others fighting for the 4-5 spots.  While we both think those two spots look the most likely for Viola Davis (Widows), Yalitza Aparicio (ROMA) and Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), each also comes with enough drawbacks that make room for a Felicity Jones (On the Basis of Sex), Nicole Kidman (Destroyer), Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns) or KiKi Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk), just to name a few.  We also dive into actress wins of the past and and offer some thoughts on the concept of a musical biopic vs a musical with regards to the Golden Globes. Isabel and I offer our predictions as well as our hopefuls to get in in such a competitive year. This podcast runs 1h 49m 30s. Opening: "Look at me" clip from The Favourite, The Wife clip, "One Reason" clip from A Star Is Born Closing: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

In this titillating 69th Oscar podcast, I am joined once again by returning guest Kyle Buchanan, newly of The New York Times where he has his own column called The Carpetbagger.  Kyle and I kick the tires on all four acting categories, taking a closer look at co-leads running in Supporting (like Best Supporting Actor frontrunner Mahershala Ali for Green Book) to a seemingly barren Best Actor season (with only two 'locks' in the form of Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born and Christian Bale for Vice) and the overflow of great contenders in this year's Best Actress race that includes locked and loaded Glenn Close in The Wife, Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born. and Olivia Colman in The Favourite. Category placement has been a jumble this last week with two studios walking back previously announced pushes: Paramount with Emily Blunt for A Quiet Place (going from Lead last week to Supporting this week) and Sony Classics, doing the same with Jonathan Pryce for The Wife. We also take some time to talk about Black Panther as an across the board contender (including Michael B. Jordan in Supporting Actor) and why some pundits shouldn't dismiss it and Widows (from Viola Davis to Daniel Kaluuya to the film' technical mastery) as major Oscar player.  With music Oscar Podcast #69 runs an 1h 19m. Opening: Trailer clips from If Beale Street Could Talk and A Star Is Born. Closing: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Desperately Seeking Susan

On the 68th AwardsWatch Oscar podcast I am joined by Kristy Puchko, Managing Editor of Pajiba and we dig into what we saw at the fall festivals, what we liked and didn't like with Kristy talking a bit about her recent trip to Fantastic Fest. We land on a long conversation about A Star Is Born, talking about elements both good and bad and the differences between festival audiences and audiences at large.  Then we move into talk about the year of 'skater' movies including Skate Kitchen, Mid90s and how much we both love Minding the Gap, how great Hereditary is (and what it's like to sit next to Kristy at a movie) and that Toni Collette should be a real Oscar contender.  We also talk at length about stories with female and queer perspective including Eighth Grade and the upcoming Can You Ever Forgive Me? and the fantastic performances from Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant.  Kristy gets super excited to talk about The Favourite, most especially the costumes (which makes sense comes from a fashion maven such as herself). Making sure we get some Oscar talk in there, we talk about the now defunct Popular Oscar category and why it was a bad idea.  This podcast runs 1h 50m with music. Opening music: "Sulk" by TR/ST Closing music: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan    

Since graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Brian A. Kates has edited many acclaimed films, with 14 films selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and 5 films in Cannes. He has been honored with an Emmy Award for his work on Taking Chance, and an Emmy nomination for editing the pilot episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He also won two ACE Eddie Awards for his work on Bessie and Lackawanna Blues, in addition to two other Eddie Award nominations. His collaborators have included Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly), Dee Rees (Bessie), Joseph Cedar (Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer), Michael Cuesta (Kill the Messenger), Tamara Jenkins (Private Life and The Savages), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jack Goes Boating), John Cameron Mitchell (How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Shortbus), Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer and The Butler), Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman), George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues and Nights in Rodanthe), Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project), Ross Katz (Taking Chance), John Krokidas (Kill Your Darlings), and Jeremiah Zagar (We the Animals). In addition to his work in fiction, he was Jonathan Caouette's co-editor on the groundbreaking documentary Tarnation. His television work has included collaborations with Alfonso Cuarón (Believe), Bill Condon (The Big C), David Simon and Eric Overmeyer (Treme), and Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). He is currently finishing his third collaboration with John Cameron Mitchell, a 10-episode original audio musical, featuring the music of Bryan Weller and Mr. Mitchell, and a cast including Glenn Close, Patti LuPone, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Foster, Nakhane, Bridget Everett, Justin Vivian Bond, and Laurie Anderson, entitled Homunculus. I had the pleasure of chatting with Brian this week about his Emmy nomination for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, his summer camp background that got him into film and his collaborations with Lee Daniels and John Cameron Mitchell. By the end it turns a bit into an impromptu gushing about his work on NBC's Kings and a promo for his new film We the Animals, which is in theaters now. GO SEE IT. You can see Brian's work next in the upcoming Tamara Jenkins film Private Life, which will world premiere at the New York Film Festival next month. There also might be a bit of tea spilled on an upcoming sequel to a gay classic.  This interview runs just shy of 37m with music. Opening: "A Wonderful Day Like Today" from The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd (Original 1965 Broadway Cast)  Closing: "Girls Talk" by Dave Edmonds

Christopher Scott never wanted to dance. Now he's a three-time Emmy nominee for Outstanding Choreography.  After his mother packed him and his sister from Maryland to Hollywood to give them better opportunities, Scott defied having to enter a dance class, opting for track and field instead. "If you had told me I was going to be a dancer I would have laughed in your face," he says. He entered Hollywood High School in the 9th grade, and applied and was accepted into the performing arts magnet program. It was in his very first semester that he checked out the school's production of West Side Story (his sister was in it and dating the "coolest guy in school") and out of sheer boredom learned the songs and the dance moves and landed a part in the production. During his four years in the program, he had leading roles in several stage productions and studied various styles of dance, particularly excelling in tap. To hone his tap dancing skills, he spent many weekends as a street performer on the Venice Beach boardwalk and the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. In 11th grade, three-time Emmy winning actress and choreographer Debbie Allen (and future So You Think You Can Dance judge) came to the school to audition dancers for the opening of the American Music Awards with Mariah Carey. "I feel like the luckiest kid in America," he says. It was his first paying job and when he got his paycheck (about $650) he thought 'I think I'm gonna go with this,' and his dancing career began. Since then Chris has worked with renowned artists such as Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, Khalid, and Gloria Estefan, and has worked on a variety of film and TV projects including the Emmy-nominated 82nd Academy Awards, Step Up 4: Revolution, Step Up 5: All In, Dancing with the Stars, and America’s Best Dance Crew. In 2009, Scott teamed up with Harry Shum, Jr. to choreograph the super hero inspired web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, aka The LXD. An experiment in storytelling through dance, the series is the brainchild of writer/director/producer Jon Chu.  In 2011, Scott made his So You Think You Can Dance debut and thereafter made frequent visits choreographing contestants' duets and group routines. He received Outstanding Choreography Emmy nominations for his work on the show in 2012 and 2014. In my interview with the three-time Emmy nominee and Scott talks about his leap from dancer to choreographer, his love of props in routines, reveals his advice for new dancers and the song that got away - the only tune he hasn't been able to snag the rights to (yet). Christopher Scott is nominated for Outstanding Choreography for So You Think You Can Dance. The Emmy voting period ends August 27th at 10pm PST. The Creative Arts Emmys will be a two-night affair on Saturday, September 8th and Sunday, September 9th. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Monday, September 17th. This interview runs 25m. Opening: So You Think You Can Dance theme Closing "Say You Won't Let Go" cover by Boyce Avenue (used by Christopher Scott in one of his nominated dance routines featuring Allison and Logan)

  Costume designer Meghan Kasperlik has made a name for herself in the world of feature films after first cutting her teeth in the fashion industry and then television.   Out of college she jumped at the opportunity to work with the legendary Patricia Field (Emmy winner for Sex and the City, Oscar nominee for The Devil Wears Prada). Building her resume on shows like Hope & Faith, Cashmere Mafia and Royal Pains, Meghan made the jump to feature films, working as an assistant costume designer on The Dark Knight Rises, American Hustle, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Noah and Joy before being the head costume designer on Little Accidents, Crown Heights and It Comes at Night.     Her work on Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes brought her to the HBO movie that would earn her her first Emmy nomination, Bahrani's update of Fahrenheit 451 which made its world premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival and stars Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon.    In my interview with Meghan the Emmy-nominee talks about her approach to color and texture when she designs, how she's an expert second-hand shopper and some of her costume design inspirations and favorites of all time (including Keira Knightley's iconic green gown from Atonement).   You can see some of Meghan's most recent work on the upcoming second season of Netflix's The OA. The Emmy voting period ends August 27th at 10pm PST. The Creative Arts Emmys will be a two-night affair on Saturday, September 8th and Sunday, September 9th. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Monday, September 17th. This interview runs 23m Opening: "Fahrenheit 451" from Fahrenheit 451 music byMatteo Zingales and Antony Partos (Milan Music) Closing: "Resurrection" from Fahrenheit 451 music by Matteo Zingales and Antony Partos (Milan Music)

There are some major changes coming to the very next Oscars ceremony...and they're not good. Yesterday, the Academy, in a bombshell announcement, revealed that they would be creating a new category: Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film.  After yet another year of dropping ratings, this attempt to secure viewership from audiences that have shelled out their money to the year’s blockbusters like Black Panther, Mission: Impossible Fallout and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, can be assured that ‘popular’ will now equal ‘best.’  The Board of Governors have also committed to a 3-hour telecast. Even though ad rates for the Oscars are still among the highest in television, the length of the Academy Awards has always been the butt of jokes, often by the host themselves. One of the ways the show intends to shorten the running time won’t be asking winners to make quicker speeches but to move some categories to commercial breaks. Other awards shows implement this already, like the Tonys or the the MTV Movie Awards, and it’s likely that categories such as Live Action Short (and its kind) will be moved there.  The third big change won’t involve next year’s Oscars but the 92nd Academy Awards. They’re moving up from their previously announced date of February 23rd to February 9th. That is going to result in a seismic shift in every other awards show, nomination date and give pause for every studio in how they dole out their fall and winter releases.  In this podcast, I am joined by returning guest Daniel Joyaux, freelance film writer (The Verge, Vanity Fair, Moviemaker magazine and more) and publications editor for the Sundance Film Festival. We discuss in enraged detail each of these changes (and the real reason behind them), whether they'll be able to withstand the barrage of hate they received on social media and I posit a way that maybe, just maybe this new category nonsense might actually work the way they want it to.  This podcast runs 1h 29m

Bill Groom is no stranger to the Emmys, he's a four-time winner for HBO's Boardwalk Empire. With its expansive sets and designs of Atlantic City, both the boardwalk and interiors, Groom was more than ready to take on the mid-century look of New York City for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which earned 14 Emmy nominations for its freshman season, including one for Groom's meticulously detailed production design.  In my interview with Groom we discuss his incredible body of work which includes HBO's Vinyl, ABC's miniseries When We Rise and the feature films Eat Pray Love and Milk, the process of location vs sets and the leg work involved in recreating the period with accuracy and detail.  Bill Groom is nominated in Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More) for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episode "Ya Shivu v Bolshom Dome Na Kholme." The next season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will hit Amazon in late 2018 or early 2019. This interview runs 34m with opening and closing music. Opening music: "Egh-choh-choh" by The Barry Sisters Closing song: "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie The Emmy voting period ends August 27th at 10pm PST. The Creative Arts Emmys will be a two-night affair on Saturday, September 8th and Sunday, September 9th. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Monday, September 17th.

Cort L. Hessler lll, with his 2014 Emmy for Stunt Coordination on 'The Blacklist' Emmy-winning stunt coordinator Cort L. Hessler lll got his start in Florida, where he grew up, at Disney when the theme park came to his high school scouting for talent. He water skied, did live shows, anything and everything that was available to him. When Universal Studios opened in 1990 he auditioned for, and got, a Miami Vice-style show in the park's lagoon and that kicked off his film and television stunt career. With live shows and film and television being shot for onlookers and tourists to see, Hessler jumped in head first, filming stunts in the park. That led his first big break, the NBC primetime show SeaQuest 2032 starring Roy Scheider and Jonathan Brandis. Hessler doubled for Brandis and he became a go-to for water and underwater stunt work. On The Blacklist, a job he got over Facebook while working on Blue Bloods, Hessler is proud of the level of practical stunts he employs (including more than one character on fire, CGI-free) and the safety he demands on his set. In our chat we talk about his directorial debut on the show last season (he'll have another one next season), his favorite types of stunts, his favorite sequences from this last season, his advice for those interested in this (sometimes literally) backbreaking work, and if the Oscars will catch up to the Emmys and Screen Actors Guild in recognizing stunt work. Season 6 of The Blacklist will return this September on NBC. The Emmy voting period ends August 27th at 10pm PST. The Creative Arts Emmys will be a two-night affair on Saturday, September 8th (where Hessler’s category is slotted) and Sunday, September 9th. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Monday, September 17th.

For Ben Kutchins, his love of film and filmmaking started out the way it did for a lot of kids; finding an old 35mm camera in a parent's drawer, dusting it off and giving it a go. Looking at life through a lens became a hobby, then a passion and during college he interned, as many people who are interested in film and live in Northern California do, at Lucasfilm. That internship turned into a job but he saw the tides turning from film to digital and that he was on track to a working at a desk, which he didn't want. Pushing back, he left a job offer from Lucasfilm and entered NYU's film program. It was everything he wanted; shooting over 60 short films, learning the language of film and learning from and with Reed Morano (Emmy-winning director of The Handmaid's Tale) and Rachel Morrison (Mudbound, and the first ever female director of photography nominated for the Cinematography Oscar). Throughout his career Kutchins has been inspired by cinematographers like Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezki ("He moves the camera in the most naturalistic way that I've seen of any modern cinematographer"), Roger Deakins ("The best lighting cameraman I've ever seen), Gordon Willis ("He knows how to give each location its own beating heart") and more. For his work on Netflix's Ozark, Kutchins earned the first Emmy nomination of his career in the category of Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour). But he'll tell you he didn't get there alone ("I take every day as a gift, I don't take that lightly"). He had been the cinematographer on a film starring Jason Bateman (The Longest Week) and that relationship earned him a spot on Bateman's team for the Emmy-nominated Netflix hit ("We get excited about the same things, we're real film nerds"). Working with Stephani Lewis (costume designer) and Derek Hill (production designer, who's also Emmy-nominated) on finding the look of Ozark, Kutchins calls it a "melding of minds" and "gearing towards the same aesthetic." Ozark returns to Netflix for its second season on August 31st. You can watch the trailer here. The Emmy voting period ends August 27th at 10pm PST. The Creative Arts Emmys will be a two-night affair on Saturday, September 8th (where Kutchin's category is slotted) and Sunday, September 9th. The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards will be Monday, September 17th.

This week gave us the lineups of two of the fall's biggest festivals, Venice and Toronto.  On this 66th Oscar podcast, I am joined by freelance film writer (you can find his work at Vanity Fair, Moviemaker magazine and more) and publications editor for the Sundance Film Festival, Daniel Joyaux.  While these festival announcements always give us great intel on how studios are positioning their fall and winter awards releases, it's often the films that are missing that give us even bigger clues. Where are Bohemian Rhapsody, Boy Erased, Destroyer and Mary Queen of Scots? Some may show up at Telluride, others may be added to Toronto's lineup next month (there are still three Gala spots and 30 Special Presentation slots open). Venice will give us premieres of Damien Chazelle's First Man, while Toronto will world premiere Steve McQueen's Widows and If Beale Street Could Talk from Barry Jenkins. Alfonso Cuarón's Roma looks set to hit every major festival - Venice, Toronto, NYFF and Telluride. All eyes will be on the follow-ups of these Oscar-winning directors. The Cannes/Netflix kerfuffle earlier this summer proved to be the gain of both Venice and Toronto as each festival is flush with debuts from the streaming service. The Coen brothers' anthology series (which will apparently compete as a feature film for the Oscars) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Paul Greengrass's 22 July and the final film from Orson Welles, The Other Side of the Wind are all set to kick off at Venice. I will be at the Toronto International Film Festival this year for the first time. Keep your eyes and ears open for more podcasts leading up to, at, and after TIFF. With music this podcast runs 1h 27m. Opening song: "Sulk" by TR/ST Closing song: "New York City by Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

From left: 'Jessica Jones' creator Melissa Rosenberg, Netflix's Ted Sarandos with Sean Callery with Emmy win for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for Netflix's Jessica Jones (photo: Image24 PR) It doesn't get more Emmy-tastic in the Music Composition categories than Sean Callery. Callery has received 17 Emmy nominations and 4 wins, making him one of the most nominated composers of all time. 10 of his Emmy nominations are for the hit Fox drama 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, where Callery composed all nine seasons and is the only composer to have been nominated every year for a series that ran more than three seasons. Altogether, Callery won three Emmys for Outstanding Music Composition for his work on 24.  His fourth, and most recent win, came in 2016 for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for Netflix's Jessica Jones, starring Krysten Ritter. He also composes the music for hit series such as Showtime’s Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning drama Homeland, starring Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, ABC’s Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland, and CBS’s Sherlock Holmes-inspired drama series Elementary, starring Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller. I had the pleasure to chat with Sean about his prolific composing career, the intricacies of being a Television Academy judge in the Limited Series music sections, and how music is a primal form of human communication. In our conversation, Sean talks about his first major moviegoing experiences that helped shape his own likes and inspirations with composing, including 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jaws.  Describing creating the Emmy-winning theme for Jessica Jones, Sean found the voice of Jones through film noir but with an original spin, playing with the playful and hardened elements of the character.   Sean also reveals the golden piece of advice that every composer wants to hear before creating a score.  Sean resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Debbie. This interview opens with his Emmy-winning main title theme from Jessica Jones and closes with music from Homeland's 7th season and sixth episode, "Species Jump."

Composer Nathan Barr has received critical acclaim for his unmatched versatility, incorporating eclectic instruments from musical cultures across the world. Nathan recently completed construction on his new 8,000 square foot personal studio in Tarzana, California that can house 50-60 musicians. The studio, Bandrika (named after the fictional country in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, which I had forgotten!), houses the original Wurlitzer pipe organ that was installed at Fox studios in 1928 that recently went through a four-year restoration. With 1,500 pipes, able to mirror hundreds of different instruments ("It's like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for music," he says.), its music can be heard in iconic films including Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Sound of Music, and Patton. Barr and his team are currently compiling a list of composers that have used the organ including Oscar winners John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann. I chatted with the two-time Emmy-nominated composer about his work on The Americans, how his pianist mother and banjo-playing father introduced him to music in Japan at five years of age and becoming a collector of rare and unusual instruments from around the world such as a human bone trumpet from Tibet, dismantled pianos, a rare Glass Armonica, gourd cellos, many of which you can hear on any number of his original compositions. We also talk about some of his favorite composers and film scores including The Third Man and its classic zither. Since the end of The Americans, Nathan scored the dystopian action thriller, The Domestics, starring Kate Bosworth and Tyler Hoechlin, which hit theaters June 29th and is currently scoring season two of AMC’s multi-generational western epic, The Son, starring Pierce Brosnan. He's also putting the finishing touches on his next collaboration with director Eli Roth, the upcoming adventure film The House with a Clock in Its Walls (see trailer below) starring Jack Black and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.  The film's release on September 21 will mark the Wurlitzer's 21st-century debut for movie audiences. 2019 will find Nathan scoring Amazon’s upcoming fantasy, period drama, Carnival Row, starring Orlando Bloom and produced by Guillermo del Toro. Nathan Barr currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Before earning an Emmy nomination last week for her work on the series finale of Once Upon a Time, Cindy O'Connor began her career as a musical theater composer...well, actually it goes back further than that. Her parents love to regale their friends with stories of Cindy composing at the age of 5, writing song on her keyboard called "The Aku-Aku Foot Disease" while her family was living in Japan. It all began there. Flash forward to 1993, writing the music for All That He Was in collaboration with Larry Todd Johnson where she won the National Playwright Award and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for New Play. The darkly comic musical, about one man’s struggle with AIDS where the deceased functions as host and narrator, invisible among the friends and family assemble to pay him final respects, has since been produced in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and several theaters across the US. O'Connor worked from the ground up in television and film, with Emmy-winning Oscar-nominated composer Mark Isham taking her under his wing. The two have collaborated for over a decade and share that 2018 Emmy nomination with Michael D. Simon. Throughout her musical career she's worked on the Oscar-winning film Crash, Blade, The Conjuring 2, The Black Dahlia and as the composer for shows like The Black Donnellys and the television adaptation of Crash.  I chatted with Cindy about her first Emmy nomination (and being the only female nominated in the Music Composition categories), jamming with Pat Benatar and the importance of advocacy for women composers and in the film and television industry. She's also a member of the Alliance of Female Composers. On September 4th she'll be a part of KCRW Presents The Future is Female: A Concert Celebrating Female Composers at The Wiltern in Los Angeles that will also include Tamar Kali (Mudbound) and Ronit Kirchman (The Sinner), both featured in 5 Female Composer You Should Know. Tickets are available here.  Here is my interview with Emmy nominee Cindy O'Connor. 

Buckle in, kids, this is a doozy.  On this FINAL Emmy nominations prediction podcast, I am joined by Awardsdaily TV's Joey Moser. The shade will be deep and the tea is steeped. Starting off with the Drama categories, working our way up from Guest to Lead to Supporting and Drama Series itself, Joey and I debate if Westworld can hold its own against the return of Game of Thrones and how both will do in the face of The Handmaid's Tale's second season after a first season domination at last year's Emmys.  Comedy gets into how the absence of Veep could find its replacement with up to three freshman shows (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, GLOW and Barry) looking for a spot in Comedy Series against the reboot of Will & Grace, Silicon Valley and frontrunner Atlanta.  Limited Series and TV Movie closes the podcast and, as is often the case, we find it the most difficult to predict.  Watch for my full list of final Emmy predictions today. This epic podcast run 2h and 30m with music and is worth every moment.  Opening music: Theme from Black Mirror Closing music: Theme from Will & Grace

It's Emmy season and in podcast #22 I am joined by GoldDerby contributing editor and Emmy super sleuth Riley Chow. The Emmy nominating ballots were revealed yesterday and Riley and I begin the podcast by discussing any anomalies in the submission list and the Guest vs Supporting categories and new(ish) 50% rule. Westworld and The Handmaid's Tale will likely make up a large portion of guest and supporting acting nominations and Riley and reveal our thoughts on where we think each show will land now that they both will face Game of Thrones.  We venture into the writing and directing categories of drama, talking at length about The Americans, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid's Tale, The Crown, Stranger Things and This Is Us. I also try and make the case for Killing Eve. In comedy we focus on Atlanta, GLOW, Barry, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Silicon Valley and how the absence of Veep and Master of None opens the door for an interesting lineup.  We close on the Limited Series and TV Movie categories, as bleak as they are this year, finding similar predictions with The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, The Tale, Twin Peaks: The Return and Godless and more.  Stay tuned for more podcasts before the July 12th announcement of the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards and check in with my 2018 Emmy write-ups here. This podcast runs 1h 14m with music. Opening: Theme to Mindhunter Closing: Theme to Twin Peaks: The Return  

It's one week after the close of the 71st Cannes Film Festival and guest Aaron Locke, who guested on the first Cannes podcast, returns to chat with me about it.  We talk about Aaron's impressions as a first-time visitor of the fest, those early pieces about the lack of prestige and importance of Cannes and then move into our favorites like Burning, Shoplifters and Lazzaro Felice and least favorites (sorry, Godard) of the two week extravaganza.  We close revealing our picks for dream jury members for the future.  With music this podcast runs 1h 5m.  Opening music: Cannes Film Festival opening theme Closing music: “New York City By Day” by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

In this very first AwardsWatch Cannes Podcast, I am joined by Aaron Locke, who will be attending the festival for the first time. This will be my third but first as press under my own moniker. We both of a slew of films we're looking forward to and why. A truly international festival, Aaron and I chat about the new Lee Chang-Dong (Burning), Kore-eda (Shoplifters) and Knife + Heart from Yann Gonzalez. On the American side, two films are represented - Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman with John David Washington, Adam Driver and a very buzzed about Topher Grace and Under the Silver Lake from David Robert Mitchell starring Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough and again, Topher Grace.  We also talk the interesting choice of Cannes and Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows as the festival opener and about potential controversies with the new Lars von Trier (The House That Jack Built) and Terry Gilliam (The Man Who Killed Don Quixote) in the age of #MeToo. Both films, and their directors, are likely to be under tremendous scrutiny this year, especially during the press conferences. This is a brisk podcast, coming in at just over 45m with music. Keep your ears open for a mid-festival podcast too.  Opening music: Cannes Film Festival opening theme Closing music: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

I chatted with Screen Actors Guild nominee Leonardo Nam, star of HBO's Emmy-winning sci-fi series Westworld, which just had its second season premiere last night. We talked at length about the importance of visibility, opportunity and representation in films and television and his early role models and acting idols, Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington.  Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Korean parents and then raised in Australia, Nam knows a little something about cultural diversity. TheLA-based actor constantly defies stereotype with his versatility and is actively making sure other Asian-Pacific and Asian-American actors and filmmakers get noticed, including his ambassadorship with the Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film competition sponsored by HBO and his support of multi-cultural designers in what he wears on the red carpet.  Nam broke big with the 2004 Paramount Pictures film The Perfect Score, playing a lead role opposite Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson but is beloved for his role of Brian McBrian in 2005's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and the film's sequel (for which he was almost replaced). He talks fondly of his mentor on that film, Debra Martin Chase, who really went to bat for him for a role that was written as a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy. We might fan out over the movies juuust a little bit. Nam also reveals a touching story of a young female fan of the book who was not happy when she found out he was cast but had a change of heart once she saw him in the film.   Talking Westworld, Nam teases a bit of what's in store for Felix's hero status after helping Maeve escape last season and what Westworld, and television like it, has to say about the state of the world today.  Westworld season 2 airs every Sunday on HBO. Listen to the full interview below. 

In the first Emmy podcast of the 2017-2018 television season I am joined by a familiar voice - Vox.com's critic-at-large Todd VanDerWerff. The first hour of this 90-minute podcast focuses heavily on the Outstanding Drama race which sees the return of Game of Thrones after taking a year off and now going up against last year's winner The Handmaid's Tale. How will that affect the return of Westworld? Its 22 nominations last year are likely to take a hit with Game of Thrones competing directly with it in multiple categories.  Delving into comedy finds a lot of talk about Roseanne's ratings-bonanza return, the chances for One Day at a Time to stake its Emmy claim and whether or not reboot fever (that also includes Will & Grace) will find its way to nominations. With Veep out of contention this year, the door opens for Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (and Amy Sherman-Palladino into the Emmy conversation) as well as HBO still having four comedies to choose from in Silicon Valley, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Insecure and their freshman show Barry. We also talk about how FX could position Pamela Adlon and Better Things to have a much-needed conversation about Louis C.K. from one of the people closest to him.  Finally, Todd makes a desperate plea for...well, I'll just let you listen and hear for yourself.  This podcast runs 1h 32m with opening and closing music.  Opening music: Westworld theme by Ramin Djawadi Closing music: "This Is It," by Gloria Estefan - theme song for One Day at a Time

It's all down to this.  Oscar voting is now over and the big show is on Sunday. In this 65th podcast I am thrilled to be joined by Vanity Fair's Joanna Robinson.  READ: Why Should I Care About the Oscars? This podcast focuses quite a bit on the race itself, how this season has gotten us to three possible Best Picture winners, the obstacles it took to get there and how our predictions were led by passion and gut versus simple statistics.  Will it be Three Billboards? The Shape of Water? Get Out? Or possibly something else? With the acting categories seemingly locked up, we talk about the divergence of early critics wins versus the televised awards, the possible importance of Original Screenplay telling us something early in the show and close with the categories that always end up making or breaking your Oscar pool predictions: the shorts.  Take a peek at the Gold Rush Gang's Final Oscar predictions here before tomorrow's publication. This podcast runs 1h 13m with music Intro: "And the Oscar goes to..." Outro: "New York City by Day," by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Desperately Seeking Susan

In this 64th Oscar podcast, I am joined by Gold Rush Gang member Matt Dinn the day after the BAFTA awards where Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri won Best Film and the four acting frontrunners - Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri), Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri) and Allison Janney (I, Tonya) all repeated their wins from the Critics' Choice, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards in an historic sweep.  But, is Three Billboards actually the frontrunner to win the Best Picture Oscar? Over the course of just over an hour, Matt and I make the cases for why it can and why it won't. Same for The Shape of Water. The Critics' Choice, DGA and PGA winner seems like a good bet. Or is it? Digging deeper, we discuss the path for a Get Out win in the face of seemingly insurmountable statistical odds. How much will the preferential ballot impact these three films and which stands the best odds with it? Will Original Screenplay be a deciding factor? 2018 Oscars: The State of the Race the Day Before Voting Starts and Why Get Out Can Win With every Best Picture nominee facing one obstacle or another, stats and history start to fall by the wayside and let gut feeling and instinct and the impact of social relevance to take over.  This podcast runs 1h 16m with music.  Outro music: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan.

It's Oscar nomination day and I have Awardsdaily's first lady of Oscar talk Sasha Stone with me to discuss and break down this morning's Oscar nominations and what the state of the race looks like now. 2018 Oscars: 90th Academy Awards Oscar Nominations Sasha and I dig deep into where Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water are after their SAG and PGA wins, what that Martin McDonagh director snub means and how the current brewing backlash of his film could stop it dead in Oscar's tracks.  2018 Oscars: Who Are the Frontrunners Now? Get Out and Lady Bird feature heavily as contenders that could find themselves with less baggage than the two guild beasts and the Academy showed this morning that they're diverging on a different path than those guilds with over-performers like Darkest Hour and Phantom Thread and under-performers like I, Tonya and Molly's Game.  This podcast runs 1h 9m with music. Intro: Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish announce the 2018 Best Picture Oscar nominees (via the Oscars' YouTube page) Outro: "New York City By Day," by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

It's Wednesday, January 17th and this is the FINAL Oscar nomination predictions podcast of the 2017-2018 awards season.  Through the roller-coaster of this awards season we found ourselves without a true frontrunner until really just this month in Three Billboards but, is it? Can Get Out, Lady Bird or The Shape of Water turn the tide? How did critical frontrunners like Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) and Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird) stumble once the televised awards started? Gold Rush Gang member Bryan Bonafede and I explore this season's Oscar race in great detail: from missed opportunities, to why studios keep putting prestige releases at the end of December (and when it sometimes works like I, Tonya) and the possible look of this year's nominees through the optics of a new Academy.  There's a handful of Producers Guild (PGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) talk as both groups announce their winners this weekend, just days before Oscar nominations.  We break down top categories and analyze chances of outliers, discuss if Netflix will finally break through this year with Mudbound and where and finally, reveal our one nomination wish for Tuesday.  Sit back, this podcast runs 2h 10m with music.  Intro: Oscar nominations introduction Outro: “New York City By Day, ” from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

This 61st podcast is focused on the Golden Globe Awards this Sunday, January 7th and our winner predictions.  I am joined by Gold Rush Gang member Matt Dinn and we break down what is one of the most competitive, up in the air awards seasons in years, in almost every category.  Will there be a sweep like La La Land last year or will the HFPA want to stay away from that backlash? Will that Globes-only screening pay off in more than just nominations? 75th Golden Globe Awards Winner Predictions (Motion Picture) Is is Ronan or Robbie? Metcalf or Janney? McDormand, Streep or Hawkins? Can Timothée Chalamet upset Gary Oldman? With nearly every category having two and sometimes three viable contenders it's going to make for a very fun show. We think we have some good ideas on who will actually triumph in the end.  This podcast runs 1h 11m 45s with music Note: Between 26:20-26:30 Matt's mic dropped out Intro: "Waiting for the Globes," from the 59th Golden Globe Awards Outro: "New York City By Day, " from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

Oscar Podcast #60, the second in a week, welcomes the fantastic Kayleigh Donaldson of Pajiba to talk about Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nomination predictions. A healthy portion of the first part of the Golden Globe conversation centers around Get Out, both in its quality as a film and its likelihood as a Golden Globe Best Picture nominee. Talk about Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk and the Darkest Hour are abound.  The Screen Actors Guild conversation details the nature of nominees being dependent on the SAG nom comm getting screeners and how odd nominees can find their way here. Kayleigh and I both agree that the main category here, Cast in a Motion Picture is chock full of likely and worthy contenders and that it's going to be a bloodbath.  Mudbound is a point of contention as to whether is lives or dies on SAG nominations or not.  It's at this point that we take a sojourn into the wonder that is The Florida Project, which happens to be among both of our favorites of the year.  We wrap with a few nominees we feel we might only see here at SAG (hint: mine if from Logan and it's not Hugh Jackman). You can see my official Golden Globe predictions here, and my Screen Actors Guild predictions will be revealed this weekend. This podcast runs 1h 9min with music. Intro: Get Out TV spot #3 Outro: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Desperately Seeking Susan

  In this 59th Oscar Podcast I am joined by Kyle Buchanan, senior editor of New York Magazine and Vulture.com. We start by discussing the first round of critics' awards: the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and what their wins for Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water could have on the upcoming (ongoing?) road to the Oscars.  Interview: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’s Luca Guadagnino and Michael Stuhlbarg Throughout, Kyle peppers the conversation with his insight on voters, the importance of being the 'movie for right now' and we dip a bit into Screen Actors Guild talk, especially regarding Get Out (watch out for a new podcast for that this weekend). We wrap up addressing some of the controversies surrounding contender Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and reactions to Call Me By Your Name. 2018 Oscar Predictions from the Gold Rush Gang This podcast runs 1h 5m 25s with music. Intro: Call Me By Your Name TV spot Outro: "New York City By Day," by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

It's been quite a while since our last Oscar Podcast but we're back with #58 talking about the downfalls of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and the avalanche of accusations and allegations that have rocked Hollywood this last month. The first section of the podcast my guest, Gold Rush Gang member Matt Dinn, and I talk about the impact of this on the current landscape of the Oscar race, specifically to The Weinstein Company's awards efforts and the surprising news last week that Ridley Scott would cut Kevin Spacey out of his Getty kidnapping drama All the Money in the World, replace him with Christopher Plummer (the actor he originally wanted for the role of Getty) and the race to do this and keep the film's December 22nd release date.  The Gold Rush Gang's 2018 Oscar Predictions Then we examine the exciting and complicated Supporting Actor race with its multiple dual contenders from the same films this year, including Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. We make our cases for the top 3: Sam Rockwell, Willem Dafoe and Michael Stuhlbarg as potential winners and if Armie Hammer can break the 26-year curse in this category.  Interview: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’s Luca Guadagnino and Michael Stuhlbarg Next is Supporting Actress which focuses on frontrunners Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird) and the mother-daughter theme of this category and the contenders at large. I make my case for Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) to get in if Universal pushes hard and gets her out there and that this acting category could be the only that will have a POC represented (most notably, Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water and Mary J. Blige in Mudbound).  Lead Actress gets a ton of talk time (of course) with Meryl Streep (The Post) and Frances McDormand (Three Billboards) dominating that as well as looking at our existing top 5 and wondering how or who could break through that solid-looking lineup that includes Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird).  The trailer for Steven Spielberg’s THE POST has been delivered Lead Actor also finds itself with three solid contenders but open doors for spots 4 and 5. Will Tom Hanks go supporting for The Post like Jason Robards did for All the President's Men? Will Jake Gyllenhaal see another year where he hits precursors only to be snubbed at Oscar? What about how very white this category is? It seems only Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) could make that not happen but it's going to take some heavy lifting by their studios to do it.  With intro and outro this podcast runs 2h 7m. Intro: The Post trailer via 20th Century Fox Outro: "New York City by Day" by Thomas Newman from the Desperately Seeking Susan Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

"I like your shoes." Those were the first words that Luca Guadagnino, the director of Call Me By Your Name, one of this year's biggest critical hits and Oscar favorites, said to me as I sat down to interview him. Truth be told, I did wear my red sequined Converse so I might have been fishing for that. Guadagnino himself was sporting fabulous red suede shoes so, of course, I returned the compliment.  Both Luca and one of his film's stars, Michael Stuhlbarg, were in town for the Napa Valley Film Festival. Stuhlbarg was receiving a Spotlight award and had two films at the festival - The Shape of Water and Call Me By Your Name. A fascinating duo, as Guadagnino was verbose and gave detailed and long responses to questions and Stuhlbarg with a more methodical approach to answers.  Throughout the interview we talk about the journey for the book to get to film, getting Sufjan Stevens aboard and even a casting scoop the upcoming sequel (hint: it's someone from The Big Splash). This interview runs 36m 10s with intro and outro. Intro: Call Me By Your Name trailer featuring "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens Outro: "Visions of Gideon" by Sufjan Stevens from the Call Me By Your Name Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (copyright - The Orchard Enterprises and ℗ 2017 Sufjan Stevens)

It's the first Oscar podcast after the big summer film festivals - Venice, Telluride and Toronto - and usually by now we have a frontrunner. But not this year.  Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water won the Golden Lion at Venice and Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won the People's Choice Award at Toronto. Both are from Fox Searchlight, but who will they favor in this fall and winter's awards race? READ - Frontrunner Friday or: How Late September Doesn’t Have an Oscar Frontrunner I am joined on Oscar Podcast #57 by Gold Rush Gang member Jason Osiason and Matt Dinn, who both attended Toronto this year and give their thoughts on personal favorites like I, Tonya, Lady Bird and The Florida Project.  Next up is the New York Film Festival which will give us our first looks at Last Flag Flying and Wonder Wheel.  This podcast runs 1h53m Intro: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" official trailer B Outro: "New York City By Day" by Thomas Newman from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

This 20th Emmy Podcast, I am joined by fellow Emmy Expert Jonathan Boehle to give our predictions in Variety Series, Variety Talk Series, Variety Sketch Series, Special Class Program, Reality-Competition Program and Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. While it feels some categories have clear frontrunners (how is Saturday Night Live not winning Variety Series?), others seem like closer races.  Will Stephen Colbert or Samantha Bee triumph in Variety Special for their election themed specials? Will the (Hamilton) Tonys beat the (Moonlight) Oscars? What about Reality Host? Will RuPaul Charles triumph again or will Emmy magnet Alec Baldwin find a match? Check out the full predictions for this year's Emmy Awards from the Emmy Experts as they're updated live until next month's Creative Arts and Primetime Emmys.  Keep an eye and ear out for upcoming Emmy podcasts covering Comedy, Drama and Limited Series/TV movie categories.  This podcast runs a tight 51 minutes with opening and closing elements. 

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

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.  

In this 19th Emmy podcast I am joined by AwardsWatch's Peter Cioth and Jonathan Boehle to discuss our final predictions for the 69th Emmy nominations. Our focus this podcast is on Drama and Comedy Series and the Lead and Supporting categories in both. In Drama, much discussion surrounds what new shows will find themselves with nominations with Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey not in contention (This Is Us, The Crown, Westworld, Stranger Things, The Handmaid's Tale) and what could be left off this year (Homeland, House of Cards, Mr. Robot). Same goes for Comedy, will this be the year Modern Family is dropped? Will Atlanta be the only new show nominated or can Dear White People or Fleabag get in? We end with the Variety and Special Class Program predictions. With music this podcast runs about 2h 9m. Intro music: Stranger Things opening theme by Survive (Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein) Outro music: Atlanta opening music by Childish Gambino

This 18th Emmy podcast I am joined by former and current Emmy Experts Peter Cioth and Chris Pepper to break down the newly revealed nomination ballots to discuss the writing, directing and guest acting categories.  This podcast runs 1h 45m. Opening music: the theme from 'The Crown' Closing music: "Alla luce del giorno" by Ennio Morricone used in the opening sequence of 'Master of None' season two, episode one

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

This 53rd Oscar Podcast, the first of the 2017-2018 season, breaks down the main contenders right now and who could be in the future. With CinemaCon last week, we got some insight on a few high-profile Oscar contenders like The Greatest Showman, Suburbicon, Downsizing, Wonderstruck and Darkest Hour. On the flip side, we are still very much in the dark about other films like Kathryn Bigelow's Untitled Detroit Riots Project, The Current War, The Post, and mother! We talk about the impact, if any, the buzz for CinemaCon films will have on this month's predictions and also dig deep into where things stand in a post-Moonlight Oscar world.  Will the pendulum swing back to an OscarsSoWhite year? Intro music: "Going Green" Outro music: Thomas Newman’s “New York City By Day” from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan

In our first Emmy podcast of the 2016-2017 Emmy season, Chris Pepper and I focus on the Limited Series and TV Movie categories. Starting with Supporting Actress and Actor, we debate if American Horror Story can still muster nominations for Emmy winners Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson or will Ryan Murphy's new venture, Feud: Bette and Joan, gobble up those spots for Judy Davis and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Category placement is still up in the air for many performances right now so we could see a different lineup in the coming months.  Lead Actor is next with debate about Ewan McGregor in a double role for Fargo making it in or possibly getting the Patrick Wilson treatment. And, are both Riz Ahmed and John Turturro (The Night Of) getting in? We hit the top categories, Limited Series and TV Movie, which feel much more locked than they should be at the moment.  We end on the most competitive Emmy category in many years, Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie. Jam packed with Oscar winners and nominees, this category has 10 legitimate contenders vying for six spots. Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Carrie Coon, Felicity Huffman, Regina King, Oprah Winfrey, and Viola Davis will battle it out here. There will be snubs.  Intro music: Opening theme to Feud: Bette and Joan by Mac Quayle Outro music: Opening theme to Big Little Lies: "Cold Little Heart," by Michael Kiwanuka  

On this 52nd Oscar podcast, the last of the 2016-2017 awards season, I'm honored to have AwardsDaily's Sasha Stone and Ryan Adams as guests for the post-Oscar post-mortem. After last night's historic win for Moonlight in Best Picture and an announcement fiasco unlike anything the Academy Awards have ever seen before, there is a lot for Stone, Adams and myself to talk about. Between our personal appreciation for Moonlight (and La La Land, for that matter) the conversation traverses politics and emotions as we analyze the academic reasons for the film's success and why it was so important that it won. We cover the perceived backlash and controversy that arrived late for La La Land, what streaks and records were broken last night and which ones held true, including that Best Actor SAG stat where we saw Denzel Washington lose to Casey Affleck. This podcast runs 1h 36m with music. Intro: A24's 'Moonlight' trailer featuring music from Nicholas Britell's Oscar-nominated score Outro: Thomas Newman's "New York City By Day" from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Desperately Seeking Susan