411: Early 2025 Oscar predictions! With Erik Anderson (AwardsWatch.com)

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[00:00:42] period at Shopify.com slash income, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash income to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. This is Pop Culture Confidential and I'm Cristina Yerling Biru. Hey everyone, thanks so much for joining me. I have been looking

[00:01:18] forward to this show and to welcoming back my guest, Awards Watch founder and editor-in-chief Eric Anderson. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been a while. I was just going It has been, I don't even know, a minute. A minute. Too long. Too long. I missed you.

[00:01:38] As listeners know, awards season, it's not really a season, it's more of a continuum, a state of mind, a year-round event. A mental illness, if you will. Yes, we're all afflicted by it but we go on. We go on. Now that we're in mid-June, we're kind of halfway

[00:01:57] through. There's been some major festivals and it's time. It's time to look at the Oscar predictions and awards season going forward in 2024 and I'm so happy Eric is here. As I was saying, we've had Sundance, we've had South by Southwest, we've had Cannes.

[00:02:15] Last year there were some major films out of Cannes that were Oscar contenders, everything from Anatomy of a Fall to Zone of Interest, Closers of the Flower Moon, just to name a few. Is Cannes usually historically a major predictor for Oscar?

[00:02:31] In this last decade, absolutely. It's been where we are pulling the international directors and international films in a way that the Academy has embraced over the last decade. And it's funny because when it sort of was first percolating, it wasn't that it

[00:02:54] was difficult to predict if a non-English language film or director would be able to get in. But it did come with a little bit of really clever predicting. But each year it's almost gotten a little bit easier. I'm almost in a way sort of disappointed

[00:03:19] purely from a prediction standpoint because it was kind of fun to be able to pick out when it was going to happen and who it was going to happen to and why. Because

[00:03:33] it's really at the end of the day for me, the more interesting part of the predicting, it's the why and it's looking back at how something happened. The whole narrative. Yeah, why the timing for Ruben Ausland two years ago was what it was. And it was

[00:03:56] the track record he had leading up to that. And why last season Glazer and Triet were able to absolutely dominate with their films. And then it becomes just about a narrative and telling the story of that narrative. But yeah, that's the long answer of yes,

[00:04:23] Cannes is really our jumping off point for being able to find the films and the filmmakers that are going to potentially be big players for the next six to eight months. So I was there and a few of them you could feel the momentum was huge,

[00:04:47] which you often can at a festival and then it maybe dies out. But there's a few of them I want to ask you about. For example, Emilia Perez, which was a huge deal. And Carla

[00:04:58] Sofia Gascon was like the major star of the festival. It's been bought by Netflix. How do you feel about that? I'm very, very bullish on it right now. It is just June. But this is absolutely a film that you can tell that Netflix is going to

[00:05:21] really flood the fall festival season with and absolutely highlight Gascon here because even though four actresses won the Cannes Best Actress Prize, and it's not the first time that's happened, that happened with Volvaire in the 2000s. It's clear that she is the lead and

[00:05:50] she is going to have that push. But they're going to have the backing of Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana for these events and for the promotion of the film. And those are big names

[00:06:05] that are going to draw a multi-quadrant audience and crowd. So I'm very bullish on that for Netflix and for everybody involved. Now I loved it, but it is divisive because it is bananas. It'll be interesting to see when it sort of hits mainstream what people are actually going

[00:06:28] to think about it because everyone was sort of sitting there when they started singing going, what's happening? But what else did you hear and feel coming out of Cannes? Purely looking at the winners list was really fun because I think before anything was announced,

[00:06:49] before the ceremony, The Substance was certainly a film, speaking of potentially being very divisive that garnered so much attention and very squarely on the comeback of Demi Moore. And that sort of started earlier this year with Feud, the limited series on FX.

[00:07:20] And she's very good in that. I haven't seen The Substance, but I do think that there is some potential there for her. Mubi has the film. I don't know how strong of a

[00:07:41] player they're going to be able to be in a field like this, but I'm very interested in it. I love a good comeback and Hollywood loves a good comeback. KS After sort of mulling it over, since seeing it, it's probably my favorite. She is

[00:08:01] spectacular. She does everything. She just throws herself into this role with everything she has. I think it's going to be unbelievable to see her out on all during award season. She's going to do it amazingly. I have no idea how you're going to get people

[00:08:19] to really see this movie en masse because it is probably, and you and I have seen a few movies in our long lives and career, but this is probably the goriest film I've ever seen.

[00:08:31] It's going to be hard to really get people to stick with it, even though it is the story, the theme about aging women and how we sort of hate ourselves and what we do to ourselves

[00:08:45] and is spectacular. It is a hard sit for a lot of people, I think. It's, I was thinking about that and also just in the context of Amelia Perez and just that I do feel that maybe not mainstream, but that voting blocks are certainly more open to

[00:09:09] stranger and more esoteric films and stories and performances. Then sort of on the negative side, there is something about older male voters that they can gravitate to films that have women's suffering in them in a way that is, I mean ultimately it's kind of putrid and

[00:09:47] horrible because they're not really like, oh this is a fantastic performance and this is why I'm voting for it. You can see through history some Oscar nominated performances. Oh, Jodie Foster was just talking about the amount of rape scripts that she got during the 90s.

[00:10:12] It makes me think of Rooney Mara in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That's kind of the thing I keep coming back to is that, which it's a great performance. I love it. It's wonderful.

[00:10:26] But I know that there are some men that are like the men in the man in that movie in that scene and have sort of like a twisted version of what they need women to be.

[00:10:42] And that is a version of being tortured and submissive and all of these things. So it's a backhanded way that a performance can get attention even if it might be coming from

[00:10:58] a bad place. But it was also, I mean speaking specifically to the substance and to me more, it was very divisive amongst men and women. And female critics as well. And female critics that saw it and that has to be taken seriously.

[00:11:22] Absolutely. No, I'm going to be interested in talking with you about it when a few others more have seen it. I mean for me it was very empowering but we can talk about that more later

[00:11:32] but I see exactly what you're saying. But I do see Demi Moore herself, maybe not the movie to type really having an award season. Then there were a few that I didn't like. The Paul

[00:11:43] Schrader movie was not for me, did not work so I thought he might have been one of the contenders to come up. What do you think about Coppola? I don't feel like it's anywhere. I don't think it's, you know, it's selling internationally all over the place and it's

[00:12:00] going to but it still has not here. And it seems like even a Netflix or Apple have not gravitated to it and they can spend a hundred million dollars on something without too much thinking about it. But what are they going to really do with it? I don't

[00:12:28] know because, you know, part of Coppola's deal is that it will have to have a proper theatrical release so I don't see how Netflix could be a part of that deal. I mean is Coppola expecting

[00:12:42] any type of actual return on the 120 million that he spent? That seems really unlikely too. But it's funny, I mean you mentioned Schrader because there's also Kronenberg and there were just so many major names in competition. Major, major names. Yeah,

[00:13:00] Sean Baker and I mean. Yeah and some of them just the response to their films was flatlined. The Kronenberg really, really poorly received. The Schrader just absolutely mediocre and Coppola was like, wow this is adventurous and great looking and you can see

[00:13:20] all the money on the screen but what in the fuck is this? Yeah I mean that's how I felt about it. It was of the ones that you just said Kronenberg and particularly Schrader.

[00:13:34] Coppola's had passion and you could tell that he was doing, he put everything into this, every thought he's ever had about anything. Politics and love and aging and dying into this

[00:13:46] thing. So all this passion was kind of heartwarming and I was kind of moved by it but at the same time was like what is going on? Yeah it's, I mean it's a great lineup obviously. It was a

[00:14:01] wonderful lineup of films but I do feel like it was also a safe name lineup. When you're looking at hey what could possibly be at Cannes this year, that's kind of how we start to look at things. It's like here's the people that have

[00:14:27] played in competition five times, six times, seven times in competition. So sure their next film is very likely to be here and you know when you have a lineup of about 20 films in competition

[00:14:44] you start looking at half of them feeling like those spots are already taken by these filmmakers, men mostly male filmmakers and of a certain age because of the history that they've had already with the festival. And I think there was just so much of that this year,

[00:15:11] so much maybe a little too much but I still think there were some really brave choices in in that competition. I did find it a little funny that the seat of the sacred fig

[00:15:29] from Mohammed Rusuluf was the backstory for that of him having to escape Iran just to to be at the festival sort of I think worked to a disadvantage for him because before anything

[00:15:51] kind of started just from a prediction standpoint you're thinking oh wow this feels like a really easy palm winner and Greta Gerwig would absolutely love this and the story and the

[00:16:06] narrative and all of it. And then it ends up with this sort of special prize yeah that was like we want to recognize the film but less the film we want to recognize you and the effort

[00:16:21] and everything that happened but it's it really just stood out as saying this wasn't good enough for one of our prizes because they gave two to Amelia Perez and they could have you know given the seed and the fig to the jury prize or something.

[00:16:37] Right right no that was I was surprised by that too. Another one that was surprising was The Apprentice alias Bossy's Donald Trump movie it just honestly wasn't good enough. The actors are really good but it's basically a biopic it didn't even cause a big controversy.

[00:16:56] I mean the biggest controversy it caused was not getting picked up. Right exactly. Because it still has nobody here and I don't think it's exactly that studios are afraid of

[00:17:08] it. I mean a major studio is not going to pick this up but it is also an election year and there's just a volatility to it and it doesn't really matter if it's a mediocre film

[00:17:24] or not because you know obviously Trump has threatened to sue because he loves to sue. But he loved that. Yeah but that's only bringing attention to the movie because he is such a failure in the

[00:17:39] courtroom that if he did sue it would absolutely flop but even then that lasted in the news cycle for a day or two and nobody's talking about The Apprentice now. Finally from Ken Anora, Sean Baker who actually won

[00:17:59] the Palme d'Or do you see this having a long life during award season? Massive it's yeah. Even best picture? As a winner I don't really get too into here's what I think is winning. But nominated definitely.

[00:18:20] Yeah I have it at number two for a nomination and the neon of it all is just incredible. This track record for neon is absolutely unmatched. Fifth win in a row. It's insane. It's absolutely crazy and it's awesome.

[00:18:45] But it is also I think speaking to because neon is not a big box office studio they are not mainstream they are they're a cinephiles studio they're a letterbox studio which is not everybody. They tried last year with Ferrari they spent 90 million dollars on it and really

[00:19:08] hoped it was going to be a big mainstream breakthrough for them and it wasn't at all. I kind of hope that they're going to scale back a little bit so that they aren't making these giant money risks so that they can keep what they're doing with having

[00:19:29] something like like anora and buying that. And Baker is absolutely the perfect model for a director who has enough films to have built this small but sturdy indie career that this is their awards breakthrough. It's a blueprint of how this is done.

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[00:20:34] you get your podcasts. What are the other films you're seeing besides Kam? You already have your first best picture 10 up. I do and how I looked at everything was and I keep

[00:20:57] pushing my first predictions like a little bit later in the year. A few years ago I was doing them like the first week after the Oscars in February and March. I had to stop. There's

[00:21:14] just an insanity to it. So then I was doing it closer to Kan like right before Kan or right after Kan. So I kind of just keep pushing like another week, another week and I might,

[00:21:25] you know, I think June is a good jumping off point because we do have some titles to work with and some things that can turn into something. We have Sundance Winners like Dee Dee and A Real Pain. I think there's some titles there that will factor into the

[00:21:49] international feature film rights like Sujo and documentaries too I think that could possibly go the distance like Daughters which is on Netflix I think in August. And then Berlin gave us Sebastian Stan as a best acting lead for A Different Man. I think that has potential

[00:22:17] but really Kan is the one that sets that pace. So in looking at like what a lineup of best picture possibilities are, I looked at that. I looked at you know the things that have

[00:22:35] been seen because obviously very many things haven't been. And I look at studio track record, I look at release dates because it started to pile up that there were all these release dates

[00:22:48] in the first half of the year or like end of July. And if you have, if your movie's out by August, by mid-August, you know you're clearly, obviously you're not a part of the fall festival circuit which has been so complementary to best picture

[00:23:10] nominees and winners. But we are seeing a break from that and everything everywhere completely split from that. So there is a lot of potential for these first six, seven months of the year candidates like Sing Sing for May 24, the Coleman Domingo movie comes out in mid-July.

[00:23:34] Absolutely possible. We had Dune Part II in March. I don't know how that won't factor into here somehow. And then we have a handful of things that not only don't have a date, they don't even have a distributor yet but there's something crackling there.

[00:23:55] Luca Guadagnino's Queer is the one that I'm thinking of the most. And he just had such a great run with Challengers. That one I think is going to be a big contender. You actually have a movie called Conclave as your number one which is interesting.

[00:24:10] I want to talk about it. It's directed by Edward Berger who he directed two years ago. All Quiet on the Western Front. All Quiet on the Western Front, of course. Huge. Huge. I mean talk about Ground Slam they had Berlin and then at the Oscars. And this stars

[00:24:28] Ray Fine, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini. Huge lineup. It's a thriller. I hadn't heard of it until I saw your list but you're thinking this is a huge contender at the moment you have it at number one for both director and picture.

[00:24:46] I do. It's one of those, you know, nobody has seen it because it's not out but you know will be like a big fall film player is where it's where I'm at. And the combination of focus features,

[00:24:59] fantastic studio for awards contention and because of the huge success of All Quiet on the Western Front. Even though Berger was not a part of that huge Oscar nomination success because he missed out on a best director nomination.

[00:25:25] Obviously, I mean I think he was sixth place there. He was right there. So this is a perfect opportunity to I don't want to say make up for it but it's it is the opportunity in this English language film for that breakthrough to happen for him.

[00:25:47] Yeah, I'm just I'm feeling it. It's a death of a pope and how the successor is chosen. And it feels a little maybe old school traditional. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking after these past few years where we've sort of

[00:26:08] been able to move away from that as you were just saying this feels like a very old school choice. And that's if we look at everything from 2015 from the beginning of the Oscar so white controversy and what the Academy did to essentially try and make amends of that

[00:26:32] and doubling its membership size and utilizing the new rules of what it takes to get this picture nominated all of these things. We saw like immediately obviously with a Moonlight winning 2016 Shape of Water 2017 hugely subversive totally non-traditional

[00:26:57] choices. Then an absolute like pullback like a backlash and Green Book winning. Then a few more years of like progressive different auteur based wins and then Koda. Yeah with Parasite and all that and then exactly so works these were sort of like on

[00:27:22] like oh so you're seeing it as like a like an ebb and flow of traditional and we'll give you this we'll take that. It's absolutely how I'm looking at it so now we're sort of at

[00:27:34] like two years again of like maybe something more traditional. The white popes it is. And it's gonna end white popes and white people yeah is where they might want to go.

[00:27:49] So that's kind of like I said my process is looking at the past so much to be able to to foresee. What about Steve McQueen and Blitz? I've been hearing so much about this. That it's in my top five it doesn't have a date but it's Apple.

[00:28:15] They speaking of Koda yeah they're really good at this because they always have a a major studio distribution partner. Very very very different than Netflix who does not have that.

[00:28:34] But I don't know I mean this is you know also World War II it'll have a lot of classic markers very white cast because it's World War II. So there there is a lot of potential there

[00:28:51] for a lot of attention to come its way. I have and I try not to put too much stock in things like this. I have heard some negative test screening rumblings but I put that in the

[00:29:13] like really far back of my mind when I was starting out at this. I used to give them much much more and way too much attention and credit but I try not to do that anymore because

[00:29:30] not only can so much change in a test screening you know the people that are seeing it aren't voters. So what can work for a voter might not necessarily work for an average US small town or even Los Angeles.

[00:30:16] tremendous. As a token of our appreciation we'll randomly select one lucky participant each month to win an exclusive merchandise package from Evergreen podcasts. Head to Evergreenpodcast.com slash listener survey to help a show and possibly get some free stuff for doing so.

[00:30:35] We can't thank you enough for the support. Now back to the show. Speaking of Netflix they must be frothing at the moment I mean they want this win. They're going to be pushing Amelia

[00:30:47] Perez like crazy. They're really the only one at this point that hasn't gotten a best. Yes and it's one of those again one of those things that Hollywood is so funny about which

[00:31:01] is when you want the award you have to want it but not so much that it looks like what it looks like. It's sort of like the America Ferrera speech in Barbie. You need to want it

[00:31:23] but not too much. You need to be grateful but not begging. You need to have all of these factors that really show how much you want it. If you're like an Eddie Redmayne or a Kate

[00:31:37] Winslet you know they don't let up. They go to every single event and you know their reps get them every single tribute and award and all the things and they are ever present.

[00:31:53] Netflix is the same way but the response to Netflix and who they are has kept them at an arm's length this entire time since their beginning efforts with trying to get best picture and I don't think they have anything on the docket that's going to change

[00:32:18] that this year at all. But I mean looking at what they have, they have the piano lesson. That's possible. They have his three daughters. Great film. Absolutely incredible. I love that at TIFF. But yeah unless they buy something and do a really really quick turnaround on it

[00:32:46] I don't know what they would have to be able to break through. What about these major big pictures like Gladiator 2 for example? We see that coming. What else do we have? We have Joker. Will they be in contention you think?

[00:33:07] I have them in my next up section and I know a lot of people were like why would you not have Joker in the top 10? That's stupid. I'm like that's fine. You can call anything I have

[00:33:19] stupid. I'm really okay with that. I'm just being very cautious with those two sequels in a way that I'm not being cautious with Dune 2 because it's already out. We know it already and it was successful enough. I think Joker is at a huge disadvantage by being

[00:33:48] so massive the first go-around. A billion dollars, 11 Oscar nominations. It led the field that year. That's a pretty tough hill to climb for a sequel. It's really up in the air. For

[00:34:07] Gladiator, oh my god a sequel to a 23 year old film best picture winner aside feels so risky. But Denzel and Paul Mescal. I mean that's not a bad... No, I'm obviously looking forward to it. That is not up for debate.

[00:34:34] There is so much misinformation about budget and how much it's gone past because there's nothing other than rumor mill and sometimes that rumor mill can just have a life of its own and people can say things and throw out numbers and

[00:34:58] that then becomes what is known history in fact. That could be pretty damaging. That's... There's... Movies are in a place right now with the box office, with the failures that we saw with Furiosa and how nostalgia really works.

[00:35:25] I'm... Worrying is not the right word but I'm cautious. Yeah, I'm just cautious about what those two specifically... What those two movies are going to look like in the Oscar race. If they're really big hits then yeah they're absolutely going to be contenders and

[00:35:51] big studios trying to work their way back into major best picture contention is kind of always going to be a thing. And it'll be interesting Ridley following up Napoleon which was supposed to be this huge massive thing that just did not work both as a movie

[00:36:14] or awards-wise. Oh my god well and that's because it was horrible but it's... Yeah, I mean there's also Wicked. Right. That's major major film major release. Thanksgiving weekend major release. Thanksgiving weekend. Part one of two even though the new marketing and new

[00:36:47] trailer removed part one from it which is really interesting. Oh really? Yeah like they're... Not only are they trying to trick audiences into not knowing that it's a musical, they're trying to trick them into not knowing that it's the first of two parts. Good luck with that.

[00:37:07] I don't see Wicked being the thing that people think Wicked is going to be. I just don't. I think the trailer looks pretty awful. Now I'm not a Wicked stan to begin with. I have it so

[00:37:19] it's not that... I mean I know there's so much love for it but the CGI looks terrible. It just doesn't look... I don't think it's gonna make waves if you ask me. Not awards-wise at least.

[00:37:32] Yeah, I mean we were sort of in this spot last year with The Color Purple and I definitely had that film really really high for the majority of summer and then even through fall

[00:37:46] and then the cracks started showing and it just... It didn't... It wasn't able to kind of hold or maintain anything. I want to move on too because you also have early predictions

[00:38:01] on the nominees for the best actress but for the listeners, I just want to read your top five for best picture as we mentioned. You have Conclave at number one, Anora at two,

[00:38:12] Dune part two at three, Emilia Perez at four and Blitz at five and director you have Edward Berger for Conclave at one, Sean Baker for Anora, Denis Villeneuve for Dune part two,

[00:38:24] Jaco D'Arde for Emilia Perez and Steve McQueen for Blitz. So those are sort of your top five and then for your actresses you have for one and two I think they may be my most anticipated

[00:38:38] movies going into the fall. The first one is Amy Adams in Night Bitch which I just cannot wait to see. I understand it's about a woman who turns into a dog of course she's a night bitch.

[00:38:51] I think it's her time. I have this incredible feeling for Amy Adams after all these years. It's her time, Eric. It's always so dangerous to feel comfortable certainly early and definitely with somebody who has so many nominations without a win.

[00:39:16] Obviously Glenn Close is in the same boat with even more and that's bitten us and her in the ass before. So yeah to say I feel really really comfortable with Amy Adams is a very risky

[00:39:36] thing to say but I feel really really good about Amy Adams. I mean I don't know much about the movie but it feels like she's taking a risk with this role. People are going to be

[00:39:48] talking about it. It just it's gonna be I'm going to be talking about this with you all season. I'm on the Amy Adams train. Yeah it has a fantastic release date the first week

[00:40:02] of December. It was one of those searchlight films that was kind of caught in the Disney 20th century by that they weren't sure what they were going to do with it. It was going to go right to Hulu like they've done with a couple of films and they

[00:40:31] changed course and it is now full theatrical release from Searchlight Pictures which I think is the right choice. So we'll definitely be seeing that at the fall festivals. I don't know where it's going to go. It feels very TIF, very Toronto. Obviously I hope it's delirious

[00:40:52] so that we can see it first but yeah I and Mariel Heller is behind it. I know it's tonally really complicated structure and material. I feel really good about her though being able to manage that and yeah it is it's magical realism which

[00:41:20] is really difficult. It's hard to do without feeling goofy or cartoony and I think for Adams, I think for Heller it has to be done in a way that isn't you're not really like laughing

[00:41:36] at it that the metaphor and the idea and the just the word night bitch has the power that it has which sort of goes back to the conversation we were having about the substance. Substance exactly. And about how that tone and how that is going to be

[00:41:59] received by female audiences versus male audiences and when why it will be different if it is. And the other one is Angelina Jolie in Maria where she plays Maria Callas. This also feels like a comeback. It's been a while. There is a handful of very comeback

[00:42:27] roles coming down the line and she, pardon me, excuse me. She's one. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and then Demi Moore that we talked about. Pamela Anderson has a film that could be a wonderful comeback narrative but it has a much bigger hill to climb.

[00:42:55] But like Maria, the Angelina Jolie film from Pavel Lorraine about Maria Callas, that doesn't have a distributor yet still. Oh wow. We are in June. I feel like it is absolutely one of those Venice to Telluride Immediately

[00:43:17] films but it needs to get picked up. It needs to have someone behind it. So what's the reason for that? Is it Lorraine? I don't know because he doesn't have any studio allegiance whatsoever. El Conde was Netflix last year, Spencer was Neon and Jackie was Searchlight.

[00:43:40] And this is the third in the trilogy of the bad famous women. So that it doesn't have somebody like a searchlight or neon behind it is a little worrisome but I mean obviously we know that Searchlight and Neon have their

[00:43:58] best actress contenders already so that's kind of, that's sort of, and Netflix has theirs. So unless they want to directly challenge their own existing contenders I feel like somebody else has to pick it up. So you think that's the reason more than the quality of the film or

[00:44:19] or that it's sort of they already have their lineup, they have their award season money in their bags there already and... A bit because I mean Netflix obviously doesn't, almost every year they have too many contenders. That's sort of been one of their things.

[00:44:41] And then you know as we get further into the season we see what the priorities are or sometimes like in the All Quiet year those priorities show themselves because nobody, not even Netflix, had any clue when All Quiet premiered at TIFF that that was going to be

[00:45:03] their main push that year. It just sort of happened organically and that's something that does not happen with Netflix very much and it's why I think it got so close

[00:45:13] to all of the awards that it got to was because it was the closest thing that Netflix has had to an organic contender versus one that is so constructed from like day one to be here is the movie, here is the thing.

[00:45:35] And so like if they were to buy this that would pretty clearly immediately put Jolie at the top of their best actress list and that would turn you know Gascon into this sort of also ran that had 10 seconds of fame at Cannes and then is shuffled.

[00:46:06] So I don't feel like that would happen. Someone major has to step up there. I mean it feels like it's... See but see I don't think it would be major. It wouldn't be like you know

[00:46:18] Warner Brothers, a paramount, a universal and like Amazon has way too many contenders this year right now. We still have potentially Glenn Close speaking of in the summer book a film that hasn't been picked up yet but will likely premiere at least in festivals this year. So yeah.

[00:46:41] So on your third there you have Carla Sofia Gascon, you have on your fourth Mikey Madison from Anorah who's I think people are going to love. That's going to be huge. And Tessa Thompson and Hedda. Now I don't know what this is. This is new to me.

[00:46:56] I'm really excited for this and I mean having her at number five is one of those... It's really more about the role and the the potential. It's about Hedda Gabler, the Ibsen character. It's maybe most famous of

[00:47:19] his entire career. And it's Nia DaCosta. I think there's something there. And again it's one of those... It's a feeling more than anything and then it's just looking at potential, at role, at character, studio. Like I said they've got a lot and GM has

[00:47:49] has a lot to work with. So does A24. So I don't know. I'm really excited about the women this year. I think it's so many great out there performances that I think it's going to be a fabulous year. Honestly any combination of the 10 that I have

[00:48:12] I would be like this is a great year. Those are the ones that you've predicted up until now. Listeners can go to awardwatch.com in the coming weeks because you're putting up more

[00:48:23] and more things. But is there anything else you want to leave us with that you're thinking of now in terms of predictions for award season and Oscar? You know it's once we have the

[00:48:34] lineups for Venice and Toronto which are not that far away really it's going to be very very helpful for us to talk about these. But I mean I'm also really looking forward to the return of Fernanda Montenegro in Victoria. I'm looking forward to actually a lot of

[00:49:06] I guess what we would call comebacks. Jessica Lange and Long Day's Journey into Night. If that movie is actually real and ever coming out can't wait to see it. I mean Jessica Lange. I'm so excited for that if it's anything.

[00:49:29] And there's a handful of things that are coming out in the next weeks or months before this cycle of festivals like Janet Planet which was a fall festival run last year. Julia Nicholson gorgeous film amazing performance. I think that comes out in a week. So great

[00:49:56] summer counter programming against the larger box office-y films but wonderful film. Like I said A24 has so many this year. They've got We Live in Time with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. They've got Baby Girl with Nicole Kidman. They have Mother Mary with Anne Hathaway

[00:50:22] and Michaela Cole and then Janet Planet. So they're stacked. Yeah and like I said Glenn Close, Pamela Anderson is a really fantastic looking actress here period. It really is. That's so

[00:50:40] great because of all the news coming out of the industry. You feel like you know that down and then you just see this lineup so excited. There's so many things I cannot wait to see that it feels hopeful. Yes it's always great to feel hopeful when talking about

[00:50:56] the movies my goodness. Well Eric thank you so much. This is fun. I can't wait to continue the season with you and when we head into Telluride and Venice and we know all the lineups we'll talk again. Yeah thank you so much for having me. This is great.

[00:51:12] I could talk about this all the time. Yeah and everyone check out awardswatch.com. You also have some really great interviews and Emmy coverage at the moment because we're also smack in the middle of Emmy voting and the season so you can get all that there. Thank

[00:51:28] you so much. Oh it's so fun. I'm Ken Horbaugh, host of Warriors in Their Own Words, a podcast that presents the unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation. As a country we need these stories more than ever. Stories from Americans who

[00:51:48] have borne the battle including 30 year old remastered interviews with veterans from World War One recounting their time in the trenches of Europe and with veterans from World War Two, Korea, Vietnam and from our most recent conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other

[00:52:03] battlefields Americans may never have heard of. Hear their stories by listening to Warriors in Their Own Words wherever you find podcasts.