That’s it! That’s a wrap! All that is left to do is to cue up all of our applause GIFs:
We hope everyone has enjoyed Oscar Sunday!
Now that the Oscars are over with, it’s time to start a new year of entertainment! Thank you everyone for reading us over the course of 2025 and the first three months of 2026!
Now, let’s make 2026 the best year ever as we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of America!
Love you!
Now that the awards for the best of 2025 have been handed out, it’s time to think about what might be nominated next year!
Below are my first set of Oscar predictions for 2026! What am I basing these predictions on? Nothing but instinct, wild guesses, and hopeful thinking. Take them with a grain of salt. If nothing else, we’ll look back on these a year from now and we’ll laugh. Or, we’ll be amazed at my cognitive abilities.
Best Picture
Digger
Disclosure Day
Dune Part Three
I Play Rocky
The Invite
Mother Mary
The Odyssey
Queen At Sea
The Social Reckoning
Wild Horse Nine
Best Director
Lance Hammer for Queen At Sea
Martin McDonagh for Wild Horse Nine
Christopher Nolan for The Odyssey
Steven Spielberg for Disclosure Day
Denis Villeneuve for Dune Part Three
Best Actor
Nicolas Cage in Madden
Timothee Chalamet in Dune Part Three
Tom Cruise in Digger
Anthony Ippolito in I Play Rocky
John Malkovivh in Wild Hose Nine
Best Actress
Juliette Binoche in Queen At Sea
Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day
Isabelle Huppert in The Blood Countess
Mikey Madison in The Social Reckoning
Anya Taylor-Joy in Joni Mitchell
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Courtenay in Queen At Sea
Willem DaFoe in Werewulf
Stephan James in I Play Rocky
Edward Norton in The Invite
Jeremy Strong in The Social Reckoning
Best Supporting Actress
Anna Calder-Marshall in Queen At Sea
Michaela Coel in Mother Mary
Penelope Cruz in The Invite
AnnaSophia Robb in I Play Rocky
Meryl Streep in Joni Mitchell
Well, we survived both Friday the 13th and Oscar Sunday! Yay!
Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week.
Films I Watched:
Books I Read:
Music To Which I Listened:
Live Tweets:
Awards Season:
Best Picture Race In Review
Scenes I Love:
4 Shots From 4 Films:
News From Last Week:
Links From Last Week:
Links From The Site:
In an effort to save their marriage, Tom (John Ritter) and Gina (Rachel Hunter) take a vacation in California. However, when they arrive at the home that they’re going to be renting, they are taken hostage by a group of redneck criminals led by Mr. Eddie (Eric Roberts). Mr. Eddie wants all of Tom’s money and this leads to a rather drawn-out hostage situation as Tom tries to get the better of Mr. Eddie and Mr. Eddie spends a lot of time purring threats in a thick Southern accent.
That’s plot of 2000’s TripFall. Don’t ask my why it’s called TripFall. It seems like a bit of a redundant title because a trip and a fall are pretty much the same thing. In fact, don’t even ask me what the point of the film is because there’s really not that much action or suspense. It’s mostly just Eric Roberts and the gang driving John Ritter from one location to another. I’m not a big fan of films about people being held hostage because they always seem to feature the same scene played over and over again. The hostage refuses to do something. The person holding him hostage gives a long monologue. It gets boring after a while.
TripFall is not a career highpoint for either Roberts or Ritter. It’s an action film in which there is very little action. Watching the film, I found myself thinking that it would have been more interesting if Ritter and Roberts had switched roles. Roberts could have played the likable family man for once and maybe the film could have explored the darkness behind Ritter’s goofy persona. (Comedic actors sometimes make the best villains.)
That said, it’s difficult to resist the oddness of John Ritter and Eric Roberts starring in the same movie. If there are two actors who feel as if they literally come from different planets, it’s Ritter and Roberts. Ritter is his typical goofy self, even when he’s trying to play up the drama of the situation. Roberts hisses his lines as Mr. Eddie and appears to be acting in a totally different movie from Ritter. They’re so mismatched that they become rather fascinating (if not exactly memorable) to watch.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
In 1976’s Grizzly, something is making a national park a lot less inviting.
Campers are turning up dead. Bloody body parts are being found buried underneath leaves. It’s obvious that a bear is to blame but reports seem to indicate that this isn’t just any bear. This is a super bear, standing 8 feet tall and capable of knocking down an observation tower and picking up a helicopter. This is the most dangerous bear known to man and the park has to be closed.
Closing the park during tourist season!? Surely not!
Does this all sound familiar? Grizzly came out a year after Jaws. In all fairness to Grizzly, there were a lot of movies that ripped-off Jaws. As a matter of fact, there are still movies ripping off Jaws. The Jaws films eventually ended up ripping off themselves with three sequels. Still, it’s hard to ignore just how blatantly Grizzly rips off Jaws. We get shots from the bear’s point of view. Christopher George plays the sheriff who keeps demanding that the park be closed down until the bear has been taken care of. Andrew Prine is the hippie bear expert. Richard Jaeckel is the crotchety old man who knows more about bears that just about anyone else in the world. In Jaws, they needed a bigger boat. In Grizzly, they need a bigger helicopter. Jaws features scenes of people fleeing from the water. Grizzly features an unintentionally funny shot of hundreds of panicked campers fleeing down the side of a mountain.
Grizzly is Jaws, without the water and without the wit. And yet, in its own grim way, it works well enough. The fact of the matter is that bears are scary and the bear in Grizzly is really, really big. The gore effects are memorably grotesque and, perhaps even more so than Jaws, Grizzly goes out of its way to establish that anyone can die. As for the actors, I’ve always enjoyed seeing Christopher George in films like this. He was one of those actors who always seemed to try to give a convincing performance, even when he was appearing in a film that no one would mistake for a classic. Richard Jaeckel and Andrew Prine also do their best to bring their characters to life.
Finally, I should mention that the film ends on a properly silly and over-the-top note. Actually, it’s not that much different from the ending to Jaws. It’s just that Jaws was made with such skill that even the silly moments worked. Grizzly was directed by William Girdler, who was no Steven Spielberg. At the end of Grizzly, I found myself shouted, “Why didn’t someone just do that in the first place!?” Then again, if they had, we never would have gotten all of those point of view shots of the bear wandering through the forest while growling like an 70s obscene phone caller.
As a final note, I defy anyone to watch Grizzly without imagining Werner Herzog narrating the bear’s activities. It cannot be done!
Here’s what won at the Oscars!
Best Picture — One Battle After Another
Best Directing — Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Best Actor — Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Best Actress — Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Best Supporting Actor — Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Best Supporting Actress — Amy Madigan, Weapons
Best Original Screenplay — Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay — One Battle After Another
Best Animated Feature — KPop Demon Hunters
Best Casting — One Battle After Another
Best Production Design — Frankenstein
Best Cinematography — Sinners
Best Costume Design — Frankenstein
Best Film Editing — One Battle After Another
Best Makeup and Hairstyling — Frankenstein
Best Sound — F1
Best Visual Effects — Avatar: Fire and Ash
Best Original Score — Sinners
Best Original Song — “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters
Best Documentary Feature — Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Best International Feature — Sentimental Value
Best Animated Short — The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Best Documentary Short — All The Empty Rooms
Best Live Action Short (TIE) — The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva
And now, we reach the 2020s. The Oscars are heading towards their 100th year and a lot has changed between then and now. Many of the films that are nominated today would have been unthinkable as nominees in the 50s or even the 90s. I’m glad to see that the Academy is now more willing to nominate genres like horror and science fiction.
That said, this is the streaming age and this is the age of AI and I do worry about the future of movies in general. The Oscars are no longer the big event that they once were but then again, the same can be said of movies in general. The times are changing. Who knows what we’ll be talking about when Oscar Sunday rolls around in 2030?
2020
The Father
Promising Young Woman
Won: Nomadland
Should Have Won: These were the COVID Oscars. With the world shut down for a virus, movie theaters closed and the Academy was forced to give even more consideration than usual to the streaming platforms. A lot of studios held back on releasing their big movies and the end result was the weakest Best Picture line-up in recent history. Nomadland won, largely because it reflected the current national anxiety. (Interestingly, it was directed by the daughter of the type of communist official who would probably of thrown the majority of the Nomadland cast into prison for re-education.) Of the nominees, I would have voted for either Promising Young Woman or The Father. My favorite film of the year was an unnominated French film called Girl With A Bracelet.
2021
Drive My Car
Dune
Won: CODA
Should Have Won: CODA. The Academy got it right. With the world still recovering from the (totally unnecessary) COVID lockdowns, the Best Picture lineup was still weaker than usual but there was something very satisfying about watching the sweet-natured CODA overtake the presumed front runner, Power of the Dog. Power of the Dog was well-made but heartless. CODA was obviously limited by its low budget but it was all heart and, after two years of totalitarian excess, that was what was truly needed.
2022
All Quiet on The Western Front
Everything Everywhere All AT Once
The Fabelmans
Tar
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking
Won: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Should Have Won: Literally anything else. Seriously, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a mess of a movie and nowhere near as profound as it thinks it is. I personally would have voted for Top Gun: Maverick, a film that is unapologetic about being entertaining. After all of the COVID stupidity, Top Gun: Maverick was the film that world needed.
(That said, I could also make a case for voting for TAR, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet On The Western Front, and even Elvis. After two rather weak Best Picture line-ups, the 2022 nominations were a return to form.)
2023
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Won: Oppenheimer
Should Have Won: I can’t complain about Oppenheimer winning. It’s a great film. That said, I probably would have voted for another great film, Past Lives. This was another strong line-up of best picture nominees.
2024
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
Wicked
Won: Anora
Should Have Won: The unnominated Juror No. 2. That said, I probably would have voted for either Anora or Dune Part Two.
And there you have it! Soon, we’ll be adding another title to the list of best picture winners!
Ah, the 2010s. Social media made anxiety the norm and Americans became obsessed with “red states” and “blue states.” Americans fetishized politicians and the Academy decided that it would be cool to do away with the idea of having a set number of best picture winners. One bright spot, for me at least: Arleigh invited me to write for this site! And the rest, as they say, is history!
2010
Toy Story 3
Won: The King’s Speech
Should Have Won: Ah, The King’s Speech vs The Social Network. On the one hand, The King’s Speech was a far more conventional film than The Social Network. On the other hand, The Social Network‘s supporters tended to be so obnoxious about it that you kind of wanted it to lose just to spite them. Personally, I liked The King’s Speech on an emotional level. The Social Network holds up fairly well, though I still find it to be overrated. Inception is still exciting to watch and Winter’s Bone gets better every time I view it. In the end, though, my vote still goes to Black Swan, a film that gave me an asthma attack the first time I watched it.
2011
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
War Horse
Won: The Artist
Should Have Won: The Artist isn’t bad but its victory was still more about its novelty than its quality. The Tree of Life is visually stunning but the scenes with Sean Penn are a bit too heavy-handed for me. My vote goes to Hugo, a film that gets better each and every time that I see it. (My favorite film of the year remains the unnominated Hanna.)
2012
Amour
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Won: Argo
Should Have Won: “Argo f*ck yourself!” Yes, I can see why this won! Actually, Argo‘s victory has always struck me as weird. Argo is a rather forgettable winner. (Has anyone even mentioned Argo when discussing the current war with Iran?) My vote goes to Life of Pi.
2013
12 years A Slave
Dallas Buyers Club
Philomena
Won: 12 Years A Slave
Should Have Won: This was a good year and I can make an argument for why American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Her, and The Wolf of Wall Street all deserved to win. In the end, though, the power of 12 Years a Slave cannot be denied.
2014
Selma
Won: Birdman
Should Have Won: We all love Michael Keaton but Birdman was a pretentious film that thought it was more profound than it actually was. Of the nominees, Boyhood is my pick. (My favorite film of the year was — and I make no apologies for this — the terrifically entertaining Guardians of the Galaxy.)
2015
Won: Spotlight
Should Have Won: Spotlight is a well-acted, visually flat movie that feels like it belongs on television as opposed to playing in theaters. Of the nominees, I really love Brooklyn but Mad Max: Fury Road is a masterpiece of the pulp imagination and that’s the film that gets my vote.
2016
Hidden Figures
Lion
Won: Moonlight
Should Have Won: This is one of the stronger best picture line-ups and the fact that I would pick a film other than Moonlight should not be taken as a criticism of the Academy’s decision. Moonlight is a worthwhile winner. La La Land would have been a worthy winner, as well. In retrospect, 2016 was a better year for movie than a lot of us realized a the time. Back then, I would have voted for Arrival but today, I would probably vote for Hell or High Water. “We ain’t got no g-dd-mned trout.”
2017
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Won: The Shape of Water
Should Have Won: Considering how much I love Guillermo Del Toro, it pains me that I didn’t particularly care for The Shape of Water. But I have to admit that the film lost me as soon as the Fishman ate that cat. Of the nominees, I would have voted for Lady Bird.
2018
BlackKklansman
The Favourtie
Roma
Vice
Won: Green Book
Should Have Won: My favorite film of the year, Eighth Grade, was not nominated. In fact, a lot of good films weren’t nominated in 2018. What a strange year that sees both Vice and Bohemian Rhapsody nominated but not Eighth Grade or First Reformed. Spike Lee finally got his first nomination but it was for one of his most conventional films. It was a strange year. Of the nominees, I would vote for A Star is Born.
2019
Jojo Rabbit
Little Women
1917
Parasite
Won: Parasite
Should Have Won: My favorite film of the year was The Souvenir, which barely got any distribution at all in the States and went unnominated. Parasite‘s victory was a great moment and it’s certainly a good film. That said, I still would have voted for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood or The Irishman.
Up next, in 30 minutes, the 2020s …. so far!
Ah, the aughts. The new century started out with the terror of 9-11 and it ended with the collapse of the world’s economy. In between, a lot of films were released. Some of them were really good. A few of them were nominated for Best Picture. Most of them were not.
2000
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Won: Gladiator
Should Have Won: I’m in a minority here but I’ve never particularly cared for Gladiator. Joaquin Phoenix is a good villain and I can certainly understand why some people have adopted it as a sort of a life manual but, for the most part, Gladiator just falls flat for me. If I was voting, I would have voted for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There was a time when I would have voted for Traffic but Crouching Tiger has aged with a bit more grace the Steven Soderbergh’s look at the war on drugs.
2001
A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge!
Won: A Beautiful Mind
Should Have Won: A Beautiful Mind gets criticized for being too Oscar bait-y but it’s not a bad film. What it does, it does well. That said, I would have voted for Todd Field’s haunting In The Bedroom.
2002
The Hours
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist
Won: Chicago
Should Have Won: As much as I love Chicago, this is the year that I would have selected to honor Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Two Towers is the darkest chapter in the saga and it’s also the best.
2003
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Seabiscuit
Won: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Should Have Won: Even while it was sweeping the Oscars, it was understood that Return of the King was being honored as a way to acknowledge the entire trilogy. Since I already honored the trilogy with The Two Towers, that frees me up to vote for Lost In Translation this year. Lost In Translation is a film that haunts me in a way that few other films ever have or ever will.
2004
Finding Neverland
Ray
Won: Million Dollar Baby
Should Have Won: Million Dollar Baby is good but The Aviator is Scorsese at his best. It also features Leonardo DiCaprio’s first legitimately great performance.
2005
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
Won: Crash
Should Have Won: Oh God, don’t get me started on Crash. What should have won? Anything other than Crash. I’ll go with Brokeback Mountain.
2006
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Won: The Departed
Should Have Won: Martin Scorsese finally won his first Oscar for The Departed. Sadly, The Departed is actually one of his weaker films. (Of course, a weak Scorsese film is still better than an average film from any other director.) Back in 2007, I thought Babel should have won but that’s just because I was going through a pretentious phase where I thought any film with multiple storylines was automatically brilliant. Today, I realize that The Queen was the proper winner.
2007
Won: No Country For Old Men
Should Have Won: No Country For Old Men. The Academy got it exactly right.
2008
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader
Won: Slumdog Millionaire
Should Have Won: Of the nominees, I have to go with Slumdog Millionaire. This, of course, is the year that The Dark Knight was not nominated and the internet lost its mind as a result.
2009
The Blind Side
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Won: The Hurt Locker
Should Have Won: This is the year that the Academy went back to ten nominees. The idea was that this would lead to a more diverse best picture lineup and it certainly worked the first year they tried it. This is one of the strongest best picture lineups in Oscar history and I say that as someone who really disliked Avatar and who thought The Hurt Locker was a bit overrated. I could make an argument for honoring Up In The Air, Up, District 9, A Serious Man, and Inglourious Basterds but my final vote would go to the underrated but wonderful An Education.
Coming up in 30 minutes, we look at the history of the Best Picture race with the 2010s!
Ah, the 90s. Some would say that this was the last good decade that the world would ever experience. It was certainly a good decade for films!
1990
Dances With Wolves
Won: Dances With Wolves
Should Have Won: Goodfellas. It can be difficult to get a large group of film fans to feel the same way about anything but everyone seems to agree that Goodfellas has held up far better than Dances With Wolves and that Martin Scorsese’s gangster film should have won over Kevin Costner’s good-for-you western.
1991
Beauty and the Beast
The Prince of Tides
Won: The Silence of the Lambs
Should Have Won: The Silence of the Lambs is one of those films that’s both brilliant and ludicrous at the same time. Actually, you can probably say the same thing about the two other major contenders, Bugsy and JFK. You can really make a case for why all three of the films should have won, despite all three being a little overrated. That said, my vote goes to Beauty and the Beast because it’s a film that embraces life as opposed to death.
1992
Howards End
Won: Unforgiven
Should Have Won: Unforgiven. It’s one of the few intelligent films ever to be made about what violence does to the soul.
1993
Schindler’s List
Won: Schindler’s List
Should Have Won: I like all of the nominees, though I would have switched out The Fugitive for Dazed and Confused. The Piano is a haunting film but, in the end, the Academy picked the right winner. It’s become a bit fashionable to try to find flaws in Schindler’s List but you know what? Anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world and Schindler’s List is both a needed history lesson and an important film.
1994
Forrest Gump
Won: Forrest Gump
Should Have Won: Pulp Fiction. “But, Lisa, what about The Shawshank Redemption….” Seriously, don’t even start with me. Pulp Fiction for the win.
1995
Babe
Braveheart
Il Postino
Won: Braveheart
Should Have Won: Casino! Oh wait, it wasn’t nominated. Okay, Sense and Sensibility then.
1996
The English Patient
Jerry Maguire
Secrets & Lies
Shine
Won: The English Patient
Should Have Won: “Just stop telling your story and die! DIE!” I have to agree with Elaine Benes on this one. My vote goes to Fargo.
1997
As Good As It Gets
The Full Monty
L.A. Confidential
Won: Titanic
Should Have Won: Oh God, Titanic. I loved you when I was like 12 but today, I can’t watch the film without snickering at the dialogue. Of the nominees, my vote would go to L.A. Confidential. I wish Boogie Nights had been nominated.
1998
Life Is Beautiful
Shakespeare in Love
Won: Shakespeare in Love
Should Have Won: Shakespeare in Love is a film that I actually really like but knowing that it was a pet project of Harvey Weinstein’s makes the film a bit awkward to watch nowadays. I’m generally not a fan of war films but The Thin Red Line has moments of haunting beauty. That said, of the nominees, Elizabeth gets my vote. It’s a film that challenges our preconceived notions of an iconic historical figure. Add to that, a good deal of Shakespeare In Love‘s cast also appeared in Elizabeth so, by honoring Elizabeth, we ensure that Geoffrey Rush and Joseph Fiennes still get to brag about appearing in the best film of 1998.
1999
The Cider House Rules
The Green Mile
Won: American Beauty
Should Have Won: 1999 was a great year for movies so it’s kind of ironic that the Oscar went to one of the worst films of the decade. Are we finished pretending that American Beauty has anything worthwhile to say? My votes goes to The Sixth Sense, which holds up well even though we all now know about the big twist at the end.
Up next, in about 30 minutes, a new century begins! Welcome to the aughts!
Through the Shattered Lens 