Month: March 2023

Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part Three: The “Other” Awards

Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part Three: The “Other” Awards

For those of you who go to the best Oscar parties or enter the toughest prediction contests, you may have to pick from some of the categories filled with more obscure titles like “Best International Feature” or “Best Live Action Short Film.” I’ve got you. These are the categories where the films are almost always (but, as you will see, not always always) excluded from the feature film categories. They don’t necessarily go together except that they are the “other” categories. But either you need to know them to make your picks or you need to know that I really do know what I’m talking about. Either way, here we go. I’ll do these in order from the most likely for you to have seen them to, “Why do they have a category for these?”

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Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part Two: The Technical Awards

Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part Two: The Technical Awards

We’re back with our second set of Oscar predictions. Today, we’re focusing on all of those awards people typically go to the bathroom during–the technical awards. These are the awards for the unsung heroes of the movie: those who shape the look, sound, and feel of what you’re watching through lighting, editing, set design, and so on. So, these folks are essential to the art of filmmaking and thus are rightly recognized on Oscar night. If you are making a full set of predictions, you don’t need to know about these crafts, but you need to know who Oscar will think is the best at them this year.

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Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part One: The Major Awards

Win Your Oscar Pool! – Part One: The Major Awards

So it’s Academy Awards week. For a lot of us film nerds, it’s like our Super Bowl Sunday (although the nerdiest of film nerds are too cool for something so commercial as the Oscars). And, while most of you will be filling out March Madness brackets on Sunday, some of you may be participating in an Oscar pool. That’s where I come in. Over the next few days, I will be giving you my bet-the-house Oscar predictions in every category (PLEASE do not bet the house–this really is one of the most unpredictable Oscars in a long time). Feel free to steal them for yourself and dominate your Oscar pool.

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True/False 2023: Sunday

True/False 2023: Sunday

Sunday at True/False is always a mix of feelings. There’s satisfaction at getting to see a bunch of docs with receptive audiences. There’s the bittersweetness of a good time coming to an end. And there’s a level of weariness. Who know that just watching a bunch of movies could be so exhausting? All that said, it was great to be back at True/False and to finish the festival with a solid slate of films:

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True/False 2023: Friday

True/False 2023: Friday

As I said in my last post, I’m attending the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri this weekend. The fest has become one of the foremost documentary festivals, having an impressive mix of titles coming out of Sundance, early stops for films headed to the fall festivals, and its own set of world premieres and off-the-beaten-track docs. While the festival started on Thursday afternoon, I got started on Friday attending a panel discussion on film criticism. I then got to see the following three movies:

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True/False 2023: Getting Underway

True/False 2023: Getting Underway

This weekend, I’m attending the True/False Film Festival in nearby Columbia, Missouri. I’ve been honored to attend the several times over the last several years. In doing so, I’ve gotten to enjoy new films from such masters of the documentary craft as Errol Morris, Morgan Neville, Robert Greene, and Matthew Heineman. Over the last 20 years, the folks in Columbia and the Ragtag Film Society have figured out how to put on quite a festival. I’m glad to be a part of it.

I’ll be seeing films on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My plan is to post each morning summarizing the previous day. For a few of you, it’s a preview of docs you’ll want to catch up on later this year. For others, I hope it’s just a peek at how exciting and beautiful the world of documentary filmmaking can be.