Why “Blackkklansman” and “The Favourite” Should Win the Screenplay Oscars
At the Writers Guild Awards this past weekend, the winners threw the Academy Awards race into even more of a tizzy. The WGA honored underdogs Eighth Grade by Bo Burnham as its pick for Best Original Screenplay, while Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty took the prize for Best Adapted Screenplay. Green Book and Blackkklansman were […]
Today’s Screenwriting Oscars: It’s More About the Message Than The Writing
Countless screenwriters have practiced their Academy Awards acceptance speeches. Okay, we all have at some point. And the winner is…. [insert your name] While there is no question that the Oscars are an imperfect voting system for honoring the best movies of any given year, the Academy Awards still carry significant attention, acclaim, and prestige […]
What Screenwriters Can Learn from the Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts
It’s a shame that the AMPAS has decided to give out the award for Best Live Action Short winner during a commercial break at the upcoming Academy Awards telecast on February 24, 2019. No artist who wins an Oscar should be denied his or her time in the sun. It’s especially egregious given that a […]
The Academy Takes Two Steps Forward and One Step Back with the 2019 Oscar Nominations
Any batch of Oscar nominations can both delight and confound. Those this year were no exception. For every milestone like Black Panther that became the first superhero movie to receive a Best Picture nomination, there are the failures of the Academy to recognize smaller, indie fare like the heralded Eighth Grade, women directors, or actors […]
An Interview With James Laxton, the Cinematographer of “If Beale Street Could Talk”
A host of difficulties befall a young black couple in love in the new movie adaptation of James Baldwin’s famous novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Tish (Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) must wrestle with an unexpected pregnancy, as well as family disapproval, housing discrimination, and even false imprisonment for a crime he did […]
