2025 Oscars Predictions & Best Films of 2024

Eli (00:01.57)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we have.

Eli (00:13.91)
Hello and welcome to the Establishing Shot, podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am your host Eli Price and it is Oscar time. We are taking a break this week from our Spielberg series before we jump back in with the terminal next week. But yeah, it's, it's Oscar time. So

I don't know if you are like me and kind of just a lay person that loves movies and learning about them and talking about them and watching them. But yeah, I don't get screeners and I don't get all that sort of stuff. So I have been catching up with a lot of twenty twenty four movies this year. And yeah, I am ready to talk about them. So.

Today we are going to be doing Oscar predictions a little bit later in the show But I want to start Kind of like I did last year with just sharing my top movies of the year reason being Because as I talked through my Oscar predictions and my personal nom what I would personally nominate for each of the categories I would end up tipping my hand to a lot of my top movies. So I'm just gonna share those first

and then we'll get into breaking down all the categories. So you can kind of, you can take this as kind of my best picture nominations, I guess, once I get to my top 10. But I am going to start down further down the list, kind of like I did last year, if you've been listening for that long. I like to give shout outs to all of my movies that are ranked four stars or higher or

That would be like eight out of 10. And there was a lot. I saw more movies this year from, well, not, it's 2025 now. I saw more movies from 2024 than I've seen for any other year by far. I watched a lot of movies last year. Probably too many. I don't know that I'll ever watch this many from here again. I had more free time than I probably will in the future, but I saw, I,

Eli (02:31.278)
watched I wrapped up The Brutalist earlier today and that was my 100th 2024 movie a lot yeah so in that hundred I'm also including two shorts that I've caught up with that were Oscar nominated but shorts are films too so a hundred films from 2024 so I've got I've got a lot I've seen a lot I feel like I have a pretty good grasp

There's only two Best Picture nominations that I have yet to see Those two being I'm Still Here, their Brazilian movie and a Nora Sean Baker's movie. That's the front runner for Best Picture I just still have yet to see that. I haven't been able to yet So yeah, that's kind of what I'm working with. So I'm gonna start down At number 37. So I have 37 films technically 38, but the 38th is a short

I can kind of give, I guess like a spoiler that Yuck, which I also have rated four stars. The animated short is what I'm probably going to predict and probably this only one I've seen, but yeah, anyways, in that category. Anyways, that one is, guess so technically 38 that are four and higher, but I'm going to start down at 37. So I'm going to read up to, I'm just going to kind of list them out.

all the way up to number 21 and then at 20 I'll do a little bit deeper into my thoughts on the movie and then I'll go a little bit deeper for my top 10 which I guess would technically be my best picture nominations. Now some of those, there will be a few of these along the way and especially a couple at the top that

would have, you would have maybe seen on 2023 lists last year. and that's because like they got festival runs or even like, maybe some New York and LA showings before the year ended. but weren't actually like, didn't even really have a limited to release until 2024. So I count those as 2024 movies because they kind of got their actual release.

Eli (04:50.742)
for anyone that isn't in LA or New York in 2024, but most people would probably consider them 2023 movies. I'm not, I'm counting them as 2024 movies. do with that what you will. But that's how I do it. So yeah, so let's go 37 down to 21. Just gonna list them out. I'm not gonna really talk about them. So you can just kind of take these as recommendations.

At 37 I have Long Legs. At 36 I have All We Imagine as Light. Number 35 I have Hirosaku Kureita's Monster. At 34 I have the movie Chime by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. At 33 Furiosa Magma Saga. At 32 Twisters. At 31

The documentary movie Daughters. It's on Netflix. At number 30, I have The Piano Lesson. Number 29 is Tuesday. Number 28 is Evil Does Not Exist. The Ryusaki Hamaguchi movie. Number 20, sorry, number 27 is Rebel Ridge. Number 26, I have Dune Part 2. Some people might be surprised that it's not higher, but I saw a lot of movies. Number 25, La Camara.

Number 24, We Grown Now. Number 23, Red Rooms. Number 22, Ghost Light. And number 21, this is my favorite. This gets the award for my favorite movie title of 2024. And it is the French movie Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. What a great title. When I read that title, I was like, I am gonna like this movie. And I did. So.

That is my 37 through 21, all rated 4 stars and above, so I can greatly recommend all those movies. Really, really liked those. So, I'll talk a little bit about each of these movies from 20 down to 11. So, at 20, I have Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell by Pham Tien An. It is a...

Eli (07:16.824)
Vietnamese yes Vietnamese film Vietnamese director Vietnamese language and Yeah, it is Beautiful. It's a beautiful movie incredibly shot. It is slow cinema. So this is a Three hour movie. I think it's like one minute shy of three hours including the credits So I guess a few minutes shy of three hours And it is

And you, you, you do sort of feel that three hours. this isn't a movie for everyone. Um, but it's very slow. It follows, um, this, uh, guy, um, the character's name is Tien who is his sister has died in a car accident and he is, yeah, it's her, it is actually a sister-in-law has died in a car accident and he is, um, has her

Young her young son his nephew and he is taking him back to his former hometown They're planning on giving her his mom a funeral and it's just kind of like him Going through that process relating to this kid It's slow. It's contemplative. It's very spiritual. It's I Just really loved it. It's beautiful to look at it takes its it takes its time and it

It has very surprising and interesting images. Just really, really, really liked this one inside the yellow cocoon shell. At number 19, I have the animated film Look Back by Kiyotaka Oshiyama. Really liked this film. It's a short, it's pretty short. It's only 58 minutes long, so not even an hour long. It's currently on Prime, which I should probably mention you can

You can catch inside the yellow cocoon shell, it's rentable. You can also catch it on Hoopla if you have that connected to your library card. It's also in the Kino film collection, which is something that you can get a free trial for if you're interested in that. think they have like a seven day free trial for Kino film collection. So I like to take advantage of those to see good films. yeah, you can find that there. But yeah, look back.

Eli (09:42.158)
By Oshiyama is an animated Japanese film. You can find it on Prime Video Really really good. It's about this girl who writes like comics funny comics for her school newspaper and She has dreams to be a manga illustrator and writer and she there's this other girl that

doesn't come to school but starts sending in comics and people like her drawings a lot. She gets jealous but then they kind of grow a relationship together at some point. It's a really beautiful story, incredibly well written, touching, intense in a couple moments, but just very very good. I really really loved that movie. At number 18

I have His Three Daughters by Azazel Jacobs. This is a movie starring Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyon, and Elizabeth Olsen as three sisters who are attending to their father in his final days and as he's being kind of in home hospice, I guess. And it's just a lot of them talking and arguing and dealing with grief. And it has this surprising

Beautiful transcendent moments towards the end that I will not say any more than that about that just blew me away Cried and just three really great performances by those actresses So really really loved his three daughters. It is on Netflix. It's a Netflix movie. So you can find that there I recommend that and number 17

I really wanted to put this higher so I might eventually rewatch this and put it higher But at number 17, I have Mike Cheslik's hundreds of beavers I loved this film. It is part Buster Keaton Charlie Chaplin part Looney Tunes Part I don't even know they they made this movie super low budget. It is basically a dude

Eli (11:57.678)
trying to kill beavers and other sorts of animals in in the like Alaskan written I guess like Alaskan winter or Canadian winter or something and Yeah, he's a fur trapper. He's trying to catch these beavers to win over this other fur this other like guy's daughter and Yeah, the

All of the beavers and other animals are basically in mascot costumes. A lot of really, really funny slapstick and special effects and jokes that are like overdone until they're like funny because of how overdone they are. I loved this one. There's a Sherlock Holmes and Watson beaver that show up at one point. Yeah, this one is just great.

The the lead actors name is Rylan Brickson Cole twos Who also did a lot of work with Mike Cheslik on the movie it is also on prime video But you can also find this one on like 2b or Pluto TV If you don't have access to it on prime video Yeah, that the whole air it just fun really funny fun inventive movie made on a super low budget. Yeah

Really fun. At number 16, taking a totally 180 turn from Hundreds of Beavers, I have Robert Eggers' Nosferatu. Really, really love this one. was, I saw it, got to see it in theaters. Production design is incredible. Score's incredible. Really good performances. I don't think it's as good as their...

The 20s version by Murnau. I don't think it's as good as Vim Vinders. mind. Nosferatu the Vampire by Werner Herzog. Another W that sounds like a V because he's German. Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampire. I don't think it's as good as those two. Those are my two like favorite Dracula stories. But a really good, it's...

Eli (14:18.594)
basically just like really really really like phenomenally masterfully made homage to those. I guess it like some people are talking about like it gives more emphasis on the like the Ellen Hudder, the wife characters kind of story and gives her more agency and I guess that's kind of true. It just depends on kind of how you read it. So yeah.

I really liked this. It was very good. The atmosphere was incredible. looked incredible. Willem Dafoe gives some Willem Dafoe speeches. Lily Rose Depp has a very like physical performance. That's very impressive. I liked Skarsgard as Orlok. It was interesting. I dug the mustache. I liked this movie. It was fun. It was good. It was kind of had the

correct chilling tone to it. Yeah. So that was my number, what was it? 16? Number 15. I have my most recent watch that I mentioned earlier and it is Brady Corbett's The Brutalist. This movie, I don't know. It's one of those movies that like on the surface, like it seems like very obvious what it's about, but also like

probably has some layers that maybe take a little bit more contemplation. haven't had, I just finished this earlier today, so I haven't had a ton of time to like contemplate it. Haven't had much time to like maybe look into what some other critics are saying about it and what they're analyzing about it. Haven't really listened to any Brady Corbett interviews which are out there because I wanted to see it before I listen to that stuff. So.

Yeah, maybe my opinion of this will grow over time, but this is where I have it right here at number 15, rated four stars for now. Adrian Brody's performance is really great, as is Guy Pearce's as this Harrison Lee Van Buren senior character. But Adrian Brody as Lazlo Toth really takes it away. Some people have loved Phyllis Leigh Jones as Erzabet Toth. I think she's good.

Eli (16:45.208)
She didn't like blow me away or anything, but Adrian Brody is very, very good in the movie. the it's, it's very well beautifully shot for the, especially for the budget it had, really incredible production design. really like kind of in your face symbolism about the immigrant struggle and maybe even more so about like the artist struggle and dealing with people.

people's money and commentating on the problem of the American dream and like capitalism probably of racism and like immigrant struggles. I think I already said that, but a lot of like some very, very on the nose symbolism, I guess you could say.

later on in the movie that it deals with an unfortunate interaction with Guy Pearce's and Adrian Brody's character while Adrian Brody's character is kind of drugged out. And if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Very like on the nose as to what's happening and what the movie is partly talking about. So I don't know, there's stuff like that that's like, okay, cool about the movie.

that like kind of like knocked it down from being one of those like, I love this four and a half, five star movie sort of feelings about it, but still very, very good. Very, very impressive. Interesting. Like it wasn't like I was uninterested in the movie. I was engaged the whole, I mean, over three hours. And so, yeah, it's very, very good. It's a very, very good movie.

deserves all the nominations that God, yeah, really, really enjoyed that one. Number 14, I have a real pain, Jesse Heisenberg's movie starring himself and Kieran Culkin as cousins who have gotten together to take a trip to Poland where their grandmother survived a concentration camp when she was younger and

Eli (19:10.284)
Yes had set aside money for them to go visit Poland when they were old enough and so and she has recently passed away They're dealing with the grief of that. They're dealing with like their differences that they're like personality and life situation differences and just like It's hard to like describe what's great about this movie. It's just kind of it's really good job drama and comedy. I laughed a lot in the movie

It's very touching at points, very intuitive about relationships, with people that like, especially like relationships with family, where it's like you love someone, even if like you hate them at the same time, like they get on your last nerves, but you love them with every part of your being at the same time. It's very intuitive writing for that. So this is a very good movie.

It's funny, it's touching, and it's streaming on Hulu right now. Yeah, I don't think I mentioned the last couple, Nesferatu is on Peacock. You can watch it on there. And then The Brutalist right now, you really have to either see it in theaters or buy it. But maybe it'll come out soon somewhere else. But yeah, A Real Pain is on Hulu currently, so you can watch that there.

My number 13 movie is Sean Wang's Dee Dee. I love this movie. I'll go ahead and say it's streaming on Amazon Prime Video. So you can catch it there if you have that or rent it or whatever. This was, so this is about a 13 year old Taiwanese American kid set in 2008.

He's 13 years old in 2008. In 2008, I would have been, let's see, like either 16 or 17. So not far off from this kid's age. In fact, he probably interacts with some kids that were at or my age in the movie. And he's on my space. He's on Facebook. He is listening to some of the music that

Eli (21:33.28)
I listened to around this time, he is dealing with, he is typing comments on people's posts and then deleting them and rewriting them. He's using emoticons. It's just like, it's just like Sean Wayne captured so well, the just the anxiety of growing up during that period, the feel of that period, the music.

the culture for the young people, the relationship with parents, even though like I can't relate to being the, you know, the child of an immigrant, an immigrant family. So there's that added element that just makes it better, honestly, and him dealing with that. But the rest of that dynamic I could totally relate to. Yeah, just really, really good.

Isaac Wang who plays the lead character Chris is very very good young actor that is very good in the movie So yeah, that's my number 13 DD just like a total nostalgia trip loved it number 12 is the documentary no other land this is a documentary about The Palestinian-Israeli conflict it focuses in on the West Bank's Masafir Yata

area it is slowly has been slowly being taken over by Israeli soldiers and it kind of follows this kind of alliance between a an Israeli journalist named Yuval and a Palestinian activist named Basil and They and kind of working together and to document and raise awareness of this situation which

The Israeli army has just kind of claimed all of this land that has a ton of Palestinian villages in it and they are just slowly chipping away. They just show up with bulldozers and construction vehicles and take down buildings that people may be trying to rush to get their things out of. They tear down a school at one point. They just like come in and dig up a water pipe and saw it in half for and then leave for.

Eli (23:55.326)
they don't come in and do anything with that land they just tear it down and then leave. It's, I don't know, it made me angry watching it and that's what it's supposed to do.

I think this is an important movie for people to see. It's important to see that what these people are going through, how kind of just incredibly wrong it is. What is, I feel like, especially this important. I feel like this is especially important for people to see that maybe want to defend everything Israel does and see like,

there are some incredibly inhumane things that are going on that do not have to be going on against civilians. These villages aren't filled with Hamas terrorists or anything. These are villages with just normal people trying to live in their homes. And so it's just saddening and enraging, really, to watch.

This really doesn't have distribution in the U S it's showing in some places just kind of independently. You can probably use a V VPN if you have that and like rent it for in another country. but it's unfortunate that this movie isn't, isn't showing more here in the U S it does. It did get the nomination for Oscar. So maybe it gets some recognition recognition from that, but no other land.

It's going to be hard to see, but I do highly recommend it if you can get to it. My number 11 film is Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World by Rado Jude. It is a Romanian film by Rado Jude, who is a Romanian director. I don't really know how to describe this movie. It is also a very long movie. It's like two hours and 45 minutes-ish, 40 minutes.

Eli (26:08.365)
It follows this girl, Angela is the name of the character played by Alinca Monolacci. I probably pronounced that terribly wrong. my apologies. yeah, she is basically a PA, a production assistant for this Romanian company in Bucharest who gets, I guess they kind of are commissioned.

kind of contracting production company or whatever. And she's basically going around the city, interviewing people that have been injured from this company that has hired them to make this video, this safety video. It's basically like they have bad standards at their company, but they're finding people that have been injured to come and do it.

video about how you're supposed to wear your helmets and you know, if you get hurt, it's your fault because you didn't wear your helmet sort of thing. Just super corrupt. and so it's her going around the city interviewing these people, but also there's intercut this like old eighties, Romanian movie about a woman, intercut into the film. There's these kind of cutaway things where she is like selfie video, tick-tocking.

with this filter of a man and like being very crude and talking about her like sexual exploits around Europe as this it's kind of like this satire TikTok she's doing of this macho guy. So those are in all throughout the movie. There's this like. There's this.

Montage of grave sites along this road that is dangerous to drive on because the government won't do anything about it That's like five minutes long of just a montage of all these grave sites in the middle of the moon It's got a lot going on. It's doing a it feels very much a 2020s movie in a lot of ways It's new. It's interesting. It's It's just very very good. I really really enjoyed it. It was

Eli (28:34.806)
And it ends with a basically like a 45 minute oner. Just camera in one spot filming this scene with characters coming in and out of it for like 45 minutes. It's really, it sounds like super boring, but it's like really engaging somehow and interesting and funny at times. Ridiculous.

Enraging sometimes it's it's got a lot going on in this movie and I really enjoyed it. You can catch it on movie If you have that MUBI movie Yeah, that's my Top 20 Yeah, so this is starting now. I guess these are technically would be my best picture nominations. I'm gonna go ten down to one and number ten I have This is actually a first feature film

by Molly Manning Walker called How to Have Sex. And it is about these three British teenage girls who are going on holiday to this kind of, I don't know, this beach place somewhere else in Europe where a ton of teenagers go for, it's basically like spring break. A ton of teenagers go, there's parties, there's drinking, there's...

drugs, and yeah, they're going there. They're going to have a good time. They're excited. They're, mean, they're young, they're, they're teenagers. and yeah, it's, it's hard to watch some of it. It's like, I mean, it's kind of obvious, but Mia McKinnon Bruce who plays the lead character Tara.

is dealing with just like this extreme peer pressure to like lose her virginity. There's this guy that's very like macho that's kind of something unfortunate happens with him and her. She can't really talk about it even with her close friends. It's really like it was heartbreaking for me to watch as a father just a father of a son

Eli (30:57.102)
and hoping I can raise him to be who he needs to be in a father of a daughter, hoping like this sort of thing never even comes close to happening to her. just like very, this is just very insightful into like the psyche of what goes on in all of that. I've to some interviews back, it's been a long time since I've watched this, but I listened to an interview with the director and her just talking about how.

time after time she'll talk to women about their sexual abuse and it's always like the same of just like not wanting not not talking about it and holding it in and I think this movie raises a lot of awareness awareness about these sorts of situations I don't think we can have too many good films that raise awareness about this and this one is really really good incredibly well acted incredibly well directed

great writing, heartbreaking, touching. There's a hint of some hope at the end, I guess. Very, very good movie. How to Have Sex is streaming on MUBI as well, M-U-B-I MUBI. So you can, I don't know if they have a free trial, but yeah, you can find it there. My number nine film of the year is I Saw the TV Glow by Jane Schoenbrunn.

This follows teenager Owen who is just trying... I'm gonna read this because there's a lot going on in this movie. Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Matty introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show, a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen's view of reality begins to crack. This movie is streaming on Macs, so you can go watch it there. And I highly recommend this movie, directed by Jane Schoenbrunn.

It is it looks incredible justice smith is acting is incredible in this movie kind of capturing this kid growing up and He's in this bad situation at home Just neglected neglectful situation at home he gets connected to this tv show it's kind of like think like

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there's kind of like Nick at night, late night shows, like, who's afraid of the dark or something like that. It's kind of like this weird kind of spooky show, for kids that comes on late, him and this girl connect over it. it's definitely like, it's definitely commentary on kind of like the transgender experience, which I think it's very good at showing kind of just like.

the anxiety of that and the, the, how confusing and stressful it can be. for people that deal with, they just are going through that. and, yeah, very enlightening to me to, to, to just kind of grow empathy for, for that. and just like incredibly well acted. has some like horror elements at some point, not, I wouldn't call it a horror movie.

Although it's probably like categorizes that it's more of like this just really really really strange drama it kind of cut intercuts with this like TV show some It's hard to kind of explain it, but I'm very very good That is my number nine movie of the year at number eight I have the beast by Bertrand Bonello or La Bette the French

It's a French movie, so that's the French name. The Beast stars Lea Soudou and George McKee. Makai, I think it's actually how pronounce it. M-A-C-K-A-Y, but I think you pronounce it Makai. So it's about this girl who, it's this kind of future where AI has taken over and if you want to get a like

good job, you have to have you have to do this like past lives kind of like I don't really know how to describe it. It's like this past lives therapy that this AI machine kind of does to you. like erasing your... what it does is it erases your emotions so you don't feel emotions anymore and so it

Eli (35:51.382)
So this movie kind of takes place in like three or four? It's been a bit since I've seen it, so I can't remember exactly like time periods of this girl who's decided to go through with this procedure and have her emotions removed, but then, you know, it cuts to these past lives, quote unquote, that she's been in. So there's like a period piece kind of life. There's a...

There's like the modern, like more like our time kind of life. there's like her present one. There's, there's a few different like, time periods and lives that she's dealing with. There's like a futuristic ish one. anyway, and it kind of cuts between these, back and forth, including going to her and like the present day.

and in all of these she has these encounters like romantic and in some way or another or maybe not so romantic but Sexual in some way or another encounters with this George Mackay character Louie her her character's name is Gabrielle, but I Don't know how to describe why I loved this movie, but it was very intriguing very beautifully shot

It has a lot going on, between these three different kind of like storylines that are interconnected and speak a lot to just like the interconnectedness of the past and the present and the future and you know, the thread of emotion through it all. There's this kind of like transcendent moment that the movie ends on that

It was one of those, this is one of those movies that I really would have a hard time explaining why it worked for me and why it had such a strong effect on me, but it was one of those endings that like, Lea Sadu just like nails it in just like exploding her emotion onto the screen and it came through for me. kind of got chills with the ending.

Eli (38:18.754)
I don't know why, it just happened. So yeah, this one had a huge effect on me. I have a hard time explaining why. I would highly recommend it for nothing else but that it's a very interesting movie. So that's The Beast by Bertrand Bonello. You can find it streaming on Criterion Channel if you have that. You can also probably rent it if you needed to do that.

So yeah, that's my number eight. My number seven movie is another documentary that was also nominated for Best Picture like know the land and That is Johan Grimamprez's soundtrack to a coup d'etat. This movie was really really cool It kind of follows It like intertwines jazz music and the kind of like

United States of Africa movement that was kind of centered around the struggle for independence for the Congo from Belgium in the 50s and 60s mostly 60s, I guess, so it goes between like UN stuff and US Russia relations and Congo Belgium relations if the patrice patrice muumumba stuff, in the Congo

Congolese leader. And then it intercuts a lot of jazz music and jazz performances by musicians like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, because a lot of these guys were sent to Africa as kind of like these sort of ambassadors, but not knowing that they were doing stuff that was a front for the CIA.

get in because Congo is very resource rich and so the US among other nations were trying to take advantage of the Congo. didn't they maybe were like kind of behind the scenes preventing independence from happening truly. Very very interesting movie. It's kind of like this essay style where it's

Eli (40:44.97)
edited together, doesn't have a lot of, there's no narration. It lets all of the kind of archival footage speak for itself along with these kind of like text cards that come up and either give you like quotes from books or speeches that kind of give context to the images you're watching or the archive footage, or maybe it gives you some

like text commentary that gives context for what you're watching some sometimes. But it's very, very good, very interesting. It's just a piece of history that I didn't really know much about. And I felt like the way it was edited together and put together was very engaging and interesting with jazz artists that I love that are phenomenal. And then also just it's.

It let the images speak for themselves and I just really appreciated that. The archival footage spoke for itself instead of narrating and telling you what you're supposed to think or feel. I just thought it was really, really well put together. It's impressive that you can just use archive footage. Not all of it's silent. It's speeches and interviews from way back when.

Edit it all together in a way where me who doesn't really know this history can understand and follow it It's just impressive to me. So I really really love this. I thought it was like incredibly well done Interesting a part of history that I knew nothing about Yeah Soundtrack to a coup d'etat you can find it on Canopy if you have that connected to your library or another one that's on Kino film collection, so

If want to watch this and Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, can get that free trial Takino film collection either through their website or I think you can do it as a free trial Amazon Prime add-on. So that is my number seven soundtrack to Okudeta. My number six movie is Greg Quedar's Sing Sing starring Coleman Domingo and Clarence Macklin. Incredible movie about the art based on

Eli (43:06.528)
RTA program, is the, is it Reformation Through the Arts? Something like that. Reformation Through the Arts or Rehabilitation Through the Arts is one of those two that is in some prisons. This one is in Sing Sing. So Divine G is the lead character played by Coleman Domingo, who gives an incredible performance. Imprisoned.

for a crime he didn't commit, and he is a founding member of this RTA program, which is a program where inmates can apply to join, they find purpose and find not just purpose, but like a way, an outlet for their learning how to express emotion and express like their feelings through acting. And so they get,

Audition for parts in this these play these theater plays that they put on And it's kind of it's super interesting about just the the transformative power of art These this is based off of real stuff. And in fact the incredible thing about this movie is Clarence Macklin who plays Clarence divine. I'm not Macklin in the movie

His name is the same because he's basically playing a version of himself and most of the kind of other inmate characters are playing versions of themselves They are graduates of this RTA program Which by the way has a super high success rate of when prisoners go through this they do not return back to prison Really really incredible we need more programs like this in prisons or just in communities

To prevent, you know stuff like this But yeah it So there's just this like very raw and real feeling through the movie. That's because like these are these are people playing basically versions of themselves You can tell they're not like professional actors, but they do a really good job It's incredibly affecting Clarence Macklin just is in

Eli (45:31.246)
Incredible in this movie like he still sings from Coleman Domingo, which is Yeah, just incredible And yeah, it's just a drama about Yeah about these guys these guys relationship Putting on this play that the Paul Racy character Playing a guy that a real guy in real life

or based on a real guy character so that he's written sorry the Paul Racy character wrote this play for them to put on and Yeah, it's just very touching very like Coleman Domingo's character like grows a lot and it's it really shows you the Failure of our system the incredibly frustrating

stuff they go through that dehumanizes them and this program is a way for them to kind of gain their humanity back. Yeah, really really really great great movie Sing Sing. You can rent this movie or buy it on the major platforms. I think that's really the only way you can watch it right now. It had a weird release schedule. It was released a long time ago

Got a small re-release in the fall, late fall. I don't know why it didn't get a wide release, but that's my number six movie Sing Sing. My number five movie is My Old Ass, directed by Megan Park. This stars up and coming great actress Maisie Stella playing the lead role of Elliot and Aubrey Plaza playing older Elliot, if the title didn't give it away.

it's about this girl who, is, getting ready to, it's kind of like the summer before she's moving away for college. She's graduated high school and, she goes on a little camping trip with her friends in the summer. She's on, she has grown up on this, like, cranberry farm, I think in Canada, goes on a camping trip with her friends, does some mushrooms and yeah, her.

Eli (47:58.944)
looks over and it's her older self sitting on the log by the campfire and she you know it's kind of like one of those movies where you just kind of have to throw like you just kind of have to accept it for what it is she starts after this encounter she starts being able to like text her older self and and call her older self on the phone and so yeah it's it's a very

It's just, it's a very funny movie. There's a scene where there's this kind of dream sequence where she does a Justin Bieber routine. that's really funny. and yeah, it's funny. Aubrey Plaza is funny. Maisie Stella is incredible in this movie. there are a couple of scenes that like had me like tearing up one with Maisie Stella and, her mom in the movie.

And then one with her and Aubrey Plaza and this Chad character that becomes a romantic interest in the movie. I don't really know. I don't want to say too much about why I really went for it because it'll give away kind of some of the stuff in the movie that's very emotionally impactful. I think, but it's just very funny and very well written and fun and

new and interesting and unique and really just went for those performances. So yeah, my old ass is great. Is it streaming anywhere? Let's see. Yes, it is on Prime Video. So you can go check it out there. All right. So that's my five. My number four movie of the year is Luca Guadagnos Challengers. Incredible movie. Also streaming on Amazon Prime or MGM Plus.

And yeah, starring Zendaya, Mike Feist, and Josh O'Connor. These tennis friends who kind of have this weird three-way relationship. of like it's like basically a stand-in for their tennis competition, like their competitiveness for tennis. Also competing for this girl.

Eli (50:22.368)
incredible incredible incredible performances. Josh O'Connor is great in this movie. It is engaging, it's exciting, it's heart thumping at points. There's some really fun like there's a point where like you're the camera is the POV of the tennis ball going back and forth in a pivotal tennis match between the two lead actors. Yeah this movie

The my gosh, I didn't even mention this score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, which is I Mean a bump in score like it's incredible It's like you need to do some jogging or running whatever to that That score. It's it's really good. I Just this movie it's just like really really good really exciting really fun

Highly recommend Challengers. I don't really know what else to say about it. The ending is like, wow. It's just a wow ending. I don't want to give it away. But yeah, that's my number four. It's a huge shame that this didn't get any nominations whatsoever, not even for the score, which everyone says that it should have. Okay, my number three and number two.

Most people would have said were 2023 movies, but they didn't really get a true release in the U S until 2024. So I'm counting them as 2024 movies. This is starting my top three are five star movies, 10 out of tens. for me, so yeah, I should, I guess I should mention from the beast to challengers. Those were all four and a half star or nine out of 10 movies. for me, I guess I'll.

mention that but yeah starting at number three ten out of ten for me was Vim Vendors Perfect Days starring Koji Yakusho. This is set in Japan, Japanese language film. Hirayama is the character that Yakusho plays and he is this kind of janitor I guess he he cleans these bathrooms in Tokyo.

Eli (52:46.724)
and he has this like structure routine, like every, every day, like you kind of go through this routine with him a few times. Like there's, he hears the sound of like the street sweeper sweeping the street. He wakes up to the light coming in the window, or rainfall if it's raining, whatever. does his routine goes around cleaning these public bathrooms in Japan, which are all like, they had like these, these are real bath, like these are real.

like settings in Japan and Tokyo, they had like architects design, design these different public bathrooms around the city. So they all look different and have this, they're evolved very interestingly built and, and fun to look at. so that's interesting in and of itself, but you get into this like routine with this guy and you see how like, how attentive he is, to his job and his routine.

and it's really like beautiful and contemplative and I don't know just pleasant in that way for a bit and then there's Every once a while there will be something that disrupts that routine one of the major ones being that his his niece shows up and She kind of throws him off of his his thing for a while and

Yeah, he's, it's just kind of like reflecting on the beauty of the world and routine, but then getting thrown off of that at times, building this relationship with his niece a bit, taking care of her and then she ends up going, well, I don't want to give away too much of the movie, but the movie ends on this just kind of like one take of him driving on the next day and it's just like.

He goes through like all the emotions of everything he's experienced throughout the movie of joy and sadness and depression and loneliness and connection and he gives this performance where you're just watching his face and you're watching him process all of these different wide-swinging emotions where for most of the movie he's really held it all in and just I just love that ending.

Eli (55:14.474)
Yeah, it's a really, really good movie. really, it's just my kind of movie. I loved it. My number two movie of the year also considered 2023 by most, but didn't really release here in the U.S. till 2024. And then it is Tron Anhiong's The Taste of Things. It is a French language movie. Did I mention before I do that, Perfect Days is on Hulu. So you can go watch it there as is.

Taste of Things. It's on Hulu and AMC+. This is a French-language film following these two characters, Dodin and Eugenie, played by Benoit, Magamel, and Juliette Binoche. And they have this like, they're not married, but they have this monogamous relationship. They are both cooks. So Dodin is a chef.

and his personal cook and lover Eugenie, they share this long history of a romantic relationship, an occasionally romantic relationship, but also cooking together and inspiring one another in their love for cooking. let me just tell you, my mouth watered so much in this movie, the way that they shoot them cooking this food and this kind of like

French countryside villa looks incredible. just like just thinking about it makes me hungry. Yeah, incredibly shot movie. This kind of like very contemplative camera shooting this beautiful kitchen and beautiful estate, I guess you would call it. And yeah, I don't really know what time period it's set in.

Uh, says right here, 1889. it's, yeah, it's, it's kind of like, uh, late 19th century, um, French countryside. So really beautiful to look at. Um, really like incredible kitchen. was like, man, this kitchen is really, that's, that's like a dream kitchen. Um, but yeah, the food is incredible. And it's just like, it's this very like interesting mix of like.

Eli (57:38.978)
of food and romance, and how those things are sometimes like very intertwined and very like, some like they very much relate to each other. The tenderness and care and like just right mix of different ingredients can come together to create something like beautiful and

like unexplainable and magical and how that same sort of thing happens with people. Just the right mix of personality and commitment and time spent just can create this magical, beautiful, unexplainable feeling towards another person. I guess it sounds kind of like weird or corny to explain.

way of like relating our relationship to food with our romantic relationships but the movie is not corny at all it's very very like it's very romantic it's it might be like my favorite like romantic movie and then like at some point not to try trying not to give too much away about the movie but also deals a lot with like the grief and how to cope with that grief and how to

just rightly, I guess like move forward in life and what's the right, what's the right way to say this? Maybe to move forward in life honoring, yeah, that's what I'm going for, honoring that loved one, doing something that you know that picking up something where they left off sort of, guess, honoring what they would have hoped that you would do.

And that has a form of grief It's just incredible movie made me cry made me smile Made me want to like hold my wife Like all the things maybe want to eat The taste of things highly highly recommend this movie really really good and yeah, you can stream it on Hulu So I would recommend doing that

Eli (01:00:03.244)
Number one movie of the year. I just caught up with this a couple of days ago. and it's just like grown in my opinion of it since I saw it. so maybe this is recency bias, but Hey, all of these movies I saw recently at some point. so, but yeah, this one, I think I initially put it at like number five or six and then like, I was like, no, this is like three.

This is three, this is five stars. I'm putting it at three. And then slowly but surely I was like, no, two, no, this is the best. This is the best movie of 2024. And I have yet to say it, but it is Rommel Ross's Nickel Boys. Incredible, incredible, incredible movie starring Ethan Harise as the main character Elrude and Brandon Wilson as his friend Turner. And then I'm going to mess this lady's name up.

Anjanei Ellis Taylor. I think I said it right. Anjanei... Anjaneu, sorry, I did mess it up. Anjaneu Ellis Taylor. Playing the grandmother of Elwood named Hattie. Man, what to say about this movie. it...

So I don't know if if you don't want to hear anything about this movie and just take my recommendation and run with it then I would skip forward but I'll give you a second to do that and I'm vamping just so that you can skip forward probably about a one minute or so but yeah Nickel Boys it is shot completely in POV

It's adapted from a book of the same name, which is written obviously in first person from this character and then at some point switches to the Turner character's POV and then continues to switch back and forth throughout the movie. It follows these guys that create a friendship at the Nickel Academy. It is an academy for juvenile delinquents who are supposed to be able to serve some time there and then be released.

Eli (01:02:22.514)
but this is taking place in the fifties and sixties, I believe, or the 1950s. and it is taking place in the South. These are black characters who, are, they don't actually aren't there to reform them. They're there to keep them down and there's abuse happening and, deaths happening. and this, in this

camp and yeah you just you follow this this POV of these two boys it starts with this like montage of the the Elwood character growing up and his POV growing up you grow to love these characters and this very intimate way because of the way it's shot I listened to this interview which I highly recommend on the big picture

with that Sean Finnessy does with the director Rommel Ross and him just talking about like he talked about how the So like he talked about how certain sorts of art will Be done a certain way for a long time and then someone from another culture will come in and learn these tools that have been used by one culture so for instance like white people learning music would learn the classical music and

That's what they would learn and that's what they would play with those instruments. And then here comes some black Afro black people, Africans, African-Americans. There start learning these instruments and learning, but they're bringing a new cultural perspective to these instruments. And this is really how you get the new style of jazz music is these black, these

African-Americans learning these instruments and then saying, no, I see a different way you can do this. And he's really like inspired by that sort of thing and saying like, what are we holding back in film? What are we not bringing our, this is a black director. What am I not bringing as a black man to film? What are we as like, I guess he's asking like, what are we as black?

Eli (01:04:48.558)
Directors not bringing to film Doing things they've always been done. What do we have that's unique? What do I have to offer? And so this movie I really think is breaking some ice in that regard and I think it's incredible. It's an incredible movie. It's incredibly affecting It has an ending that I will not say anything else on that just like blew me away Loved this movie loved the inventiveness of it love that like

the big swing of doing it completely POV. Yeah, it's my number one film of the year. Highly recommend it. Nickel Boys. So, that is my top films of the year. we, this has been a while. We've made it through though. So I think...

Eli (01:05:48.588)
Okay, so now I think what we are going to do is I'm gonna go through the Oscar ballot and I am going to go category by category. I'm going to say what my prediction is for what was actually nominated and then I'm gonna give my own nominations. It's more like my top five in each category. And so some of these I've kind of like maybe not chosen what

my real like favorites are so that I can avoid just talking about the same movies over and over and highlight some different things about different movies. But these are all I'm going to do my prediction for the Oscars and then my favorite. So I'm going to start with the shorts because I haven't seen I've only seen two of these. So let's start with live action short films. The nominees for live action short film are

alien or alien depending on how you want to pronounce it it's kind of a play on words a space L I E N then then there's also a NUJA there's I'm not a robot the last Ranger and the man who cannot remain silent I've only seen one of these it is alien or alien it's it's pretty good it's basically a little

live action short about this family that is going to have an interview so that the husband can get his green card. He's married to an American. They have a daughter, a young daughter, and at the interview Ice comes in and is arresting him amongst others for being undocumented even though he's there to get do his interview he's supposed to do to become documented. And so

yeah, it's kind of like raising awareness that that's a thing that happens all the time. I thought it was, I thought it was pretty good. and good that it's a rate. think it's important thing to raise awareness about. That's the only one I've seen. that's what I'm going to predict. I saw that one in particular, cause I was hearing that buzz that it might be the pick. So that's what I'm going to predict is alien or alien.

Eli (01:08:15.214)
for a live-action short film. Documentary short film. I have not seen any of these, but I will read them out. They are Death by Numbers, I Am Ready Warden, Incident, Instruments of a Beating Heart, and The Only Girl in the Orchestra. I'm gonna predict The Only Girl in the Orchestra. It feels like the most traditional sort of Oscar feeling sort of movie, just based on what I've heard about it.

I don't really, haven't seen any of these so I can't really comment much. But that's what I'm going to choose. The only girl in the orchestra just because it feels the most like typical documentary that the Academy loves. so yeah. and then animated short film. I've only seen one of these, which is what I'm going to predict. I already mentioned it, way earlier in the podcast, but let's read them out. Animated short film nominated was Beautiful Men in the Shadow of the Cypress Magic.

candies, wander to wonder, and yuck. And that is the one I've seen. That's the one I'm predicting. I really hope it wins because it's a really cute movie about kids in this campground watching adults kiss. And as adults look at each other and want to kiss, their lips start to glow pink, sparkly pink.

then they kiss each other and the kids yell out yuck and then they go find another couple to see if they're gonna kiss and then there's a couple of kids in this group that start to maybe glow a little pink themselves towards each other. It's a really really cute adorable movie. I recommend it. You can go rent it on Vimeo. You can just search yuck short film and Vimeo and it'll probably pop up and I think it's like four bucks to rent it.

It's worth it. It's like a 14 minute animated short. That's the one I was hearing buzz about. So that's the one I watched. And I might try to catch a few more of these. We'll see before the Oscars, but that's the one I had time to watch and I'm going to predict it. Yup. To win animated short film. Okay. So the rest of these I'll actually have, except for, there's a few categories I don't have my own picks for.

Eli (01:10:38.83)
as well. So let's go ahead and knock those out. First would be makeup and hair styling. I don't really do my own picks for those. Nominated is A Different Man, Amelia Perez, Nosferatu, The Substance, and Wicked. I think this one is probably, it probably comes down to Wicked and The Substance. And it's probably a kind of a toss up. And I'm just going to go with The Substance. I think

It's had a strong showing in precursors. It just seems like it's leaning that way. That's what my gut tells me is that it's going to be the substance. Yeah, it's deserving of it. So yeah, that's probably what I would pick too if I was going to pick one. yeah, either that or Nosferatu probably for me or the different man is great too. I don't know that one. I don't know if that one has any buzz, but I'm going to go with the substance for makeup and hairstyling.

Another one I don't really have my own for is costume design Nominated was a complete unknown conclave gladiator 2 nos for attu and wicked And I'm just going with wicked for this one. I just That's just what it feels like to me. It feels like wicked has some a lot of love and It just feels like that's where it's gonna end up going. It's gonna end up going to wicked that

I think the Academy wants to Wicked something and they're going to give it to Costume Design for Wicked. yeah. So the rest, I'll take that back. The other one, there's only one other one I don't have my own pick for and that is Music Original Song. For that, the nominees are El Mal from Amelia Perez.

The Journey from the 6888, Like a Bird from Sing Sing, Mi Camino from Amelia Perez, and Never Too Late from Elton John, Never Too Late. My prediction here is El Mal from Amelia Perez. I don't think that the, like the controversy around that movie from the lead actress is really going to affect that winning. It's been winning everywhere else, I think. So I just, I think that's what's happening.

Eli (01:13:06.74)
LML is my prediction there and I don't have my own picks for that. So yeah, I think the rest of these I do have my own picks for. I already shared what my best picture picks would be. So when we get to that at the end, I will just share what my pick is. So let's cover some more of these below the line categories. We just talked original song, so let's go to score.

Original score nominated is the Brutalist, Conclave, Amelia Perez, Wicked and the Wild Robot. All pretty good. I don't really understand the whole Wicked original score thing, but I guess they wrote something for it. They had a lot to fill in, a lot of space to fill in. So I don't know. I don't really get that, but that's fine. So my prediction there is the Brutalist. It just feels like the Brutalist got

a bunch of good nominations. I'm I'm honestly not sure that it's going to win anywhere except for here for original score. it just, I guess it could win in product production design, which we'll talk about next. I think, I guess, but this feels like a easy way to throw the brutalist a bone and give it a win. I think it's a very, it is a very, very, very good score. and so I,

This could also, think, I guess Wicked is an option here, but it could also go to, I could see it go into Conclave, which is a very good score as well. But I think the Brutalist wins this one. My own personal top scores. Number one, I have Challengers, which is an incredible score. I already talked about it from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Number two, I see the TV Glow score.

by Alex G. Very like interesting and atmospheric and electronic and good. I liked it. Number three, I do have The Brutalists by Daniel Blumberg. It's a very good score. And number four, I do have Conclave by Volkner Bertelmann. I don't know. But very, very good thriller kind of sounding score.

Eli (01:15:27.768)
And then number five, I just like, want a fun score in here too. So I chose the Saturday night score by John Batiste. It's a really fun, jazzy, exciting score. So I did have some honorable mentions. I Nickel boys had a great score. A different man does. Evil does not exist has a really good score. Hans Zimmer's score for Blitz is really good.

And then yeah, the Beast and Red Rooms both have really good scores too. So those are some of my other honorable mentions there. Production design, let's go to that because we just mentioned it. Nominated are The Brutalist, Conclave, Dune Part II, Nosferatu, and Wicked. I think this one goes to Wicked. I think it's another one where they want to give some Wicked love. I could also see it.

It would be really cool for it to go to Neshratu. I don't think that's happening. think, honestly, I think these, this is a strong category. These are all great production design movies. Wicked is probably my least favorite of it, but I do think it's going to win. The Brutalist is maybe the only other one that I think has a good chance to win. Conclave is like a wild card that could take it, but

I'm going with Wicked with the Brutalist as a close, like, it might go that way sort of thing. So my own nominations, top five for production design, I have Conclave at number one. I think it has really, really good production design. Really, it looks incredible. Just like everything's so symmetrical and interesting and

huge and I don't know, churchy. I don't really know how to describe it, but it looks great. I love the production design and conclave. Number two, have Dune too. just, everything's great in Dune too, as far as that goes. Number three, I have the taste of things. I talked about that kitchen and the French countryside. Love it. Number four, I do have Nosferatu. And number five, I actually have the substance. I don't think people have talked a lot about this, but

Eli (01:17:48.94)
The production design of the substance does a lot of work in this movie. and so I thought that was a really good one that didn't get nominated that probably should have. And I do have one honorable mention. Take it or leave it. But here, I thought the movie here, Robert Zemeckis's movie was interesting and I thought the production design was kind of cool in points. It was cool to see it like shift around throughout time. I liked it. I enjoyed it. It was fun.

Maybe you didn't, but I don't care. This is mine. My honorable mention, not yours. So that's a production design. let's go to sound nominated are a complete unknown Amelia Perez, doom part two, wicked and the wild robot. I think this is a toss up between maybe a complete unknown and doom part two. I'm going with doom part two.

This might just be a gut feeling kind of pick, but I sat in that theater and I was shaken to the core by the sound of riding the sandworm. So that's what I'm going with. I think it's going to win. I just think it's kind of like undeniable in this category and the next one that it just, I don't know. I feel like I don't know how you don't pick Doom Part for sound.

I guess you could go Wicked, I guess you could go Complete Unknown, but yeah, I'm going with Doom Part 2 for that. And then I'm also gonna pick it for Visual Effects. The other nominations are Alien Romulus, Better Man, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and Wicked. I hate the visual effects in Wicked, so I hope that doesn't win. I guess it could, but yeah.

I don't think Wicked's gonna win. guess Better Man is like a kind of a strong lit contender. They got that in just in time to qualify, but I don't know. I think it's just gonna go to Doom Part 2 again for sound and visual effects, and deservingly so. My own VFX. put, at number one, put Hundreds of Beavers just because I loved it so much and wanted to give those guys a shout out for all their green screen.

Eli (01:20:13.578)
low budget work that they did. Love it. Dune 2 is number two. Rightly so. Number three I had Twisters. Incredible. Old Twisters at number three for visual effects. I thought it looked great. Number four, Furiosa. Number five, The Fall Guy. I really liked The Fall Guy. I thought the visual effects were fun in that movie. And then Alien Romulus and King of the Perilous Apes. Also good.

visual effects. didn't give my sound my top five for sound so I'm gonna do that too. It's very similar to my VFX nominate my VFX top five but alas. Yeah number one I have Dune 2. I already talked about riding the sand worm with old Timmy and yeah it sounded incredible. Number two I actually have Blitz. Blitz

Blitz is a movie I haven't talked a lot about. didn't, it was like just outside of the movies that I, that I kind of went through earlier in the podcast, but it's Steve McQueen's movie starring Sorceron in, about the blitz in England and mother and son separated. it, it's a good movie. I enjoyed it. but the, sound in it is really, really well used. the,

Yeah, you should just go watch it. It's worth watching. It's on Apple TV. I highly recommend it. Sound is great in that movie. It could have been number one even. Number three is twisters. Those twisters sound good. Number four is Furiosa. Same three and four for sound. And number five, I'll put the bike riders because those motorcycles sounded incredible in the theaters and I just wanted to give it a shout out. And then Civil War is my honorable mention. So.

Moving on, what should we do next? Have we done all of the below the line categories now? Are we getting to the bigger stuff? I believe we are. So, let's do some feature film stuff now. Let's start with animated feature. So nominated are Flow, Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace and Gromit, Vengeance Most Foul, and The Wild Robot.

Eli (01:22:38.294)
I think this is a 50-50 toss-up between Flow and the Wild Robot. My gut is that a lot of people are going for Flow, and it's also nominated in international features, so it has that going for it, which we'll talk about in a minute. Flow, think, is really good. I actually liked the Wild Robot, I think, a little bit more personally.

Don't know flow is really good. It's very inventive. I think it's very deserving of this Oscar But I don't know the wild robot does some innovative stuff Like with the animation too. I think a lot of people really went for it. I think that Yeah, we had Miyazaki win last year over spider verse Which everyone thought was gonna win but I'm just gonna go back to conventional wisdom on this one and

predict the wild robot winning for animated feature. I didn't have my own top five for this one because I've really only seen six. And yeah, I've seen these five and one more, which was look back, which I mentioned, which would have been my number one. yeah, animated short, mean, animated feature, I'm predicting the wild robots.

There's also, let's do documentary feature. Nominated here are Black Box Diaries, No Other Land, Porcelain War, Soundtrack Tuakude Ta, and Sugarcane. I've only seen two of these, No Other Land and Soundtrack Tuakude Ta, which both made my top 20 movies. One of them even my top 10. yeah, obviously I really went for Soundtrack Tuakude Ta.

more than No Other Land. I don't think it really has a chance to win here. I think it's going to be either one of Black Box Diaries, No Other Land, or Porcelain War. No Other Land is kind of doing its thing. It's kind of done some good stuff with precursors winning. It's a little bit different, I think, for the Oscars. You know, there was some backlash with the Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer's speech last year.

Eli (01:25:03.018)
There's a lot of Jewish members of the Academy. I don't know. It's just tough to call. It doesn't have good distribution here in the US. It's hard to see. I don't know. It's just, I'm kind of like, I'm just going to, I am going to pick no other land. I think it's going to win, but I could see it go in a different way too. But yeah, I'm just going to go.

again with conventional wisdom and pick no other land to win. So that's what I'm going with. One of the two I've seen. Very good. Very worthy of winning. International feature film. This one is interesting. So you've got I'm Still Here and Amelia Perez, both nominated for best picture as well, which we'll get to. Then you have Flow, which is also nominated in best animated feature, which we just talked about.

So I'm still here, Amelia Perez, Flo, the girl with the needle and the seed of the sacred fig. I have seen three of these. I have yet to see the seed of the sacred fig or I'm still here. I'm hoping to fit in. I'm still here before the Oscars on Sunday, but haven't been able to yet. The girl with the needle looks great. Really stressed me out. They are towards the end.

I don't like Amelia Perez. I don't think it's a good movie. Flo I like. really like for a long time, this was like a no brainer Amelia Perez. It's got 13 nominations. It's a no brainer to win international. I don't think that's the case anymore. In fact, I'm not going to pick it. I'm not, I'm going to go with my gut and predict that, um, Amelia Perez has enough bad going for it and I'm still here has enough good going for it that it's going to end up winning.

I think it's a strong case that it has nominations for best picture and for best leading actress. I think it's got a lot of positive energy behind it, whereas Amelia Perez seems to have a lot of negative energy behind it for various reasons, not just one. And so I'm going to say I'm still here or wins international feature film. So that's my prediction there. I didn't really do my own top five for that, for any of those three.

Eli (01:27:26.99)
categories. Okay, so let's do cinematography, editing, and directing, and then we'll go to the acting categories and best picture. Okay, so let's start with editing, and I've got to find it on here. wait, so we'll do those three, and then we'll do screenplays, and then we'll do acting, and then we'll do...

Best picture. So we've still got a few things to go. Where is editing? There it is. Okay, so nominated for film editing are Enora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Amelia Perez, and Wicked. This is a really hard one for me to predict. I haven't seen Enora, so I can't really speak to a lot of it. Seen the rest of these. I think Conclave, it would be my pick of these that I've seen, to be honest.

and that's what I'm going to end up predicting is going to win. think people, I think the Academy is going to want to give Conclave a couple of awards. but I don't feel good about that prediction. think a Nora probably will end up taking it, without trying to tip my hat too much to what I'm going to choose for best picture, but I just think it has a lot going for it. And I think it's going to win several big categories.

And I think it might end up going to an aura, but I'm going to stick with conclave where we end up with conclave winning for, what else did I pick conclave for? I'm not sure anyways, I think conclave is going to win film editing. here. So that's my pick there. my top five for editing had soundtrack to a coup d'etat by, editor Rick Chabay.

as my number one edited film, like I said, earlier in the podcast, just incredible that I could follow it without knowing the history just based on the editing of this footage. number two, had challengers by editor Marco Costa, Costa, just incredibly well edited together movie. The energy of it is great. Number three, I had nickel boys by editor Nicholas Montzor. I,

Eli (01:29:54.316)
I talked a lot about that movie earlier, but just like editing together those POV shots, those montages, that there's some like archival footage that's used in the movie and these other images that are used that just, it's just really incredible work of editing. Number four is I have The Beast by editor Anita Roth. I already talked about how there's a lot going on in that movie jumping between timelines.

edited together really well. And number five, have Monster. Hirokazu Kureita, the director of Monster, also edited it. It kind of ends up telling the same story from different points of view. So I really appreciated the way that was edited together as well. Honorable mentions for Conclave and Do Not Expect Too Much for the End of the World. Those last three, I could...

switch out conclave for the beast or monster, honestly. but I wanted to give shout outs to those two. that's my editing. So let's go to cinematography. Here you have the brutalist doom part two, Amelia Perez, Maria and Nosferatu. honestly, I don't think Greg Frazier is getting another one here for doom two.

It would be really, really cool to see Nosferatu win on this one, but I'm not going with either of those. I think this one goes to the Brutalist, so I think it ends up winning for score and for cinematography here. So where's my top cinematography? Here it is. Okay. Yeah, I think the Brutalist ends up winning for this.

it's, it is an incredibly well, great looking film. So I think it's deserved. Honestly, probably deserving most of all these. I would say maybe it knows for a two could be a good, strong contender for me. So that's what I'm going to predict. So the brutalist walks away with two here between original score and cinematography. So, and those might be two of the best things about the movie, depending on who you talk to. So.

Eli (01:32:15.15)
my choices for cinematography at number one, I have Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell by, DP Dinh Doi Hung. I probably pronounced that wrong. Sorry. like I already talked, I'm not going to keep talking about these cause I've already talked about all these except the fifth one. So I'll comment on that. to the Taste of Things by cinematographer, Jonathan Reichborg. I don't know how to say that.

incredibly well, great looking movie. Three Nickel boys by DP, Joni Frey, incredible looking movie. Number four, don't expect too much from the end of the world by DP, Marius Panduru. Great looking movie and very like inventive doing a lot of different stuff. and that one too. And a number five, this is honestly like, there's probably like three or four that might have.

better cinematography than this. But I just wanted to give the cinematography on this a shout out and it is the horror movie, The Devil's Bath. cinematographer here is Martin Gishlot and it's an incredible looking movie with some great scenery and just really, really well shot. It's a horror movie. It's very disturbing.

You can just go look it up. I'm not going to talk any more about it, but it looks incredible. It's an incredible looking movie. Honestly, like looks great. I'm not going to, I have a lot of honorable mentions for cinematography. I'm not going to mention all of them. The Brutalist, Perfect Days, No Suratu. Those were a few that I've talked about that I think probably should be in my list, weren't, didn't make the cut. So.

Director. Let's do director. or should we save that? Should we do screenplay first or director or acting? Let's go ahead and do director, I guess. So nominees are Sean Baker for Anorah, Brady Corbet for The Brew List, James Mangold for A Complete Unknown, Jacques Odillard for Amelia Perez, and Coralie Farge for The Substance.

Eli (01:34:38.382)
I think this is, so I, I think there's a slim chance that Brady Corbett could, is it Corbett or Corbet? I don't know. I think Brady could win for the Brewlist. slim chance. I think this is going to Sean Baker for Enora. It's just too strong. I, I don't, yeah, I'm, I'm just going with Sean Baker for Enora. That's what I'm going with. my top directors, I have.

Ramel Ross for Nickel boys at number one, Luca Guadagnino for challengers at number two, Jane Schoenbrunn, uh, Sean Brun, sorry, Jane Schoenbrunn for I saw the TV glow at number three, uh, Radu Jude for do not expect too much from the end of for the end of the world at number four. And then I put all Sean Wang for Didi at number five, just because like he brought me back to my time. Um, so.

Shout out to Sean Wang for that or Sean Wong. I think is maybe how you pronounce it. Okay, yeah, that's my pick for directing. Okay, let's do screenplays and then we'll do acting and best picture. So, adapted screenplay. The nominees are A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Amelia Perez, Nickel Boys, and Sing Sing. So strong list there other than Amelia Perez.

I would be super cool to see Nickel Boys win this. I would love, love, love to see that. But I think along with the editing and the, did I predict Conclave for something else? Maybe not. Along with editing, think Conclave wins this one for adaptive screenplay. I think they really want to give Conclave some awards and I think this is a good place for it to win.

I would love to see, see Sing Sing win it. I would love to see Nickel Boys, especially win it, but I think it goes to Conclave. My, my picks for this category. I don't even really have honorable mentions for this. It was hard to figure out. I feel like I didn't, there wasn't a huge strong category for adapted this year, but number one, obviously I have Nickel Boys. Ramel Ross wrote that one, the director did.

Eli (01:37:03.55)
You're gonna notice something with my screenplay picks. They're mostly writer directors With maybe a couple exceptions, but yeah, Rimmel Ross wrote Nickel Boys number two I have Bertrand Bonello along with Guillaume Broad and Benjamin Chabit for the Beast. I thought that was a great adapted work

Number three, I have Jeff Nichols for the bike riders, which he adapted from basically like a picture book of like photographs of this like biking So really cool work of adaptation as far as that goes I think Number four, I have Sing Sing adapted by Greg Quedar and Brent Buell Who is the character? played by

My mind is blanking on the actor's name now. Oh well. And then at number five, have the piano lesson adapted. It's adapted from the August Wilson play by Malcolm Washington and Virgil Williams. So that's my top five for adapted. Original screenplay nominees are Anora, The Brutalist, A Real Pain, September 5, and The Substance. I have seen...

Three of these, I've seen Brutalist, Real Pain, and Substance. My pick would probably be a Real Pain of those. I think this is going easily to Anora. I don't really, yeah, I don't think anything else really has much of a chance. Maybe the Brutalist, but I think it's pretty easily Anora for that category. My top screenplays, have, number one, I have Challengers. I just think...

The way that movie is structured, jumps back and forth in time a lot, but as always, you kind of know where you are. You can keep track of everything very well. I think it's very well written in that way. number two, I have, I saw the TV glow. I just thought it was very inventive. Number three, a real pain, very touching, very funny. So that's a good recipe for a good original swearing play in my opinion. Jesse Eisenberg wrote that. I should mention Justin.

Eli (01:39:27.96)
Cortez cord. Corits keys. think is maybe how you say that wrote challengers. He's, I think he's the only one that's not like writer director on my whole list. Jane Sean Brun with, I saw the TV glow writer director, Jesse Eisenberg writer director for a real pain. Number four, have Sean Wang for DD writer director and number five, have, Megan park writer director for my old ass. So,

Yeah, I did want to give a shout out to Molly Manning Walker for how to have sex to writer director, of course, and Azazel Jacobs, who is the writer director for his three daughters. So shout out to those as well. Those would be my picks there. So let's do the acting categories. All right. So.

Man, we're really going, so let's roll through these. actor in a supporting role, we have Yura Borisov for Nora, Kieran Culkin for Real Pain, Edward Norton for A Complete Unknown, Guy Pearce for The Brutalist, and Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice. I feel like this is a strong category, but I think it is easily Kieran Culkin. I think this is one of the most sure things of the whole thing, is Kieran Culkin's winning supporting actor.

My picks for supporting actor? Scrolling scrolling great podcasting talking about how I'm number one. I have Clarence backland for Sing Sing. He's incredible. He steals the movie at points He's a non-professional actor that just like knocks it out of the park get this dude some more roles. He's incredible To I do have Karen Culkin for real pain. He's he's undeniably a great performance

Number three, have Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa who steals the show and it's just an incredibly fun performance. Yeah. Number four, I have Austin Butler for Dune 2. Another guy that just like, he's just getting freaky and crazy and I loved it. And I guess I'll shout out his lead performance in the bike riders too while I'm at it. I think he's incredible in the bike riders as well.

Eli (01:41:52.662)
as the lead performer, but he didn't make my list. In number five, have Orenze Kenne for the movie Tuesday, who is actually doing the voice work for this kind of macaw, parrot, bird that represents death in the movie. And the vocal performance is absolutely incredible. And I wanted to put him on the list and shout out that vocal performance, which is actually somewhat physical as well. You can see some behind the scenes footage of that, but yeah.

That's my supporting actors, supporting actresses. The nominations for the Oscars are Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown, Ariana Grande for Wicked, Felicity Jones for The Brutalist, Isabella Rossellini for Conclave, and Zoe Saldana for Amelia Perez. I think this is the one thing that Amelia Perez wins other than Al Mow. I think people love Zoe Saldana. I think they think she's done a lot of incredible work.

over the years and that she deserves it. I don't think people are holding the Carla Sofia Gascon stuff against her. I think she's handled it very well in PR actually. And yeah, I think she wins this one for supporting role. I think she's pretty good in the movie, honestly. I don't like the movie at all, but like she's doing the most with just a bad movie.

bad character I think. yeah, supporting actresses. My number one was Natasha Lyon for his three daughters. I guess you could argue there's three leads in that movie, but I kind of saw them all as sort of supporting. No one like steals the show actually. So I just, I don't know, maybe it's category fraud. I don't know, but she was my number one. I love, loved, her performance in that movie.

Number two, have Audrey. Aubrey Plaza and my old ass. Very affecting scene and also obviously funny. Number three, I have Carol Kane in Between the Temples, which is not a movie I've talked about at all, but I loved her performance in that very, very funny. Yeah. It just, I had a good time with that movie. I didn't, I liked that movie. It just didn't make the cut to talk about it in any other way. number four, have Joan Chen.

Eli (01:44:18.808)
who plays the mother in Didi. She isn't in it a ton. I mean, she's in it a good bit. And I just really love the way she plays that mother in the movie. Hey, it's just really good. And then I have Ariana Grande for Wicked at number five. That's the only thing from Wicked that made it for me into any category. I think Ariana Grande is really good in the movie. She plays that character very well. I thought she was perfectly cast.

Wanted to give her a shout out. yeah. let's do lead actor. So the nominees for lead actor are Adrian Brody for The Brutalist, Timothy Chalamet for A Complete Unknown, Coleman Domingo for Sing Sing, Ray Fiennes for Conclave, and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice. this could, after Timothy Chalamet won SAG, I could see him winning this. I really could. It's...

It kind of feels 50-50 to me. I am going to predict Adrian Brody. I don't feel great about it. I'm just being honest. I think it could be him or a Chalamet. I don't know who to pick. I'm just going to go with my gut that says Adrian Brody wins this one. I'd love to see Chalamet win. I think Adrian Brody has the better performance, but yeah.

So my top five lead actors, I cheated and picked Josh O'Connor at my number one for two movies for Challengers and La Camara because he plays two totally completely different characters in two very different movies. So shout out to Josh O'Connor for being able to morph into two different people for those two different movies. If I had to pick one, it would be Challengers, but I can do what I want.

Cause this is my podcast at number two, have justice Smith and I saw the TV glow. Just incredible performance. number three, Koji Yaku show for perfect days. talked about that ending that blew me away. number four, have Coleman Domingo for sing sing undeniable performance. And at number five, I went with my favorite fun performance, which is Glenn Powell and hit man.

Eli (01:46:40.962)
The Richard Linklater movie that you can find, I think, on Netflix. That's really, really fun. I had a great time with Hitman. And Glenn Powell was really good in it. Really enjoyed it. I could have easily put, like, Austin Butler from The Bike Riders in here. I could have put Isaac Gawain from Dee Dee or Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown. Or even Adrienne Brody for The Brutalist. But those are the five I ended up with. Lead Actress.

Nominees for the Oscars are... Let me find it.

Cynthia Revo for Wicked, Carla Sofia Gasson for Amelia Perez, Mikey Madison for Enora, Demi Moore for The Substance, and Fernando Torres, Fernanda Torres, and I'm still here. I think this is a toss-up between Mikey Madison and Enora and Demi Moore and The Substance. My head says Mikey Madison, but my heart says Demi Moore, and I'm going with my heart here. I'm going with the gut.

And I'm going to say Demi Moore wins it after winning at SAG. Obviously, like this doesn't really affect Academy voting winning at SAG at this point, but I just think, I don't know. I think that's where I'm going to go. I think it's a 50-50 and I'm going to go with Demi. My personal picks for lead actress are number one, I have Lea Sa-Doo in The Beast. She's incredible in it.

Number two, have a Linko Monolache from Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. Love her performance. It's really, really good. I do have Demi Moore at number three for The Substance, Maisie Stella in an incredible breakout role in My Old Ass, and another incredible breakout role from Mia McKenna Bruce as the lead in How to Have Sex. Love all of those performances. So.

Eli (01:48:44.71)
and let me shout out a movie. I haven't really mentioned connie, kosruti and all we imagine is light it's a indian movie really really good. Her performance is really good And another movie i've think i've only mentioned briefly once was civil war and I think kirsten dunce is really good in that movie So just shouting out those two honorable mentions All right. It's best picture time. Y'all have already heard my favorite movies of the year

So I won't reiterate that. I would love to see Nickel Boys win. That's my favorite movie. It's not happening. I think, I think it's pretty easy to go with a Nora at this point. I guess something like the brutalist could it. The only things I think that could upset Nora at this point are maybe the brutalist or conclave. I just,

I just don't see it happening. I think it's an aura. I think an aura, gets some strong winds with a screenplay with director. if, especially if Mikey Madison wins actress, if, if it wins those three things, if it wins, what was it again? Original screenplay. And then if it wins, editing and directing.

or either editing or actress in a lead role. I think it's just locked in. You can just count on it at that point. but yeah, I, I don't know how, how I can not pick a Nora to win best picture, but that's my pick, even though I haven't seen it. It's one of the two that I haven't seen very unfortunate, but, yeah, that's it. That's we did it. We made it through. We did our predictions.

I would love to hear from you, the listener, whatever predictions you might have. And yeah, we'll see how I did. I'll try to post a picture of my predictions on the interwebs, on the social medias, so that it's officially locked in out there and then do a results post after the Oscars to see how I did. And so I'd love for you to share your predictions with me.

Eli (01:51:09.526)
share how you did, share how I'm very wrong on my top movies of the year. I'd love to hear your top movies of the year as well. But that is all I have for the best of 2024, my picks, my Oscar predictions. And yeah, next week we're going to be picking back up with our Spielberg series with The Terminal. Have a great couple of guests on for that. And so yeah, you can look forward to that.

But that is all I have for this week. I have been Eli Price and you've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next time.