I don't even know where to begin. I wasn't expecting this at all. I'm so honored and privileged to be nominated in categories with people and actors, and humans, that I love. I love their work and what they contribute to our craft. This ride has been unbelievable. So, thank you for welcoming me in and making me feel seen, bro.
In a big studio-backed awards season, it's rare to see much overlap between the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Oscars. A west coast cousin of sorts to the Gotham Awards, the Indie Spirits often celebrate the movies that the Academy skipped over with its nominations. The ceremony itself is also more fun (there's some day-drinking involved) than the more staid guild awards that dot the homestretch ahead of the similarly serious Academy Awards.
But the past seven days haven't been all glitz, glam, and Best Supporting Actress snubs: Guy Branum schooled us on Bob Paris, Troye Sivan rebutted some unsolicited advice, and Nicholas Galitzine flexed in a leather skirt. Plus, Ugly Betty foreshadowed some Beckham drama, we learned about the chemistry of poppers, and Liza dropped a new AI single?! Otherwise, we've been glued to everything Hilary Duff, Heated Rivalry, and hilariously queer billboards.
Another brick has been laid in One Battle After Another's impenetrable fortress this awards season. Tonight, the film won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, capping off a stellar week for its awards run. The film won four total awawrds, also taking Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture, for Teyana Taylor. If it wasn't already the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars, it would be now.
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Love 'em or hate 'em, the Golden Globes remain the highest-profile non-Oscars event in awards season, and appropriately, their decisions carry a lot of weight in the Movies Fantasy League. With nine nominations (tied for third-most ever), One Battle After Another was the top earner, picking up 100 points and further extending its lead over all other MFL films. As of right now, OBAA has earned 510 awards points, far ahead of second-place Sinners with 345.
At present, the mantelpiece of Paul Thomas Anderson remains strikingly light on major trophies. Despite being responsible for some of the films widely acknowledged to be the best of the century so far, including There Will Be Blood, The Master and Magnolia, the writer-director is yet to win an Oscar, Golden Globe or more than one Bafta (original screenplay for 2021's Licorice Pizza).
After breaking box-office records with a string of $40 million openings, the studio released Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, which just bolstered its status as the season's most formidable Oscar contender by sweeping the first week of precursor awards. And if, for some reason, One Battle stumbles before the finish line, the title that's best positioned to likely win in its stead is another Warner Bros. movie: Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which, like OBAA, has shown up everywhere it's needed to this season.
The Gothams have always prided themselves on being the starting gun for awards season, but in recent years, an event created to spotlight independent film has leaned further into its status as an essential stop on the Oscars pole dance. Two years ago, the Gothams removed their budget cap, allowing films that cost over $35 million to compete for the first time.
She plays a CEO well versed in the language of corporate virtue and strategic contrition. That comes into play for her when she's kidnapped by a pair of conspiracy-addled cousins (Plemons and Aidan Delbis), who believe Stone's character is a member of an alien race that has secretly been pushing Earth toward destruction. Typical of a Lanthimos movie, the narrative is both absurdly funny and darkly unsettling.
Opening with David Freyne's "Eternity," featuring Craig Brewer's "Song Sung Blue" as the Centerpiece, and closing with Rian Johnson's "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery," the 28th edition of the festival will also feature gala screenings of Yorgos Lanthimos' "Bugonia," David Michôd's "Christy," Kristen Stewart's "The Chronology of Water," Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein," Chloé Zhao's "Hamnet," Bradley Cooper's "Is This Thing On?," Noah Baumbach's "Jay Kelly,"
Welcome back, friends and fools, to year FIVE of the Vulture Movies Fantasy League. We are about to turn the corner into a fall movie season that is packed with box-office behemoths, visionary auteurs bringing their latest films into the bosom of awards season, and a whole lotta questions about whether a vampire movie about race in America can play the long game all the way to Oscar gold.
"I had no idea we were even eligible for an Emmy, quite honestly," said Steele to IndieWire over Zoom. "Depending on the mood I'm in, it was either a cherry on the top or a sad surprise," she joked, thinking back on the prospect of a second year of awards campaigning.
