On episode 335 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to discuss The Actor Award and 2026 PGA Award winners, and what these wins mean going into the final days of Oscar voting.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page.

This podcast runs 1h17m. We will be back next week to give out our final winner predictions for the 98th Academy Awards. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 139 of the Director Watch Podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter discuss the next film in their Chantal Akerman series, Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978).

Welcome back to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, the boys attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love.

It’s not easy following up what people consider to be the greatest film of all time, but Akerman, her next feature film seemed to be another perfect, meticulous examination of a woman’s journey through life, continuing the trend she’s looked at within the first two films of this series. But what makes Les Rendez-vous d'Anna such a fascinating film is that the picture feels as if it’s from someone who has lived a life, and as they enter their thirties, their reflection on who they are, what they’ve done in their life, and what their purpose becomes clearer as she meets more and more figures of her past. It’s a blistering, meta look into the director’s life at the time, and what she thought about choosing her art over a more normal type of life. Ryan and Jay break down their thoughts on the film and how they see the turning points of their lives reflected within the honest piece of cinema by Akerman.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page.

This podcast runs 1h29m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their series on the films of Chantal Akerman with a review of her next film, A Couch in New York. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 331 of the AwardsWatch podcast, AW Editor-In-Chief, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello break down the recent DGA win by Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another and what that win means to the Oscar race at large right now.

There was a lot of anticipation leading up to last weekend's Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards, with Anderson and Ryan Coogler (Sinners) as the top contenders angling for that win, and with it came a good deal of Oscar pundit skittishness and squirming. Although most had acquiesced to the reality that Anderson was going to be the likely winner, the fact that no Black director had ever won DGA in its 77 years (78 now) gave some of them enough to hold onto a chance of it happening, and for a momentum switch from One Battle to Sinners begin to emerge. It didn't happen, and Producers Guild of America (PGA) voting ended days before the DGA Awards so those votes are locked in too. We won't know those results for almost another three weeks.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast runs 1h. We will be back soon with an Oscar retrospective for the 74^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2001. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 330 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Trace Sauveur to discuss the latest film from director Sam Raimi, Send Help.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast runs 1h. We will be back later in the week for an Oscar retrospective for the 74^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2001. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 325 of the AwardsWatch podcast, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello leads the team of Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and contributor Mark Johnson on predictions for the massive week of SAG, DGA and PGA nominations and next weekend's Golden Globes.

After attending the Critics Choice Awards last weekend, we turn our eyes to our first major bite of the top guilds in the industry: the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild and Producers Guild, who will all be announcing their nominations this week. While we intersect a lot as a foursome, each of us have outliers and potential spoilers to mix things up. Next, we look at the Golden Globes, the second televised awards show of the season and where they will go. Will it be a One Battle After Another sweep? Can Sinners find love? How will the international films fare and can Hamnet rebound outside of Jessie Buckley? All will be told soon...

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast is sponsored by Hedda from Amazon MGM Studios and runs 2h16m.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 324 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, AwardsWatch contributors Jay Ledbetter, Josh Parham, Griffin Schiller, Cody Dericks, and Trace Sauveur to discuss their favorite films of 2025 in part two of the AW end of the year show.

As we are about to begin an exciting new year of cinema in 2026, we say goodbye to 2025 with our AW team’s favorite films of the year. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into two episodes this year, each covering a selection of the nine films the team loved the most. On this second installment of the end of the year show, the movies discussed were The Mastermind (Trace), Weapons (Cody, Griffin), Marty Supreme (Jay), and One Battle After Another (Ryan, Sophia, Josh).

In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, It Was Just an Accident, The Testament of Ann Lee, If I Had Legs Id Kick You, Twinless, Black Bag, Die My Love, No Other Choice, Sound of Falling, Hedda, and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful part two episode to wrap up 2025. Thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show this past year. Have a Happy New Year and see you in 2026.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast runs 3h34m. We will be back next week to breakdown the winners of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, and preview the 2026 Golden Globes. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), ‘Leonardo’ by Chicago Underground Trio, ‘Beware of Darkness’ by George Harrison, ‘Everyone Wants To Rule The World’ by Tears for Fears, ‘Dirty Work’ by Steely Dan, “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 323 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, TV Editor Tyler Doster, Associate TV Editor Karen Peterson, as well as AwardsWatch contributors Mark Johnson and Dan Bayer to discuss their favorite films of 2025 in part one of the AW end of the year show.

As we are about to begin an exciting new year of cinema in 2026, we say goodbye to 2025 with our AW team’s favorite films of the year. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into two episodes this year, each covering a selection of the nine films the team loved the most. On this first installment of the end of the year show, the movies discussed were Sinners (Mark), Sorry, Baby (Tyler), The Secret Agent (Karen), Resurrection (Dan), and Hamnet (Erik).

In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included One Battle After Another, Weapons, Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, Pillion, The Naked Gun, The History of Sound, F1, and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful part one episode to wrap up 2025. Thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show this past year.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast runs 2h53m. We will be back soon with part two of the best films of 2025, end of the year show. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), ‘I Lied to You’ from Sinners, ‘Sorry, Baby (Piano)’ from Sorry, Baby, ‘Transfusão de Sangue’ from The Secret Agent, ‘Clamor of Time’ from Resurrection, ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ by Max Richter, ‘Silver Dagger’ by Paul Mescal from The History of Sound (outro).

On episode 321 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Cody Dericks to review the latest film from director James Cameron, Avatar: Fire & Ash.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h01m. We will be back later in the week with a 2025 award season focused podcast before the holiday break. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

It's been a big first week of December with no less than five sets of critics groups announcing winners and nominations as we kick off the next three months of nonstop awards season. On episode 318 I am joined by AwardsWatch Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to break down the awards landscape and more.

Before we get into that we have to talk about the other huge piece of news this week and that was yesterday's announcement that Netflix had won the battle to buy Warner Bros and all of its properties, which includes the DC Universe films and HBO/HBO Max. Unsurprisingly, there is no one on the podcast thinks this move is a good idea and sees the Netflix model as intentionally destructive of the theatrical model.

Next we move the Critics Choice Awards nominations, announced this morning, where Sinners and One Battle After Another lead the way, where Sentimental Value and Hamnet made comebacks and where Wicked: For Good faltered. Then it's onto the AFI and NBR lists, the New York Film Critics and the Gotham Awards, where Sophia gives her in the room insight of the event.

This podcast runs 1h 18m You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 317 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson alongside AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer and Josh Parham to go back 30 years and take a look at the 68th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1995.

On this retrospective, the AW team take a trip to 1995, where actor Mel Gibson rode off the with multiple Oscars, winning Best Picture for his war epic, Braveheart. While a hit within its own right, it was a bit of a shocking win considering many believed that Apollo 13 was going to take home Oscar’s top prize. It’s a massive upset that would have ripple effects over the course of Academy history that would have make up wins not just for Ron Howard, but for other nominees in this Oscar field. 1995 is a stacked, incredible year of cinema that the gang tries to reflect a little better than what the Academy nominated with films like Heat, Showgirls, Get Shorty, Clueless, Seven, Before Sunset, Friday, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and more getting either mentions, nominations, or wins in the big top eight categories.Maybe one of them wins Best Picture, maybe they don’t, you’ll have to listen and try not to fall down a flight of stairs to find out.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1995, briefly discuss talk about Braveheart as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h47m. We will be back in next week for another retrospective over the 83^rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2010. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 316 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Trace Sauveur to review the latest film from Universal Pictures, Wicked: For Good

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h54m. We will be back in next week for an Oscar retrospective for the 68th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1995. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 315 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson give their reactions to Wicked: For Good, Marty Supreme and give their updated thoughts on how both films will do in the Oscar race as well as an overview of where the race is at within the four acting categories.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h16m. We will be back on Monday for a full review of Wicked: For Good. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 314 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Trace Sauveur to review the latest film from director Edgar Wright, The Running Man.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h24m. We will be back in next week for a review of Wicked: For Good. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 312 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson alongside AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to go back 20 years and take a look at the 78^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2005.

We are finally out of film festival season and the team is back to give you one of their most anticipated Oscar retrospectives of the year, taking a look back at 2005, the year Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture. In a time where the center of the film world was focused on a film centered around two gay men falling in love, the Oscars swung the opposite direction and gave it to one of the worst Best Picture winners of all time, a film so vile that its win hasn’t aged well the moment it won. Beyond that, it was a fascinating year when the critically acclaimed films of the year took over the top eight categories, while the more populist films made up the winners in the below the line categories; an interesting split in the Oscar wins.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2005, briefly discuss talk about Crash as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h40m. We will be back in next week for an update of the 2025 Oscar season. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 309 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to give brief thoughts on The Smashing Machine, take a look at Oscar contenders at the Fall Box Office, and breakdown their thoughts on the 2026 Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay categories.

We are in the middle of the New York Film Festival (more on that next week) and at the beginning of the Mill Valley Film Festival, but festival season is in full swing as movies that premiered earlier in the year are making their way to the theaters with The Smashing Machine this weekend. The MMA-biopic vehicle to get The Rock an Oscar seems to be between a rock and a hard place after a lackluster showing at the box office and audience score. The team break down their thoughts of the film, why they think it didn’t hit at the box office, as well as look at the other films releasing this weekend and circle back to the numbers for One Battle After Another.

In the back half of the episode, Ryan, Erik, and Sophia take a deep look at the screenplay categories, Original and Adapted, which have become a vital category to win if a film is going to win Best Picture. Films mentioned are Sentimental Value, Sinners, Jay Kelly, One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Weapons, Train Dreams, It Was Just An Accident, and many more as possibilities that could make up the ten films that will become the nominees in March 2026.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 59m. We will be back in next week to recap and wrap up the 2025 New York Film Festival. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

We're a mere 11 days before the 52nd Telluride Film Festival kicks off on Labor Day weekend and we have a packed show. On episode 303 AwardsWatch Editor-In-chief Erik Anderson is joined by Executive Editor Ryan McQuade, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, contributors Mark Johnson and Jorge Tenreiro and Christina Birro of Pop Culture Confidential to break down what we think will be at Telluride this season, who might be getting Silver Medallions and much more.

On this episode the crew looks at how Toronto and New York film festival designations give us the clues we need to see what will, or might, be showing up at Telluride including coveted world premieres, Chloé Zhao's Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, and Edward Berger's Ballad of a Small Player with Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton among them. Telluride is also full of Cannes winner carryovers and we expect to see Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident, Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (Grand Prize winner) and Kleber Mendonça Filho's double winner The Secret Agent (Best Director, Best Actor Wagner Moura) -- all NEON films -- in the lineup. There's also a certain amount of sleuthing involved in the guessing game and is there a chance that A24 debuts Mother Mary here? We'll have to wait and see...

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h4m. We will be back in next week to talk about Spike Lee's newest film Highest 2 Lowest and talk about our Top 5 Spike Lee joints. Till then, let’s get into it.

On episode 301 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson alongside AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to give their thoughts on the latest horror film from director Zach Cregger, Weapons. This podcast contains full SPOILERS!

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h27m. We will be back in next week for a preview of the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 300 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson alongside AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Josh Parham to go back 35 years and take a look at the 63rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 1990.

On this retrospective, the AW team take a trip to 1990, where actor Kevin Costner rode off the with multiple Oscars, winning Best Picture for his western Dances With Wolves. While a massive hit at the time, history has not been kind to the winner here as it has become one of the biggest mistakes in Best Picture history, with many believing this was the right time to give Martin Scorsese his due with his masterpiece, Goodfellas. Alongside talking about that, the team explores a turning point of cinema, where the big Hollywood hits made or released from the 1980s were starting to blend with the independent cinema that would dominate the 1990s. It’s a fascinating year at the intersection of Hollywood’s biggest night.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1990, briefly discuss talk about Dances With Wolves as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h07m. We will be back in next week for a review of the latest horror, Weapons. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 299 of the AwardsWatch Podcast, it's an all editors show as Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello look at the wealth of fall festival lineup announcements that came in this week from Venice and Toronto.

In the pod, the trio start with Venice, which will be the kickoff of no less than three Netflix titles: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly and the return of Kathryn Bigelow with A House of Dynamite. With a few other Netflix titles rolling around, we talk about the impact of these three titles starting off here and where else we'll see them this season. Yorgos Lanthimos' newest collab with Emma Stone, Bugonia, will also bow at Venice, leaving Focus Features' other top title Hamnet, rip for Telluride. Mona Fastvold, fresh off The Brutalist last year (with her partner Brady Corbet), has The Testament of Ann Lee with Amanda Seyfried, something has all of us buzzing. Then there's The Smashing Machine from Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. We also dig into the Out of Competition titles, specifically Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, which has some internet folks thinking it means something more than it does.

Onto TIFF, always the most helpful as specific designations are listed for each film, we talk about Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser, Sydney Sweeney in Christy and where the big Cannes winners from NEON and MUBI, like Sentimental Value, It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent, Sirāt and Sound of Falling landed.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h14m. We'll be back next week with an Oscar retrospective of the 63rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 1990. Till then, let's get into it.

On episode 298 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Griffin Schiller to review the latest film in the MCU, The Fantastic Four: The First Steps.

You can also read the published review from Trace Sauveur on the website here.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h27m. We will be back soon to talk about the fall festivals and give a preview to the upcoming Oscar season. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 297 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Josh Parham, and Jay Ledbetter to go back 50 years and take a look at the 48th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1975.

On this retrospective, the AW team take a look back at what might’ve been the greatest Best Picture lineup of all time, featuring the films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Barry Lyndon, Nashville, Dog Day Afternoon, and Jaws. This group of five films collectively encapsulate the type of films audiences clamored for fifty years ago and are all considered all-time classic in their own right, some being the best film within their respected director’s filmography. But the interesting exercise with this line-up is looking at the lackluster films surrounding these masterful films. But this is the fun part of the process of looking back and talking about a year like this, if it is a landmark year like others in the 1970s or if it just top heavy.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1975, briefly discuss talk about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h40m. We will be back in next week for a review of the latest film from Marvel, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

It's still warm from the heat of the nominations this morning for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, where Apple dominated the competition, leading both the drama and comedy fields with the long-awaited second season of Severance (27) and the first season of The Studio (a record-setting 23). On episode 296 I am joined by The Ankler's Katey Rich to break down this year's nominees.

From the ongoing strength of The White Lotus, continuing to dominate the acting categories, to buzzy new shows like The Pitt, Rich and we look at how and why certain shows remain strong in the minds of Emmy voters, why The Bear fell dramatically, and talk about some of the biggest snubs and surprises of the day.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 34m. We will be back in next week for an Oscar retrospective on the 48th Academy Awards and the films of 1975. Till then, let’s get into it.

On episode 295 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Griffin Schiller to review the latest film from director James Gunn, Superman, starring David Corenswet as the Last Son of Krypton (and Clark Kent, of course), Rachel Brosnahan as intrepid reporter Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as evil real estate tycoon turned government-overthrowing villain Lex Luthor.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h38m. We will be back in next week for an Oscar retrospective on the 48th Academy Awards and the films of 1975. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 294 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Jay Ledbetter to play the Director Stock Market Game.

Two years ago, the AW podcast team talked about the state of modern movie stars and discussed who might be the future movie stars of films. Given how the trend of the film industry is leaning more towards IP driven films and becoming a director’s medium, it’s only right the team did a follow-up episode to talk about some of the bright talent from behind the camera, and who could become the premiere visionary directors that we will follow for years of releases to come.

With this in mind, Ryan, Josh, and Jay put together a list of directors under the age of fifty who they believe have the potential to join the rank of some of the greatest filmmakers of the modern era of cinema. The list of names included a wide range of talent like Emerald Fennell, Damien Chazelle, Ryan Coogler, Ari Aster, Celine Song, Jordan Peele, The Daniels, The Safdie Brothers, and many more the team had to decide if they were going to buy, sell, or hold the stock of these directors. It was a lot of fun doing this episode, we hope you enjoy it.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h19m. We will be back in next week to review the latest release, Superman. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 293 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Dan Bayer to review F1: The Movie, and talk about their favorite films of 2025 so far, which include conversations on Black Bag, Sinners, The Life of Chuck, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h21m. We will be back in next week for an exciting new episode where we play The Director Stock Market Game. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 292 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to review the latest film from Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, 28 Years Later.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h08m. We will be back in next week for a review of F1: The Movie, and talk about our favorite films of the year so far. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 291 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to review the second feature film from Oscar-nominated writer-director Celine Song, Materialists.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h05m. We will be back in next week for a review of the latest film from Pixar, Elio, as well as the latest from director Danny Boyle, 28 Years Later. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Good horror films should terrify audiences with memorable monsters and eerie effects, but great horror will also fearlessly tackle timely issues with complex characters and impactful resolve. This is exactly what Tina Romero does in her feature debut, “Queens of the Dead,” with her talented team of collaborators. Though she never expected to make a movie about zombies, the title makes for a beautiful nod to her dad, George, aka the “Father of the Zombie Film” or “Godfather of the Dead,” while still remaining true to herself. Which, as a talented multi-hyphenate, allowed her to imbue the film with even more soul and called back to her early days as a DJ. She speaks to the collective energy music fosters, how her DJ name added another layer to the film’s setting, and how Kesha became the ideal voice for a queer-coded apocalyptic battle cry.  

Romero joined me for a lively, revealing interview along with producer Natalie Metzger and actors Tomás Matos (Fire Island, Fantasmas) and Julie J before the film’s premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. They all expressed their overwhelming excitement for working on a project that was as unapologetically queer and richly imagined, and were quick to hype up their sensational co-stars, including: Katy O’Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Riki Lindhome, Margaret Cho, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Jack Haven, Nina West, Dominique Jackson, and Cheyenne Jackson. Furthermore, they credit the makeup designer Christina Grant, hair department head Mitchell Beck, and costume designer David Tabbert for creating unforgettable looks that quite literally slay the house down boots. 

The effortless rapport in the following recording and seen on-screen is a direct result of the entire team cultivating a sense of community and tolerance. Attacks against the LGBTQ+ community continue every day and this film is a testament that having an open dialogue and fighting back with kindness and honesty is the only way to achieve a brighter, more accepting future.

On episode 286 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to review the latest film from the MCU, Thunderbolts*, in a discussion full of SPOILERS. They also take a look into what the future plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks like via the post credit scene of this newest project.  

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h26m. We will be back soon preview the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 285 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Mark Johnson to preview the films coming during the 2025 Summer.

Summer movie season is upon us. As Sinners and A Minecraft Movie dominate the Spring box office, we’re heading into the time of the year where everyone is going on vacation, out of school, and looking to cool off from the heat by going to see some of the biggest films of the year. The AW team opts out of a Summer Movie Draft this year, and instead, breaks down the titles coming out over the course of the next four months, with extensive conversations over their box office potential as well as the groups anticipation for the live action Lilo and Stitch, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Jurassic World Rebirth, the live action How to Train Your Dragon, Superman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, F1, Pixar’s Elio, Thunderbolts, Weapons, Materialists, M3GAN 2.0, The Naked Gun, and more. Stay tuned to the end to hear what they think will be the Top 3 highest-grossing films of the summer.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 1h45m. We will be back in next week for a review of the latest film from Marvel, Thunderbolts. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 284 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Dan Bayer to review the latest film from director Ryan Coogler, Sinners, and talk about their favorite horror films of the century so far.

The film world has been buzzing the last two weeks in the anticipation for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a Southern gothic vampire musical that in one of the most original, authentic studio films released in sometime. After a strong opening box office and even stronger word of mouth from audiences, receiving an “A” CinemaScore this past weekend, Sinners is being considered one of, if not the best film of 2025 released so far. Ryan and Dan breakdown their extensive thoughts on the film, avoiding spoilers yet diving deep into the complex, exciting world Coogler has built. After they are done reviewing the film, they dive into a discussion over the horror genre for the last 25 years, and how it has evolved and changed over the course of the last two and a half decades. Films mentioned in their conversation ranged from Get Out, Saw, The Ring, The Cabin in the Woods, The Conjuring, Drag Me to Hell, The Others, American Psycho, The Witch, Midsommar, It Follows, Green Room, The Substance, Nosferatu, Suspiria, Titane, and many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h17m. We will be back in next week for an extensive 2025 Summer Movie Preview. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 283 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to breakdown the 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup and then review the latest film from A24, Warfare.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 48m. We will be back in next week to review the latest film from director Ryan Coogler, Sinners, and talk about their favorite horror films of the century so far. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 282 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello as well as AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Jay Ledbetter, Josh Parham, and Karen Peterson to go back 10 years and take a look at the 88^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2015.

The team take a trip back to just a decade ago where the Oscars were at a moment of reflection as the #OscarsSoWhite movement rang loudly as the nominations didn’t fully show the diverse, talented artists that made the year in film so strong. Chris Rock (whose jokes this night would spark the later controversy for “The Slap” at the 2022 ceremony) hosted the ceremony and highlighted perfectly that the Academy had a long way to go to show the world that they can change and allow everyone the chance to be nominated and win an Oscar. For the telecast, it was a night dominated by Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant in the technical categories, Leonardo DiCaprio finally winning an Oscar, a cool, shocking upset in Best Visual Effects, and Spotlight winning the top prize, along with just Best Original Screenplay, making it the first film since The Greatest Show On Earth to win Best Picture while only winning one other award.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1980, briefly discuss talk about Spotlight as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to four films to make up the final set of eight nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h14m. We will be back next week for a review of the new A24 drama, Warfare, as well as talk about some of the best war films of the decade/century so far. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 281 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Josh Parham to review Death of a Unicorn from A24, as well as talk about their favorite comedies of the 2020s as well as their favorite comedies of the last 25 years, the first quarter of the century.

 Before getting into their thoughts on the latest release, Ryan and Josh discuss the big trailer that dropped last week for Paul Thomas Anderson’s film One Battle After Another, starting Leonardo DiCaprio. In the first glimpse of the biggest film of the director’s career, there was plenty to love as well as be cautious about in anticipation of the film’s release this coming September. After their brief thoughts on the trailer, they transition to Death of a Unicorn, which premiered earlier in the month at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. Ryan, who reviewed the film at the festival, was mixed on it, and Josh joined him for a mixed reaction of a fascinating concept that never amounted to much in the final product. A disappointing comedy featuring a mostly wasted all-star cast.

 The conversation moves to talking about their favorite comedies of the 2020s so far, as the website and podcast will start to look at the best films of the decade so far. Films like Hundreds of Beavers, Bottoms, Anora, Benedetta, Barbie, Anora, and more. After discussing those films, they opened up the conversation to the best comedies of the last 25 years, as the team will also be taking a look at the best films of first quarter of the century. Films included in the conversation was Anchorman, A Serious Man, MacGruber, Bridesmaids, Spy, Mean Girls, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Walk Hard, Superbad, Hot Fuzz, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and plenty ore.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h39m. We will be back in next week for a Oscar retrospective over the 88^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2015. Till then, let’s get into it.

 Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 279 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to discuss their thoughts on the latest 2025 releases, Mickey 17 and Black Bag.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h37m. We will be back in next week for a Oscar retrospective over the 53rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 1980.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 277 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to give out their final Oscar winner predictions for the 97th Academy Awards.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h39m. We will be back next week to wrap of the 2025 Oscar season and give our reactions to the winners of the 97^th Academy Awards.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 275 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Trace Sauveur to talk about the latest film from the MCU, Captain America: Brave New World and dive into a conversation about the current and future state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

You can read Trace's review of the film here.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h50m. We will be back soon to discuss the 2025 BAFTA winners and preview the 2025 SAG awards. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

This weekend truly kicked off the Oscar race with the 1-2-3 punch of Critics Choice, the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild all announcing their winners in the span of 24 hours, including dueling ceremonies for the latter. On episode 274 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson is joined by AwardsWatch Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to break down what happened, how it happened and what's next.

In a surprising sweep, Sean Baker's Anora took home the top prize at all three: Best Picture at Critics Choice (its only win), the DGA for Theatrical Film and the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures at the PGA. Erik, who was at all three events, offers his insight to vibe in the rooms, which felt muted at Critics Choice until the left field Best Director win for Wicked's Jon M. Chu (and the awkward Oscar-stat intro the category got), and the race from the DGA to the PGA that brought life back to everyone, making Anora the first film to win the Palme d'Or and DGA since 1955's Marty and pushing it (back?) to the top of the Best Picture race. But what does that mean for its star Mikey Madison? The young actress is the far and away critics' leader but so far has lost to Demi Moore (The Substance) in their first two face-offs, the Golden Globes and Critics Choice (ironically, or not so). With BAFTA and SAG looming, as well as the passion for Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here), Best Actress remains the most exciting race of the season.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h57m. We will be back next week with the very fresh BAFTA winners and a preview of the Screen Actors Guild. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 273 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Jay Ledbetter and Josh Parham to go back 25 years and take a look at the 73^rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2000.

The state of the new millennium say the Oscar get nostalgic as Ridley Scott’s swords and sandals epic, Gladiator, took home the top prize of the night, alongside Best Actor and a couple wins in the technical categories. A giant hit from the summer, the film took down an international film sensation in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, two films from Steven Soderbergh in Traffic and Erin Brockovich, and the sleeper, delightful indie film Chocolat. Overall, it was a descent list of nominees and winners that represented a shift from the indie films that dominated the 1990s, and the more populist films that would become winners in the early 2000s.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2000, briefly discuss talk about Gladiator as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h14m. We will be back next week for a recap the winners from Critics Choice, DGA and PGA as the Oscar race starts to narrow before final winner voting begins. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 272 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Trace Sauveur to talk about the latest film from Steven Soderbergh, Presence, and discuss the Top 5 film from the acclaimed director. Some of the films covered in the Top 5 range from Ocean’s Eleven, Contagion, Magic Mike, Kimi, Out of Sight, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h23m. We will be back next week with an Oscar retrospective on the 73rd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2000. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

2025 Oscar nominations for the 97th Academy Awards have been revealed and on episode 271 of the AwardsWatch podcast Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson is joined by Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to break down everything that went down.

From the field best 13 nominations for Emilia Pérez (is this finally their Oscar Best Picture win?) to how The Brutalist, Wicked and Anora played out, the gang look at who is the frontrunner as we enter the second phase of awards season, who falls and our favorite nominations of the day. We try and crack some of those '5th spot' nominations like Fernanda Torres over Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Sebastian Stan over Daniel Craig and much more.

For ways to donate or help with the ongoing fires in Los Angeles and their aftermath, go here.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 57m. We'll be back next week to talk about our favorite Steven Soderbergh films and our thoughts on his newest, Presence.

On episode 270 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Mark Johnson to give out their final Oscar nomination predictions for the 97^th Academy Awards.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h23m. We will be back next week with a brand new episode. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 269 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello discuss the winners of the 2025 Golden Globes and how they will impact the Oscar race.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast is brought to you by Orion Pictures’ Nickel Boys, from director RaMell Ross. Nominated for five Critics Choice Awards; Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for Supporting Actress, Best Director and Best Picture. Named “The best film of the year” by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Indiewire, Boston Globe, and The New York Times. For Your Consideration in all categories including Best Picture.

This podcast runs 1h45m. We will be back next week to announce our final Oscar nomination predictions.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 268 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, and AwardsWatch Contributors Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks, Jay Ledbetter, Josh Parham, Karen Peterson, Trace Sauveur, and Griffin Schiller breakdown their favorite films of 2024.

As we are about to begin an exciting new year of cinema in 2025, we say goodbye to 2024 with our AW team’s favorite films of the year. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into six sections, each section covering the six films the team loved the most. Those films included Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (Karen and Griffin), Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Trace), Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light (Josh) Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow (Dan and Cody), RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys (Erik and Jay), and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (Ryan and Sophia).

In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included Challengers, Queer, Juror #2, Maria, Hit Man, Babygirl, Hundreds of Beavers, Hard Truths, Anora, Trap, Dahomey, The Substance, and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful last episode of 2024, thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show this past year. We here at AwardsWatch hope you all have a Happy New Year.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h50m. We will be back next week to breakdown the winners of the 2025 Golden Globes.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “Once Upon a Time” from Robin Carolan, “Basm epic” from Z.O.B., “Imagined Light” from Topshe, “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” from yeule, “Color Memory” from Alex Somers, “Overture (Bus),” “Intermission” from Daniel Blumberg, “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 267 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Jay Ledbetter and Dan Bayer to go back a couple of years to take a look at the 92nd Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 2019.

Five years ago, the Academy handed out one of the coolest Best Picture winners in our lifetime, awarding Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite alongside a surprising win for Best Director as well as wins in the Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature. It was a historic win as it was the first non-English language film to win the Oscar’s top prize, and might go down as one of the influential wins in the modern era. This film released inside a fantastic year of cinema to end the 2010s, though it was nominated in a selection of films that more or less didn’t showcase just how strong of a year 2019 was. But that is what episodes like this is for, for the AW team to come in and make the changes necessary to the nominations (and winners) to showcase just how great a year in film is was.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2019, briefly discuss talk about Parasite as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to five films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. They also do something for the first time in this episode in one category not yet done before, making for a wonderful new wrinkle to the game.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h14m. We will be back next week for our episode on the AW team favorite films of 2024. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 266 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Josh Parham to give their thoughts on some of the films releasing this holiday season, Queer, Babygirl, A Complete Unknown, and Nosferatu.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h7m. We will be back next week for retrospective over the 92nd Academy Awards, covering the films of 2019.

This podcast is sponsored by Focus Features presenting Conclave. Your choice changes everything. In theaters now.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 265 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello break down the nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes, as well as the winners for the European Film Awards and Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h8m. We will be back next week to discuss some of the latest 2024 film releases before the end of the year.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 264 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson, Jay Ledbetter and Josh Parham to go back 30 years to take a look at the 67th Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1994.

Thirty years ago, it was Bob’s year as Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump took home the Oscar for Best Picture, alongside Tom Hanks winning his second straight gold statue for back to back wins. It was one of the most commercially successful films of 1994 that went on to win the big prize, and is part of one of the most influential years from the 1990s. Films like Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Three Colours: Red, Hoop Dreams, The Lion King, and more highlight a crossover of studio films blending success with indie darlings to make for a fascinating film year to talk about.

In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1994, briefly discuss talk about Forrest Gump as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h28m. We will be back next week to discuss some of the latest 2024 film releases before the end of the year.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 263 of the AwardsWatch podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello break down the deluge of early season goodies with Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Circle, Spirit Awards nominations, National Board of Review winners and the AFI Top 10 announcements.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h24m. We'll return next week with reviews of A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu and Babygirl.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 262 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Jay Ledbetter to give their thoughts on Gladiator II and discuss their Top 5 Denzel Washington performances.

Big weekend at the movie as audiences around the world got to see the long awaited Wicked Part 1 and Gladiator II. Before the guys get into their thoughts on Ridley Scott’s latest, Ryan shares his reactions to Wicked Part 1, and why for him, the film is mostly frustrating experiences with a couple of good performances in it. After that, Ryan and Jay dive right into Gladiator II, a film over twenty years in the making, as Scott dives back into the world he created in 2000’s Best Picture winning epic. Much like the original, the film is a tale of revenge, centered around a main character looking to take on not just the ones of betrayed him, but the most powerful of Rome, leading to bloody battles and political intrigue around every corner. The boys were mixed on it, with Jay not being as positive on the film as Ryan is, with the totality of the conversation focusing on the film’s script, Scott and his team’s craft of recreating Rome, if Paul Mescal is a “movie star,” and Denzel Washington’s incredible performance.

Once they are done reviewing the film, the episode shifts solely to Washington, one of the greatest movie stars of all time and his magnificent, celebrated career. The two time Oscar winner has built a career on and off screen that rivals many legendary actors and actresses. And after covering plenty of his films on Director Watch this year, Ryan and Jay give out their Top 5 Denzel Washington performances. The films discussed ranged from Remember the Titans, Malcolm X, Man on Fire, He Got Game, Crimson Tide, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Roman J Israel, Esq., John Q, Training Day, Philadelphia, Glory, Devil in a Blue Dress, and more. A fun, extensive dive into a career of one of the best to ever do it, and we hope you enjoy it.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h11m. We will be back next week for a retrospective of the 67th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1994. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Emperors! Gladiators! Nearly 1000 extras! We talked to Jana Carboni (makeup designer) and hair designer Guiliano Mariano about their immense work on Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. How they were inspired by Fellini's Satyricon and the Sex Pistols. Battling the heat and the elements to get Paul Mescal’s gladiator tan and body paint just right. Denzel's manicured hands and much more.

On episode 260 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to review Steve McQueen’s Blitz and A24’s latest horror film, Heretic.

It is a short, simple episode of the AW podcast this week as tons of films are being released right now before the holiday season, campaigning events are happening all around the country, and the world is still reeling from the results of last week’s U.S. elections. Instead of a grand show, Ryan and Josh are here to talk about two films that hit theaters this weekend, Blitz and Heretic. The first is Blitz (read review here), the latest film from Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), and premiered at the London Film Festival last month before making stops at the New York Film Festival (Closing Night selection) and Middleburg Film Festival (Opening Night selection). The boys talk about the film’s relation to McQueen’s filmography, the lackluster script, beautiful craft work, the performances from Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan, and where it sits in the Oscar race right now. Next up is the religious, psychological horror film Heretic (read our review here), from the writers of A Quiet Place. Led by an excellent performance from Hugh Grant, Ryan and Josh talk about the tense, exciting pace of the first act, Grant’s monologue’s, hint at hilarious pop culture references within the film, A24’s run of films this year, and why the film crumbles, like a blueberry pie, in executing a thrilling finale.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 59m. We will be back next week to do a discussion on where everything is at in this year’s Oscar race. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 258 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello talk about the Gotham Awards nominations, the world premieres of AFI FEST 2024 and two films we saw outside of the festival that will be in the Oscar race.

Always considered the kickoff of awards season, the Gotham Awards nominations were revealed this week and without too much surprise Sean Baker's Anora led with four nods: Best Feature, Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance (Mikey Madison) and Outstanding Supporting Performance (Yura Borisnov). Next up with three apiece were RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys (Best Feature, Best Director, Breakthrough Performer – Brandon Wilson) and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow (Best Director, Outstanding Lead Performance – Justice Smith, Outstanding Supporting Performance – Brigette Lundy-Paine). We break down these nominations, the surprises (Challengers in Best Feature as its only nod, The Brutalist missing there) and snubs (notably, Joan Chen) and everything in between. See full list of nominations here.

Then we head over to the AFI FEST 2024, which just ended last weekend, to talk about the world premieres of the fest: Music by John Williams (review), Robert Zemeckis's Here (review), Clint Eastwood's Juror #2 (review) and the new Aardman Animation film Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. It's a pretty spirited conversation as the film from two directing giants are among our least favorite films of the year, but then buoyed by the joy and fun of the new Aardman. Conversely, we venture into two films that we loved and saw outside of the festival last week, Halina Reijn's Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, and Ridley Scott's return to the Colosseum with Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 58m. We will be back next week for a retrospective of the 87th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2014. Till then, let’s get into it.

On episode 256 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer and Josh Parham to discuss Sean Baker’s latest film, Anora, and discuss their favorite films to win the prestigious Palme d'Or award.

While we are coming towards the end of fall festival season, one of the hottest festival films of the year was the winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. Anora, written and directed by Sean Baker and starring Mikey Madison, has been the one of the most talked about films of the year, garnering praise from audiences around the world and setting itself up for a big run later this Oscar season. But just how good is the film? Ryan, Josh, and Dan breakdown Baker’s latest, what they think of the film overall, the performances, mild discussion on the film’s ending, and where they see its path in the Oscar race moving forward. Once they were done with that, they moved into a larger discussion over their favorite past winners of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d'Or. With some of the most influential, celebrated films of their respected years winning the award, the Palme d'Or is a signal for excellence in cinema. Some of the films discussed ranged from All That Jazz, Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Brief Encounter, Blow Up, The Conversation, Parasite, Shoplifters, Barton Fink, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Tree of Life, and many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h49m. We will be back next to do discuss the main trifecta of fall festivals - Telluride, Toronto and New York - then in two weeks for AFI FEST Film Festival and take a look at the Oscar race after each.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 254 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Dan Bayer to review and give their reactions to the movie everyone is talking about, The Substance.

Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, audience can’t stop talking about the latest body horror thriller from director Coralie Fargeat, The Substance. Led by powerhouse performances from actresses Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and filled with tons of blood, twists, and turns, the film just came off of winning the TIFF People's Choice Award for the Midnight Madness section of the program. As it heads into theaters across the country, Ryan, Karen, and Dan break down their inventive, unique world that Fargeat created, the make-up design as well as the stellar work by the entire ensemble, making for one of the team’s favorite films of the year. They did their best to not give any of the film’s reveals away, knowing audiences show go into The Substance knowing little to nothing about it in order for the full wave of shocking moments Fargeat’s second feature presents. Also on the show this week was brief thoughts by Karen about Transformers One, and Dan’s thoughts on the TIFF Audience Winner, The Life of Chuck. A rare one-hour episode with lots packed in, so we hope you enjoy!

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h08m. We will be back next week to do discuss the latest film release, Megalopolis.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 253 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello take a look at the awards landscape now that we're in a post-Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festival world.

With Venice, led by jury president Isabelle Huppert, choosing Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door, Telluride critics and audiences both going for Sean Baker's Anora and Toronto voters choosing Mike Flanagan's currently distributor free The Life of Chuck as the People's Choice, there's plenty to talk about in how these choices impact the Oscar race, solidifying some early predictions and changing up others. Telluride saw strong showings for early frontrunner Conclave and late surprise September 5, which just got a Paramount pick up and a prime awards release date while Saturday Night seems to have peaked and cratered in a matter of days.

With Nicole Kidman winning the Volpi Cup at Venice for Babygirl and Sony Pictures Classics choosing to push both Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in TRND for lead consideration, the Best Actress conversation gets more exciting and fruitful by the day. Angelina Jolie, Mikey Madison, Amy Adams and more are all circling that final five. But a lot of internet chatter hyper-focused on that TIFF win for The Life of Chuck and understandably so; all of but one of the last 15 winners there earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination. That stat caused lots of scurrying, lots of extra math, and for many, finding a place for it in their new top 10. But, stats fall every year and sometimes instinct beats out overthinking.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 51m. We will be back next week to do discuss the latest film release, The Substance. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 252 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Josh Parham to go back 50 years to take a look at the 47^th Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1974.

Fifty years ago, the Academy Awards gave out the Best Picture Oscar to the first sequel in their history by awarding The Godfather Part II their highest award, as well as Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Original Dramatic Score. 1974 not only featured one of the greatest sequels of all time, but multiple masterpieces like Chinatown, The Conversation, Young Frankenstein, and many more. The Best Picture lineup, as well as the nominees, showcased a pretty stacked, diverse year at the movies, with comedies, ensemble action films, costume dramas being represented alongside prestige crime dramas that spoke to the moment. In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1974, briefly discuss talk about The Godfather Part II as a Best Picture winner, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren’t normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h17m. We will be back next week to do discuss the latest film release, The Substance.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 251 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributos Karen Peterson and Cody Dericks to discuss Tim Burton’s latest film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and talk about some of the favorite (and least favorite) “legacy sequels.”

While everyone is making their way back from Venice and Telluride, and others are in Toronto for TIFF, the new release of the week spark a surprise hit at the box office, and a return to form for its director, Tim Burton. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a legacy sequel to the 1988 cult classic, took in close to $145 million at the worldwide box office after premiering to a mostly positive reception out of Venice just two weeks ago. The team break down the film, how it fits in with the original, Keaton’s performance, the evolution of the existing characters alongside the addition of new one, and what Burton should do next.

After talk about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, they transitioned to talking about the “legacy sequel,” which is a film that follows the continuity of the original movie(s), but takes place further along the timeline and focuses on new characters with the original ones still existing in the new story. Sometimes the film can even follow the same formula as the original film, just adding in new special effects or characters to make the audience feel like they are witnessing this world for the first time; essentially a nostalgia bomb. While these don’t always work, there are some that are an exception to the rule, as Ryan, Karen, and Cody discuss when they talked about films like Top Gun: Maverick, Creed, Doctor Sleep, The Color of Money, Before Sunset, Mad Max: Fury Road, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mary Poppins Returns, and more, including some legacy sequels that frustrate them like the recent Scream and Indiana Jones films.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h05m. We will be back next week to do another AW Oscar Retrospective episode about the 47^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1974. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 250 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, and special guest Christina Birro of Pop Culture Confidential come together to discuss their reactions to the films at the 51^st Telluride Film Festival.

The 2024 film festival season has begun and many of the biggest titles of the fall film slate, Oscar season are being released over the last week with both the Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival. Based on our past episode, the Telluride Film Festival announced their line-up with the world premieres of Conclave, Nickel Boys, Saturday Night, The Piano Lesson, The End alongside with several other films, as well as movie that have premiered at other festivals like Anora, The Outrun, Maria, A Real Pain, September 5, Emilia Perez, and more. It made for a great lineup over the Labor Day weekend, and the group break down their time at the festival, talk about all the movies they saw above and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h01m. We will be back next week to discuss Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and talk about our favorite “legacy sequels.” Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 248 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to breakdown the various films in the Alien franchise and then give their thoughts on the latest entry, Alien: Romulus.

For listeners of last week’s episode, which covered the films of 1979 via a Oscar retrospective, you would’ve heard the team was really high on Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Alien. Known as one of the most celebrated films of the 1970s, as well as one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, Alien set a standard of excellence for the sci-fi horror genre that everyone has tried to recreate. The film then spanned many sequels, prequels, spin-off films going on for the past 45 years. Ryan and Josh discuss their relationship with the franchise, their favorite and least favorite things about each film, which includes Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and the two Alien vs Predator films. Once they’ve gotten through all of those titles, they jump right into a SPOILER-FILLED conversation about Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus (review here by Sophia Ciminello), which is a low stakes prequel set between the first two films in the franchise and stars Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson. While the film provides some decent kills, Ryan and Josh give their full thoughts on how disappointed they were by this film, and how they don’t know where the future of this franchise will go after this confusing, wasted entry left things off. It’s a very in-depth conversation we hope you like.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h56m. We will be back on the next episode to preview the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 246 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to go back 45 years to take a look at the 52nd Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1979.

Before we step back into another AW Oscar retrospective, the team take a look at the summer movie box office game as we enter the final month of the summer. With Deadpool and Wolverine, Inside Out 2, and Despicable Me 4 dominating the box office, they take a look at how the summer has shown to prove many of their initial thoughts right about the box office, as well as the couple of surprises that took over the box office like Longlegs. Ryan’s team is in the lead by there is still plenty of time left for Erik’s team to make a comeback.

Onto the main portion of the podcast, Ryan, Sophia, and Josh travel back forty-five years, to 1979, where Hollywood was in the middle of a transition from the auteur filmmaking of the 1970s to the more conventional, franchise, populist filmmaking of the 1980s. The 52nd Academy Awards were a good showcase for this shift in focus as Kramer vs Kramer took home five Oscars, including Best Picture, a small family drama that was one of the top grossing films of the year; beating out All that Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Breaking Away, Norma Rae for the top prize. In their in-depth discussion, the trio talked about the film year of 1979, briefly discuss talk about Kramer vs Kramer as a Best Picture winner, do a little Oscar trivia as it relates to this year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. As usual, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h42m. We will be back next week to talk about the latest release, Alien: Romulus, as well as break down the Alien franchise as a whole. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 244 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to give their thoughts on the career of director M. Night Shyamalan and then give out a SPOILER review of his latest film, Trap.

As we step into the second half of the year, one of the most anticipated films arrives from one of Hollywood’s most fascinating figures with M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. The new thriller seems to be dividing audiences and critics alike, much like man of the films within the director’s filmography, leading to a interesting conversation between Ryan and Karen as their review took place shortly after they saw the film opening night. But before they give their thoughts on Trap, the duo talked about the director’s previous fifteen films, the good ones, the bad ones, and his place in Hollywood stands in the pantheon of the other directors from his era as well as where he stands as an artist today. Then they get into a full SPOILER review of Trap, where they talk at length about Hartnett’s killer performance, the film’s thoughts on fame, serial killers, being a dad, as well as the music and, of course, the film’s ending. If you think this conversation was a good and in-depth about Shyamalan’s career, go to our website and read both Ryan’s ranking piece on Shyamalan’s entire career, as well as Cody Dericks’ retrospective review of the director’s twenty year old classic, The Village.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h10m. We will be back next week to do another Oscar retrospective episode over the 52nd Academy Awards and the films of 1979. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 243 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch Television Editor Tyler Doster to talk about Deadpool & Wolverine and discuss their favorite films of 2024 so far.

Before we get into the meat of this week’s episode, a couple of major pieces of news dropped this past week. First up is the first trailer for James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as music legend Bob Dylan. The film will be releasing in December, most likely heading straight to theaters and skipping the upcoming fall film festivals. Erik and Tyler were largely positive on the trailer, but Ryan had some…other thoughts that’s well worth the listen. After that, the team broke down the announcements of the full line-ups for the Venice and Toronto Film Festival, as well as the opening night film for the New York Film Festival. We are starting to find out where all the films are going for each festival, setting up the upcoming Oscar season. More on that and some predictions of next week’s podcast.

Moving right along to the main review for the week, Deadpool & Wolverine, which destroyed all competition at the box office this past weekend while also showing a divide amongst critics and audiences. Ryan and Erik give their thoughts, which were just as mixed as our review from our own Jay Ledbetter that is up on the website. After talking about the film, Ryan, Erik, and Tyler discussed at length their favorite films of 2024, as we are pasted the halfway mark of the year and there have been plenty of good movies to discuss. Some of the titles mentioned are Babes, I Saw The TV Glow, Challengers, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Ghostlight, National Anthem, Sing Sing, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h42m. We will be back next week to talk about the latest release, Trap, as well as talk about some Oscar predictions before the fall festival season begins. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 242 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Karen Peterson to give their thoughts on Twisters and discuss their favorite disaster movies.

Before a big political announcement right before the recording of this episode, the news of the weekend was the success of Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters, which made over $80 million dollars, shattering expectations made by box office prognosticators. Though this is one victory for the film, the AW team’s review of the film was rather mixed in their in-depth, layered conversation about the follow-up film to the original 1996 film. The team talked about the film as a whole, as well as the weak script, half-hearted attempts at connecting the original film to this new version, the chemistry between the film’s leads, and the impressive visual effects that are on full display. We have a full review up on the site written by Erik, where he describes Twisters perfectly, as it is “more fizzle than sizzle.”

In the back half of the episode, inspirited by Twisters and the fondness for Twister, the team had a fun discussion over some of their favorite disaster movies; films that cover some form of natural disaster, accidents, attacks or global catastrophes such as a pandemic. The films mentioned included The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Contagion, The Day After Tomorrow, Titanic, War of the Worlds, Sunshine, Jurassic Park, Dante’s Peak, Armageddon Unstoppable, Airplane, Deep Impact, Volcano, Crawl, The Happening, The Perfect Storm, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h11m. We will be back next week to talk about the latest release, Deadpool & Wolverine, breakdown the lineup for the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and talk about their favorite films and performances of the year so far. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 241 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Jay Ledbetter go back 25 years to take a look at the 72nd Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1999.

Two and a half decades ago marked on of the richest years of cinema, showcasing some of the most influential films within popular culture that have lived on as classics that brought us into the 21^st century. But with such a rich selection of cinema released by Hollywood, with innovated blockbusters, stellar comedies, groundbreaking international selections, and introspective, auteur driven projects that rank as some of the best films of the careers for filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, The Wachowskis, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Michael Mann, and more. But when it came to the Oscars for this year, the Academy went with a newcomer in director Sam Mendes and his suburban drama, American Beauty, a beloved film at the time that has become complicated and disliked by many, as well as most of the winners from this ceremony.

On this episode, the team talk about where they were in 1999, their thoughts on the overall film year as well as the Oscar ceremony, briefly discuss talk about American Beauty as a Best Picture winner, do a little Oscar trivia as it relates to this year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. It made for a lively, fun show with spirited debate, alliances, vote swinging and more that we all hope you enjoy.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 3h04m. We will be back next week to talk about the latest release, Twisters, and our favorite disaster movies. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 240 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson is joined by AwardsWatch TV Editor Tyler Doster to give our final predictions for the 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations in Drama and Comedy Series, Limited Series and TV Movie and all lead and supporting acting categories.  

I know it seems like we just had the Emmy Awards and because...we did. Just six months ago, the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards were held in January after the Television Academy vacated their usual September date due to the ongoing writers and actors strikes last year. Not only did we have the Emmys plunked right down in the heart of Oscar season, because the Television Academy uses its traditional eligibility period of June 1 - May 31 and groups like the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild use a regular calendar year (January 1 - December 31) that put, for example, the first season of The Bear winning Emmy Awards and the second season (which aired last June) winning Globes and SAGs. Messy and confusing for the average viewer, to say the least.

Speaking of The Bear, after its domination last season (winning Comedy Series, Directing, Writing, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress), the second season should find itself among the most-nominated comedy seasons of all time when nominations are announced next week. The current record holder for a comedy is 30 Rock when it earned 22 in 2009. With expanded supporting and guest categories, The Bear is very likely to tie if not surpass that this year.

This year's nominations will also give us a wealth of new contenders, both as first seasons and as one or more in, as many shows have either ended their run or did not make the eligibility cutoff. Shows we won't hear on nomination morning include The White Lotus, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Yellowjackets, Jury Duty, and Wednesday while shows canceled or that have ended their run include Succession, Better Call Saul, Barry, and Ted Lasso.

As Tyler and Erik break down who we think is getting in, it becomes clear that not only will some of these five-nomination slot categories be bloodsport competitive, the move by FX to soft greenlight more seasons of Shōgun, therefore allowing it to submit in Drama Series, has really shaken up the race. A race that seemed like a bit of a cake walk for the final season of The Crown as it limped to its finale. We start off with the limited series categories, which prove to be the most competitive with so many categories limited to five spots. Faves will fall on nomination morning. Moving into comedy, the dominance of The Bear after its season one triumphs point to a likelihood of it being able to take up half of any given supporting (or guest) acting category. Finishing off with drama, it's a similar story, figuring out how many actors from Shōgun will make it in.

The 76^th Primetime Emmy Awards nominations will be announced on Wednesday, July 17^th at 8:30am PT by previous Emmy winners Tony Hale and Sheryl Lee Ralph (Hale is in Unfrosted and Quiz Lady, Ralph is in Abbott Elementary) on emmys.com.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h30m. We will be back next week for a Oscar retrospective covering the 72nd Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1999. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 239 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Dan Bayer to review Ti West’s latest in his X franchise, MaXXXine, and talk about their favorite films set in Los Angeles.   

While the Minions dominated the box office this past weekend, it was Ti West newest horror film that got the attention of the AW team. Known for being one of the teams most anticipated films of the summer, MaXXXine continues the adventures of Mia Goth’s titular character after her survival of the events of 2022’s X, and finds her on the run for her life against a mysterious killer in 1985’s L.A. While Ryan gave the film a mostly positive review on the website, the film has been received with mostly a mixed reaction by critics and audiences, which made for a fascinating conversation by the team as their thoughts varied in all different directions, much like the plot of the film.

In the back half of the episodes, inspired by the setting of MaXXXine, the AW team got to sit down and talk about films that are some of their favorites set in the City of Angels, Los Angeles. Being one of the premiere destinations in all of the United States, and the birth place of Hollywood, L.A. can be a magical, daunting, mystical, romantic, terrifying, complex setting for a film, and thus makes it such an interesting place to talk about. Some of the films mentioned in the conversation ranged from Clueless, Mulholland Dr., Singin’ in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, Speed, Collateral, Heat, Chinatown, Double Indemnity, Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood, L.A. Confidential, The Player, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Licorice Pizza, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h11m. We will be back next week for a Oscar retrospective covering the 72nd Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1999. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 238 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to review the latest film releases, Kinds of Kindness and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, as well as discuss their Top 5 Westerns.

While A Quiet Place: Day One was dominating the box office this past weekend, two other releases caught the attention of the AW team, Kinds of Kindness and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, both of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. For Kinds of Kindness, we find acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos returning to the big screen with his follow up to Poor Things with a nearly three-hour anthology film with an all-star cast lead by Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Margaret Qualley, and more that focuses on three separate stories that center around the idea of control. In the case of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, we see the big screen return, and gamble, of director Kevin Costner, with a three hour sweeping epic set in the old west that takes place over five different storylines. Ryan and Josh (who saw both films at Cannes) break down their reactions to both films, the pros and cons of both, and whether they think they will dive into the remaining chapters of Horizon and what they hope to see in Lanthimos’ next film coming out next fall.

In the back half of the episode, the duo dive into a Top 5 based on the western genre, inspired by the release of Horizon. One of the oldest genres in the history of cinema, the western is one that speaks to the roots and fabric of America, while also being one to speak brilliantly of how our current world can be reflected so bold, brash, and violent as our past. This makes for the perfect conversation to talk about some of the best films in not just the genre, but some of greatest films of all time. Mentioned in this discussion were films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Unforgiven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Once Upon a Time in the West, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and so many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h18m. We will be back next week to talk about latest film from A24, MaXXXine, and discuss their Top 5 films set in Los Angeles. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 237 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Karen Peterson to discuss the latest film from Jeff Nichols, The Bikeriders, and talk about their Top 5 Hang Out Movies.

Before getting into this week’s topics, Ryan and Karen give a little update to the AW Summer Box Office Game as we are about to head into the month of July. For most of summer, Team Erik held a healthy lead in the friendly competition but things have changed with the entrance of Pixar’s Inside Out 2. With Despicable Me 4, Deadpool and Wolverine, and each teams “bomb pick” still in play, the game looks to still have plenty of twists and turns that we will keep you updated on throughout the upcoming weeks.

Transitioning to the main discussion, Jeff Nichols returns to theaters with his first film in eight years, The Bikeriders. Following a gang of bikers in the 1960s in Illinois, the film has been considered on the best releases of the year so far, but our two podcasters were left impressed that others and explained their thoughts as to way Nichols’ latest effort felt half baked. Once they gave their thoughts on The Bikeriders, they used this new release as a chance to do a Top 5 over their favorite “hang out” movies, stories where the plot takes a back seat to a group of characters and their usually fun, vibrant interactions. During their Top 5, some of the films discussed during this conversation included Empire Records, Almost Famous, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Lost in Translation, American Graffiti, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Everybody Wants Some, A Hard Day’s Night, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h46m. We will be back next week to talk about Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, Kinds of Kindness, and discuss our Top 5 Westerns inspired by the release of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 236 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Jay Ledbetter to participate in a draft of the greatest movie stars of all time.

A recurring question surrounding the talks about the future of modern cinema is the absence of the ‘movie star,’ a person audiences can trust when spending their money to go to the theaters. For close to a hundred years, the film industry has survived on the movie star to survive, though the idea of what makes one had changed as time has gone on. In trying to understand potentially the future of the ‘movie star,’ the AW team decided to have some fun with this topic by doing a Greatest Movie Star draft, consisting of six rounds where the team, in a ‘snake order’ draft picks the best movie stars that represent various decades that include 1930s-1940s. 1950s-1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s-2000s, and a wild card round where the team picks a current movie star that is under 35 years old that they think will be the new faces of Hollywood. Some of the stars mentioned in this draft are Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Robert Redford, Paul Newman and many more. Listen and see who everyone drafted and then go and vote to see which team is the best ensemble of the greatest movie stars of all time.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h53m. We will be back next week to talk about Jeff Nichols’s latest film, The Bikeriders, and discuss our Top 5 Hang Out Movies. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 236 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Karen Peterson and Jay Ledbetter to participate in a draft of the greatest movie stars of all time.

A recurring question surrounding the talks about the future of modern cinema is the absence of the ‘movie star,’ a person audiences can trust when spending their money to go to the theaters. For close to a hundred years, the film industry has survived on the movie star to survive, though the idea of what makes one had changed as time has gone on. In trying to understand potentially the future of the ‘movie star,’ the AW team decided to have some fun with this topic by doing a Greatest Movie Star draft, consisting of six rounds where the team, in a ‘snake order’ draft picks the best movie stars that represent various decades that include 1930s-1940s. 1950s-1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s-2000s, and a wild card round where the team picks a current movie star that is under 35 years old that they think will be the new faces of Hollywood. Some of the stars mentioned in this draft are Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Robert Redford, Paul Newman and many more. Listen and see who everyone drafted and then go and vote to see which team is the best ensemble of the greatest movie stars of all time.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h53m. We will be back next week to talk about Jeff Nichols’s latest film, The Bikeriders, and discuss our Top 5 Hang Out Movies. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 234 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks, and Josh Parham to tier rank the 97 winners for Best Director from the Academy Awards.

While everyone is breakdown the summer box office and the state of movies from the month of May, the AW team turn to the month of June by going back to a favorite exercise from last year, an extensive tier of an Oscar category. After doing Best Picture last year, the team moves onto the next most prestigious category at the Oscars; Best Director and its 97 winners. In trying to place these winners in the correct spot, the team had to come together and decide on whether to place the films in the S (all-time winner), A, B, C, D, or F tier and explain the ranking. The episode was so much fun that it had to be split into two parts, with this episode covering all the films up to 1980, placing a couple of classics making their way into the S tier early on.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h46m. We will be back next week with Part 2 of the Best Director tier rankings. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 233 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson to discuss director George Miller’s latest film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, talk about the winners from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, and preview the 2024-2025 Oscar season.

We are getting close to the halfway point of the film season, and you know what that means; Oscar season is around the corner. Before talking about the season though, Ryan and Erik give their thoughts on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and has been buzzed as one of the best films of the year so far. Erik would strongly disagree with that statement while Ryan, who wrote the review on the website, would say that Furiosa is “one of the greatest prequels of all time” as well as consider it one of the year’s best. After have a well-rounded conversation about the film, they transitioned to talking about the winners at the Cannes Film Festival, which saw director Sean Baker take home the Palme d'Or for his latest film, Anora. This sparked a discussion that got Ryan and Erik talking about the impact this year’s Cannes Film Festival will have on the rest of the award season, what films from the first half of the year have a shot at breaking into the race, and which films to keep an eye out for at the fall festivals, as studios start to get into their positions for another race towards a Best Picture win. The films discussed ranged from Dune Part 2, Sing Sing, Kinds of Kindness, Blitz, Conclave, Queer, Maria, The End, A Real Pain, Gladiator 2, We Live in Time, Emilia Perez, The Nickel Boys, Wicked, The Piano Lesson, The Fire Inside, Inside Out 2, Joker: Folie à Deux, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h34m. On our next episode, we will be doing a tier ranking episode based on Best Director winners at the Oscars to determine who the greatest winners of the category are.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 232 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch TV Editor Tyler Doster to discuss NEON’s latest film, Babes, and then dive into a conversation about the 2024 Emmy Race.

Back at SXSW this year, Pamela Adlon’s Babes premiered to glowing reviews, including Tyler’s review that called it “the comedy of the year.” Releasing in limited theaters this past weekend, Ryan and Tyler give their thoughts on the hilarious comedy starring the talented Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. Once they are done talking about the film, Ryan and Tyler dive deep into the Emmy Race, as things are heating up since episode 226 when Tyler spoke with Erik about how things are going to look for the latest season. With Shōgun moving to the Drama Series categories, Baby Reindeer announcing itself in the Limited Series race, and shows like Hacks, The Sympathizer releasing their episodes, the Emmy season is looking to be one of the most head scratching yet exciting batch of nominees we’ve seen in a long time. The two editors go back and forth on the shows they are watch, the questions they have about the latest movements in the categories, and the impact a season like this could have on future Emmy seasons.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h01m. On our next episode, we will be discussing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, 2024 Cannes Film Festival winners and get into our first 2025 Oscar predictions of the year.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 231 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Dan Bayer to review the latest film from A24, I Saw The TV Glow, and give out their Top A24 films.

Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, audience have been raving about Jane Schoenbrun’s psychological drama, I Saw the TV Glow, which is a fascinating examination of our consumption of media as well as a queer allegory about trying to find yourself within a small town that doesn’t accept you. The movie is considered by many to be the film of the year, with our own Savina Petkova calling it “fiercely beautiful” with her review out of the Berlin Film Festival. Ryan and Dan breakdown all the beautiful, complex aspects of this stellar second feature in a lengthy, spoiler free discussion.

In the back half of the episode, in honor of the latest film released by the famous yet young studio, the duo takes a trip down memory lane and talk about their favorite film released by A24. With films ranging from modern horror classics, heartwarming coming of age comedies, experimental genre films, and even two Best Picture winners, A24 has released a wide range of films that can be considered some of the most vital, celebrated cinema from any studio in the last two decades. Some of the films they talked about included The Green Knight, Hereditary, Eighth Grade, 20^th Century Women, A Most Violent Year, Past Lives, Moonlight, The Zone of Interest, Lady Bird, and many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h18m. On our next episode, we will be discussing the latest release from NEON, Babes, and talking about our favorite films about parenthood.  

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 230 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Dan Bayer, Josh Parham, and Karen Peterson to give their thoughts on The Fall Guy and discuss their favorite movies that are about making movies.

The summer movie season is in full swing as stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt take to the big screen again, this time ditching their Barbie and Oppenheimer crews to come together for The Fall Guy, an action-adventure-romance spectacle about a stunt guy who is hired by a Hollywood producer to find the missing star (whom he used to double for) of a major studio film that is being directed by his ex-girlfriend. Lead by the chemistry between Gosling and Blunt, The Fall Guy is a kind of movie that “can remind you that going to the movies is a magical, highly entertaining experience.”, Ryan, Dan, Josh and Karen break down their reactions to the film, its underperformance at the box office, and why they think people should give it a shot and go see it before it leaves theaters.

In the second half of the show, the gang discuss their favorite movies about movies, which is a big part of the overall plot of The Fall Guy, speaking a ton about the film industry and the personalities that are at the center of it. But movies about movies can be a multitude of things, ranging from being a love letter to the art form to an examination of the dangerous, heartbreaking mirage that fame and filmmaker can be. This allowed the team to talk about a wide selection of films that included Sunset Boulevard, Get Shorty, Singin’ in the Rain, The Player, American Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Sullivan’s Travels, Ed Wood, Dolemite Is My Name, Pain and Glory, Mank, and many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h47m. On our next episode, we will be discussing the latest release from A24, I Saw the TV Glow, and revealing our top five A24 films.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

On episode 229 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to review Luca Guadagnino’s latest film Challengers, and then discuss their favorite sexiest/horniest films.

Releasing this past weekend was one of the best reviewed films of the year so far, Challengers, which was supposed to come out last year but was delayed because of the SAG/WGA strikes. In his follow-up to 2022’s Bones and All, Luca Guadagnino’s tennis love triangle became the number one film at the box office, and had the AW team talking about it all week long. Ryan, Erik, and Sophia break down their overall reactions to the film, its excellent performances from its all-star cast, the innovated editing, fist-pumping score from Reznor and Ross, and of course, the hot, sexual tension at the core of this incredible film. Listen to their spoilers be damned review as well as read Josh Parham’s written review of the film on the website.

After they are done talking about Challengers, the gang transition into a conversation about their favorite films that they find sexy and/or horny. In trying to go within the vein of Challengers tone, they talked about some great films that not only just had sex scenes, but the feeling of falling in love, longing for the person they want to be it, as well as repressing one’s love and how tragic that can feel. There are also just some obvious picks that are just straight up horny fun. Included into the conversation was Out of Sight, Don’t Look Now, Wet Hot American Summer, Brokeback Mountain, Y tu mamá también, In the Mood for Love, Moonlight, Bull Durham, The Age of Innocence, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h22m. On our next episode, we will be reviewing The Fall Guy and talking about our favorite movies about movies.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 228 of the AwardsWatch podcast, it's a full house as Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello are joined by AwardsWatch contributors Jay Ledbetter, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, Kevin Lee and new to the AW team, Karen Peterson, on her first pod with us. Executive Editor Ryan McQuade was unable to join today.

This episode we're tackling the 2024 Summer Box Office Draft and we noticed something right away. Not only is there nothing close to resembling a 'Barbenheimer' like last year, it feels like a soft summer for most of us. After COVID decimated theaters and theater attendance in 2020 and 2021, it started to bounce back in 2022, if slightly. Then double industry strikes - first writers then actors - over the summer of 2023 sent scrambling studios moving some of their high profile films around (like Amazon MGM's Challengers and Warner Bros' Dune) to spring and beyond.

But even without clear box office behemoths like Barbie and Oppenheimer, there still look to be a few juggernauts that could spell a win for either Team Ryan (with Sophia, Josh and Karen) or last summer's winner, Team Erik (with Kevin, Jay and Dan). Shuffling through sequels, prequels, franchises and a handful of original films, the teams built their drafts with Team Ryan going first, followed by Team Erik, picking five films we think will get us across the finish line and one bomb we think will ding the other team's chances. Animated films like Despicable Me 4, Inside Out 2 and The Garfield Movie making the list, as did the long-awaited teaming up of Deadpool & Wolverine. But smaller films found their way in to, with Trap and MaXXXine showing up. We close talking about some major titles that just the missed the cut, how this year's horror films have shaken out and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h56m. On our next episode, we will reviewing Luca Guadagnino's hot, love triangle tennis drama Challengers, starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 227 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to discuss the latest film from director Alex Garland, Civil War, and discuss their favorite political and journalism thrillers.

Before they jumped into the review of Civil War, the 2024 Cannes Film Festival was announced this past week, with dozens of American and European films dominating the lineup. Films from Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Schrader, Andrea Arnold, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sean Baker, Jacques Audiard, Paolo Sorrentino, David Cronenberg and more will be having their world premiere next month at the prestigious festival. Not only is it one of the biggest film festivals in the world, but it has become an important stomping ground for International Features, especially the ones that make it into the Oscar categories later in the season. The gang break down what they can’t wait to see since Josh is going to the festival next month while Ryan, Erik, and Sophia will catch a lot of these titles at Telluride later in the year.

Moving onto the main event of the podcast, Civil War has become one of the most talked about films of 2024 so far, even before its premiere at SXSW. The trailer alone sparked discussion and anger from many thinking it is not the right time to be releasing a film like this as the United States is ramping up for another Presidential Election. But much to the surprise of all, early reactions indicated a much different movie than the trailer suggested. The gang break down their reaction to it the film, covering everything from the film’s political stance, the screenplay, the performances and so much more. After that, they dive into a fascinating, in-depth conversation over their favorite political and journalism thrillers, a topic that all of them love considering some of their favorite films of all time came out of the genres. Some of the films discussed in the extensive conversation include All the President’s Men, Nightcrawler, JFK, Zodiac, Munich, The Hunt for Red October, Blow Out, The Ghost Writer, Zero Dark Thirty and so many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h17m. On our next episode, we will be doing the 2024 AwardsWatch Summer Movie Draft. You won’t want to miss it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 225 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to discuss Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, and talk about some of their favorite directorial debuts from actor turn directors.

Some of the best debuts feature films within a yearly film slate come from actors taking their turn behind the director’s chair. This is year is no different as Oscar nominee Dev Patel has released, alongside the help of Universal Studios and producer Jordan Peele, Monkey Man, an action revenge thriller that is a reimagining of childhood stories and myths Patel heard when he was growing up. Premiering earlier this year at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, the film was received extremely well, with Ryan’s review from the fest stating that “Patel has announced himself as a directorial voice to be reckoned with a knockout, confident debut.” Erik and Sophia were able to catch up with it this past week and gave their thoughts on this personal, action pack thrill ride from Patel.

After talking about Monkey Man, the conversation shifted to a large discussion on the groups favorite directorial debuts by actor turn directors, which covered a large range of personalities and genres. Already being the public eye, and having some form of cache in the business, along with something to say, there can be a lot of pressure on actors who step into the role of directors and make their first films and beyond. Some go on to use their first film as a launch pad for a big career behind the camera, while others peck within their first project, never able to capture the magic again. In a wide-ranging conversation, some of the films discussed by Ryan, Erik and Sophia were Ordinary People, This is Spinal Tap, Get Out, Reds, Eve’s Bayou, Yentl, A Star is Born (2018), The Virgin Suicides, Confessions of Dangerous Mind, Lady Bird, Whip It, The Night of the Hunter, and more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h2m. On our next episode, we will be latest film from director Alex Garland, Civil War, along with discussing our favorite political thrillers, and breaking down the 2024 Cannes Film Festival line-up.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 220 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to give their reactions to the 2024 SAG Awards.

Before we get into talking about the SAG Awards, the first significant release of 2024 screened this past week, as many were able to get a first look at Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two before it arrives in theaters later this week. Ryan and Erik were able to be some of the lucky critics to catch it, and gave their quick, spoiler free reactions to the film at the top of the show. The full review from Ryan is live on the website, and there will be a new episode of Director Watch coming soon to discuss the film is its totality.

Onto the main topic for this week, the gang come together to talk about the 2024 SAG Awards, which streamed live on Netflix this past Saturday night. While the show was a bit of a mess, the winners for the acting categories started to take full shape for the Oscars as Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Robert Downey Jr. continue their award season dominance for Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor, while Cillian Murphy and Lily Gladstone took the lead in Best Actor and Best Actress as we head into the final week of Oscar voting. Listen as the AW team breaks it all down and previews next week’s show as we head into the final Oscar predictions for the season.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h09m. On our next episode, we will be giving our final 2024 Oscar predictions. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 219 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Dan Bayer to give their reactions to the 2024 BAFTA Awards, and give out their predictions for the upcoming 2024 PGA, SAG, and Independent Spirit Awards,

As discussed on last week’s show, the 2024 BAFTA awards were this past Sunday, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer taking home seven awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. With the film’s other wins in Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Editing and Score, it has solidified itself not only as the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars, but it is the forgone conclusion that it will be our winner this year. But with three weeks to go, can any other film set forward as a challenger and take Best Picture right at the last second? Poor Things looked to be the latest challenger to Oppenheimer as made its case by winning five BAFTA’s including Best Actress for Emma Stone. But it lost Best British Film in a upset to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, thus making it clear which film the BAFTA voting membership was going to reward its top prize to. Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, and American Fiction also took home prizes, while films like Barbie. Saltburn, All of Us Strangers, Maestro, and Killers of the Flower Moon went home empty handed. The gang discuss the impact of these results and how much they will factor them in going into the final stage of season.

After discussing the BAFTAs, Ryan, Erik, and Dan gave their full predictions for the PGA, SAG, and Independent Spirit Awards, which included plenty of talk about Oppenheimer another big step towards it’s Best Picture win, discuss how the four acting races will conclude, how SAG will vote in their television categories, and what they think the unpredictable Film Independent voters will vote on for its winners. All in all, it was a fun predictions portion segment filled with tons of possibilities for various winners to walk away with the top prizes at each show.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h46m. On our next episode, we will be giving our reactions to the SAG Awards, as well as doing a review of the latest sci-fi epic, Dune: Part Two. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 218 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Dan Bayer to give their 2024 BAFTA predictions and talk about their favorite romantic comedies.

Before getting into the meat of this week’s show, there was major Oscar news this past week, as the Academy announced the addition of a brand new category for the 2025/2026 season, Best Casting. While there is a lot of speculation as to the rules of this new category, but this is a welcome addition to the Oscar lineup. The gang speculate what they want to hear from the Academy when they announce the specifics to their new category in April 2025.

Moving onto the awards talk, the guys talk about the recent wins at the DGA and ADG awards ceremonies from this past weekend, which saw not only Christopher Nolan get closer to an Oscar win for Best Director, but a real race for Best Production Design between Poor Things, Oppenheimer, and Barbie. This led right into the BAFTA predictions conversation, which could open up the race and lead to some surprises from this overseas voting body that has a big cross over with the Academy. Films like Oppenheimer, Poor Things should do well, with The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers and All of Us Strangers looking to play spoiler in a few categories. Winners will be handed out next weekend and we will discuss them on next week’s show.

Then in the back half of the episode, as Valentine’s Day rolls around this coming week, Ryan, Erik and Dan discuss their favorite romantic comedies. They talk about what they love about the genre, what makes them work, some of their favorite films and memorable theater experiences seeing them, as well as what they would like to see going forward when it comes to rom-coms. Some of the films discussed included My Big Fat Greek Wedding, When Harry Met Sally, Moonstruck, Bottoms, Fire Island, Annie Hall, Harold and Maude, The Shop Around the Corner, Sleepless in Seattle, and so many more.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h53m. On our next episode, we will be giving our reactions to the BAFTA awards, as well as give our predictions to the SAG Awards and talk about the latest film from Ethan Coen, Drive-Away Dolls. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 217 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson stands in for AW Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and welcomes AW Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to talk a bit about the Oscars, review Argylle and dive into our favorite films of the spy and espionage genre.

Early February is a quiet time for Oscar predicting; there are very few critics groups to still chime in and all guilds and industry nominations have landed. It’s voting time for several, including SAG, DGA and PGA and idle hands are the devil’s playground. In our opening, Erik, Sophia and Josh root around the lead acting and screenplay categories which seem more open and elusive than usual and we take an early stab at what could shake things up and why.

Then it’s Argylle, Apple Films’ colossal box office, critical and audience flop that opened this weekend and Josh is tasked with stewarding that sinking ship as the only person on the pod who saw it. With its $16M opening, mid-40s Rotten Tomatoes score and C+ Cinemascore, the film is not long for theaters and Josh will tell you why.

Then we get to the meat of the podcast and that’s talking about spy and espionage films that do work for us and those that we count among our favorites. With the Mission: Impossible and Bond franchises looming so large over this genre – we give them space and due – we talk about some formative film in the genre for us like Goldfinger and the spy spoof Condorman and then into the films that we love the best like The Manchurian Candidate (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Conversation (1974), No Way Out (1987) and Spy (2015). Plus, what list would be complete without Hitchcock?

But we return to Bond and give out some of our choices to replace the iconic figure now that Daniel Craig is officially retired from the role. Hit us up in the comments with who you want to see play the dashing, rogue agent.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h36m. On our next episode, we will be talking about our favorite rom-coms just in time for Valentine’s Day and our predictions for the BAFTA winners. Till then, let’s get into it.

On episode 216 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to give their reactions to the 96th Academy Award nominations.

Bright and early on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 96^th Oscar nominations, celebrating the films released within the year 2023. If you have been listening to the show, and following the race this season, it is no shock at all that Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer lead all films on nomination morning with 13 nominations, followed by Poor Things with 11 nominations, Killers of the Flower Moon with ten, and Barbie with eight. Speaking of Barbie, the biggest snubs and surprise of the nominations came when director Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie missed in the Best Director and Best Actress category, only for America Ferrera to sneak into the Best Supporting Actress line-up. There were other surprises that included five-nomination tallies for Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, The Holdovers (but missing Best Director), and a solid showing for American Fiction. Ryan, Erik, and Josh break down every aspect of the above the line nominees, which predictions they got right as well as the ones they missed, and as they get into the below the line categories, question some of the stranger choices the members of the Academy made. An overall good conversation surrounding a (for the most part) good group of nominees.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h12m. On our next episode, we will be talking about our favorite spy/espionage films due to the release of Matthew Vaughn’s latest film, Argylle. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 215 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Kevin L. Lee to give out their final 2024 Oscar nomination predictions.

Tuesday, January 23, 2024 will mark the moment we have all been waiting for; this year’s Oscar nominations. We’ve seen the Golden Globes and Critic Choice Awards hand out their winners, with SAG, PGA, BAFTA and many more industry groups hand out their nominations so far and it is shaping to be a big day for Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Holdovers.

But before we find out the nominations, out team came together early to break down who they think will get in, as well as which films they could see being shut out on Oscar nominations morning, and which film could pull out some surprise nominations. Early in their discussion, they give a brief overview of the below the line categories before they dive in the big eight categories (Best Picture, Best Director, the four acting and two screenplay categories), as well as Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary, and Best International Feature. It was a very detailed, fun show where the team laid out all the various scenarios in each category that could take place, leaving plenty of room for doubt as many categories are still wide open for surprises on the morning of the nominations.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h39m. We will be back next week to talk about the 2023 Oscar nominations, what got in, what didn’t and everything in between. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 214 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson break down the winners of the 81st Golden Globes.

As we flip our calendars to 2024, the Oscar race has started to heat up at the winners of the 81st Golden Globe Awards were honored from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, live on CBS and Paramount +. The evening marked the first televised award show of the season, giving actors, writers, directors, producers and more the necessary opportunity to make the first speeches of the season, and see who can emerge as a front runner on the night. With an impressive haul, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took home the most awards with 5 wins including Best Picture, Drama.

Over on the Comedy-Musical side of things, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things took home the Best Picture prize, with Barbie, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, and The Boy and the Heron taking home many of the film awards.

For television it was a dominating night for Succession, The Bear, and Beef, showcasing their strength in the industry right before the long-delayed Primetime Emmy awards next week. Ryan and Erik discuss it all, and talk about how these wins will shape what we see further in the Oscar and Emmy races.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 51m. We will be back next week to break down the winners of the SAG and DGA nominations and the winners of Critics Choice. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 213 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, TV Editor Tyler Doster and AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, Cody Dericks, and Jay Ledbetter to discuss their favorite films of 2023.

As we begin the new year, we say goodbye to 2023 with our AW team’s favorite films of the year from a year filled with so many exceptional movies, it looks like we will be talking about 2023 as one of the great movie years for a long time. Instead of having everyone on one call together, the show is split up into four sections, each section covering the four films the team loved the movies. Those films included Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers (Erik and Josh), Celine Song’s Past Lives (Tyler and Dan), Todd Haynes’s May December (Sophia and Cody), and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (Ryan and Jay).

In each segment, each person talks about why they selected the film as their favorite of the year, as well as an in-depth discussion over the film. At the end, the team gave honorable mentions for other films that they loved that included The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, The Taste of Things, The Killer, Asteroid City, Priscilla, Passages, Godzilla Minus One, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., and many more. Please enjoy this wonderful first episode of 2024, thank you all for reading everything on the website as well as listening to the show in 2023. We hope you all have a Happy New Year.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h55m. We will be back next week to break down the winners of the 2024 Golden Globes. Till then, let’s get into it.

On episode 212 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributor Dan Bayer to discuss their reactions to the Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations, as well as talk about a slew of films releasing during the holidays.

Right as we head into the holiday break, the 2023 Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations were announced last week, with similarities and major differences to consider for the race to Oscar nominations next month. With the Globes, major love was found in the form of International films with Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, Fallen Leaves and Anatomy of a Fall landing big nominations in many of the major categories. At Critics Choice, Saltburn and The Color Purple landed in the Best Picture lineups, something they weren’t able to do at the Golden Globes. But what was clear is the four films that collected a ton of nominations at both, with Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things leading all films at both ceremonies. Ryan, Erik and Dan break it all down and even give a give a Golden Globe prediction or two.

After this lovely, lively conversation, the guys transition to reviewing three of the major award season and commercial releases of the holidays, The Iron Claw, Wonka, and The Color Purple. While these weren’t all glowing reviews of these new titles, Ryan, Erik and Dan had a balanced discussion of what worked and didn’t work for each of them when it came to these titles.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h23m. We will be off next week but we will be back the following week for our end of the year, best of 2023 episode. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from HAAWK via AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 2010 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Associate Editor Sophia and AwardsWatch contributors Kevin L. Lee discuss the 2023 Best Picture race and the movies they watched way too young.

It is December so that means we are right at the beginning of awards season, where the various critics groups are going to start handing out prizes to the best films and performances from the year. This past week saw the Gotham Awards give Past Lives Best Feature Film, Lily Gladstone (The Unknown Country) and Charles Melton (May December) taking the Best Lead and Supporting Performance awards. Sophia was able to attend the ceremony and gave her reactions to the night’s events before the group talked about these wins alongside the NYFCC announcing their winners later in the week.

This led right into the first major discussion of the episode about the Best Picture race and where everything stands. As of now, there seems to be three films that stand as the frontrunners for Best Picture, and those are Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Oppenheimer. The group discuss the strengths and weaknesses in these films chances of winning Hollywood’s biggest prize, as well as the various films, The Holdovers, American Fiction, Maestro, Poor Things, The Color Purple, that are right there in the mix to win the Oscar.

After that great conversation, they transitioned into talking about a topic the team has wanted to talk about for a long time, movies that they were way too young to see. In a deep dive into their taste in films, Ryan, Erik, Sophia and Kevin revealed the films that they were shocked they got to watch at such a young age, as well as movies that scared them, and made them cry. Titles included Jaws, Alien, Jurassic Park, Basic Instinct, As Good as It Gets and a ton of Disney animated films.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h45m. We will be back next week to talk about the Oscar Acting Categories, review Poor Things, and talk about our favorite coming of age films. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

On episode 208 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello and AwardsWatch contributor Jay Ledbetter discuss David Fincher’s latest film The Killer and give out their Top 5 David Fincher films.

One of the most celebrated directors of our time is a man that is fully obsessed with every detail about making a film. Known for being a perfectionist, director David Fincher has made a body of work that stands amongst many as one of the best to ever do it. From police procedurals to adaptations of popular novels to important stories based on a real life events, he prides himself in being a man that loves to showcase the process of how things are done or how we arrive at the most difficult moments humans can make. On this episode, Ryan, Sophia, and Jay breakdown why Fincher is one of their guys, what they love about him, and how his movies have shaped the good and bad tendencies of modern Hollywood. This includes talking about his latest thriller The Killer, which is streaming on Netflix and is one of the best films of the year so far, with stellar performances from Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton, as well as the usual excellent craft work done by Fincher and his collaborators. After that, the group breakdown their Top 5 Fincher films, that include Se7en, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Zodiac.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h25m. We will be back next week to talk about our Top 5 Best and Worst Prequels of all time. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 207 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia and AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Jay Ledbetter discuss who might they think will be the future stars of Hollywood with the Movie Star Stock Market.

For months, the AW podcast team have talked about the state of modern movie stars, and what the future of cinema looks like. Given how the trend of the film industry is leaning more towards IP driven films as well as a big point of emphasis on director’s names attached to projects, the role, and criteria of what we have considered a traditional movie star has changed. With this in mind, Ryan, Sophia, Josh, and Jay put together a list of forty names of actors mostly under the age of forty who they believe have the potential to be the movie stars of the future and help carry movies like the stars before them. The list of names included a wide range of talent like Timothée Chalamet, Margot Robbie, Emma Stone, Daniel Kaluuya, Austin Butler, Paul Mescal, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and many more the team had to decide if they were going to buy, sell, or hold the stock of these potential movie stars. It was a lot of fun doing this episode, we hope you enjoy it.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h35m. We will be back next week to talk David Fincher’s The Killer and our Top 5 David Fincher films. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

On episode 206 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Sophia Ciminello recap the AFI FEST 2023.

Before they get into their final festival experience of the year, the 2023 Gotham Awards were announced last week, giving us the first nominations of the upcoming Oscar season. Voted on by a jury system of selected critics, the films listed comprised of some of the best indie films of the year, including Past Lives, Passages, Showing Up, A Thousand and One, All of Us Strangers and more. This year, the organization removed the budget cap requirements, which limited the film’s that could be considered for consideration to anything made for less than $35 million. Once they were done discussing that, Ryan and Sophia moved on to briefly talk about a big release that debuted in theaters while the podcast was off last week, Killers of the Flower Moon, and why it is one of the best films of the year, in their opinion.

After they were done talking about Scorsese’s latest, they moved on to the AFI FEST, that saw the world premieres of films like Leave the World Behind and Freud’s Last Session and closed with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. Ryan and Sophia talk about those films, as well as their thoughts on Perfect Days, La Chimera, American Fiction, and two highlights, A Matter of Life and Death and All That Jazz, from Greta Gerwig’s special Guest Director section, showcasing five big screen classics.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h27m. We will be back next week to talk about a really fun topic, our Top 5 Modern Movie Stars. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 16 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys discuss the next film in their Lynne Ramsay series, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011).

After coming out with two films back to back early in her career, Ramsay took nine years to return to the big screen with her third feature film that sparked tons of divisive reactions and was regarded as one of the best films of 2011 and of the 2010s decade. A tense psychological thriller about a mother’s bond with her strange, disturbed child showcased Ramsay’s unique ability to build tension throughout a complicated story, as well as the talents of one of the best working actresses in modern cinema, Tilda Swinton. Ryan and Jay breakdown their thoughts on the film, if it’s still relevant subject matter about massive killings in America is handled properly as well as the narrative logistics of the aftermath, Swinton’s stellar career, the titular actor in this film and their body of work, and how much bleak punishment is okay to put on the audience with a movie like this.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h32m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their series covering the films of Lynn Ramsay with a review of her fourth feature film, You Were Never Really Here. You can stream You Were Never Really Here on Amazon Prime Video, as well as rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it. 

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

On episode 205 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributor Zach Laws talk about their Top 5 favorite, and least favorite, franchise remakes/reboots.

Before getting into the Top 5 for this week, Ryan announced the winner of the 2023 Summer Movie Draft, which ended up being a very close finish when the numbers were all added up, showcasing a lot of interesting lessons learned to be going forward into next year’s draft. Once the winner was announced, Zach briefly talked about his review of The Exorcist: Believer, which was the inspiration for the Top 5 this week. As it seems to be another bad horror remake/reboot for director David Gordon Green, it made for an interesting idea to look some of the best franchise remakes/reboots and what makes those work so well, as well as look at the ones that didn’t work out and set back their intellectual properties further than before. Ryan list covered a wide range of films and genres, while Zach primarily stayed in the horror genre for his selections, which included for both of them Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing, The Mummy, Ocean’s Eleven, Casino Royale, The Fly as examples of their favorites, and Man of Steel, Fantastic 4 (2015), Jurassic World, Alice in Wonderland, and the recent Halloween reboot as films that were their least favorite attempts at making a franchise relevant again.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h47m. We will be back in two weeks to recap the AFI Film Festival and give our thoughts on the latest film from Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision-making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 13 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys discuss the final film in their Denis Villeneuve series, Dune (2019).

As the guys talked about last week, Blade Runner 2049 wasn’t the biggest success in the world, though it won a couple of Oscars and was considered a perfect test for Villeneuve to explore existing IP and give his unique vision to it. In successfully making that film, he was then given the massive opportunity to adapt one of the greatest pieces of sci-fi canon with Frank Herbert’s classic novel, Dune. Obsessed with the novel as a kid, Villeneuve decided to split the book into two parts, only shooting the first film, and trusting audiences would like his take on the book enough for there to be a demand for more. It was a big gamble and it paid off with Dune being a good commercial hit that also bleed into multiple Oscar nominations and wins, and a part two that we will see soon. In their discussion, Ryan and Jay talked about the marketing of the film, if it works as a solo film or not, where they stand on Timothée Chalamet as a Hollywood leading man, the technical achievement behind the work, if Villeneuve was snubbed for a Best Director nomination, and give out their rankings to wrap of the series. Make sure you listen to the whole episode to hear the next two series the guys are going to cover to wrap up the 2023 calendar year.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h02m. Dune is currently available to stream on Max and Netflix as well as for rent on Prime Video. The guys will be back next week for the beginning of an all-new series covering the films of Lynne Ramsey, and her first feature, Ratcatcher. You can stream Ratcatcher on Max, as well as rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

On episode 203 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Nicole Ackman and Dan Bayer to give out their Top 5 Sci-Fi films of all time.

Before the team gets into the Top 5 for this week, they discuss the historic deal that the WGA was able to make with the major film studios. In an important step in the right direction, the 148-day strike came to an end on September 27, with the writers getting a three-year deal that met every important demand that they wanted, including better pay, full transparency when it comes to streaming numbers, and the avoidance of A.I being a part of writer’s rooms and letting creatives still run their own projects. While SAG-AFTRA is still looking to make their own deal and their strike is still ongoing, this is a huge win for not just the WGA but workers and unions all around this country.

Moving on from this very important news, Ryan, Nicole and Dan move on to talk about their Top 5 Sci-Fi films, a topic inspired by the release of The Creator, which Nicole reviewed on the website this past week. It is another difficult list for the team to put together, having to consider not just their favorite films in the genre, but which films also honor the genre the best in asking questions about the state of our modern world in mostly futuristic settings. It is one of the richest genres in film history, and the titles selected like Blade Runner, Never Let Me Go, Avatar, The Matrix, Star Wars, Total Recall, Children of Men, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Back to the Future only scratch the surface in how many wonderful sci-fi films there are, which led to a really great conversation by the team.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h50m. We will be back next week with a brand new AwardsWatch Oscar retrospective, talking about the 91st Academy Awards, covering the films of 2018. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 12 of the Director Watch Podcast, Ryan and Jay are joined by fellow AwardsWatch contributor Sophia Ciminello as they discuss the next film in their Denis Villeneuve series, Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

After being nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards and having Arrival land a Best Picture nomination as well, Villeneuve took on his biggest project yet, a sequel continuing the story of the legendary sci-fi film, 1982’s Blade Runner. In working with his staple of regulars like cinematographer Roger Deakins and editor Joe Walker, and with the blessing of the original film’s director, Ridley Scott, Blade Runner 2049 was a technical marvel, that builds on the classic film before it and elevates itself as one of the best blockbusters (if not at the box office) of the last thirty years. In taking a trip to the near future, Ryan, Jay and Sophia talk about Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford’s dynamic performances, the mystery at the core of this story, the acting choices of Jared Leto, Hans Zimmer’s lackluster score, if this is the best film they have talked about so far, and how in the world did Warner Bros. even greenlight this movie, and if a continuation of this franchise is the right thing to do.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h54m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their Denis Villeneuve series with a look at Dune. You can stream Dune on Max, as well as rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

On episode 202 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Sophia Ciminello, Josh Parham, and Zach Laws to give out their Top 5 Directorial Debuts of all time.

2023 has been a pretty great year of films so far, based on what has been released and what most of the team as already seen at the fall film festivals from earlier in the month. With that there has been some standout directorial debuts, most notable Chloe Domont's Fair Play, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. With it set to release in theaters this upcoming weekend (with a streaming date of October 13 on Netflix), the AW team got together for a Top 5 list inspired by the highly acclaimed debut to talk about some of the best first time features to ever be release. In breaking down their lists, Ryan, Sophia, Josh, and Zach talked about a wide range of debuts that were both meaningful to them personally, as well as shaped the course of cinema history when they arrived to audiences around the world. Some of the titles discussed on this episode were Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Night of the Hunter, Badlands, The Parent Trap, Thief, Ordinary People, Bound, The Virgin Suicides, Citizen Kane, and so many more, as the list of honorable mentions were long and full of films everyone should catch up with.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h27m. We will be back next week to talk about our Top 5 sci-fi films in honor of the release of The Creator. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 11 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by fellow AwardsWatch contributor Zach Laws as they discuss the next film in their Denis Villeneuve series, Arrival (2016).

Following the critical and commercial success of Sicario, Villeneuve returned a year later with his first stab into the sci-fi genre, making a film about a linguist who is tasked with the job of finding a way to communicate with extraterrestrials who have landed in twelve different spacecrafts around the Earth. But beyond the film, Villeneuve unexpectedly delivered a healing vessel for audiences who felt a sense of hopelessness with the results of the 2016 election. Lead by a career best performance from Amy Adams and the best work of Jóhann Jóhannsson career, Arrival is considered not just one of the best films of 2016, but one of the most important films of the last decades, and what many consider Villeneuve’s finest work of his career. In this episode, Ryan, Jay and Zach talk about where they were when they saw it in 2016, Zach’s star-studded screening story, why Amy Adam’s was subbed for a Best Actress nomination, the morality of the film’s ending, the fantastic supporting work from Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg, as well as one or two Tim Allen impressions.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h17m. The guys will be back next week to continue their Denis Villeneuve series with a look at Blade Runner 2049. You can rent Blade Runner 2049 via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental (no streaming options) in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)