The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Rankings · Interview
February 24, 2026/ 145 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda work through a wide-open BAFTA slate, catch the dumped Glen Powell caper 'How to Make a Killing,' revisit 'Sinners' a year out, and file their last Best Picture power rankings before the PGAs and SAGs. Then Sean talks cameras, aspect ratios, and center-punching with 'Sinners' cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw.
38 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The BAFTAsand a wide-open home stretch
Took Best Film, Director, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and a Supporting Actor win for Sean Penn. Sean still isn't fully sold on it over Sinners for Best Picture, and notes BAFTA has matched the Oscar only twice in 14 years.
Three BAFTAs: Supporting Actress (Wunmi Mosaku), Original Screenplay, and Score, more than either host expected and a sign of up-the-ballot strength.
Robert Aramayo won Actor for this true story of a man with Tourette's; the film cleaned up at BAFTA but isn't out stateside until April, another wrinkle in a Best Actor race they'd thought was settled.
Jessie Buckley's Actress campaign stays dominant, and the film won Best British Film, which briefly raised, then dropped, the idea of a three-horse Best Picture race.
Won Best Film Not in the English Language, a real challenge to The Secret Agent in the International Feature race.
Went 0-for-11 on the night, enough to raise the specter of it becoming this year's Irishman.
Won Production Design, Makeup and Hair, and Costume Design; they expect a repeat at the Oscars.
Took Sound. Amanda floats a Ford v Ferrari-style editing path for it too, so long as cars are going fast.
Won Special Visual Effects. Big Jim, as expected.
‘How to Make a Killing’
John Patton Ford's follow-up to Emily the Criminal, a soft riff on Kind Hearts and Coronets with Glen Powell as a disowned heir murdering his way back to the family fortune. Dumped into under 2,000 theaters despite a wide-release tag. Both hosts liked it. Sean calls it a 6-or-7 that goes down easy, praises Zach Woods, and dings a tonal clash between farce and class tragedy; Amanda flags Margaret Qualley overdoing it. Set in Powell-free Huntington, Long Island, Sean's hometown.
‘Sinners,’ a year laterthe most nominated film in Oscar history, revisited
Amanda's first full rewatch since theaters: she finds the vampire set pieces the least memorable part and the Smoke-vs-Klan climax and the 'I lied to you' musical sequence the high points. Both read the vampires as a metaphor for the ownership of Black art, note it's the non-Black women who keep inviting the vampires in, and single out Delroy Lindo's garlic-clove scene, Jack O'Connell's Rocky Road to Dublin number, and Michael B. Jordan's twin performance.
The Rodriguez/Tarantino vampire-bar movie people keep reducing Sinners to; Sean argues it belongs to a longer lineage rather than being a straight lift.
Kathryn Bigelow's vampire film, cited as an ancestor of From Dusk Till Dawn and, by extension, Sinners.
John Carpenter's siege movie, another structural forebear Sean traces the lineage through.
Carpenter's is-anyone-who-they-say monster movie. Sean ties the Delroy Lindo garlic test and the Cornbread-at-the-door scene straight to it, and the interview confirms it's Coogler's stated reference.
Best Picture Power Rankingsthe final edition, before the PGAs and SAGs
No. 1, unmoved. Sean's favorite movie of the year and the closest thing to a lock, though a big Sinners night at the PGA and SAG could flip him.
Holds at 2 with 16 nominations and real momentum; two early acting wins on Oscar night could rewrite the whole race.
At 3. Almost certainly wins nothing beyond Best Actress, but the affection is real.
At 4, favored for International Feature and with a live shot in a supporting category; Coogler thanked Joachim Trier as a mentor in his BAFTA speech.
Slides to 6 after an 0-for-11 BAFTA night, but could still take Best Actor.
At 7. Sean won't yet call International Feature against it; the film hits Hulu March 1st, when they'll do a fuller conversation.
Up to 8. Sean's logic is it has a stronger shot in two categories (sound, editing) than Train Dreams has in one.
Down to 9. A strong, Malick-adjacent cinematography case, but likely leaves the night empty-handed.
Falls to last at 10 for winning nothing; both enjoyed the Lanthimos-Emma Stone reunion more than Poor Things anyway.
In conversation
The Oscar-nominated cinematographer on shooting dual formats (65mm 5-perf for the 2.76:1 Ultra Panavision 70 extraction and 15-perf for the 1.43:1 IMAX), on center-punching every character so the extraction never crops a head, on top-lighting to a moonlight source and lighting dark skin without over-lighting it, and on the burning-river finale as the hardest scene. Her second film with Ryan Coogler; she's the first woman of color nominated for Best Cinematography.
Her first Coogler collaboration, a year-long shoot with underwater work that built the shorthand she and the recurring department heads now run on.
The film that hit her at 9 or 10, her first taste of scope and feeling small inside a movie's world.
Seen in an LMU genre course; the black-and-white contrast and real faces set her toward figuring out what a DP actually does.
The other film from that same course that hooked her; she wrote a paper on both.
The anamorphic look she couldn't place as a student, the origin of her lifelong preference for the format and Panavision glass.
Gia Coppola's debut, which she shot after filling in on a test-shoot day; it pigeonholed her in indie teen movies for a while before the scope work came.
The 18-day Gia Coppola shoot she was making when Coogler sent her the Sinners script; she read it the night before shooting and emailed her thoughts.
Coogler's stated reference for Sinners: anamorphic, moody, textured. She draws the tension from it rather than copying its look.
Her touchstone for the Ultra Panavision 70 format she'd used since film school.
The IMAX bank sequence that convinced her nothing beats that camera once it's in your hands.
She compares the IMAX camera's demands on actors to Lol Crawley operating VistaVision for Brady Corbet, a return to how movies used to be made.
Her last-great-thing pick, rewatched while prepping a David Lean documentary interview; the lone figure rising up center-punched at the well is the frame she keeps in her head.
Also mentioned raised along the way
‘How to Make a Killing’ in context Emily the CriminalKind Hearts and CoronetsHit ManThe Running Man
Genre movies that broke into Best Picture The Shape of WaterParasiteEverything Everywhere All at OnceCrouching Tiger, Hidden DragonThe ExorcistThe Silence of the LambsOppenheimer
Coogler and the ‘Sinners’ orbit Black PantherCreed
The twin-performance tangent LegendThe Parent TrapThe PrestigeAmsterdamThor: Love and ThunderThe AccountantDa 5 BloodsClockers
Also in the rankings chatter Ford v FerrariM3GANPoor ThingsThe LobsterDogtoothThe FavouriteCODAAnoraThe Worst Person in the World
X-Men and comic-book detours X-Men: First ClassX2LoganDeadpool & WolverineBatman BeginsSpider-Man: Into the Spider-VerseAvengers: DoomsdayBring It OnKPop Demon Hunters
On Autumn's résumé and touchstones Ben-HurDoctor ZhivagoGreat ExpectationsBeastie Boys Story
In passing Tales from the Crypt: Demon KnightInglourious BasterdsThe IrishmanProject Hail MaryWuthering HeightsThe Thomas Crown AffairCrime 101Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV LokiOn the Road in AmericaThe WireFriday Night LightsX-Men: The Animated SeriesThe Wonder YearsGrowing PainsNirvanna the Band the Show
Podcasts Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Ads State FarmNordstrom RackVolkswagenFIFA World Cup Live (Netflix)Red BullThe UPS StoreInstacart