The Favourite 2018
Olivia Colman won Best Actress, one of the night's few breaks from the established Oscar frontrunners.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
The Oscars Are Removing Four Categories From the Telecast. Why? Plus a Conversation With Nominee Nicholas Britell | The Oscars Show (Ep. 126)
February 12, 2019/ 92 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda break down a very British BAFTAs night, the Academy's plan to cut four categories from the Oscar telecast, and the screenplay races. Then composer Nicholas Britell joins to talk scoring Moonlight, Beale Street, and Succession.
58 films across 6 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 BAFTAsa very British night at the British Oscars
Vice 2018
Rachel Weisz won Best Supporting Actress, historically one of the hardest BAFTA categories to read as an Oscar signal.
Bohemian Rhapsody 2018
Rami Malek's Best Actor win is starting to crystallize a race the hosts say they've been through the seven stages of grief with; it's nominally a film about British people and Freddie Mercury's Live Aid legacy.
Roma 2018
Won Best Film, which the hosts read as the clearest sign yet that it's the Oscar frontrunner, even without a Golden Globes-eligible run to point to.
Lion 2016
The precedent for how often BAFTA rewards its own: Dev Patel won an acting BAFTA for it in 2016, a performance that got little traction stateside.
The Shape of Water 2017
Last year's inevitable Best Picture winner, the comparison point for whether Roma's frontrunner status is as locked.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 2017
Last year's BAFTA Best Film upset, despite being written and directed by a British filmmaker (Martin McDonagh) and being nominally about America.
Green Book 2018
This year's "problematic fave" spoiler to Roma, alongside Bohemian Rhapsody.
Get Out 2017
One of last year's beloved also-rans the hosts admit they tried to "secret into existence."
Dunkirk 2017
Another of last year's crowded field of hopefuls that lost out to The Shape of Water.
Phantom Thread 2017
Same crowded, ultimately unsuccessful field from last year.
Lady Bird 2017
Same, one of last year's internet favorites that came up short.
Black Panther 2018
One of this year's spoilers alongside BlacKkKlansman and A Star Is Born.
BlacKkKlansman 2018
Same, part of this year's spoiler field to Roma.
A Star Is Born 2018
Same, the film Sean is hoping squeaks out a Best Picture win.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2018
Sean and Amanda's guess for Kate Middleton's favorite film of 2018, in a bit riffing on the royals' awkward, silent entrance at the ceremony.
Stock Up, Stock Down: Bradley Cooper's Campaign
A Star Is Born 2018
Sean Penn published a full-throated Deadline essay defending the film and Bradley Cooper's direction after Cooper was snubbed for Best Director; Paul Schrader wrote a similar note to IndieWire. The hosts are skeptical the late campaign will move voters.
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot 2018
The Sam Elliott vehicle he's doing press for this week, which the hosts fold into their case that Elliott doesn't need an extra Best Supporting Actor push. Everyone already loves him.
Stock Up, Stock Down: The Oscar Telecastcinematography, editing, live action short, and makeup and hairstyling get cut from the broadcast
Vice 2018
The hosts' go-to example of why the show shouldn't cut makeup and hairstyling: "there is no Vice without makeup and hairstyling."
Titanic 1997
Cited as proof cutting categories isn't necessary to draw a huge audience: it won Best Picture (and gave out Best Live Action Short) in front of 55 million viewers.
The Big Race: Best Original Screenplaythe Oscars' consolation-prize category
The Favourite 2018
Nominee (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara) and the favorite, one of the more inventive, thoughtful, less mechanical movies of the season.
First Reformed 2018
Nominee, Paul Schrader, the hosts' shared "problematic fave."
Green Book 2018
Nominee (Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly), and the hosts' pick to upset The Favourite.
Roma 2018
Nominee, Alfonso Cuarón.
Vice 2018
Nominee, Adam McKay.
Get Out 2017
Jordan Peele's win last year, the hosts' example of this category as a consolation prize: it went on to win nothing else that season.
Lost in Translation 2003
Sofia Coppola's win, cited as "my queen" proof of the category's taste.
Thelma & Louise 1991
Callie Khouri's win, one of the category's classic picks the hosts rattle off.
The Piano 1993
Jane Campion's win, same rundown.
Pulp Fiction 1994
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary's win, same rundown.
Fargo 1996
The Coen brothers' win, one of the rare times this category's winner also took Best Picture.
Good Will Hunting 1997
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's famous win, same rundown.
Gosford Park 2001
Julian Fellowes's win, same rundown.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004
Charlie Kaufman's Oscar, same rundown.
The Hurt Locker 2008
Listed among the category's past honorees without further comment.
Django Unchained 2012
Same.
Her 2013
Same.
Shakespeare in Love 1998
The other rare case, with Fargo, of an Original Screenplay winner that also took Best Picture.
The Big Race: Best Adapted Screenplay
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 2018
The Coens' anthology film qualifies here on a technicality: four of its six segments are wholly original, only two based on short stories (Jack London's "All Gold Canyon" and Stewart Edward White's "The Gal Who Got Rattled").
BlacKkKlansman 2018
Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, and Kevin Willmott's script, based on Ron Stallworth's memoir; the hosts peg it the frontrunner, mostly as a make-good for Lee's career.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2018
Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty's script, based on Lee Israel's memoir; Amanda says Holofcener's body of work belongs in the Smithsonian.
If Beale Street Could Talk 2018
Barry Jenkins's script, based on James Baldwin's novel; the hosts wonder if it's getting overshadowed because Jenkins already won this category for Moonlight.
A Star Is Born 2018
Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters, and Eric Roth's script, credited to the 1954 and 1976 films before it. Amanda calls it "a stew of three previous films" that still counts as a real adaptation.
Moonlight 2016
Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney's prior Adapted Screenplay win, the reason the hosts think Beale Street isn't getting more attention here.
Eighth Grade 2018
Not an Oscar nominee, but nominated for Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards, which run on different eligibility rules.
A Quiet Place 2018
Same WGA Original Screenplay nod; Sean wants to see the shooting script given how little dialogue the film has.
Black Panther 2018
Nominated for Adapted Screenplay at the WGA, not the Oscars; the hosts wonder if older Oscar voters are simply less familiar with Ryan Coogler's work.
In Conversationthe Beale Street and Moonlight composer on scoring, Succession, and the pipe organ
Nicholas Britell
If Beale Street Could Talk 2018
Britell's second Oscar nomination, after Moonlight; he and Barry Jenkins built the score around the sound of cellos to represent the film's several kinds of love.
Nicholas Britell
Moonlight 2016
Britell's first Oscar nomination; he later published three pieces from the score, including "Little's Theme" and "Middle of the World."
Nicholas Britell
Chariots of Fire 1981
Vangelis's score is Britell's earliest film-music memory: he saw the film at five and asked for piano lessons because of it.
Nicholas Britell
Ghostbusters 1984
Elmer Bernstein's score, which Britell says he loved as a kid as much as Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.
Nicholas Britell
Beetlejuice 1988
Danny Elfman's score, which Britell cites in his running complaint that most film scores never get their sheet music published.
Nicholas Britell
Gimme the Loot 2012
Adam Leon's feature debut and Britell's first scored indie feature to get real distribution: it played Cannes and won at SXSW.
Nicholas Britell
Domino One
A $10,000 feature his college friend Nick Lavelle made, the first film Britell ever scored; it never got released.
Nicholas Britell
Eighth Grade 2018
Britell singles out Anna Meredith's score as one he admires, "so woven into that universe" that he couldn't imagine the film without it.
Nicholas Britell
Roma 2018
Britell's answer to the show's closing question about the last great thing he's seen; he met Alfonso Cuarón the same day and says he was "just stammering."
Nicholas Britell
Children of Men 2006
The Cuarón film Britell told Cuarón he thinks about every day, on meeting him.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing North by NorthwestCasablanca
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Succession
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