#oscars

#oscars

Shortly, the Oscar fate of hundreds of feature and short documentary hopefuls will be decided during what is known as "preliminary voting" (December 8-12), when the 736 documentary branch members give each film they've seen a numbered score. This will yield the shortlist of 15, from which they will rank those films on a preferential ballot. The shortlist announcement will come on December 16. The whole Academy will vote on the final five. But only those who have seen all five can vote.

Wicked: For Good is aiming to be the 11th direct sequel to be nominated for Best Picture and the fifth sequel to be nominated the year directly after its predecessor. Of the three Best Picture-nominated sequels in the last four years, there's Top Gun: Maverick, a legacyquel to a movie that was seen as popcorn fare in the 1980s, and Avatar: The Way of Water and Dune: Part Two, sequels to previous Best Picture nominees that boasted both box-office success and dazzling visual filmmaking.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of Beasts of No Nation, the first feature film distributed directly by Netflix. Directed by Cari Joji Fukunaga and starring Idris Elba, the movie made a modest splash in that year's awards season, with Elba winning the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor, before ultimately falling short of any Oscar nominations. Within three years, and after making a significant investment in its publicity apparatus (hiring ace awards strategist Lisa Tayback),

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

My children have zero respect for me. It's just unbelievable, I feel like I'm pretty humble, but every once in a while I'm like 'there's a f-king Oscar right there.' They are so not impressed with me.

With regard to Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of the film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination.