Academy Vs Audience

In the year of 2020, a global heath crisis shut down the film industry, and the Academy chose to meet the moment by extending deadlines and loosening rules on theatrical release in order to find eight joyless festival darlings to nominate for Best Picture. Nomadland, Chloe Zhao and Frances McDormand's examination of those who respond to trauma and tragedy by roaming the roads, took the top prize. Ruling the box office, however, was...

As we begin to enter the decade of Way of Water and Fire and Ash, we look back to 2009, when Kevin Weir joined Erin, Claire, and Dan to unpack James Cameron's Avatar, and how it lost the Oscar to his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's war drama The Hurt Locker. The wonders of Pandora and wondering if this time Erin will recognize Guy Pearce await! 

Find all of our episodes and the rest of Writing Therapy Productions' various entert...

While the stars align to kick off the 2020s, Dan takes a look at what 2026 has had to offer so far: the best of what he's seen up until mid July, the penultimate month before Oscar season starts to take shape, including big hits and the criminally (he says) underrated and also Grogu is here. But to balance that out, Olav Rokne of the Hugo Book Club blob tags in to sum up what may be the worst the year has had to offer. How bad can ...

Is 2019 the apex year for Oscars and audience? Some say the Oscars made one of their best choices ever as embarrassment over Green Book caused voters to look overseas to South Korea, and Bong Joon Ho's class-warfare comedy-thriller Parasite, as a poor family worms their way into a wealthy family's life, only to find they were novices on an expert's turf. Audiences, however, were never going to choose anything but the big conclusion...

The dogs were good in cinema, here are Claire's top 10.

We've talked about the best in Best Pictures, the champions of Box Office Champions, but have missed a key factor: the best in cinematic dogs. Claire is here to correct that, bringing us the goodest boys (and one girl) from the happy dog stories, the sad dog stories, the adventures and the bonds with their humans. Which dogs reign supreme? Find out!

Find all of our episodes and ...

It's 2018, and Marvel is lurching towards the climax of ten years of interconnected movies, while the Academy manages to trip over itself. The Oscar went to Green Book, now considered one of the century's biggest blown calls, but is it a bad movie, or just a bad pick for Best Picture? Claire, Erin, and Dan discuss, before moving on to the Marvel movies that ruled the box office. Black Panther brought audiences to the kingdom of Wak...

It's 2017, and it's time for space wizards and award-winning amphibian erotica! Guillermo Del Toro made a Creature From the Black Lagoon slashfic so beautifully realized it ends up winning Best Picture. Marginalized people in the 60s stand up to the US patriarchy to save a possible fish god, a fish god one mute outsider finds extra compelling. Then it's box office time, which means it's time for the most relaxing thing you can do o...

In 2016, the Oscar race seemed to be hurtling towards "White people get their dream show biz careers but are still sad about it," until a mid-acceptance speech twist handed the top prize to Moonlight, a quiet examination of three key moments in the life of an impoverished gay youth in the ghetto. Claire, Erin, and Dan break it down, and how one of our hosts completely missed the point until rewatching. Then in a complete tone shift...

Here in the heart of Peak MCU Times, we pause our trek through the 2010s to look at the actual Marvel Comics event books that at minimum leant their titles to major Marvel Studios movies. Munsi Parker-Munroe joins Dan to dig into the comic version of Civil War, Age of Ultron, Secret Invasion, and more to see why Kevin Feige borrowed the titles and left most of the actual stories behind. It turns out that massive event miniseries re...

2015 is all about nostalgia, be it for classic space operas or this old-timey thing called "investigative journalism." The Oscar went to Spotlight, an unassuming yet star-studded drama about the Boston Globe's efforts to expose child abuse within the Catholic Church, perhaps the most Boston movie the gang has covered yet. But audiences had little time for hard hitting historical hitpieces, not when STAR WARS WAS BACK, BABY! The For...

It's 2014, and the gang hits another good news/bad news situation. First up, the Michael Keaton Renaissance began with Birdman, in which a former superhero actor fought a career slump through a big artistic project by playing a former superhero actor fighting a career slump through a big artistic project, all in seemingly one shot. Claire, Erin, and Dan's theatre kid energy is unleashed, as is returning guest Munsi Parker-Munroe's....

As the 98th Oscars recede into the background, Erin, Claire, and Dan run down the nominated films and look ahead to our 2025 topic. Dan's seen them all, Erin's seen some, Claire saw none and tries to figure out their plots based on vibes, and returning guest Olav Rokne of the Hugo Book Club has controversial hot takes that have Dan asking how many nominees he actually paid attention to. From how four films ended up with nothing to ...

While Erin and Claire are away, Dan is left unsupervised, and thus takes us on a journey through the remaining years of the 2010s, looking at popcorn movies (often if not only big hits) that perhaps deserved a Best Picture nomination... or at least deserved one more than some of the actual nominees. Dan argues that perhaps cinematic thrill rides and well-made spy thrillers* are as worthy of Oscar attention as mediocre biopics in wh...

It's 2013, and it's all about oppressive systems! And Disney. Award season cleared a path for the historical tragi-horror 12 Years a Slave, recounting the true story of a free man forced into a dozen years of brutal servitude, so clear a winner that the Globes had some record-high category fraud to avoid competing with yet, and yet it fell short in many categories? Audiences were split: in North America, audiences came out in drove...

Ben Affleck escapes Hollywood purgatory while the Marvel Age begins as we reach 2012! Affleck directs a tense yet also funny thriller on the Iran Hostage Crisis and makes it an awards darling by skipping over the international cooperation and diplomacy parts to focus on six people being saved by The Power of The Movies, just what the Academy loves. Audiences, however, could not resist the pull of Marvel Studios rolling their previo...

While Claire and Erin are away, Dan digs into the idea of Oscar snubs, why the term still matters, and which big or acclaimed films of 2025 are conspicuously absent from the 2026 Oscars. Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash are follow-ups to past Best Picture nominees; why couldn't they make the shortlist? And which two films does Dan think the internet is right to feel should have been more loved by the Academy? Find out here...

We reach the second silent movie to win Best Picture, and it only took 83 years. French-made silent era throwback The Artist claims Best Picture, and briefly launches Jean Dujardin in America, through nostalgia, hijinks, and one adorable dog. Erin, Claire, and Dan find themselves charmed, partially from having experienced this era at the beginning of this journey. But audiences were flocking to Brazil, as the Fast and Furious films...

It's a new decade, and intentionally or not, everything is cute. The King's Speech pulled in as many Oscar-bait elements as it could to take the trophy, but the earnest friendship of King George VI (aka Bertie) and speech therapist Lionel Logue is cute and charming enough that Claire and Erin get swept up anyway, although Dan has some notes on their loosey-goosey approach to history. But the audience came out in droves for one "las...

As the year comes to a close, it's time to look back at a year of cinema, and look forward to what our 2025 episode may look like. Erin, Claire, and Dan try to figure out what might be crowned Best Picture. Erin compares her heart favourite to what she thinks might win, Claire tries to remember if she saw a movie not for this podcast (She did! Several! Go Claire!), and Dan shows how fun he is at parties by presenting multiple ranke...