The Oscars Exchange: Part 1
In our annual conversation, we share our Best Picture Power rankings and break down Best Documentary feature with Dana Gillis and special guest Brad Ritter of the Independent Picture House.
We are back for the second half of our Academy Awards predictions. In our previous installment, we focused on most of the “below the line” categories, which you can view here. Today, we look at who has the most juice after the awards circuit and Best Documentary Feature. We have two special guests joining us today, including Brad Ritter, the Independent Picture House’s Executive Director, who took part in our Best Picture power rankings.
Speaking of IPH, their amazing annual Oscar fundraiser and viewing party kicks off this Sunday. It is truly one of my favorite evenings of the year, bringing together cinephiles from all walks of life to mingle about the year in film. Tickets are still available; you can purchase them by clicking this link. Voting has closed, so it’s time to make our 2026 prognostications channeling the inner spirits of Nostradamus and Gene Shalit.
The 4th Annual Oscars Exchange
Dana Gillis, affectionately known as “The Movie Muse,” has been a guest for our Oscars race coverage for the past three years. She is an educator, cinephile, and great friend who loves to go tit for tat with me on Hollywood’s biggest night. You can see our cinefriendship in the chart above based on the themes of this year’s Best Pic nominees. Today, she’ll break down the Best Documentary Feature award. She is The Creature to my Dr. Frankenstein and Sensei to my Bob Ferguson. Welcome back, Dana, my old so-and-so. Let’s kick things off with our deep dive Academy Awards conversation here at Y’all Weekly.
MatM: Dana, we are days away from the fourth annual Oscars Viewing Party and Fundraiser at the Independent Picture House. I could not be more excited and have dusted off my tacky yet classy gold blazer to shine on the red carpet! The Emma Stone to my Yorgos Lanthimos: how are your overall feelings about this season's slate of nominees? Anything popping out that surprised you or, in the great words of Cher from Clueless, simply “whelmed”?
DG: This is the first year in my Oscar viewing life that I have been gobsmacked. Generally, I go down to the wire on my Best Picture choice. However, this year I saw my favorite for Best Picture, OBAA (One Battle After Another), early on and never wavered. While Sinners, Hamnet, and Train Dreams were all beautiful works of cinematic art, nothing beat the narrative of OBAA. Sean Penn’s performance was absolutely insane as Colonel Steven Lockjaw. That doesn’t mean I think OBAA will run away with all the big awards, but in terms of good cinema, nothing beats OBAA for me this year.
MatM: I completely agree with this sentiment for OBAA and not even to the detriment of any of the other candidates. So this is quite the historical year as we have Sinners receiving a record-breaking sixteen nominations and One Battle After Another on its heels with thirteen. I am not surprised by the Sinners’ total as they hit on all the categories from production design to music to writing to acting to makeup. It’s a four-quadrant film and deserved to be in the final five for all the nominated categories.
My big question has me pondering what statues it could actually bring home? The various awards ceremonies and guilds have been given their plaudits, but never at the expense of One Battle After Another. I have a feeling writer/director Ryan Coogler may get a writing credit and some below-the-line awards, but this seems to be heading towards a Paul Thomas Anderson ascension, right? I’m feeling more Oppenheimer 2024 dominance than a CODA 2022 surprise kind of night. Dana, a sixpence for your thoughts on the frontrunner Oscar landscape.
DG: If you had told me a year ago that a horror movie about vampires would be the most nominated film in Oscar history, I would have laughed in your face. Even with a heavy-hitting cast and rock-solid storytelling, Sinners could have easily veered towards hints of Twilight. However, Sinners is an exceptional film and deserves the accolades it is receiving. Will it win all sixteen awards it has been nominated for? Doubtful. There are just too many strong contenders this year for that to happen. It is going to be a race to the finish, and I predict we will see a rare Best Director/Best Picture split this year that could go either way.
MatM: We have another special guest with us today. Brad Ritter, the Executive Director at our favorite cinema, The Independent Picture House, joined us to create our Oscar Best Picture Power Rankings. These rankings are a mix of where we think the academy stands on their ranked choice voting, as well as some personal preferences of the ten nominees. Remember, ranked choice voting selects Best Picture only, so the order of each member’s ballot is key.
Sinners has made a major push in the last two weeks, while other films like Marty Supreme have taken some hits due to recent articles about incidents involving the Safdie brothers’ sets. Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet’s recent comments on the slow death of opera and theater haven’t helped their cause either. Here are Brad, Dana, and my personal pre-Oscars rankings.
MatM: Looks like our top six across the board are pretty set. Dana, you seem a little higher on Marty Supreme than Brad and me. Their recent negative buzz may be killing off some of their voting block for what otherwise was a terrific movie. Talk to me about your Frankenstein ranking. This seemed like a solid reimagining with excellent technical design from Guillermo del Toro and his crew. What put you off?
DG: Two words - Jacob Elordi. I try hard to be objective when watching films and separate the actor from the character. However, in this instance, I just couldn’t. Two hours of him brooding around was more than I could handle. Despite Guillermo del Toro’s technical brilliance and Oscar Isaac’s great performance as Victor Frankenstein, the “ick” from Jacob Elordi was just too strong for me to do this movie justice.
MatM: Wow, bringing the hot take along with some handsome repellent for the stone-chiseled Aussie! I love Elordi from his start on Euphoria to Saltburn to Wuthering Heights. This film finally asked him to not play a douchey heartthrob, and I was here for it.
Dana is our specialist in Best Documentary Feature. She wears her heart on her sleeve and often selects what stories move her the most. Here is a quick rundown of the five nominees and the Movie Muse’s choice for Best Documentary Feature.
DG: I love a documentary to give me a good dose of righteous anger, and this year’s crop of nominees did not disappoint. This year’s topics range from cancer to incarceration, racism to indoctrination, and global politics to women’s empowerment. The Documentary Feature category is loaded this year with powerful messages guaranteed to educate and inspire.
Films like The Alabama Solution are one of the reasons I love documentaries. The film uses footage from contraband cell phones within prisons around the state of Alabama to document the inhumane conditions and abusive treatment at the hands of a system that appears not to care. The documentary has sparked such outrage across the state that the Attorney General and a group of bipartisan legislators have called for widespread prison reform. If the purpose of documentaries is to expose and inform, The Alabama Solution has succeeded.
Cutting Through Rocks is an empowerment story that is especially poignant given the current political situation in Iran. The documentary follows 37-year-old Sara Shahverdi, a midwife and unlikely rebel who is elected as councilwoman in a predominantly patriarchal village in rural Iran. The film spans eight years in which Shahverdi fights to get education for the girls of her village and end child marriages. Sara uses her love of motorcycles, a love passed down from her own father, to empower girls to learn to ride and break out of the traditional roles they are destined for.
As a teacher, Mr. Nobody Against Putin hit right at the heart of who I believe educators should be. With tones of Nazi Germany indoctrination, Mr. Nobody Against Putin is the story of teacher Pasha Talankin, who secretly filmed his classroom and his school after the Russian government began requiring patriotic displays and the use of a government-written curriculum that justified the invasion of Ukraine. Talankin recorded himself over the span of two years before being forced to seek asylum in Europe after his home fell under police surveillance. The film is a powerful message of resistance against government overreach and tyranny.
Come See Me in the Good Light ripped my heart out, chewed it up, and fed it back to me. After losing one of our dear friends this year (love you, Ginger!), this was an ugly cry viewing. I didn’t know a lot about the film before viewing, but after hearing Stephen Colbert talk about its importance as a celebration of life and not a story of dying, I knew I needed to see it. CSMITGL follows Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson and their wife, Megan Falley, in their final year of a battle with terminal ovarian cancer. Come See Me reminds us to love big and to find joy in the living.
The Perfect Neighbor is my choice for Best Documentary Feature this year, not because I thought it was the best documentary, but because it has had a long run on Netflix and is easily accessible to viewers, which always helps with popularity. The documentary uses police body cam footage to document the escalating conflict between a white neighbor, Susan Loriincz, and her predominantly black neighbors that ultimately resulted in the shooting death of Ajike Owens, a black mother of four. This is an important watch for those seeking to understand the prejudice and injustice intertwined with Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
This is only half of our exchange. On Friday, Dana will be back to discuss the “locks”, “battles”, and “wide open” categories still left, including the biggest prize of them all, Best Picture. I’ll also be breaking down Best International Feature. Thank you, Dana, as well as Brad Ritter from IPH, for your contributions today. We’ll see you Friday for part two of The Oscars Exchange at Y’all Weekly.
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