Good morning. In the run-up to the Oscar nominations, let’s talk with a reporter who has followed every twist and turn of the race.
Prize fightAwards season has begun, the time of year when I become a happy student of Kyle Buchanan, a.k.a. The Projectionist. Kyle’s commentary and prognostications on the Oscars and other movie races keep me rapt and slightly on edge the way I imagine committed sports fans feel as the playoffs approach. This week is especially intense: On the heels of the Golden Globes last weekend, Oscar nominations will be announced this Thursday. (The ceremony is on March 15.) I love reading about the races, who’s up and who’s down, whether Leo or Timothée or Michael B. is favored to win, how their speeches at one ceremony might set them up for a future nomination. But I’m also interested in Kyle’s life reporting on this stuff. In my imagination, his awards season is a whirl of parties and events, luncheons and red carpets, glitzy cavorting followed by feverish typing. He found time to talk to me in the brief intermission between the Globes and the Oscar noms, and, happily, he didn’t really dispel my fantasy. Kyle’s been following most of the films with Oscar potential since late August, when he made his annual back-to-back trips to the Venice and Toronto film festivals. “By the end of those two weeks,” he said, “I will have seen all but a handful of the movies that are presumed to be Oscar contenders.” At film festivals, he’ll see three or four movies a day while trying to attend some of the adjacent events. “While the parties are fun, you’re also going to the parties because you’re getting intel,” he said. What films have buzz? What’s the current state of Hollywood? These festivals are big marketing opportunities for the movie industry. Kyle recalled that Lionsgate used to throw “orgiastic victory lap parties” for “The Hunger Games” each year at the Cannes Film Festival. “They would rent a gigantic chateau and outfit it to look like the Capitol,” he said, “and have people in absurd Elizabeth Banks wigs and cotton candy and chocolate fountains.” As for things he’s watching for this week when the Academy announces its nominations, Kyle has his eye on the supporting actress category, for which there are many worthy contenders. Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) and Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”) have each won big awards already for their performances. Will Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas from “Sentimental Value” get nominations? Perhaps multiple actresses from “Marty Supreme”? Then there’s Wunmi Mosaku from “Sinners,” and don’t count out Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”): “Warner Brothers is campaigning her as a lead actress, but I think she’s going to get a lot of supporting votes,” Kyle said. Kyle will be covering all the nomination action early on Thursday, which is also the first day of the Sundance Film Festival, “a true 10-car pileup on the freeway — to use a California metaphor — of things that require my attention,” he said. But he’s not complaining. Growing up, he said, the Oscars telecast “would offer me a portal into these worlds that I didn’t know anything about. It’s incredible to feel that I have gone through that portal.”
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