Sometimes the Academy just can't get enough. This month, your friendly Oscarologists look at those Best Pictures whose successors also picked up the grand prize. The films we explore in this episode are: The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). This episode was recorded remotely. Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
For our first deep dive of 2023, Mark and Izzy delve into what exactly defines American Gothic and how this relates to our two Best Pictures. The films we explore in this episode are: Rebecca (1940) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). This episode was recorded remotely. Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
This month, your friendly Oscarologists delve into the films that connect the magic of the theatre to the joy of film, winning Best Picture in the process. The films we explore in this episode are: All About Eve (1950) and Birdman (2014). Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
This month, Mark and Izzy look into the films that walked away with Best Picture, which highlight their connection to Ireland. The films we explore in this episode are: Going My Way (1945) and Titanic (1998). Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
This month, your friendly Oscarologists dive into those rare films with multiple perspectives and narrative tributaries which have walked away with the Best Picture award. The films we explore in this episode are: Cavalcade (1933) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
This month, Mark and Izzy discuss the Best Picture winners that seem like biopics and yet their protagonists are completely fictional. The films we dive into in this edition are: Tom Jones (1963) and Forrest Gump (1994). Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
In this edition, Mark and Izzy discuss the Academy's continued interest in film noir and neo noir. And just what is noir anyway? To answer that, we discuss best picture winners All The Kings Men (1950) and No Country For Old Men (2008). Thank you to Rachel Valentine Smith for our artwork and Thomas Whitelaw for our intro music.
This month, Mark and Izzy divert from their planned double feature to discuss this year's Best Picture winner CODA and the ceremony itself. In a year that will no doubt go down in history for one specific moment, there were many others that were also groundbreaking. DIrected and adapted by Sian Heder, CODA tells the story of Ruby (Emilia Jones) - the only hearing child of deaf adults, Jackie (Oscar winner Marlee Matlin), and Frank (Oscar winner Troy Kotsur) - who must balance the needs of her fa...
This month, your friendly Oscarologists rally to discuss the most athletic of Best Picture winners. Written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, Rocky (1976) charts the sudden rise to fame of Rocky Balboa, a down on his luck southpaw boxer from Philadelphia. The film also began one of the most successful film franchises in cinema history, with eight sequels. In Chariots of Fire (1982), we follow the competition and shared experiences between fellow 1924 Olympic athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric L...
This month, we delve into the archives for a previously recorded but unreleased episode where the original OLFC gang discuss those Best Picture winners that also have an adapted screenplay. Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel is based on Vicki Baum's 1929 novel of the same name. The star-studded ensemble includes Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery and a very young Joan Crawford. Produced by Irving Thalberg, this MGM extravaganza is the only Best Picture winner not to be nominated in...
This month, the OLFC gang delve into the Oscars' relationship with the wild west and great frontier. Wesley Ruggles ' Cimarron depicts the vast change that took place in the west of America between the Oklahoma land rush of 1889 and 1931, through the eyes of Yancey and Sabra Cravat, played by Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. In Unforgiven , directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, notorious outlaw William Munney, now living out his final years in obscurity as a farmer, is persuaded to take one last ...
This month, your friendly Oscarologists examine how those writer-directors who brought a flavour of their real life into their work secured the highest accolade at the Academy Awards. Annie Hall was seen as departure for actor, director and writer Woody Allen, turning his hand to something 'serious'. With an Oscar-winning performance from Diane Keaton, this comedy-drama delves into the hows and whys of a failed relationship. In Platoon , Oliver Stone brought many of his experiences from serving ...
This month, Mark and Izzy look at the Academy's relationship with all things fantasy and explore those in the genre that have won Best Picture. The Return of the King was the final instalment of Peter Jackson's Tolkein magnum opus The Lord of the Rings . With a star ensemble, epic battles and the stunning backdrop of New Zealand, viewers flocked to the cinema to see if Sam and Frodo would make it to Mordor and save Middle Earth. Fourteen years later, Guillermo Del Toro gave us his dark aquatic f...
This month, Izzy, Vincent and Mark discuss the films that have been made... and then made again, this time with Oscar-winning success. Mutiny on the Bounty stars Clark Gable and Charles Laughton as mutineer Christian Fletcher and the infamous, harsh Captain Bligh as they set sail to Tahiti on HMS Bounty. William Wyler's Ben H ur is a true epic that contains one of the most famous action sequences of all time - the chariot race in the grand circus. The plot follows Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur as ...
This month, the team discuss the musicals that have won Best Picture: the good, the bad, and the never agains. Gigi, directed by Vincente Minelli, and starring Leslie Caron, tells the story of 16 year-old Gigi, who begins her training as a courtesan and, in the process, tames the heart of Paris' most eligible bachelor Gaston - played by Louis Jordan. Rob Marshall's Chicago is a razzle dazzle screen adaptation of the broadway musical by Kander and Ebb, starring Renee Zellwegger and Catherine Zeta...
This month, your friendly Oscarologists, Mark, Izzy and Vincent, discuss the Academy's penchant for historical epics. Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson, tells the story of hero and warrior William Wallace, who leads the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against wily King Edward I played by Patrick McGoohan. Director Ridley Scott - one of modern Hollywood's main purveyors of sword and sandal movies - gained a Best Director nomination for Gladiator , winning Best Pictur...
This month, Mark and Izzy discuss The Bard and Best Picture - those Oscar winners who capture Shakespeare's work on screen or use it as the basis for inventive adaptations. Hamlet, directed by and starring Sir Lawrence Olivier as the Danish prince, won both Best Picture and Best Actor at the 1948 ceremony. Also starring Jean Simmons as Ophelia, the film features a powerful score from Sir William Walton. Based on Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story tells the tragic love story of Tony (Richard Beyme...
This month, terrific trio, Mark, Izzy and Vincent, discuss those Best Pictures that shared Oscar glory with the leading ladies who won Best Actress too. Mrs Miniver, directed by William Wyler, stars Greer Garson in the titular role and tells the story of how a quiet family's and community's life is upended by World War II. In Terms of Endearment, we follow the life and tempestuous relationship between Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Thank you to Thomas Wh...
This month, Team OLFC gather to discuss the Academy's fascination with East Asia, and the landmark moment in which the first film not in the English language took home Best Picture. The Bridge on the River Kwai is directed by Sir David Lean and stars Sir Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson, the senior British officer held with his troops in a Japanese POW camp tasked to build a bridge over the River Kwai in Burma, as Majors Warden (Jack Hawkins) and Shears (William Holden) attempt to prevent it. ...
This month, our Oscarologists gather to discuss how the Academy loves Black History. Or do they? The team also discuss this year's freshly announced nominations for Best Picture. Gone With the Wind remains the highest grossing Best Picture of all time, with Hattie Mc Daniel becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award. An epic of the American South set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the story follows the tumultuous relationship between S...
As award nominations for Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 continue to amass, our Oscarologists explore the only two Best Picture winners to feature a prominent courtroom scene. Sir Carol Reed's film adaptation of Lionel Bart's successful stage musical Oliver! pushed child actors Mark Lester and Jack Wilde into the spotlight for their performances as Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger respectively, with Wilde garnering a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work. In Kramer vs Kramer ...
Love 'em or hate 'em, a good marketing strategy can make all the difference when it comes to success at the Academy Awards. This month our Oscarologists gather to chat about two films whose publicity campaigns changed the game. Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale as the soldiers and civilians from a small town in Pennsylvania affected by the Vietnam War. Judi Dench and Gwyneth Paltrow both won Oscars for their performances in Sh...
This month our Oscarologists gather to discuss two Best Picture winners that explore neurodivergence and mental illness... to very different degrees of success. Barry Levinson's Rain Man tells the story of Charlie Babitt – played by Tom Cruise – who discovers he has a secret brother with savant syndrome, Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman, who went on to win the Oscar for Best Leading Actor for his role. In A Beautiful Mind , directed by Ron Howard, Russell Crowe portrays John Nash, the Nobel Pri...
Whether it's hitchhiking or the night bus, this month our Oscarologists gather to discuss the Academy's love of an epic road trip. Frank Capra's It Happened One Night see Claudette Colbert's socialite flee her imposing father only to run into Clark Gable's ramshackle reporter in desperate need of a story. In Midnight Cowboy we watch an unlikely friendship form between two hustlers in New York, newly-arrived Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and ailing conman 'Ratso' Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). Thank you to Thom...
Our Oscarologists kick off Season 3 by a look at those great, oft nominated Directors, who finally secure their Oscar late into their careers. The Greatest Show on Earth is Cecil B DeMille's forensic exploration of day to day life within a successful 1950's circus, with all the excitement and peril that entails. Led by Matt Damon and Leonardo Di Caprio, The Departed is Martin Scorsese's intense tale of cat and mouse (or should we say rat) between Boston's police and criminal underworld. Thank yo...
Mark and Izzy return after a long hiatus to bring you an archive episode from November 2019 before launching into series 3 this Autumn. This month, your friendly Oscarologists discuss the Academy's interest in exploring unique perspectives on World War 1. All Quiet On The Western Front is director Lewis Milestone's epic, realistic and harrowing account of WW1 told through the eyes of the german 2nd company, based on the Remarque novel of the same name. Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa is also a li...
This month, Izzy, Chris and Mark discuss female firsts at the Academy Awards, in particular, directors and producers. We start by joining the long con with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting , directed by George Roy Hill. This film also has the honour of being the first to garner an Oscar for a female producer - the wonderful Julia Philips. Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is a searing look at the experiences of a military bomb disposal unit during the Iraq war, delivered with document...
Izzy and Mark gather round the microphone to discuss the real lives recreated on celluloid that went on to win Best Picture. The Life of Emile Zola directed by William Dieterle portrays the life of the great french playwright and author (played by Paul Muni), focussing in particular on the Dreyfuss Affair of 1894-1906. Often called the greatest biopic ever made, Izzy and Mark discuss whether they agree with this moniker, particularly within the social context of the time. Based on the 1853 memoi...
This month, it's dynamic duo Mark and Izzy discussing the musical geniuses that caught the Academy's attention when their lives hit the screen. Released only a few years after Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. died, Robert Z Leonard's The Great Ziegfeld was an epic musical spectacle showcasing the ups and down of Ziegfeld's life and the many famous faces he discovered. Milos Forman's Amadeus is not only a biopic about the brilliance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but of another man's life: Antonio Salieri, whos...
After a short hiatus, Amelia, Mark and Izzy reconvene to discuss the only two Best Picture winners to win the highest honours at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by the great Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend is a stark look at the effects of alcoholism on writer Don Birnam, played by Ray Milland (who also won an Oscar for his work on this film). Marty , written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Delbert Mann, based on the teleplay from 1953, is a romantic drama spanning just 36 hours in life of ...
