Oscar Nominations 2026: Reactions and Breakdown ft. Daniel Joyaux

0:00 Well, hey everybody, welcome into film and whiskey. I am Bob Book and I would say that I'm flying solo today because my Co host Brad is not here with me. But I did not come empty handed. I brought along a special guest because today the Oscar nominations for the 2026 Oscars were announced. Thank goodness we are on the East Coast and I didn't have to wake up at 5:30 AM to see what these Oscar nominations looked like. But as with every year it seems now we have a long standing tradition of inviting our friend Daniel Zweio to come in and talk about the Oscars with us. This is one of probably 2 episodes Daniel will be on as we get closer and closer to the Oscars. Here, he's very rapidly becoming our official Oscars prognosticator and correspondent. Daniel's joining us from his house tonight. Daniel, how's it going, man?

0:47 I'm good. I'm good. You know what? I look over this list of Oscar nominees and I don't see a ton of surprises here. I think there's still quite a bit of storylines that we can go through that are exciting and that get me excited for this Oscar ceremony. But overall, like this looks like the list I expected. Daniel, how about you? Yeah, I for the most part it is. I got I think 38 out of 45 predictions right for the major categories. There were a few curveballs and a few things I'm disappointed by, but for the most part, I think this is a really good nomination list and basically the expected nomination list. You know, some people might think it sounds bad when you say expected like that. It's disappointing that they aren't surprised, but ultimately when the best stuff is expected to get nominated and then does. That's that's a good thing.

1:36 Absolutely. You know, and I've always gone back and forth on using the Oscars as a gauge for the quality of a movie year. The Oscars are known to get it wrong quite often. But there is something about, especially as you look back 30-40 years at what was deemed important at the time, I think it really is a window into what was going on culturally at that moment. You know, and we've talked about, Brad and I have talked about 1994 so often on this podcast cause we've done pretty much every movie, every major movie from that year now. And Forrest Gump wins best picture. And you know, it like we look back on it now and it's like, I can't believe Forrest Gump won best picture, but America was really behind that movie at that moment.

2:18 So it's not necessarily a good gauge of what's considered the movie with the most artistic merit. But at least in the 1990's, the Oscars were a really good indicator of where the movie going public was and what they wanted to kind of throw their cachet behind. And I look at the movies in 2026, I guess, you know, 2025 films that are getting nominated. And we've talked a lot, Daniel, about what the role of the Oscars is culturally now in the 20 twenties. But looking through this year in this list in particular, do you think that the Oscars are are siding a little bit more on the side of artistic merit or critical favorability?

2:58 Or are they kind of swimming back towards maybe a little bit more of a populist award the way it was in the 90s? I think there's no question that they swing more artistically now. I think the last few years the Academy's exhibited probably the best taste it ever has. I mean, I think it was 2023 that it that had, you know, maybe the best, the greatest, best picture lineup ever, I think. But you know, this year is an interesting, it's an interesting case because you look at the best picture lineup and certainly most of it I think falls into that realm of choosing artistry. But then you have something like F1 getting in over it was just an accident, which I to me was the surprise of the day. Absolutely.

3:41 Actually, let's let's. Pause here. Let me just read the we'll get through a lot of these categories, but let's do best picture here because I think this really sets the stage for a conversation. I I've talked to a few people about these nominees today and it rains ranges from people who have seen most of these movies to like your average movie goer. And I'm asking them, how many of these have you heard of? And so here's the 10 nominees that we got today. Begonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme 1 battle after another, the secret agent, sentimental value sinners and train dreams. Now, Daniel, I didn't mean to interrupt you there, but I do think that you are you're you're in the middle of a pretty interesting point here, because this is a this is a year that feels I hate to use the word schizophrenic.

4:29 I don't want to say schizophrenic here, but it feels a little bit like I can't find a good through line to define where the Academy's thinking is. Because you're right, a lot of these are, as they have been in the past 10 or so years, really small. Either independent films or films with tiny, tiny release windows and distribution. But then you've got an F1 thrown in here and F1, I don't feel like was on anybody's radar until just a few weeks ago. And then all of a sudden there were these rumblings that like, hey, it's gonna it's gonna get in all the technical categories. And you should really watch out for Brad Pitt's F1 getting a Best Picture nomination. I was absolutely floored by that one. Well, I'd say the fact that you can't find a through line in these nominees would make Academy governors happy. I think that's.

5:21 Probably true. I, you know, back when best picture was a field of five, you would often have years where the five nominees felt like 5 of the exact same kind of movie. It was 5, you know, sort of prestige, star driven, issue based dramas. And even in the last decade, as we've had 10 nominees, it's actually been 16 or 17 years now. I think there have been a lot of years where, you know, eight or nine of those 10 nominees feel like very similar art house drama type of films. This year I really think you have a mix that it was the Academy's goal when they expanded the field to 10.

6:03 When they did that, the hope was that you would get big budget movies and crowd pleasers and foreign films and in in every kind of film. In this year you really have that. You've got 2 international films. You've got two of the year's top ten highest grocers. You've got several star-studded dramas it this is the type of Best Picture line up that I think The Academy Is always hoped to get. Absolutely. Wait, in terms of the size of the movies and the thematic elements of the movies, it's definitely a diverse crowd, but there's two at the top that I think it it really has become in a lot of ways A2 horse race here and that is 1 battle after another with 13 nominations and Sinners, Ryan Coogler Sinners breaking the Oscar nominations record with 16 nominations. Prior record was 14.

6:50 This is a huge deal, Daniel. And again, it's one of those things that if you've been paying attention to some of the rumblings coming out of Hollywood, people were saying this could break the record. But to smash it by 2 is pretty extraordinary. And that goes all the way back to the acting nominations that it picked up, including one for Delroy Lindo, who gets his first Oscar nomination for supporting actor after years and years of incredible work. Just let's talk a little bit about Sinners, because I think that you know, it, you could say, oh, it, it positioned itself well in the technical categories and that's where the bulk of its nominations are. But that's not true. It's it's really spread out and that makes it a really strong contender here in the Best Picture race.

7:32 Yeah, so a few things. First of all, I, I saw a few people on the line today say like, well, it only broke the record because the, you know, the casting category is new this year. That's wrong on 2 fronts. First of all, it broke, it broke the record by two. So even if the casting category didn't exist this year, it still would have broken the record. But second of all, the casting category took the place of what used to be a second sound category. There used to be two sound categories, best sound, best sound effects, editing. Now there's only one sound category. If we were still in the days of two sound categories, Sinners would have gotten nominated for both. So it would have still broken the record back then too. And the other part about the Sinners Hall today and you touched on this that it got nominated everywhere.

8:15 Is it actually got nominated in every single possible category. There are 24 Oscar categories. The 8 categories that it did not get nominated are the three shorts categories, animated feature, which it's not animated International Film, it's not an International Film documentary feature. It's not a documentary feature. Adapted screenplay. It had an original screenplay. And then the last one is lead actress. Now you can make an argument that maybe Hailee Steinfeld was a lead in that film. I don't really think she was She was certainly campaigning in is a sporting role. So if you adopt the idea that the film had no female lead, then it literally got nominated in every single category that results. Yeah, which is, I mean, first of all, congratulations to Sinners. And it's a movie that I've been pretty vocal on this podcast about the fact that, like, it didn't work for me quite on the level that it has for other people.

9:01 That does not mean that it is not a very rewarding experience and certainly deserving of the nominations that it got. I do wonder a little bit, Daniel, And I don't want to say this points to a weak year in film because it seems to be unchallenged in a lot of ways and because of how many nominations it got. But I am wondering if the sort of technical craft of sinners is enjoying the fact that there were not a lot of competitors in terms of like, you know, if this would come out the year of like an Oppenheimer where other things are really, you know, being filmed in IMAX, the way that one battle after another was. It seems like both of these two films enjoyed the fact that, like, a lot of these technical categories, the ones that we thought were going to get nominated just did not show up.

9:48 Like, you don't see Wicked for good showing up at all. It gets completely shut out today. Do you think that those two films just kind of separated themselves by the fact that they had a lot more technical craft than everything else this year? Well, as far as the craft categories go, the single biggest shock to me today was that Avatar, Fire and Ash didn't get nominated for best sound. Now, it, it didn't get shut out. It got nominated for visual effects and costume design. But for a James Cameron movie to miss best sound was just I, I mean, it's, it's basically never happened before all of his movies get nominated for best sound. So that was a huge surprise. And it did speak to the idea that since the best picture field expanded to 10, voters are now less likely to search essentially beyond the 10 best picture nominees.

10:43 You know, once they sort of decide or once, you know, the, the punditry sort of decides like these are going to be the 10 best picture nominees or, you know, might be 12 or 13 that are fighting for that. For those 10 spots, a lot of voters will kind of just watch those 12 or 13 movies. And no matter what branch they're in, whether they're costume designers or editors or visual effects supervisors, you know, what have you, they'll, they'll just kind of check boxes based on those 12 or 13 movies. And I think we saw maybe a little bit of that today in some of the craft branches that they just nominated the best picture contenders instead of, you know, looking for things outside the box. And I think it's a little unfortunate when that happens. I, I understand it to some degree. I mean, you know, you can't expect Oscar voters to just watch every movie that comes out in a year.

11:25 That's not reasonable. They have to figure out, you know, somewhere where the line is and how many things they're going to watch to figure out to fill out the ballot. But it does feel a bit like the major contenders today picked up some extra nominations just by virtue of being the major contenders. I mean, I think one group of people that's not complaining about it at all is Warner Brothers, the studio that released both 1 Battle After Another and Sinners and Weapons, which picked up 1 nomination for Amy Madigan. Which means that Warner Brothers is currently sitting on top of 30 Oscar nominations this year, which is insane, especially given how embattled that studio has been in the past year. David Zasloff wanting to fire both of the heads of the film development branch and then deciding in like September that he's keeping them both on.

12:18 So I, I think it's a great opportunity for them to take a bow here, but it. Never. I mean, it has always come. The lesson is that David Zasloff is an idiot who's done nothing but fail upper. Yes, and I, I didn't think that we would end this movie year with Warner Brothers taking a victory lap of this sort. But like, I'm kind of glad to see it because I have not been a fan of the direction of that studio the last couple years under Zaslob's leadership. And it's nice to see that the people at the studio that actually care about movies are being rewarded for that. I agree. All right, all right. Daniel, you published an article today on rogerebert.com and it featured a word in the headline that I am not used to seeing You use.

12:59 Eight biggest snubs of the Oscars this year. I thought you were famously anti snub. Man, what's going on? I am, I am anti snub. I did not use the word snub in the article and sadly, headlines are not written by writers of the article. So whoever wrote that headline, you know, I, I don't begrudge it because look, writing is a quagmire. It's hard. I don't, I'm not going to shoot on anyone for trying to, you know, maximalize search engine optimization, you know, if using it, if using the word snub is going to. Get your writing. Scene then then go for it. Yeah, 100%. I do think that the way the article's written is that it's all about the big surprises of the day, you know, both good and bad. And I, I, I'd like to just turn it over to you, man. You got 8 of them in the article here. I don't need you to spoil the whole thing. I'd like people to go read it.

13:50 But when you think about the major storylines and the most surprising storylines of the day, what really stands out to you? To me, the biggest surprise is it was just an accident which was the winner of the Palme Dor at the Cannes Film Festival. It's an Iranian film by Jafar Panahi. As soon as it won The Palm Door last May, it had been sort of presumed to be a major Oscar contender all season. I mean, it did get 2 nominations today. It was nominated for best International Film and for Best Original screenplay. I I think most people assumed it was also going to be safely in the best picture field and best director field. I was really surprised it didn't come through in those nominations, especially given everything happening in Iran.

14:31 And Jafar Panahi's personal situation is he's there's a warrant for his arrest basically as soon as he goes when this Oscar campaign season is over and he goes back to Iran, he. Is. Probably facing a jail sentence. It's especially surprising that it wasn't nominated. I mean, you were talking at the beginning of the episode about the way the Oscars reflect the times. And something that's really amazing to me about it was just an accident is, you know, the movie premiered a year ago and it was, you know, in production for however long before that. But you could watch the film right now and believe it was written yesterday. It feels like it's a movie about ice, basically. And so I'm really surprised voters didn't respond to it. Yeah.

15:13 I, it's something I said in my article is whenever you expect a movie to get nominated, it doesn't. There are basically three possible reasons. Either voters didn't watch it, voters watched it and didn't like it, or something went wrong with the campaign. And that's the interesting question to me is because the distributor is because the distributor Neon was somehow managed to pick up all five of the major contenders in for best International Film and they were juggling campaigns for all five of those movies. It was just an accident, Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, Serrat and no other choice. And most of those movies didn't get as many nominations today as they hoped to. And so it makes you wonder if one distributor trying to monopolize this sort of entire strata of the International Film market is maybe not a great idea.

16:04 Yeah, I mean, they're cannibalizing themselves at this point. And the the interesting thing is like, it's hard to accuse Neon of botching the campaign for it was just an accident because all the things that could go wrong with that, you see that it it worked in the case of sentimental value and the secret agent. Now the secret agent is Brazil's nominee for the year. And the Brazilian contingent has proven itself to be a really, really strong voting bloc and like a monolith when it comes to voting because last year they were able to get I'm Still here nominated for best Picture, which I will say ended up being my favorite movie of the year. So I was really glad to see it reflected there. But the Brazilians all seem to vote as a block. And sentimental value had gotten this kind of crossover appeal that everyone kind of assumed it was going to get nominated for best Picture.

16:54 And so that leaves it was just an accident in this really weird spot because it was assumed, yeah, it'll probably get a best picture nomination, but it will probably win international feature. At least that's the reporting that I saw was like, it's much stronger in this category. It'll get a nod for best picture, but it's not really a player there. And now that it didn't get a best picture nomination and two other international films did, it might not even be in the lead to get the international feature Oscar. And I think that puts it in a really precarious position here. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's it's probably going to go home empty handed an Oscar night. I mean, sentimental value got 9 nominations and it's up against the the two categories that it was just an accident didn't get nominated in. It's up against sentimental value in both of them. I think you have to assume sentimental value is probably the more likely front runner for international feature and original screenplay.

17:48 So and look, I love sentimental value. It's certainly nothing. It's that film, but it's it's too bad that it was just an accident. Just something fell flat with voters. And it's, it's hard to say what because the film feels so timely and so potent about what's happening right now and the story behind his making. I mean, Jafar Panahi shot the film in secret, even on city streets in Tehran, but with hidden cameras. I mean, it's to to make literally any film under those circumstances, let alone a, you know, pseudo masterpiece. I'm just amazed that voters didn't respond to it. Yeah, man. Now I will offer a quick brief correction to you. Neon did not get that fifth international feature slot, which people thought was going to go to No Other Choice.

18:28 No Other Choice did get legitimately snubbed because The Voice of Hindra Job, Tunisia's entry for this category did get in. Which I personally am very happy about because in Vulture's Movies Fantasy League I picked up The Voice of Hindra Job for like $2.00 and it is paying dividends for me right now. So I'm sorry part Chan Wook, that the Academy apparently hates you, but it worked out for Old Bob and his on his list. Here. So like I said, Neon had picked up for distribution the five the highest profile international films of the year. And one of the big questions was would one distributor really get all 5 slots in the best International Film race? As you said, no other choice didn't manage to get a nomination. And that also is a pretty big surprise for me. I mean, part Chan Wook, who's pretty lively regard is one of the the great masters of contemporary cinema. I mean, he this is the guy who's directed Old Boy, the Handmaiden and decision to lead.

19:22 None of his films have ever gotten a single Oscar nomination, which is just, it's, it's astonishing. Yeah, man. Now, the nice thing that Neon can kind of rest its hat on is that it didn't botch things worse than Searchlight, because Searchlight has a movie coming out in wider distribution today, the day of Oscar nominations. And what that tells me is that they thought this movie was going to get some nominations and then they would open and it would do killer business in the small number of theaters. And it's a movie called The Testament of Anne Lee, which is a very tough sell to your average movie goer. It is a quasi musical about the Shaker movement starring Amanda Seyfried. And from all accounts, it's an incredible film. But nobody has seen this movie.

20:06 And crucially, it's not just like John and Jane Doe in Nebraska that haven't seen this movie. I'm seeing movie critics. I'm seeing Academy voters that are saying, I couldn't find a Screener to this. I couldn't get the link to this. They just screwed it up so badly. That they basically tanked Amanda Seyfried's chances of getting the best actress nomination that most people had her penciled in for a couple months ago. I just, when you've got a movie like this where you know it's not going to do hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, it, it's amazing to me how badly they fumble this campaign, man. Yeah, I like I said, I haven't seen that one yet either. It it opens where I live tomorrow, so and we'll probably see it this weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

20:47 I I expect to like it. Yeah, for sure. Let's talk about a couple movies that your average moviegoer will have heard of. And you know, we've already talked about sinners. We've talked a little bit about 1 Battle after another. I want to go through the acting categories here because there are some major players and I guess at the top of the list, especially in lead actor, you've got Timothy Chalamet for Marty's Supreme, who I think at this point would have to do something really, really stupid to lose this race. It seems to be his Oscar to lose. Am I crazy? You're not crazy in the sense that that is definitely the conventional wisdom. I don't agree with it though. Oh. Who?

21:28 Who's it going to? Well, it's a long time between now and Oscar night, and so I haven't. This is by no means a prediction. I don't know who I will ultimately end up predicting. But something I have been saying for the last few months is that if Ethan Hawke can get a nomination, and that to me felt like the big if whether voters would watch Blue Moon, whether Sony Pictures Classics could, could mount enough of a campaign for it. But I've long thought that if Ethan Locke could get a nomination, he's now sort of reached the point of his career where it feels like voters want to give him an Oscar. And now that he's officially in the field, I really think he could kind of become a contender similar to the way Demi Moore did last year.

22:09 And then Demi Moore ultimately ended up losing, which was a huge surprise in Oscar night. But, you know, for the longest time it felt like, well, she's not going to get nominated for the substance because that's this sort of gross out body horror movie and the Academy won't watch that. But then as soon as she did actually get nominated, it felt like, oh, well, she might win. And that's how it feels to me, right? Well, and I think that's the thing that people don't realize still about Academy Awards voting is yes, this is a global body, but it is still highly localized. And all of these people have been doing their campaigns in and around Los Angeles and some New York appearances for months now. So you've got screenings that are hosted by the film makers. You've got, you know, the actors making appearances at screenings, at little get togethers on podcast, what have you. And so a movie like Blue Moon, which played for literally one week in one theater in the area that I was in and I still haven't seen it yet.

23:02 And that like that should tell listeners of this show a lot about the distribution of Blue Moon. Like I have not seen this movie. And and I, you know, I want to be a purist about the Oscars, Daniel, and think that if if Ethan Hawke is to win, it's good for the Oscars. It's good for movies because I want the best performance to win. There is a part of me, though, that's like, you know, this is like a populist, if not a populist award. It's a populist awards presentation. It's it's broadcast on television. They want the biggest stars to be up there, especially for the future of this telecast. And I just wonder, like, if Ethan Hawke is able to kind of swoop in and and get the Oscar out from underneath Leo DiCaprio, Michael B Jordan or Timothy Chalamet, is that ultimately a bad thing for the Oscars future?

23:50 Well, I, I, I don't know how to answer that question because I mean, look, Blue Moon is a movie is not going to have the lifespan that one battle after another or sinners are going to have. But something that people also hate about the Oscars is when they look back at a career like Ethan Hawks and say, what do you mean he never won an Oscar? Sure, sure. So it's it's a double edged sword. I'm really so as, yeah, I'm curious, as you were saying it about the the populism, who would you feel like if, if voters wanted to to, you know, have the populist winner, who even is that between Chalamet and Michael B Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio? It's got to be Chalamet at this point, I think, especially when you're thinking about the next generation and the ability to pass on the Oscars and and hope that it's in good hands in terms of viewership. You know, Leo famously is like, I hate doing press. I hate doing interviews.

24:43 And yes, he's still maybe the biggest movie star in the world, but you know, he doesn't resonate with Gen. Z the way he's resonating with me as a millennial. Michael B Jordan yes, but like Timmy's out there campaigning for this. Timmy's doing the rap videos and everything else. He really desperately wants this Oscar. And I think maybe that that that could be why he won't get it because they see him kind of begging for it in a Bradley Cooper. I was just going. To say Bradley Cooper, it's starting to feel thirsty. You know, the Academy has 10,000 voters. I think it's actually more than that. I think it's close to 11 or 12,000. Now. We don't know the breakdown of like, so, so a nominee appears too thirsty. OK, So what percentage of voters does that turn off in, in a voting body of 12,000 people, does appearing really thirsty? Is that going to turn off 500 voters, 1000? Who knows?

25:37 Also, who knows how many or how far ahead Chalonet might be. Like if he turns off 1000 voters, that still might not be enough to lose. On the other hand, maybe he turns off 500 voters and that is enough to lose. We, we just don't know how close these things are. So I, I, I, I agree that the degree to which he, it seems like he's begging for it, that that will cost him some votes. Whether or not it's enough votes matter, you know it's impossible to say. For sure now, as you said, we're still a couple months out from the ceremony itself, but it seems like most of the major categories, especially the big six here are kind of sewn up. And I, you know, I say the Big 6, I don't, I'm not talking about the screenplays, I'm talking about all four of the acting categories.

26:26 Best Picture and Best Director seem to have clear front runners at this point. Do you see? Do you see them going 6 for six or do you see somebody losing in these races? I, I see multiple, multiple people losing. I, I agree that there are, there is the appearance of front runners. I think a lot of that could change. So I mean, let's, you know, quickly go front runner by category. OK, So best director front runner is obviously Paul Tom de Sanders, right? However, Sinners officially got more nominations than one battle after another. Another factor is that no black film makers ever won best director. I do think that will become a story over the next six weeks and that. Will get more likely though that that. See I'm at the point now where like if if PTA loses another one, it's going to be like he's getting into Diane Warren territory and I could see it more likely that Sinners takes best picture and PTA takes director. Then I see the opposite app.

27:25 So that could happen. But again, there have been two films by black film makers that have won Best Picture. 12 Years a Slave in Moonlight. Neither won best Director. So I think that the narrative will be very specific about why. What does the black filmmaker have to do to win Best Picture or to win best Director? And if it's not for a film that gets 16 nominations, then what? What could it ever be for? What? What's it going to be? Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. And then to your Paul Thomas Anderson point, I mean, so he's obviously nominated for best director. He's also a producer on the film. So he's nominated for best picture and he's nominated for best adapted screenplay. He could win all three. He could win 2 out of three. He could win one of the three. He will certainly win something. I find it literally impossible to leave that. He won't leave Oscar night with an Oscar. Whether or not he goes one for 3/2 for three or three for three, That's a different conversation. And I do think Ryan Coogler will will turn into some serious competition that will almost be a toss up by the time we get to Oscar night.

28:23 If I was. I was going to say, if I was a betting man, I think Jessie Buckley in Hamnet is maybe the most odds on favorite out of this entire list. And not because the competition is not good. I'm just looking at the other nominees here. You got Rose Byrne in. If I had legs, I'd kick you. Great win of the Golden Globes. I don't know if that movie is going to have like quite enough juice to carry her to victory there. Kate Hudson, a surprise nominee for Song Sung Blue. I think she's absolutely going to work that circuit and she could maybe, you know, get herself up into second position there. Renata Rainsby for sentimental value and then Emma Stone semi surprise. Not really for Begonia.

29:08 I just don't see any of those four having what it takes to beat Jessie Buckley for this one. So you're right that Jessie Buckley is definitely the front runner. She is one of the safest Oscar bets on the board right now. I would not say it's sewn up of one factor that I've been thinking about. So I think her biggest competition is Rose Byrne. And I think Rose Byrne really could win when you compare those two movies. And so let's go with the stereotype that Oscar voters are lazy. They're not going to watch everything. They're going to, you know, watch 10 minutes of this movie, 10 minutes of this other movie, etcetera. If that happens, think about Jessie Buckley's performance versus Rose Byrne's performance. Jessie Buckley's performance in hand, that's what sends it home, is the last 15 minutes of the movie. If you don't watch the last 15 minutes of the movie, you will not think she deserves an Oscar.

29:58 Now compare that to if I had legs, I'd kick you. To me, the 1st 30 seconds of that movie are when I wanted to give Rose Byrne an Oscar. Wow. You could literally watch 5 minutes that movie and think, well, I want to vote for her. I mean, the the opening shot of If I Had Legs, I'd Kick you is just a close up of Rose Byrne's eyes while she delivers a monologue and you don't even see her lips moving. It's just a close up on her eyes. And it's such a stunning intro to the movie. And look, if I had legs, I'd kick you. It's about the problems of parenthood. It's a it's depressing and it's also funny, but it's depressing and heavy in a lot of ways. So I would believe that some voters won't watch it or won't watch all of it, but if they just watched the 1st 5 minutes, that might be enough if they don't manage to finish all of them. All right, Daniel, as we wind down today, because I want to save some meat on the bone, I'd love to have you back on as we get closer to the ceremony itself, maybe to give some final predictions as you look across the board here at the Oscar nominees, is there any particular movie, you know, that we have or have not talked about today? We didn't end up doing a A10 best of 2025. So I, you know, like I absolutely have movies that I want to suggest our audience sees if they haven't yet. But like what are the ones that stand out to you of I think if I could recommend this one or two movies that everybody watched before Oscar night, it should be these ones. Well.

31:22 That's a good question. I mean, in some ways my taste was really basic this year. I honestly believe that One Battle After Another and Sinners are the two best movies of the year. I really liked sentimental value. I really liked it was just an accident. I really liked Marty Supreme. I mean, so I'm not exactly hitting you with hot takes there. I would say watch if I had likes, I'd Kick You for Rose Burns performance and watch Blue Moon for Ethan Knox's performance. I think those are two smaller profile movies that, for what they're nominated for, really deliver. I was going to come in here today and talk about how my number one movie of last year was this small film called Sorry, Baby, which just happened to win a Golden Globe and got itself some really, really good screenplay juice going into Oscar nominations. And I was going to recommend everybody go see Sorry, Baby because it was my number one film and then it got shut out today.

32:19 So if I can use the word snub one time on this podcast, I think sorry, baby got snubbed. And I'm going to break my own rule about the nominees and suggest that you go see that unnominated film so that you and I can share in our misery together about how good that movie was and from on the fact it didn't get nominated. I will completely cosign. Sorry Baby is a great movie. I believe it's streaming on HBO Max, so anyone listening, you should absolutely check it out. And it has the endorsement of Julia Roberts. She stood on the Golden Globe stage and implored people to watch. Sorry Baby. It was a beautiful moment. Because you want to believe that these artists are also discovering art themselves. And you know, Julia Roberts in that, in that moment, used her platform to recommend a piece of art, and I'm happy.

33:02 Shit, Daniel, thank you so much for joining me today. Where can people find you for more Oscars coverage as we get closer to this ceremony? I'm on Blue Sky at Third Man Movies and like you said, I'd do some some awards writing for rogerebert.com. You can see me, I have my nominations predictions post there a few days ago and then I had my reaction to the nominations and the eight biggest surprises post there today. All right, this is going up in just a couple hours folks, so you can get all of your Oscar news here. We'll be back really really soon with another bonus episode talking about the re release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Can I interrupt real fast and and please make and say one more thing that I thought was fascinating about today is people love to talk about Oscar Bates and people love to talk about how these you know, you know, months in advance what's going to win and this all rubber stamps and etcetera, etcetera. 4 movies came out in 2025 that I felt looked like they were genetically engineered in a lab solely for the purpose of getting best actor nominations and they were J Kelly Springsteen delivered me from nowhere.

34:12 The smashing Machine and Nuremberg with Russell Crowe as a Nazi general. As Goering. Yeah, yeah, Goering. All four movies failed to get best actor nominations. None of them were probably even close. I mean, it did never seemed like they were serious in contention. The Smashing Machine got a best makeup nomination, but other than that all four movies were shut out. The Springsteen movie didn't even get a sound nomination, which is extremely rare for a music biopic to not even get its sound nomination. So I just, I really think if you look at those 4 movies, you can see that actually being good really doesn't matter. And voters aren't just rubber stamping bait created to sort of dazzle them. And I think that's a good thing to recognize. I will reluctantly admit that J Kelly worked on me and I don't know why because I went into that movie and I was like, I got 25 minutes in and I was like, this sucks, dude. And by the end of it, I was a weepy mess. So I am pro J Kelly.

35:10 But but point taken. Daniel, thank you so much again for joining us. We'll be back with the Lord of the Rings episode just tomorrow. If you want to find film and whiskey, you can find us on all of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and YouTube at Film Whiskey, where you can join our Patreon at three different levels of support. You'll be hearing from me and Brad tomorrow, but until then, I'm Bob Book and we'll see you next time.