SLAM!

Oh dear.

A sign of good things to come for a film debuting at the same place Baby Driver and The Disaster Artist collected their first raves last year!

Well, Steven Spielberg is Jewish, so it's well beyond time for the authorities to arrest the most prominent filmmaker of our time for breaking the law, as you jokingly suggest. Edit: I realize that I'm wording my responses strongly, and I do apologize for that. As a film enthusiast, I do take freedom of creative expression very seriously.

So religious filmmakers aren't allowed to touch narrative features based on a true story such as 12 Years a Slave, Schindler's List, Apollo 13, 127 Hours, United 93, Erin Brockovich, Argo, and such?

I think the rating bodes well for the film, quality wise. I just think that if adults and kids enjoyed those PG-13 films, then I'm not sure if this PG-13 ratings (meaning kids can still see it) would make too much of a difference, unless there is an animation bias.

I can name a slew of PG-13 "animated" movies that kids flocked to: Avatar, The Avengers, Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Transformers, Star Wars (episodes 3, 7, and 8, plus Rogue One), the three Hobbit films...

John Requa and Glen Ficarra are the writers of a good film from 2015 called Focus, and they are producers of This Is Us. They also have experience in lowbrow comedic stuff like Bad Santa, Cats & Dogs, and I Love You Phillip Morris- though those were a long time ago. What I'm saying is this: if they can take the comedy and the emotional aspects that they have experience in handling, and somehow converge the two together, they'll have something competent on their hands (and I'm saying this as an optimist).

This is going to surprise a lot of people. Me, included.

Yeah, that's a much better poster.

I'm gonna be honest; looking at the poster for Paddington 2, I thought those sandwiches were honey sandwiches...

Do we know when the nominations announcement will begin?

Okay. My ballot has been sent. Here it is:

Here's hoping this puts Oscar Isaac in the running for an Oscar.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Plus, the rush to get other favorites a nomination would've been epic this year; It Comes At Night, Split, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, A Cure for Wellness, Raw, Annabelle: Creation, Happy Death Day, mother!, and Tragedy Girls would've all had their own fans. It would've been a highly entertaining bloodbath just to get favorites to their nominations, which, in my opinion, is where it truly counts.

I was having that problem early on before Oscar season came. Scarlett Johansson from Ghost in the Shell was on my Best Actress list for a concerningly long amount of time!

After watching the trailer, I can officially state that this will, in fact, be inspiring young filmmakers to make films with their iPhones or similar devices!

TriStar did the heavy lifting for Sony Pictures last year (outside of Spider-Man: Homecoming), so I'm really happy to see TriStar make more smart decisions! This looks like it'll be a great project!

I disagree that George from Dunkirk did anything wrong. He certainly didn't deserve to die because he was a little bit of a liability. Even going with the others at all towards Dunkirk was pretty brave of him.

I have a theory about horror films that become Oscar-nominated. With Silence of the Lambs and Get Out releasing in February, and with The Sixth Sense releasing in August, I think horror films are better off being presented away from the 'awards films' season so that they can stand out as a gem amongst their crowd. If one film is much better than the other films surrounding it, that film is poised to stand out much more, regardless of its genre.

The Shape of Water January 28th, 5:05 pm, 90%-95% full Regal Mayfaire Stadium 16 Trailers: A Wrinkle of Time Winchester Alpha A Quiet Place Fifty Shades Freed Red Sparrow Isle of Dogs This film, while well made from a technical standpoint, is controversial amongst the general audience if my experience is anything to go by. The film sparked a lot of conversation when it ended, some good and some bad. The person I was sitting next to said: "That's no Academy Award movie... that's no Casablanca..." My parent and I talked about it during dinner afterwards: Parent: "I did not like that film at all..." Me: "Well, it was definitely outlandish..." Parent: "Outlandish? They had (*spoiler*) together." *scoffs* "I had to stop myself from laughing out loud." I'm willing to bet many of the general audience members seeking out this film have those viewpoints. And I think that's okay; that is definitely not a film most viewers are used to watching. But I think word-of-mouth has been taking hits and will continue to take hits.

So I'm in a bit of a jam here... I think I may legitimately be able to watch one more film via Google Play tomorrow, just before the ballot deadline. But I'm stuck between three films: Colossal Columbus Stronger The film I choose will likely be receiving multiple nominations on my ballot at the last minute. But I need help picking which one to watch, if I do watch one more... what do you think I should watch?

YES

I have to say, reading all of your ballots has given me some interesting ideas on what to put on my own ballot. My best examples of nominations inspired by other people included Betty Gabriel (Get Out) for Best Supporting Actress, Bright for Worst Feature, and The Lost City of Z for various categories I didn't already have it in. I wish more people were voting for This Is Us, but it's at least a snub that I am able to understand. The show has a subversive and interesting storytelling technique which is implemented with great acting, but perhaps it's not for everyone.

I've been working on my ballot all year basically; I've been slowly adding films to different categories since I saw Logan, my first film of 2017. I've taken this year's Boffy voting very seriously, and I've evaluated many different candidates. Tonight, I'm going to watch The Shape of Water, and tomorrow night, I might rent one more film on Google Play, and then I'll be sending it in. 2017 was an agonizing year in a great way, because almost everything I saw had merit in its own right.