Edward Douglas

Feb 10, 2025 | goldderby.com | Edward Douglas

This is another of the below-the-line Oscar categories that doesn’t necessarily sync up with the Best Picture race. The last movie to win in this category and also win Best Picture was Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King back in 2003. There are several facets to this category: Prosthetic makeup used to make actors look more like the real people they’re portraying tends to do very well here, as does prosthetic makeup for larger-scale fantasy and science-fiction.

Feb 10, 2025 | goldderby.com | Edward Douglas

Visual Effects is one Oscar category that rarely shares anything in common with the Best Picture race. This was made more apparent last year when not a single visual effects nominee synced up with a Best Picture nominee. Because visual effects are a key part of a film’s look, movies with Best Cinematography and Best Production Design nominations can also end up in this category. Just two of the 10 Best Picture contenders are among this year’s nominations, Dune: Part Two and Wicked.

Feb 9, 2025 | goldderby.com | Edward Douglas

This year’s Best Sound category is loaded with top Oscar contenders this year, including four Best Picture nominees (A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, and Wicked) and the Best Animated Feature frontrunner (The Wild Robot). Frontrunner: Dune: Part TwoLike Visual Effects, this is another crafts category where Denis Villeneuve‘s sci-fi sequel will likely flourish with back-to-back wins.

Feb 9, 2025 | letterboxd.com | Edward Douglas

★★★★★ Holy shit, what an amazing movie, and I definitely had never seen it before even though there were a couple familiar Oscar clip scenes that I had. This movie just hit at exactly the right time, and I'll add more to this after I have my dinner. I've been a James Mangold fan since Cop Land, which actually came out two years before this, but honestly, the '90s was a bit of a dead zone for me in terms of movies. I was mostly working in the studio and just really didn't have much time for...

Feb 7, 2025 | goldderby.com | Edward Douglas

Even though film is primarily a visual medium and the cinematographer has such an influential role in the final product, the Best Cinematography Oscar rarely matches the Best Picture winner. Last year’s Oppenheimer was an outlier, landing both awards, and the 2025 Academy Awards could yield similar results. But before Oppenheimer, the Best Picture winner was awarded Best Cinematography only three times since 2000 (American Beauty, Birdman, and Slumdog Millionaire).