At the Long Take Review, we have one eye always on the Oscar race. Usually, that means we are looking forward to the upcoming Academy Awards, talking through the race as it happens. But given our collective history of caring about these silly awards, we thought it would be fun to occasionally step back and train our eye on an earlier year in Oscar history. Regular listeners know we frequently talk about what we would change in the current race if we had the power of an Oscar Fairy; we decided to use that magic wand on the past with this Oscar Fairy Flashback, in which we’ll discuss what we would, in hindsight, like to change about the nominees and winners from a chosen year.

To spice up the discussion, P.T. designed a point spending system. Antonio, P.T., and I each start out with 10 points. To swap out a nominee in a below-the-line category (the technical and production crew categories as well as speciality film categories like International, Animated, Documentary), we have to spend 1 point; swapping out a nominee in an above-the-line category (screenplay, acting, or directing) requires 2 points; and swapping out a best picture nominee is 3 points. To change the winner within a given category costs double points: so 2 points to change the winner below-the-line, 4 points for above, and 6 points for best picture.

In this episode’s Oscar Fairy Flashback, we go back a decade to the 86th Academy Awards, held on March 2, 2014 and honoring the films of 2013. Some of the big contenders that year were American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips, The Dallas Buyer’s Club, and Nebraska. Which got more nominations than they deserved? Which will we refuse to touch because they were so good? What other films from that year deserved to be in the Oscars conversation to begin with? And will P.T. whine about Martin Scorsese not winning enough? (Spoiler: he will.)

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Movie News Update: WGA winners, Cannes Film Festival Line-up, and CinemaCon buzz. 3:22

Oscar Fairy Flashback:

P.T. reviews the rules and provides an overview of that year’s big winners. 12:15

We share who we were and what we were doing during the year leading up to the 2014 Oscars. 16:38

We propose our desired changes and hash it all out from there. 29:27

Editor’s Note: P.T. checked the math on our final picks after we finished recording, and it turns out he did have enough points left for all the screenplay changes he proposed. So he gave 2 points back to Antonio and used his remaining points. The changes we made as a group do not change; only who spent the points on those changes.

All music licensed through Epidemic Sound.

Logo art: Illustration 73265080 © Worldofvector | Dreamstime.com

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