Best Popular Film's Death.

***OSCARS BREAKING NEWS!!! And yes, we’re SPOILER FREE***

Burt Reynolds RIP: Our favorites, his most popular films - :49

The Best Popular Film Category has been Postponed.

Mike 1 reads the BREAKING NEWS + How We Got Here - 2:28

Gut Reactions + How this affects Black Panther - 5:22

Where the Academy Could Go From Here - 12:15

What happens to Black Panther now? - 17:07

Would they bring Best Popular Film back next year? - 18:20

Social Media - 21:44

First and foremost, RIP, Burt Reynolds. He’s acted in so many great films. We’ve loved his movies from The Longest Yard to his Oscar nomination in Boogie Nights, from his arrow shooting outdoorsman in Deliverance to his fast driving turn in the super popular films of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise. It’s a sad day, and we offer our condolences to his family at the top of the show.

Last month, the Academy instituted three changes to the Oscars. The 2020 awards would be pushed up from late February to very early in the month, all future broadcasts would be capped at a maximum of 3 hours, pushing many of the technical and short film awards into commercial breaks and a summary montage later in the night, and of course, the academy would add a category for Best Achievement in a Popular Film. The Academy kept the first two changes, but they postponed the Best Popular Film addition.

So we had a lot to break down here in a short amount of time. As we did in the previous Breaking News halfisode, we try to hit all the angles, but we’re mostly concerned with our initial gut reactions and hot takes to this madness. Go back to Halfisode 16 and episode 92 to catch up on this story and hear our elaborate, yet perfect fix for the Oscars. Now we have some more time to bend the Academy to our will.

What do you think about the Academy’s decision to delay the addition of Best Popular Film? Was it a good decision? Did they forever doom or forever shelve the possibility of the category? Will Black Panther or other “popular films” get nominated this year? Will they have a chance to win? And what would happen if Black Panther won the award? Would the Academy be turned upside down?

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When reality sucks, you’ve been watching movies with us. This, our slogan has certainly emphasized our love of escapism during these troubled times. But it’s also been fascinating to watch how our conversations have delved into contemporary issues THROUGH the lens of our favorite films. So we thank you once again for making August our strongest month to date. Do keep listening.