Tomorrow, the Oscar nominations will be announced bright and early for the 96th Academy Awards. It’s also the date of the primary in New Hampshire. It’s hard not to connect these two things. The Oscars are now fully merged with the Democratic Party as one organism. The same reason Trump is making them sweat the polls is why people are tuning out the Oscars.

The movie that won’t be announced tomorrow is Sound of Freedom, which landed in the top ten box office of the year, beating both Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. To Hollywood and the Oscars, however, it is like it never happened. Here’s David Mamet, one of the great writers Hollywood ever employed, on this film:

The success of Sound of Freedom is a cautionary tale that the Counterculture revolution is nearly upon us. It signals the same thing as a potential win by Trump. A shift in the public consciousness as the people who have been abandoned rise up and demand equal representation - at the box office and at the White House.

Both the downfall of the Democratic Party and Hollywood are hard to watch, as they have shaped most of my adult life. Movies used to be so good. Even the bad ones seem like masterpieces now. Great movies winning awards are a thing of the past as dogma and propaganda have overtaken free expression.

The hope is that Barbenheimer can save the Oscars as it briefly saved the box office before the actors and writers went on strike, bringing the whole thing to its knees again.

Maybe, they hope, the ratings won’t be terrible, thanks to two very popular movies. Maybe they’ll be right. Hiring Jimmy Kimmel as the host is not a great sign. Why would anyone tune in if they won’t even tune in to his late-night “comedy”?

As this chart indicates, they did better with Kimmel than with no host (at least they made that decision, which was smart). It’s easy to see how Trump’s win led to their inevitable collapse. When you treat half the country like terrorists, this is the end result. It wasn’t just Trump supporters who tuned out, though. It was anyone who didn’t want to listen to the agonizing therapy sessions awards shows have become.

The bigger problem is that the Oscars are now used as yet another propaganda arm for the Democratic Party. They believe that if someone can win an award on national television, they can get on their soapbox and give a rousing speech as Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez cheer them on.

The short film categories are particularly dire this year. Most people don’t pay attention to these, but usually, they are some of the best offerings worldwide. Now, many of them reflect the ideology and religion of the New Left because, of course, they do. They have to. Everything is politics.

Take, for example, the terrible propaganda “documentary” short called the ABCs of Book Banning. If it somehow misses tomorrow, that would mean the voters thought it was as phony as I did, dragging out these poor kids to spout the gobbledegook of the woke.

But I fear it will not only be nominated but probably win, and someone will get on stage and make a truly terrible speech and move the needle for the Democrats heading into an election year.

But the poor kids are being used as pawns in this sick little game. They sound like kidnapped hostages or children of cult members.

Here is the link to the Paramount-Plus short documentary by MTV Films called the ABCs of Book Banning.

And a clip:

Pedro Almodovar and Wes Anderson have directed Live Action shorts that might get in, with stars like Ethan Hawke, Ralph Fiennes, and David Oyelowo crowding out what is usually a category for up-and-comers. This is another sign that the film industry is in trouble if actors and directors are going back to making shorts.

Just like the Democratic Party will have to learn its lessons the hard way, so too will Hollywood have to go nearly bankrupt before it remembers why it built an industry in the first place - to serve the people.

It was the best way to escape the misery of everyday life, to disappear into the movie theater and slip into another world. It was my salvation as a kid. Well, that’s gone now. Movies are no longer a relief. They’re an exhausting drag much of the time. We can see the strings. We know what they’re doing and don’t care about us anymore.

Either they serve up badly written franchise junk, or they’re trying to fix us and turn us into them. They don’t seem capable anymore of caring about the box office enough to care about the people who really do crave a good story, like the many who turned out to see Sound of Freedom.

Thankfully, there are some movies up for the Oscar that will be nominated tomorrow that are actually good. One is Oppenheiemr, the frontrunner. The other is The Holdovers, the underdog. Another is American Fiction, which calls out the Woketopians in the best way. There’s also Barbie, which has become a cultural phenomenon.

Otherwise, though, much of what is on offer is about reflecting the ideology of the New Left. This is especially true with Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which sacrifices the plot of the great book about the first case that formed the FBI into a long apology for our barbaric and genocidal past.

Killers of the Flower Moon isn’t entirely a bad movie, but it is almost four hours long and feels like it would have been a great miniseries on, say, Apple TV.

Oppenheimer Predicted to Land 10-12, But Won’t Sweep

Most people don’t know that the Academy expanded their Best Picture ballot in 2008 from five to ten because why would they? Most have long since tuned out what happens in the Oscar race, except for obsessives like me. It all goes back to Christopher Nolan, whose film, The Dark Knight, missed out on a nomination, generating so much controversy that they felt they had no choice but to expand to ten nominees.

In so doing, however, they now must use a ranked-choice ballot to find the winner. We haven’t had Oscar sweeps since then. Last year’s winner broke the record with 8. If Oppenheimer can match that total, it will be considered a sweep, even if it probably would have won 10-12 back in the day.

Oppenheimer might not even win Best Picture at all. The pattern lately is that the sweeping epics don’t win, but the smaller character dramas do. Gravity lost to 12 Years a Slave, La La Land lost to Moonlight, Roma lost to Green Book.

If Oppenheimer is to lose, it looks like the movie that could do it is The Holdovers, easily one of the year's best films. What makes this movie great is that it is a “holdover” from the days when Hollywood made movies to give something back to audiences.

I won’t complain if The Holdovers wins. Everyone should see this movie and remember what storytelling used to be like. But for Hollywood and the Oscars, Oppenheimer is the better bet. A win for a three-hour, R-rated movie about a scientist that made $300 mil here and nearly a billion internationally would show audiences that Hollywood still cares about them and that the Oscars are back.

Here are my Oscar predictions if you’d like to play along.

Best PictureOppenheimerThe HoldoversKillers of the Flower MoonBarbieAmerican FictionPoor ThingsMaestroPast LivesAnatomy of a FallThe Zone of Interest

Alt: The Color Purple, All of Us Strangers

Best DirectorChristopher Nolan, OppenheimerGreta Gerwig, BarbieMartin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower MoonYorgos Lanthimos, Poor ThingsAlexander Payne, The Holdovers

Alt: Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest; Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Best ActorPaul Giamatti, The HoldoversCillian Murphy, OppenheimerBradley Cooper, MaestroColman Domingo, RustinJeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Alt: Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon; Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers

Best ActressLily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower MoonEmma Stone, Poor ThingsCarey Mulligan, MaestroMargot Robbie, BarbieSandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall

Alt: Annette Bening, Nyad; Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Origin

Supporting ActorRobert Downey Jr., OppenheimerRyan Gosling, BarbieDominic Sessa, The HoldoversRobert De Niro, Killers of the Flower MoonSterling K. Brown, American Fiction

Alt: Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things ; Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers; Willem Dafoe, Poor Things; Matt Damon, Oppenheimer

Supporting ActressDa’Vine Joy Randolph, The HoldoversDanielle Brooks, The Color PurpleEmily Blunt, OppenheimerPenelope Cruz, FerrariSandra Huller, The Zone of Interest

Alt: Jodie Foster, Nyad; America Ferrara, Barbie; Julianne Moore, May December

Adapted ScreenplayOppenheimerAmerican FictionKillers of the Flower MoonPoor ThingsBarbie

Alt: The Zone of Interest, All of Us Strangers

Original ScreenplayThe HoldoversAnatomy of a FallPast LivesMaestroMay December

EditingOppenheimerKillers of the Flower MoonThe Zone of InterestPoor ThingsThe Holdovers

CinematographyOppenheimerPoor ThingsKillers of the Flower MoonMaestroThe Zone of Interest

CostumesPoor ThingsBarbieMaestroKillers of the Flower MoonOppenheimer

Production DesignBarbieOppenheimerPoor ThingsKillers of the Flower MoonThe Zone of Interest

International FeatureThe Zone of Interest20 Days in MariupolThe Taste of Things20 Days in MariupolThe Monk and the Gun

Documentary FeatureAmerican Symphony20 Days in MariupolStill: A Michael J. Fox MovieBeyond UtopiaFour Daughters

Animated FeatureSpider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseThe Boy and the HeronChicken Run: Dawn of the NuggetElementalWish

ScoreOppenheimerKillers of the Flower MoonSpider-Man: Across the Spider-VersePoor ThingsIndiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny

SongWhat Was I made For — BarbieI’m Just Ken — BarbieThe Fire Inside - Flamin' HotRoad to Freedom – RustinIt Never Went Away - American Symphony

Makeup and HairstylingMaestroPoor ThingsKillers of the Flower MoonOppenheimerGolda

SoundOppenheimerMaestroKillers of the Flower MoonFerrariThe Zone of Interest

Visual EffectsGuardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3The CreatorPoor ThingsMission Impossible: Dead ReckoningIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Animated Short (tentative)Once Upon a StudioWAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John and YokoHumoBoomI'm Hip

Documentary ShortThe ABCs of Book Banning (terrible film but it is a religion to them)Camp Courage Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand GamesThe Last Song from KabulNǎi Nai and Wài Pó

Live Action ShortThe AfterThe Wonderful Story of Henry SugarThe Anne Frank Gift ShopStrange Way of Life

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