On this last episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films Dakota Arsenault talks about Manchester By the Sea and Lion. On last week’s episode of Contra Zoom he discussed Hell or High Water, Fences and Moonlight. 

These are the nominations for Manchester By the Sea

These are the nominations for Lion

Make sure you check out this week’s Oscar Primer where Dakota goes over Jackie, Loving, Doctor Strange and Zootopia. These Primers will be posted once a week on Tuesdays. 

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and follow the show @ContraZoomPod on Twitter.

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On this second episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films Dakota Arsenault and Rachel Gordon talks about Moonlight, Fences and Hell or High Water. On last week’s episode of Contra Zoom he discussed Hidden Figures and La La Land.

These are the nominations for Moonlight

These are the nominations for Fences

These are the nominations for Hell or High Water

Make sure you check out this week’s Oscar Primer where Dakota goes over Rogue One: A star Wars Story, Captain Fantastic, Hail, Caesar! and Suicide Squad. These Primers will be posted once a week on Tuesdays. 

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and follow the show @ContraZoomPod on Twitter.

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On this second episode of this year’s breakdown of the Best Picture nominated films Dakota Arsenault talks about Hidden Figures and La La Land. On last week’s episode of Contra Zoom he discussed Hacksaw Ridge and Arrival. 

These are the nominations for Hidden Figures

These are the nominations for La La Land

Make sure you check out this week’s Oscar Primer where Dakota goes over Florence Foster Jenkins, Kubo and the Two Strings and The Lobster. These Primers will be posted once a week on Tuesdays. 

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and follow the show @ContraZoomPod on Twitter.

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This is the first Oscar Primer podcast for Contra Zoom, continuing the series of Oscar Primer’s Dakota does every year, normally just as written articles. He is flying solo this episode as he talks about Arrival and Hacksaw Ridge.

These are the nominations for Arrival

– Best Picture 

– Best Director

Denis Villeneuve 

– Best Adapted Screenplay

Eric Heisserer 

– Best Cinematography

Bradford Young 

– Best Film Editing

Joe Walker 

– Best Production Design

Patrice Vermette 

Paul Hotte 

– Best Sound Mixing

Bernard Gariépy Strobl 

Claude La Haye 

– Best Sound Editing

Sylvain Bellemare 

These are the nominations for Hacksaw Ridge

– Best Picture 

– Best Actor 

Andrew Garfield 

– Best Director

Mel Gibson 

– Best Film Editing

John Gilbert 

– Best Sound Mixing

Kevin O’Connell 

Andy Wright 

Robert Mackenzie 

Peter Grace 

– Best Sound Editing

Robert Mackenzie 

Andy Wright

Make sure you check out the first written Oscar Primer where Dakota goes over some first thoughts on the nominations for this year. These Primers will be posted once a week. 

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and follow the show @ContraZoomPod on Twitter.

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Dakota Arsenault is proud to announce that Rachel Gordon will join Contra Zoom as the permanent co-host along with her new role as Associate Film Editor!

– You can check out Andreas Babiolakis’ Top 25 Films of 2016 and Top 25 Performances of 2016.

– You can find the top grossing films of 2016 HERE. 

– Dakota’s thoughts on trends: Great child acting this year (Sing Street, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, etc), DC movies suck but Marvel movies are still great, obsession with Letterboxd (Dakota’s profile), Jeff Nichols dominates 2016 with Midnight Special and Loving. 

Rachel’s thoughts on trends: Hidden Fences mistakes at The Golden Globes, adult superhero films (Deadpool, Logan), Netflix series are better than movies.

– Read Dakota’s review of Patriots Day if you want a good laugh.

– Movie watching goals for 2017: Dakota wants to watch more female directed films and Rachel is starting a personal film journal.

– Old movies that Dakota watched for the time and loved included The Killing, The Asphalt Jungle and Frankenstein while Rachel loved The Long Good Friday.

– Most disappointing films of 2016 for Dakota it was Triple 9 and American Pastoral for Rachel it was The Bad Batch.

– Movies we are excited for in 2017 (click for trailers)

Dakota: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Blade Runner 2049, War for the Planet of the Apes, Baby Driver (no trailer or teaser)

Rachel: Get Out, Wonder Woman, Logan, The Dark Tower (no trailer or teaser)

Follow Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter and Rachel on Instagram.

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On this mini-episode Dakota Arsenault talks to the lovely and talented Divine Brown, who is most well known for her music career but she is about to star in the musical Passing Strange. 

Passing Strange is having its Toronto premiere later this month and it is a rock and roll epic that features a live band on stage accompanying the actors. It is being produced by Acting Up Stage Productions and Obsidian Theatre Company and it will be performed at The Opera House.

The show runs from January 24th-February 5th tickets can be purchased HERE.

Check out Divine Brown’s latest single Love Alibi.

Special thanks to penelopePR for setting the interview up and everyone at Acting Up and Obsidian.

Follow Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

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This week Dakota is joined by Rachel Gordon to talk about the passing of TIFF founder Bill Marshall, who sadly passed away at the age of 77 on January 1st, 2017. 

Dakota and Rachel share some great quotes and stories that emerged in a fantastic obituary from TIFF, which include stories from the people who knew him best. 

TIFF while a massive film festival also celebrates Canadian film like no other including every ten years naming the best Canadian made films of all time. 

The People’s Choice Award has also gone to 5 eventual Best Picture Winners and an additional 9 nominees showing that Toronto is the first spot in awards contention.

Follow Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter and Rachel on Instagram.

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On this episode the guys start talk about the forth edition of their Best Picture Winners revisits. The years are 1968-1977 (the 40th-49th Oscar winners).

In Part One the guys reveal their bottom five of the decade.

10. Oliver! 

9. Rocky 

8. Patton 

7. The French Connection 

6. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest 

Here are the top five pictures in our rankings. Dakota’s ratings come first and Andreas’ second next to each film.

5. The Sting 8.2/10 9/10

4. Midnight Cowboy 8.5/10 9/10

3. Annie Hall 8.7/10 10/10

2. The Godfather Part 2 9/10 10/10

1. The Godfather Part 1 9.5/10 10/10

As usual we award the best performances and film with our own version of the Oscar’s!

Best Picture- The Godfather Part 1 for Dakota 

The Godfather Part 2 for Andreas

Best Actor- Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy) for Dakota 

Al Pacino (The Godfather Part 2) for Andreas

Best Actress- Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) is both Dakota and Andreas’ pick

Best Supporting Actor- Brad Dourif (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) is Dakota’s pick

Robert de Nero (The Godfather Part 2) is Andreas’ pick

Best Supporting Actress- Talia Shire (The Godfather Part 2) is Dakota’s pick

Talia Shire (The Godfather) is Andreas’ pick

Music from this week’s episode comes from Silas Fiction an indie pop duo from Indiana. We had premiered their song Bad Company back in July. Their newest album Pairs, which came out on September 27th with a pay what you can formula from Bandcamp where all the proceeds are going to the fantastic organization Teach for America. You can also find the album on Spotify, Tidal and iTunes and where every else you get your music from.

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and Andreas @AndreasBabs on Twitter.

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This week Dakota Arsenault is joined by special guest Rachel Gordon as they talk about their favourite movies you should watch during the Halloween season! 

New Horror (1980’s on)- 

Classic Horror-

Comedy Horror-

Family Friendly-

Thrillers-

Follow Dakota @Dgapa on Twitter.

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Mehek Seyid joins Dakota and Andreas this week as they discuss the Toronto International Film Festival including the big winners and some other must sees.

Links:

– La La Land was the big winner taking home the People’s Choice award and both Andreas and Mehek are in sync lavishing even more praise on the Oscar front runner.

– Jackie was another film both Mehek and Andreas saw with Natalie Portman getting some serious Oscar buzz for a Best Actress win.

– Lion was the only film that made Mehek actually cry in the theatre, it’s that powerful!

– Moonlight is a film that might sneak up on you and during awards seasons. 

– Birth of a Nation gets some talk, minus the controversy aspect.

– Loving is a film Andreas hopes gets more attention.

– Nocturnal Animals is Tom Ford’s second film and is poised to be an attention grabber. 

Music on this week’s episode is from The Alpacas and their song The Artifact. 

Follow Mehek at @WhatTheMehek and listen to her on the Capsule Podcast. 

Follow Dakota @Dgapa and Andreas @AndreasBabs on Twitter.

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