With the Oscars just fading out of the rear view mirror, it’s a shock and a thrill to already have another hit in theaters. Within six days of its release, Project Hail Mary surpassed $100 million domestically, according to Deadline. That’s a box office performance second to only one other film that’s not a sequel and not part of a franchise: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which won best picture in 2024. Will this space odyssey (pun only sort of not intended) directed by the team publicly fired by Lucasfilm become the earliest entry into next year’s Oscar race? Would we place it in the pantheon of other space epics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Apollo 13? We debate these very questions on this episode of The Long Take Review, but only after we’ve thoroughly celebrated what we loved about the film, gushed about our queen Sandra Hüller, and tried to unpack what this blockbuster might tell us about our own humanity. Put on your best science pun t-shirt, pull down those glasses, and join us for a fun conversation of galactic proportions.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 32:39 minute mark. If you’re not ready for launch, you may listen safely until then. We have determined that one particular reveal in the movie is not a spoiler because it has been shown in all of the trailers and promotional materials for the film. If you have managed to avoid all those references and wish to go into your viewing experience completely blind, then none of this episode is safe.

Image Credit: Collider

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Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor! Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to ever win an Oscar for Cinematography! Cassandra Kulukundis defied all prognostication and won the first ever Best Casting Oscar! Kumail Nanjiani shepherded a packed Dolby Theater through a rare tie in Live Action Short! (And did so with amusing aplomb.) Even everybody’s favorite baby Yoda, Grogu, made an appearance! Suffice it to say this year’s Oscars was full of excitement, celebrating several films but especially two from Warner Bros: Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.

On this episode of The Long Take Review, we share our reactions to the show, including Conan’s hosting duties. Then we reveal how we did with our predictions, which naturally leads us to dissect the winners and losers of the night. (Sorry, Timmy.) Thank you to all of our listeners for following us through another great awards season!

Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

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Get hyped for the Oscars tomorrow! In celebration of our favorite day of the year, we invited our friends and fellow Oscar nerds to share their thoughts on this year’s nominees, picking one desired winner in one category of their choice. It was also Greg’s birthday when we recorded this episode, so keep an ear open for birthday wishes sprinkled throughout and a special segment involving a very special cake. We’d like to thank all of our guests: you all brought your A game and managed to get us even more hyped for the big day.

* Anthony King from the Force Ghost Conversations podcast (Letterboxd: ForceGhostPod) 4:38

* Sarah Hastings (Letterboxd: sarahehastings) 22:23

* Leah Pate (IG: thepatepups) 44:31

* Rosario Rodriguez (Encinas Homes) 1:04:09

* Greg’s Birthday Cake 1:30:40

* Greg McLaughlin of The Rebel Base Card Podcast (Substack: Greg McLaughlin)

* Hasib Hossain (Letterboxd: BeebWatchesFilm; Substack: Hasib)

And if you’d like to play along with us during the ceremony, we have a special LTR-branded ballot ready for you to print!

Image Credit: New York Times (Conan O’Brien “helps” set up the red carpet)

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The Oscars are just a week away now, and while we haven’t had any real clues about who will win since we posted Part One of our predictions, there have been some strange news stories about backlash indicting Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet as anti-ballet and opera, and Best Actress nominee Jessie Buckley as anti-cat. What few people spewing hot takes on the Internet realize, though, is that this backlash emerged just after Oscar voting closed on March 5th and therefore cannot have any impact on whether or not Chalamet and Buckley take home a statuette next weekend. The interviews themselves, puzzlingly, have been available for some time now: Chalamet’s interview was in February and Buckley’s in November.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to debate about who might win, however. The last two televised precursors, BAFTA and SAG (rebranded as “The Actor Awards” this year) have thrown several wrenches into what has up until now been a somewhat steady steamroll for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Wunmi Mosaku beat presumed frontrunner Teyana Taylor in Supporting Actress at BAFTA, Sean Penn surprised with wins at both BAFTA and SAG, and former Best Actor frontrunner and previously established ballet hater Timothée Chalamet struck out at both, most notably to fellow Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan at the Actor Awards. Did Sinners surge in popularity during this last leg of the race? And if so, how is that going to manifest on Oscar Sunday?

On this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Greg, Antonio, and I discuss who will win and who should win in all the “above the line” categories: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Casting, Director, and Best Picture.

Image Credit: Rolling Stone

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We’re in the end game now: the Oscars will air live on ABC and Hulu at 4PM pacific/7PM eastern on Sunday March 15th. As I type this, voting for the Oscars is about to close tomorrow March 5th, and we now have all the information we’re going to get in terms of precursors. So, of course, we at The Long Take Review spent many hours this week recording our final predictions for who we think WILL win as well as who we think SHOULD win in each category.

In this episode, Greg, P.T., and I discuss all of the “below the line” or technical/craft categories, as well as International Feature, Documentary Feature, Animated Feature, and….yes, even all the shorts categories. Greg has literally seen every nominee and provides expert insight on even the most obscure nominees, and P.T. brings every single historical stat or precursor stat you could ever need. Let us help you with the categories that can make or break your Oscar pool!

Image Credit: ABC

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Stellan Skarsgård could win his very first Oscar this year. But after losing to Sean Penn at the BAFTAs last weekend, that seems less likely now.

Skarsgård is long overdue for this level of recognition, as he has graced our screens for decades with mainstream blockbusters from huge franchises like Marvel (he plays Dr. Erik Selvig in five MCU films, most notably Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012)) and Star Wars (Luthen Rael in Andor! *chef’s kiss*) and prestigious films like Good Will Hunting (1997), Denis Villaneuve’s Dune films (2021 and 2024), and Melancholia (2011), just to name a few. This year, he stars in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which earned received Oscar nominations this year, including Best Supporting Actor for Skarsgård himself.

Since the BAFTAs were so fresh on our minds, Greg and I chat about teh winners and losers of the night and what they might mean for the Oscars, which are now a mere 2 1/2 weeks away! Our conversation begins and ends with speculation about Stellan’s chances, but in between we dissect the intricate and layered themes of the film: the relationship between life and art, the stage vs. the screen, generational trauma, psychology, and much more. Pull up your best IKEA chair and join us for the conversation. (And shout out your favorite Stellan Skarsgård performance in the comments!)

Note that we do discuss the recent incident at the BAFTA awards, but very briefly and not in very much depth. For a better understanding of what happened and the harm done to both the black community and the differently abled community, I would recommend Clayton Davis’ coverage on Variety.com: he reflected on the incident as a person of color and as a parent of a child with disabilities, and later did an exclusive interview with John Davidson.

We go into SPOILER MODE at the 36:28 minute mark. If you don’t want to be a part of this complicated spoilery family, you may listen safely until then.

Image Credit: LA Times

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Greg will be delighted to know that his brainchild, LTR Quick Takes, has actually caught on! It’s a thing now because we did it twice! For the second edition of these quicker, spoiler-free reviews, P.T. and Antonio discuss the new films they saw through the Sundance Film Festival’s virtual portal. After discussing each of the films (listed below), they conclude the episode with their speculation about which of the films could get Oscar traction during next year’s awards season.

Nuisance Bear (P.T.): 16:45

The Musical (Antonio & P.T.): 20:37

Rock Springs (P.T.): 26:41

Carousel (Antonio): 38:32

Extra Geography (P.T.): 44:32

Josephine (Antonio & P.T.): 50:18

Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

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The BAFTA nominations came out last week, and mostly told us that even if we had them before the Oscar nominations (as we usually do), we still would have been wrong about most of the categories that had surprises (i.e. Delroy Lindo! Elle Fanning! Avatar: Fire and Ash in costume?!). Since then, it’s been a pretty quiet week in the Oscar race. Most critics and podcasters have pivoted to covering the Sundance Film Festival, reviewing films that might be a part of next year’s awards season. (Our Sundance episode should be out next week!) For once it seems like everyone’s looking ahead to 2026 instead of fretting over 2025.

The LTR Awards for 2025 movies, however, are still in full swing! Last week, we established this year’s nominees, In this week’s episode, we deliberate and decide on our winners in each of our 10 categories: Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Featured Performer, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Actress, Actor, Ensemble, Director, and Best Picture. What kind of wheeling and dealing did we each have to do to get what we wanted represented? What films left out of the Oscar conversation get some love from us here? And which winners likely to repeat at the Oscars just couldn’t be denied in the LTR Awards? Place your bets, mark your ballots, and listen to the episode!

Please note that we recorded this episode several days before Oscar nominations were announced.

Image Credit: LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, SIFF

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It’s another busy week in awards season land! Both the BAFTA (British Oscars) nominations and WGA (Writer’s Guild) nominations came out today. While there is probably a lot to parse there in terms of who’s ahead in the Oscars race, we at the Long Take Review wanted to take some time out of our busy coverage to hand out our own awards, the LTRs or “Letters.”

And in true LTR fashion, we set out to make the episode shorter by breaking up our nominations and our winners into two different episodes. We still, however, recorded for over two hours in the first episode, despite having less to go through. Nonetheless, we hope you join us as we honor our favorites from 2025. With a mix of “chalk” (a.k.a. expected) picks and more obscure personal favorites, we each shared our individual nominees for acting, directing, writing, and best picture. Any nominees that overlapped automatically made it onto the consensus list, with the option for one of us to argue for moving a non-consensus nominee forward. In part two, to be released later this week, we debate and announce the winners in each category.

I’ll publish the full text of our lists in a separate Substack post and link it here when it’s ready.

Also, please note that we recorded this episode before Oscar nominations were announced, so our conversation about those is still in the speculation phase.

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Some awards seasons are chaotic and uncertain going into the Golden Globes; last year at this time pundits were shrugging their shoulders, only to learn a few days later that it was Anora in the lead all along. This is not one of those years. Last weekend’s Globes ceremony cemented the dominance of this year’s top Oscar contender, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The star-studded comedy action thriller won four prizes: Director, Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor), and Screenplay. As of now, there’s very little to stop OBAA from repeating most if not all of these wins at the Oscars.

Despite the clean narrative these decisive OBAA wins provide for headlines, it was not the only film to establish itself as a steamroller at the Globes. Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ surprise smash hit, KPop Demon Hunters, had arguably as big a night in its categories: Best Motion Picture (Animated) and Best Original Song. While there is little to challenge it in Animated Feature at the Oscars (barring some blind industry loyalty to Disney or Pixar), some pundits had wondered if Sinners’ “I Lied to You” could make Original Song a real race. Once one of the songwriters behind “Golden” (and singing voice of Rumi!), Ejae, gave an emotional speech that perfectly tapped into the themes of her film, the deal was done. A huge shoutout to the Mike, Mike, and Oscar podcast, by the way, for being the only ones to defend Ejae’s use of the term “idol” in her speech. Many podcasters have misunderstood that term and judged Ejae for channeling her inner Marty Supreme-esque hubris when, in fact, “idol” is just the term used to describe a K-pop artist put through a rigorous, formalized star system in the industry.

On this episode of The Long Take Review, we somewhat ungratefully complain about how this season feels a little bit like a foregone conclusion. After we critique the telecast (go, Nikki Glaser!) itself, however, we do manage to find not only positivity but pockets of uncertainty and chaos in specific races. What is going on with Sinners? Which of the international features are the strongest right now? Which winners had the best speeches? Which films are in and out of the Best Picture 10? Join us and shine like you’re born to be.

Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

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