Welcome back to Best in Show, returned to our regular Wednesday slot this week. Post-Oscar nominations, I’ve been trawling through your Best Picture rankings. The most common films I’ve seen holding number-one slots: Dune: Part Two, The Substance, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys and Anora—the last of which is creeping close to one million watches on the platform.

What was also insightful was spotting which films many of us around the world still haven’t had the chance to see. I’m Still Here is yet to expand widely beyond Brazil, and a limited US release, and those not in the US, Canada or UK are still waiting on Nickel Boys. The Brutalist is finally in UK, Irish, Australian and New Zealand cinemas, and many of us are still booking in to see the newly released A Complete Unknown, drip-fed internationally through late December and January.

With distribution staggered around the world, it can be hard for us completionists to tick everything off, but this lull in the season is the perfect time to seek out some missing pieces. (Case in point: I took my parents, both Bob Dylan superfans, to A Complete Unknown last night in New Zealand. They loved it.) Below, we’ll dive into some handy tools for tracking down Oscar nominees in your territory, break down how voting actually works, and survey some early Sundance awards buzz. Plus, Wicked director Jon M. Chu stops by to tell us the origin of (Oscar nominee) Ariana Grande’s now-famous ad-lib of “Right!” in ‘Popular’.

If no title receives 50 percent immediately, the lowest-ranked film is eliminated, and all ballots with that film as their top choice have their votes transferred to their second choice. This process continues until one film gets at least a 50-percent share of the vote. Our Letterboxd Oscars, led by Darren Carver-Balsiger, uses the same system—keep an eye out for nominations on February 1.

The BAFTAs are slightly more complicated. After 2020, when the organization had only nominated white actors, the British Academy Film and Television Awards committed to expanding its hip and introducing a new system to ensure the industry was more truthfully reflected in its nominations. The process involved splitting the longlists and final nominees between experienced of BAFTA’s “Acting chapter” and a voting jury, with dedicated spots allocated for each party—seven for the chapter and three for the jury in the longlists, three each for the final nominees.

But the process changed again this year: longlists are split the same way, but the final six nominations are voted on by the Acting chapter alone. Then, for the final round, all “film-voting ” vote for the winning performance. The directing category introduced a similar system to aim for better gender parity. The full process is explained on BAFTA’s website.

With that in mind, whether you’re a lucky voter or are creating your own sweepstakes with friends, some helpful Letterboxd tools can help you seek out the nominees to watch. When looking at a list such as the Oscar or BAFTA nominees, you can either “fade watched” or “hide watched” using the appropriate menu switch to minimize or hide films you’ve marked as having seen.

From there, Pro and Patron can use the streaming-filter selections to see what’s available on your favorite services—free will need to individually check films for streaming availability. (Note to self: Sugarcane is on Disney+.) Netflix has its own Oscars collection, and some of the nominated shorts can be easily found online—I’m Not a Robot and Incident are available on the New Yorker website, Instruments of a Beating Heart is on the New York Times, while Wander to Wonder can be rented on Vimeo.

The Academy also announced this week the fourteen achievements in cinema to be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, which has been rescheduled (LA wildfires, again) to Tuesday, April 29. This year’s recipients include the creators of Ziva VFX, a technology to “construct and simulate muscles, fat, fascia, and skin for digital characters”, enabling studios to “bring visually rich creatures to life”, as well as new burn gels that allow for safer fire stunts. You can read the announcement on the Academy’s website.

Praise is also streaming in for Logan Lerman and Molly Gordon in Oh, Hi!, an “anti-rom-com” and “modern Misery” (per Maxine) that Rendy says will “embolden a lot of Brooklyn girls stuck in situationships with bum-ass Bushwick softboys”.Rebuilding, starring Josh O’Connor as a Colorado rancher picking up the pieces after a devastating wildfire, is an “emotionally rich story of loss, community and finding hope in the wake of tragedy that couldn’t feel more timely after the LA wildfires,” says Zach. Tiffany agrees, calling it a “tender and meditative” story of rebuilding and re-prioritizing after tragedy, “reminding the audience that it’s possible to do the same”.

On If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, meanwhile, Letterboxd in Sundance are showering it with early awards buzz for Rose Byrne, raves for ing star (and Oscars host) Conan O’Brien, and cryptic hints about its depiction of hamsters. It’s Andrew’s review that’s sold me, though: “Somewhere between Tully and The Babadook, and probably just as good.” Sign me up.

Lastly, check out that superb rating curve for Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, already hailed by some as the best of the fest so far: Liviamartinez calls it “Gerwig/Baumbach meets I Think You Should Leave,” and Eric says it’s “the kind of debut film that reminds me how powerful cinema can be”. Hell yeah!

Letterboxd is Obsessed With...

If you didn’t catch it in the cinema, you heard it on TikTok: Ariana Grande’s exuberant, triumphant delivery of “Right!” in ‘Popular’. Of Wicked’s many delights, this was one of the most addictive—a millisecond-long encapsulation of the comedic timing and theatricality that Grande, now a first-time Oscar nominee, brought to the role of Glinda.

The moment comes after Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, nominated for Best Actress) completes one of Glinda’s lyrics in ‘Popular’, one of the stage musical’s most iconic songs through which Glinda explains the importance of popularity. In excitement at Elphaba’s understanding, Grande, as Glinda, slams a book down and yells “Right!” with a hilarious, overly enthusiastic emphasis. According to Grande it was an ad-lib, and our are rightfully obsessed: Grace calls it “just what this movie needed,” Sabrina will “forever be holding space” for the line, and this perfect moment “lives rent free” in Daniel’s head.

Speaking to our head of video, Brian Formo, at the Palm Springs International Film Festival red carpet, Wicked director Jon M. Chu said Grande was thrust into shooting that sequence right (sorry) at the start of production. “Christopher Scott, our choreographer, worked very closely with Ariana,” Chu says. “We shot that in the first three weeks of [production], maybe the first two weeks—that’s a lot of pressure to bring in Ariana Grande in her first leading role of a movie and say, ‘Hey, go do ‘Popular’, the most iconic piece in Wicked’. I mean, there’s a couple of iconic pieces, but [it’s] one of the biggest.”

Carpet Check

As mentioned, the Grammys are this Sunday, and Onaem has listed all film nominees. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday, at which Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 will receive its US premiere. (Costner just shared with us his four favorite Westerns, in which he s Conan in the Unforgiven fan club.)

Final voting for the Visual Effects Society awards, which take place February 11, closes on Sunday, and it’s always worth revisiting the organization’s 70 Most Influential VFX Films, a list which includes Jaws and Alien. We also have this year’s Indie Spirit nominations on our HQ for your perusal. They include the magnificent documentary Gaucho Gaucho, our inaugural Letterboxd Piazza Grande Award winner at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival.

The film industry (and Letterboxd community) is still reeling from the great David Lynch’s ing, and I strongly encourage you to read West Coast editor Mia Lee Vicino’s beautiful Journal obituary about how are memorializing the influential filmmaker. (Shannon Keirce’s supercut of the numerous Lynch mentions in past four favorites is also a moving tribute.) For further watching, Kyle MacLachlan’s list of his Twin Peaks character’s favorite movies is sublime, and Alex’s list of Avant Garde Films for Lynch Fans feels like a secret world to get totally lost in.

“Elphaba and Glinda are a reminder that there is no one way to be a woman. You can be fierce and soft, independent and vulnerable, bold and quiet—and all of that is okay. It’s necessary. This movie makes me feel like we don’t need to apologize for who we are or what we want. It’s a wake-up call for women to take up space, to stop pretending we don’t belong, and to stop pretending we aren’t allowed to be our full selves. The messy, emotional, powerful women we are—the real magic.”

Paul on Flow:

“As an experiment in film form, Flow is the kind of movie that pushes the medium forward. Some of it works incredibly well, some less so, but it makes you fall in love with moving images all over again. As a charming escapade, the film is tight and thoughtful in its illustration of comity in the face of catastrophe.”

Troy on No Other Land:

“The atrocities [that] No Other Land documents had me weeping quietly in the cinema and boiling with a newfound rage. A rage, I’m ashamed to say that has withered, a hope, that has languished… No Other Land has recommitted my rage into action.”