Pencils down, ballots are closed, and it’s time to start readying those final Academy Award winners predictions. If you’re looking for an edge in your own Oscars pools, knowing this year’s Best Live Action, Best Animated Short, and Best Documentary Short categories will give you a leg up in your own prognosticating where the night’s other top categories already feel fait accompli (we’re looking at you, “Oppenheimer.”)
On this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio break down their favorites in each of the three shorts categories, and which films they expect to take home the big prizes. Don’t sleep on MTV’s moving “The ABCs of Book Banning,” about the rising trend of banning books in U.S. schools and directed by Sheila Nevins, currently streaming on Paramount+. On the animation side, David Mullins’ World War I parable “War Is Over! Inspired By the Music of John & Yoko” should expect to win that Oscar, and in terms of Live Action shorts, there’s no frontrunner more destined to win than Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”
You can also currently see many of these shorts in theaters courtesy of ShortsTV. More on those screenings here.
But there’s more on this week’s episode of “Screen Talk,” as Anne and Ryan have now both seen Rose Glass’ astonishing midnight movie “Love Lies Bleeding,” out from A24 on March 8. Kristen Stewart gives one of her best performances as a gym manager whose romance with a bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian) lands her in all kinds of trouble. Also this week, Anne and Ryan look back on the busiest weekend of the awards season so far, which included the SAG Awards, the Indie Spirits, and the PGAs in the last few days of February.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
