Summary: Welcome to Oscar Talk. In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds. It’s the middle of the season, critics’ awards are set to unleash next week, the guild announcements are right around the corner, the holidays are breathing down our necks and it couldn’t be a busier time of year. There’s plenty to discuss, but Anne and I are nevertheless straying from the usual format this week… Oops. No bullet points. (What, do you think I’m f@#$ing stupid, Hans?) Forgive the reference, but ’tis the season. We’re a number of weeks away from the end of the year but Anne and I have spent the last few settling on our personal picks for the 10 best films of the year, all in preparation for today’s podcast. So no talking points, no reader questions, no chit-chat on the circuit’s goings on, what voters might think of this or that. It’s full, unbridled, personal opinion on the year’s best, a solid 50 minute discussion. We had a blast with it and hope you enjoy listening. A reminder: I’ll be posting my usual year-in-review column Monday, slightly truncated given today’s Oscar Talk. Have a listen to the new podcast below, bookended by my favorite score of the year, Daft Punk’s work on “TRON Legacy.” If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. And as always, remember to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here. Back-up download: Oscar Talk Episode 44
