The Oscar Project Podcast

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In today's episode, I am joined by Chris Etrata, the winner of the 2025 Oscar prediction contest on The Oscar Project. We talk about our reactions to the 97th Academy Awards, some movies from 2025 so far, and what we're looking forward to in the rest of 2025.
Books mentioned in this episode include:

• Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton

Films mentioned in this episode include:

• Wicked directed by Jon M. Chu
• Anora directed by Sean Baker
• Conclave directed by Edward Berger
• A Complete Unknown directed James Mangold
• The Brutalist directed by Brady Corbet
• Mickey 17 directed by Bong Joon Ho
• Parasite directed by Bong Joon Ho
• Captain America: Brave New World directed by Julius Onah
• Joker directed by Todd Phillips
• Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning directed by Christopher McQuarrie
• Jurassic World Rebirth directed by Gareth Edwards
• Jurassic World directed by Colin Trevorrow
• Barbie directed by Greta Gerwig
• Oppenheimer directed by Christopher Nolan
• Top Gun: Maverick directed by Joseph Kosinski
• A Minecraft Movie directed by Jared Hess
• Wicked: For Good directed by Jon M. Chu
• Avatar: Fire and Ash directed by James Cameron
• Emilia Pérez directed by Jacques Audiard
• I'm Still Here directed by Walter Salles
• RRR directed by S. S. Rajamouli
• One Battle After Another directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse directed by Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, and Rodney Rothman
• The Wild Robot directed by Chris Sanders
• Flow directed by Gints Zilbalodis
• Inside Out directed by Pete Docter
• Inside Out 2 directed by Kelsey Mann
• Predator: Badlands directed by Dan Trachtenberg
• Prey directed by Dan Trachtenberg
• Superman directed by James Gunn
• Guardians of the Galaxy directed by James Gunn
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 directed by James Gunn
• No Other Land directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor
• Porcelain War directed by Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham

Check out the full list of films mentioned on Letterboxd.

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In today's episode, I interview Louisa Connolly-Burnham the director of the short film "Sister Wives," an exploration of the dynamics between two women in a polygamous relationship as they explore their love for each other.
Listen to hear about the real life cult the film is based on, the process of casting a film with the intention of playing one of the main characters, and the how she came across the perfect little log cabin for filming the story.
Books mentioned in this episode include:

• The The Secret History: A Read with Jenna Pick by Donna Tartt

Films mentioned in this episode include:

• "Sister Wives” directed by Louisa Connolly-Burnham
• Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey directed by Rachel Dretzin
• The Village directed by M. Night Shyamalan
• Vampire Academy (television series)
• How to Have Sex directed by Molly Manning Walker
• Drive directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
• Love Lies Bleeding directed by Rose Glass
• Lost in Translation directed by Sofia Coppola
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire directed by Céline Sciamma
• Fishtank directed by Andrea Arnold
• Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson
• The Incredibles directed by Brad Bird

The film showed at Hollyshorts in Los Angeles this summer and will be showing at the London Breeze Film Festival from October 23-27 and the North East International Film Festival from November 18-24. The film will also be available in the US on Film4 later this year.

Follow the film on Instagram @sisterwivesfilm for updates on screenings and festival selections and follow Louisa @louisaconnollyburnham.

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It's time for me to break down who I think will win at the Oscars this weekend. In this episode I go over all 23 categories, letting you know who I think will win the Oscar and who I think should win. They don't always match, so listen in to win your Oscar prediction pool!

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Today is the second of a five episode preview of the 97th Academy Awards where I will be breaking down each and every category throughout the week. Today I am joined by Enrico Banson from the Director's Notes newsletter to break down Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. I've listed the nominees below along with a few other films mentioned throughout the episode.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get all the preview episodes this week, and head over to my Substack to submit your guesses for my annual Oscar prediction contest.

The nominees for each category are listed below.

Best Animated Feature:

• Flow
• Inside Out 2
• Memoir of a Snail
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
• The Wild Robot

Best International Feature:

• Emilia Pérez (France)
• Flow (Latvia)
• The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)
• I'm Still Here (Brazil)
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)

Best Documentary Feature:

• Black Box Diaries
• No Other Land
• Porcelain War
• Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
• Sugarcane

Best Original Score:

• The Brutalist
• Conclave
• Emilia Pérez
• Wicked
• The Wild Robot

Best Original Song:

• "El Mal" from Emilia Pérez
• "The Journey" from The Six Triple Eight
• "Like a Bird" from Sing Sing
• "Mi Camino" from Emilia Pérez
• "Never Too Late" from Elton John: Never Too Late

Other films mentioned in this episode include:

• "Incident" directed by Bill Morrison
• 20 Days in Mariupol directed by Mstyslav Chernov
• The Eternal Memory directed by Maite Alberdi
• Navalny directed by Daniel Roher
• Summer of Soul directed by Ahmir-Khalib Thompson
• My Octopus Teacher directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed
• Will & Harper directed by Josh Greenbaum
• Piece by Piece directed by Morgan Neville
• Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
• The Remarkable Life of Ibelin directed by Benjamin Ree
• "The Last Repair Shop" directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
• The Last Showgirl directed by Gia Coppola
• Armageddon directed by Michael Bay
• The Lion King directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
• Rocket Man directed by Dexter Fletcher
• Coco directed by Lee Unkrich
• Encanto directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush
• Aladdin directed by John Musker and Ron Clements

Other media mentioned in this episode include:

• "Never My Love" performed by The Association
• "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Diane Warren, performed by Aerosmith
• "How Do I Live" by Diane Warren, performed by LeAnn Rimes
• "Remember Me" by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez
• "We Don't Talk About Bruno" by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• "Dos Oruguitas" by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• "A Whole New World" by Alan Menken and Tim Rice

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In honor of the Student Academy Awards that took place this past Monday October 14th, I'm providing a quick recap of the winners. You'll also hear a little bit of my interviews from earlier this year with two of the winners and some thoughts on the ceremony experience itself.
Check out my previous interviews with Robin Wang and Birdy Wei-Ting Hung while you wait for some new interviews next week and the rest of October as we head into awards season!
You can watch the entire ceremony on YouTube if you missed any of the acceptance speeches.