“Anne Hathaway: C+” Michael Schulman grades the Oscar acceptance speeches: http://nyr.kr/W8FSgy

…and, read David Denby on the First Lady at the Awards (“Not good, Academy. Pleaes don’t do it again”), and the night’s highs and lows: http://nyr.kr/15KxxRx

and Claire Hoffman on Seth MacFarlane, creepy imitator and Oscars host: http://nyr.kr/13iytgx

(Source: newyorker.com)

This week on newyorker.com, Richard Brody forecast which films are likely to win Oscar’s favor. Now, join Brody and our Culture Editor, Michael Agger to watch the ceremony and discuss it live: http://nyr.kr/WfLwIn

This week on newyorker.com, Richard Brody forecast which films are likely to win Oscar’s favor. On Sunday evening, he’ll discuss the show and the scene in a live chat with our Culture Editor, Michael Agger. Follow this link to leave a comment or ask a question about the awards, and come back on Sunday, at 7:30 P.M. E.T., to watch the ceremony with Richard and Michael: http://nyr.kr/WfLwIn

 The magazine piece that became ”Argo” almost wasn’t assigned. Here, Nicholas Thompson tells the story of its origins: http://nyr.kr/15zE5Cy

There’s no point to letting indignation, or even just personal preference, override the rational effort to forecast the Academy’s likely misjudgments. The Oscars are the way that Hollywood’s insiders want to be perceived by the world. The following predictions are less their view of the industry’s best achievements than of the choice of work that they’d elect to represent them; the awards are the industry’s advertisement for itself.

Richard Brody casts his Oscar ballot: http://nyr.kr/11XQz7S

(Source: newyorker.com)

To get you ready for this week’s Academy Awards, here are some songs about movies—ten songs, in fact, to keep pace with the Academy’s expanded Best Picture list: http://nyr.kr/Vuesio

Sometimes it actually works out that Oscar manna falls upon the year’s worthiest movies, but this year is one of grim forebodings. For instance, there are nine nominees for Best Picture; I wouldn’t have put any of the nine anywhere near my list of the year’s best movies. But the problem with the Academy Awards isn’t the unreliability of the Academy—which, judging from past performance, is utterly foreseeable—but, rather, the unyielding routine to which it answers. Just as locks are designed so that each can be opened by only one key, so the categories of the Oscars need to be reconfigured each year to make sure that the actual best movies are the only ones that can reasonably correspond to them. It’s the “Jeopardy” version of the Oscars: the movies and the artists are the answers; the award categories, the questions.

Last June, long before the season was upon us, I bestowed an award in advance on the assumption that no worthier candidate would emerge: the Oscar for Best Use of the Word “Clinically” to “Damsels in Distress,” for a discussion regarding being “clinically depressed” and the line of dialogue: “Have you been to a clinic?” But as the rest of the year’s movies appeared, other categories were revealed, like photographic prints in a developing bath (Best Darkroom Scene: “The Master”)…

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, with “Lincoln” garnering a leading twelve nods from the Academy. Richard Brody has already shared his thoughts. Here is how the magazine covered the nine Best Picture nominees: http://nyr.kr/UQ8VV6

Richard Brody on how the Oscar nominations reflect the national climate of art and politics: http://nyr.kr/10ijwuD