On this episode of Screen Babble we're talking all things award season and Benji has even created a leader board for us all to follow so we're on top of who is set to win big this year. First up Kelly and Matt, cannot let an episode go by without having a chat about the TV event of the year so far - The Traitors. Listen as they educated Benji as to why it's a great watch.
Benji takes us through this year's film award hopefuls and the team discuss whether it is in fact a good year for film. Matt has prepared a super-handy guide to where you can watch all the best picture Oscar nominees as well as how much that will set you back!
Finally, we fast forward 12 months and consider the big hitters we can expect to be lining up for gongs in 2026. Matt even brought his crystal ball!
Thanks for listening - remember to follow us on Tik Tok @screen.babble
Benji takes us through this year's film award hopefuls and the team discuss whether it is in fact a good year for film. Matt has prepared a super-handy guide to where you can watch all the best picture Oscar nominees as well as how much that will set you back!
Finally, we fast forward 12 months and consider the big hitters we can expect to be lining up for gongs in 2026. Matt even brought his crystal ball!
Thanks for listening - remember to follow us on Tik Tok @screen.babble
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome back to ScreenBabble.
00:15We've probably all watched way too much TV in January.
00:17No, I've scratched that actually, there's no such thing as too much TV, is there?
00:22We've already, we've already had one of the TV events of the year behind us with the traitors
00:27having already been and gone, but don't worry, we'll be tuning into hours and hours of TV
00:32so we can tell you what you need to be switching on and what's to be avoided.
00:35I'm your host, Kelly Crichton, and I am joined by National Royal Critics, Benjamin Jackson
00:40and Matt Mohan-Hickson, telling us what's what and what's not.
00:44Remember, if you want to see our faces, you can head over to ShotsTV.com, which is brought
00:48to you by a network of journalists across the country who are transforming stories at
00:52the heart of your community into great TV.
00:55You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis, plus coverage of lifestyle,
00:59lifestyle, TV, film and much more.
01:02ScreenBabble is back as a monthly podcast with longer run times where we'll take you
01:06through the best in TV and film and much more.
01:11Today we're looking at award season and what lies ahead for the big hitters in TV and film
01:16particularly actually, we're going to focus on today.
01:18Hi Matt and Benji, I'm sorry, but before we move to prestige TV, what about the traitors?
01:24I know Benji, you tried to avoid it as much as possible.
01:27Yeah, look, I've got a very challenging Sudoku puzzle.
01:30So I'll let you guys talk amongst yourselves while I start working on this.
01:35In Philistine.
01:36Well, I don't have a pen, so all right, I guess I'm going to have to sit contently.
01:40Oh, tell me, tell me about the traitors, guys.
01:43Yeah, Sudoku's okay, but have you ever tried a roundtable?
01:46What, a roundtable Sudoku?
01:48No, no, no.
01:49Did they do that on the traitors?
01:50I'll probably be into it then, but now go on, like everyone I know and their dog talks
02:00about the traitors.
02:01I avoid it.
02:02I don't know why, maybe because I'm a contrarian, but what am I missing out on so much that
02:07makes it must see television?
02:09You haven't watched any of the series, have you, before?
02:12No, no, no, no.
02:13It's just so delicious.
02:15Yeah.
02:16It's just so delicious.
02:17Well, now, look at me, man, I am a guy that exerts very poor self-control when it comes
02:22to Moorish things, but I just don't know about the traitors.
02:26I don't know what I'm missing out on.
02:27I have a question for you.
02:29Did you enjoy Big Brother in its heyday, like the first three or four years?
02:34Did you enjoy-
02:35Oh, the OG when voyeurism wasn't so prevalent in the media, I guess.
02:42And I heard someone making this comparison.
02:45There's an element of that to it where it's just normal people in a room and you're observing
02:53how they interact with each other, put in certain situations and how those relationships
02:58play out, et cetera.
02:59Now, obviously there's that element of someone's, they know someone's lying, at least one person,
03:04probably more.
03:05So there is sort of suspicion and paranoia and all those things.
03:09But it's a fascinating observation in how people work and take and play a game, you
03:17know.
03:18Although, and we maybe hold off the criticism for a few minutes, you can kind of see that
03:22people are coming into it with more of a strategy now than they did in the first two series.
03:28But let's go back to the start anyway, just to say series three of the Traitors just finished
03:34up a couple of weeks ago.
03:35It feels like it might be a bit in the past now, but we wanted to touch on it because
03:37it is a significant TV moment, 10 million viewers at its peak.
03:44Is there anything else doing that that's not a major sporting event or maybe something
03:49like, maybe like the final of Happy Valley or something, not even, I don't even think
03:54that got 10 million, you know.
03:56I think what like Gavin and Stacey and Wallace and Gromit at Christmas got 20 million, but
04:00that's Christmas Day and that's cheating a bit, isn't it?
04:03Yeah.
04:05You know, nostalgia or whatever.
04:07Yeah.
04:08So, yeah.
04:09So I guess just a few things to point out like Claudia Winkleman, absolutely savage
04:15Queen Claudia.
04:17She's so good at it and she, they dress her so spectacularly or she, I presume she's very
04:22involved in her styling and in this beautiful castle in Scotland.
04:28And you know, from the get go, you're kind of second guessing what's going on because
04:33in the very first episode, there's, they're all on a train going to where they're supposed
04:37to be going and next thing the train stops and they're told three people have to get
04:39off and you're a little bit like, oh my God.
04:41So already they have to sort of sacrifice themselves or whatever.
04:44And it's amazing insight into the individual characters like straight away.
04:50Now it's only 12 episodes, but it feels like a hell of a lot more because it's across three
04:55or four weeks, isn't it?
04:57Yeah.
04:58So it's Wednesday night, Thursday night.
04:59Is it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?
05:00Yeah.
05:01Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
05:03Why don't they chuck an omnibus like they used to do with EastEnders, but I guess with
05:06BBC iPlayer, you can just go and binge it all.
05:10You don't, you don't need to omni anything anymore, do you?
05:13Yeah.
05:14So, so yeah.
05:16But I think, yeah, Matt, take us through some of the key characters, maybe three or four
05:20of them.
05:21Yeah.
05:22So obviously there was Linda that was sort of like the social media, the early season
05:26social media darling for her absolutely terrible acting skills.
05:31She's a retired opera singer, which she didn't channel that in like operatic way, just channeled
05:36it in like, oh, people have died.
05:39Oh, it's me.
05:43She kept getting caught when Claudia was like, traitors.
05:45And she went, oh, she got caught almost straight away, yeah.
05:50So she was absolutely fabulous.
05:52Mina.
05:53I was really gutted for Mina, but I think she fell in that trap of getting complacent.
06:00Three of the traitors fell in that trap, didn't they, where they thought they were doing great
06:04and they were playing the game, Armani was the same, wasn't she, and even Charlotte towards
06:10the end.
06:11Charlotte really got tripped up in the end, unfortunately, but they all played a good
06:15game, like those guys.
06:17I didn't like that Sia twist.
06:18I think they introduced it too well.
06:20It just ruined it because like, realistically, you're going to have to vote both of them
06:24out at that stage because you're like, you can't really believe either of them.
06:28Unless they both come out and say we're both faithfuls, but then they could both be traitors.
06:32So yeah.
06:33So there was this twist, Benji, at the end where one of the players got to ask another
06:39player into a room and be told what their situation was, whether they were a faithful
06:43or a traitor.
06:44And it just, it actually messed the whole game up for both of them.
06:47Both of them ended up being voted out because no one could trust what either of them were
06:50saying when they came out.
06:51Right, OK.
06:52As it happened, one of them was a traitor.
06:53The girl that was invited in was a traitor.
06:57But when they left the room, she was like, oh, she's got, she's, um, this is what happened.
07:04I told her I was a faithful.
07:05That's that.
07:06And then she was like, no, she's a traitor.
07:08And then she's like, you liar.
07:09You know, basically, it made it a little bit more cutthroat, didn't it, as well?
07:15It was like incredibly evil acting, I thought.
07:18Like she did the best that she could, Charlotte, with trying to survive that, but like it was
07:23too late for her.
07:24She gave it a good go, didn't she?
07:26Like, oh, you wouldn't want to work, like you wouldn't want her to be like your boss
07:30at work, would you?
07:31No.
07:32Like, so does the traitors, for me, it feels like the traitors normally a new season occurs
07:38shortly after Christmas, would that be fair to say?
07:41Yeah.
07:42Is that because there's, from the sounds of things, certain almost panto elements that
07:46go along with it?
07:47Yeah, it's a good observation, but I think to be honest with you, you know, BBC knows
07:51what it's doing.
07:52Everybody's sat at home in January doing nothing, broke and tired, and very happy to spend quite
07:57a lot of time watching a programme like this.
07:59Yeah, like, can't be bothered playing Cluedo with the family members around the Christmas
08:03table anymore.
08:04There's enough Cluedo for Christmas.
08:05Yeah, exactly.
08:06Let's watch a grittier Cluedo take place on the BBC.
08:08Yeah.
08:09Then you don't have to like flip your TV, do you?
08:11Like, you know, you flip your board if you lose at Cluedo, but you can't flip your TV.
08:15Yeah, exactly.
08:16There's money in TV licensing there as well, much like Monopoly, but yeah, less said about
08:21that, the better.
08:22The other thing that's worth a mention actually is Uncloaked, which is the visualised podcast.
08:27That's with Ed Gamble, is that correct?
08:30Correct, yeah.
08:31BBC Two straight afterwards.
08:34And it was around the time of Trump's inauguration and stuff like that was going on.
08:38And normally I'd watch the 10 o'clock news, but I was so like, I was news avoidant during
08:42that time.
08:43So I'd go and I'd just flick on Uncloaked because I was like, it's easier to watch this
08:47than watch the news.
08:49So I think they probably, you know, got a bit of an advantage out of that as well this
08:54year.
08:55But I think a couple other things just to mention was that there was a couple of darlings,
08:59wasn't there, Matt?
09:00So Alexander, for one, has become like a social media king out of this, hasn't he?
09:04Everyone just loved him and they've raised, what, about 70 grand because he was saying
09:08that he was going to give money to charity and the charity that, you know, if he wanted
09:12to give some of his money to charity and people loved him so much that like they've raised
09:17about I think 70 grand for the charity.
09:19Yeah, it's really nice.
09:20Yeah, really nice.
09:21Like, yeah, that's a good, good bit of community from a TV, isn't it?
09:24Instead of people slacking people off on social media, they've come together to raise money
09:29for charity.
09:30Well, an interesting, again, cross section of society, but I think, yeah, one criticism
09:37I've heard is that, you know, same thing that happened to Big Brother.
09:41People started coming in with a game plan and maybe weren't totally being themselves
09:45like they had been originally.
09:47And there was a couple of people this year who had a strategy.
09:51And Charlotte, who was one of the, we were just talking about her there, one of the traders,
09:55she put on a Welsh accent, even though she lives in London, because she thought people
09:59would trust Welsh people more.
10:01Now, she was born in Wales, I believe, but it was like, what, at the start.
10:05But actually, she got very far in the game.
10:07So you kind of think, oh, maybe it did make a difference.
10:10There was a priest who decided she wasn't going to tell anybody she was a priest, which
10:14was a bit weird.
10:15But and then I think she didn't do herself any favours in the end, but she did kind of
10:19come out halfway through the thing.
10:21And then the final person was Leanne, who pretended to be like a nail technician, and
10:25she was actually a soldier.
10:26And she ended up winning.
10:27Winning.
10:28Now, if she had said she was a soldier all along, people may not have trusted her as
10:34much as they did, you know, because they could feel like, oh, she's got tactics.
10:37She understands these things, how these games work.
10:41So who knows?
10:42I'm afraid that it's going to go down that route of, and they kept saying things like,
10:46I don't know why I'm still here.
10:48Who's keeping me here in this?
10:49And they were all trying to dig into the strategy more this year.
10:52So look, hopefully the casting is still strong next year and they bring in some people who
10:57are just going to do their own thing, but that it doesn't go too far down that line.
11:02Would you agree, Matt?
11:03Yeah, no, definitely.
11:04And I think some of the cracks started to show as well, you know, Uncloaked, they kept
11:09talking about how Joe was like everyone's favorite and like Claudia said, how he lightened
11:14up the room and took out the-
11:16Yeah.
11:17Yeah.
11:18But like, they didn't show any of that.
11:19We didn't see that.
11:20He was really annoying.
11:21He got the visit, like the villain edit completely.
11:22I think that definitely reminds you that they edited it so heavily because everybody was
11:26like, oh, when Joe left, everybody was so down and it was like, what?
11:30He came across really like bookish and annoying and kind of moany in it.
11:37So yeah, you know, it's like that thing.
11:40If you're not paying for it, you're the product.
11:41So I feel like we're the product in this, aren't we?
11:45But anyway, we'll be looking forward to, apparently there's going to be celebrity traders later
11:49in the year.
11:50So we'll be looking forward to that in advance of depressing January traders next year.
12:04Okay.
12:05Right.
12:07So Benji, you're going to talk about award season.
12:08Benji, thank you for bearing with us there.
12:10What have we heard so far about awards season?
12:14I mean, this is a whole thing, like you could probably write a book on this, but talk to
12:17us about what's coming up.
12:19Big hitters, what we can expect, when's and where's, all that kind of stuff.
12:23Well, we've had the Golden Globes, they took place in January, which kind of set the tone
12:29a little bit for what we could expect.
12:32We have recently had both in January, or since we last recorded, the BAFTA nominations
12:37and also the Oscar nominations.
12:41Just as a side note, we've also had the Razzies as well.
12:45Sadly, Joker Foliadur has done very well at the Razzies and a couple of other things.
12:51The wooden spoon of the road or the race to the Oscars season, that unfortunately will
12:57not be televised.
12:58But there's always heaps of clips on the Razzie's official YouTube channel.
13:03There's always one or two films that kind of straddle both awards, though, isn't there?
13:06I wonder, is the substance in the Razzies?
13:09No, the substance is not.
13:11In fact, the substance has had quite the gallop since we've last talked.
13:15It has been nominated for an Oscar for the best film.
13:20Demi Moore continues her career resurgence, part deux, with her nod in the best actress
13:29category.
13:30Actor, actor.
13:31We're 21st century.
13:32It's all acting, isn't it?
13:34Adrian Brody continues to dominate.
13:37I mean, it'd be pretty weird to not say he isn't a favorite to pick up the best actor
13:43award at the Oscars for The Brutalist, which Matt, I believe, went to see.
13:48And you also were treated to an intermission, because that runs about three hours long,
13:52is that correct?
13:53Yeah, it's like over three hours, yeah.
13:56It's really, really long.
13:57I mean, three hours and architecture, it's like, oh.
14:01It sounds like it should be absolutely miserable, like it should, but like it's really compelling
14:06and it's smaller than you'd think, because it's quite an indie film, so there's not a
14:11lot of people in the cast, like a lot of the time it's just like Adrian Brody and Guy Pearce
14:16and they're just like bouncing off each other as this sort of Hungarian refugee from sort
14:23of after the Holocaust.
14:25He comes to America, he was an architect in Hungary and his patron is Guy Pearce, who's
14:32like this really sort of like flamboyant, rich guy who sort of has whims and he wants
14:37to build this community center to remember his mom and they sort of clash a lot and there's
14:44a lot of heroin taken and yeah, it's more, I'd say, like those 70s films, like The Godfather
14:52Part Two and that sort of era, like that's what it's channeling.
14:56Okay, interesting.
14:57But it is a long movie and I was very thankful for the intermission, because I got to have
15:02my sandwich, because it was like lunchtime, yeah, it was lunchtime, so I had my sandwich
15:07and judged my life.
15:08Is it Oscar bait, which a lot of people are suggesting, because there's another film that's
15:16now being suggested as Oscar bait, wholly different than the usual tenets that comes
15:21along with, that's clearly just been made for an Academy Award, so you didn't pick up
15:26any notes of Oscar baiting with it?
15:28No, because I feel like it's like a passion project that's like weirdly like blown up,
15:34you know, one of those like film festival success stories and then A24, the buzzy producers
15:41pick it up and give it like a buzzy campaign.
15:43I don't think, you know, it isn't in that sort of bit of here's a famous person, we're
15:47doing their life story, let's win, let's win an Oscar.
15:51I think it's this film.
15:54It's 20 years since Adrian Brodie won the Oscar, which was clearly a people called the
16:01Europeanist Oscar bait as well at the time, but I mean, we'd be remiss if we weren't to
16:07talk about the problematic movie, one that was a very early favourite to sweep the Oscars
16:14and that is Amelia Perez.
16:16Has any of you read online the discourse regarding it?
16:21Yes, I've seen that one clip of like a song from it where it's like, what do you want?
16:28Penis to Vans?
16:29I was just like, no, no, no, no, no.
16:34So that is the musical number that's been doing the rounds.
16:36There's also talk now of Carla Sophia Gascon, has been, well, she did Blackface earlier
16:44on in her career.
16:47It's getting really nasty, this Oscars.
16:49Now you were going to ask me the question, Kelly, has it been a bad year for film?
16:55We're never going to have Barbenheimer every year, unfortunately.
17:00And I'd say that, you know, the movies that have made the best Oscar, best picture nominations,
17:07they all kind of feel a little bit, God forbid I say this, formulaic, like, you know what
17:14you're getting with the main contenders in there.
17:19What I find quite interesting this year is just how dirty the campaigns have gotten.
17:24You have calls for two films to be removed for breaking Academy rules.
17:32You have all of this discourse about whether Emilia Pérez is a modern day take on Oscar
17:37bait because of the situations and issues that it takes.
17:42And again, it's a musical.
17:44We know that the Academy, even way back last year when me and Stephen were talking about
17:49the Oscars, you know, never forget you, Steve.
17:52He's not dead, by the way.
17:55He's not dead.
17:56You know, he's dead to me when he left this company.
17:59No, because I know that he's watching him and Alex, so, you know, they do, they do shout
18:05out Screen Babble 1.0, 2.0.
18:09We know the Academy loves a musical, Emilia Pérez is a musical.
18:13We know the Academy like films that have social issues.
18:16Emilia Pérez definitely has a modern day social issue.
18:20The problem that people have is just the execution of the whole thing.
18:24And I think if it was to win an Academy Award, then perhaps there's going to be quite a noisy
18:30contingent of people saying it didn't deserve it.
18:35We might have another Green Book on our hands.
18:37Yeah, I feel like the, you know, and we talked about this briefly amongst ourselves last
18:43week, but it's the politics thing with the Oscars, isn't it?
18:46They're trying to avoid becoming the Emmys, you know, where they want to have equality
18:51and diversity.
18:52So, you know, people are going to be like second guessing why some films are picked,
18:58you know, if that's an element to them.
19:00I think to go back to the point about is this a bad year for film?
19:04Up until recently, I'd only seen two or three of the films that were nominated.
19:08And I just felt like this, these don't feel like spectacular, you know, stirring movies
19:16to me, you know, now having said that.
19:21Maybe apart from Dune Part Two, though, which has that stirring epicness, but you know exactly
19:26what you get with Denis Villeneuve.
19:27You know, you're going to get that classy cinematography.
19:30Yeah, oh, absolutely.
19:32And that is definitely something that it should be up there for.
19:35But having said all that, I have since watched Wicked, which I really enjoyed.
19:40I thought it was, I think it's very close to the stage production and I was maybe, and
19:44I would consider myself like a Wicked aficionado to an extent.
19:49I've seen it in Broadway.
19:50I've seen it on stage in the UK.
19:53I've seen it.
19:54I've read the book.
19:55I've done all the things.
19:57So I think maybe I was wanting something a little bit different, but actually when you
20:01settle into the fact that they're trying to stay quite true to it, then it works.
20:05It's perfect.
20:06And I also watched Conclave, which, oh yeah, Rafe, yeah, Rafe, oh my God, this stellar
20:16cast in it, but like not, not a best picture film by any means.
20:26But maybe it's again, it goes down to the content behind it, doesn't it?
20:32The story behind it is what pushes it.
20:35Would the pair of you like to see the changes to our league table that we've been running
20:39in the race to the Oscars?
20:41So this was January.
20:43The point scoring system is as follows.
20:45You get a nomination for one of the major awards.
20:47You get a one point.
20:49You get a win at one of the major ceremonies.
20:52You get three points, simple, easy football terminology.
20:54Okay.
20:55So in January, as you can see, Amelia Perez was in the lead, followed by The Brutalist,
21:01The Wicked, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, and Nora Flow.
21:05Wallace and Cromit made it in there as well by getting three nominations across three
21:09of the big award ceremonies.
21:12Nickel Boys, which is very interesting because that's been kind of summed up as an Oscar
21:17favorite as well in certain areas, but did not get a big release out here, if I remember
21:23correctly.
21:24Matt, is that correct?
21:25Yeah, it's had a very small scale release, which is interesting because it's Amazon,
21:31MGM are the ones that are producing it and distributing it.
21:36So it will end up on Prime someday.
21:39I'm guessing that because of the Oscars, they're trying to keep it around lo-fi in the cinema.
21:44And in York, where I live, it was one or two days.
21:48I did notice it's back in later this week, but again, it's one showing on a Friday afternoon,
21:54one showing on a Monday afternoon, which it's not really good if you've got a job, is it?
21:58Yeah.
22:00No, it's...
22:01It's for retired people, yeah.
22:03Yeah.
22:04It's quite interesting, though, because it's filmed a bit like, you know, peep shows.
22:07Do you remember peep show where it was like, from the point of view, like first person
22:11point of view?
22:12Yeah.
22:13It's like that, but like a dramatic take.
22:14Yeah.
22:15And yeah, so if there's any chance of seeing it.
22:19And then if we just move into February, which was updated yesterday, and if you want to
22:23take a look at also the Best Actor and Best Actress leaderboard, it's up there on the
22:27Edinburgh Evening News, where you can find this podcast as well.
22:32You can see a couple of changes there.
22:33Now, Amelia Perez, despite all the drama, it's still topping our leaderboard.
22:38The Brutalists, still topping there.
22:41Interesting, though, Onora, which wasn't really quite fancied.
22:44I mean, there was early hype behind it.
22:46It's picked up a couple more nominations at both the BAFTAs and the Oscars, so that's
22:51taken third position, bumping down a complete unknown, which is Timothee Chalamet's Bob
22:56Dylan biopic, Conclave we've talked about, Wicked, which we've talked about.
23:01But if you take a look at the bottom of the table, I mean, unfortunately, Wallace and
23:05Gromit has unfortunately gone.
23:07The Substance, which picked up Best Original Screenplay and the Best Film nod at the Oscars,
23:13that's shot up into eighth place.
23:15Nickel Boys, which we've talked about, has picked up a couple more points.
23:19And A Real Pain, which is the Jesse Eisenberg-directed film with Kieran Culkin from Succession getting
23:26a lot of praise regarding that.
23:27So yeah, it might have been, compared to other years, not an exciting lineup, but it is just
23:34a sturdy, solid, we'll see what happens.
23:37I mean, crikey, it's developing a lot more the quicker we get.
23:42And then once we have the BAFTAs, we've got the Screen Actors Guild Awards, we've got
23:47the Directors Guild Awards, and then we finally head to the Oscars, which is screening once
23:53again live on ITV1 and ITVX on March the 3rd at 1 a.m.
23:58If you want to follow along with the BAFTAs action, that is screening, if I remember correctly,
24:088 p.m. on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer.
24:12Pretty early, actually, February the 16th, did I write that down correctly?
24:16The professionalism runs here, doesn't it?
24:18Yeah.
24:19So Benji, for listeners then, I think that leaderboard you're doing is absolutely brilliant.
24:23You're going to keep updating that and posting it online, is that right?
24:27Yeah.
24:28So we have updated that with both the BAFTA nominations that took place in late January
24:34and also the Oscar nominations that took place in late January.
24:39Next time you can expect an update for that is probably going to be around BAFTA's territory
24:44or Screen Actors Guild's territory, but it would be a waste of time if I did all this
24:49and went, oh, I'm not going to touch it for the rest of the Oscars run now.
24:52So it will be updated and, you know, we've got a TikTok now, so, you know, we'll give
24:58you a gentle nudge and reminder on the TikTok.
25:00I'm surprised some other major broadcasters haven't hit you up to get you on and explain
25:06your leaderboard.
25:07Who said that they haven't?
25:08Oh, sorry.
25:09Who said that they haven't?
25:10Oh, remember.
25:11I don't know, I feel quite exposed now, right?
25:13Oh, where's that Sudoku puzzle again?
25:15Right.
25:16Yeah, cool.
25:17That's amazing.
25:18Okay.
25:19So I think what we're going to do now is we're going to go over to Matt and we're going to
25:22talk about sort of where and how you can watch these.
25:27And then maybe Matt, towards the end, we're going to talk about sort of further down the
25:30line again and what's happening.
25:34So can you talk to us about where people can actually watch these films we've been talking
25:40about and how, I suppose, and what it's going to cost them?
25:44Yeah, yeah.
25:45Obviously, the list for the Best Picture nominees is long again, like they upped that a few
25:51years ago, didn't they?
25:52So it used to be a bit shorter.
25:53So now there's even more films to watch.
25:54Yeah, it seems very long this year.
25:55It used to be like five or six, didn't that?
25:57Yeah.
25:58It's about 10 now, isn't it?
25:59I think.
26:00Yeah.
26:01So they've really like packed it in.
26:02But yeah, so a lot of the films have already been in cinemas, so stuff like Wicked, Conclave,
26:12Dune Part Two, obviously, and Nora.
26:15They've all been in cinemas and come and gone, but you can rent them at home.
26:19So Wicked, you can get from like Sky Store and, you know, Prime Video, you can rent digitally
26:25to watch.
26:26Same with Conclave.
26:27But they're about 16 quid each to rent at the moment.
26:30Now those do come down after, like...
26:32Yeah, you might as well be going to the cinema, you know, to see what it's like.
26:36You have to get a few people to chip in, I think, like, you have to fork out for it.
26:41And then Brutalist and A Complete Unknown are still in cinemas at the moment, if you
26:47can catch them.
26:48I think A Complete Unknown just came out, didn't it, I think, Benji, so that's still
26:52pretty...
26:53Yeah, it was a late...
26:55You got a couple of weeks until...
26:58It's doing well financially, put it that way, so you got another month or so until it arrives
27:02on home premiere.
27:04And then Nickel Boys is in cinema, but very few showings.
27:09And obviously, you have to sort of catch it on a day when you maybe can go to the afternoon,
27:15unless maybe if you're in London, there's probably a bit more flexibility there.
27:19But outside of London, you're probably gonna have to really, like, dive to go and see it,
27:24have to make an effort.
27:26The Brazilian entry, I think, I'm Still Here, that's one of the sort of wildcard nominees.
27:31That's due out later this month in the UK.
27:35So I think they've obviously timed that now to the Oscars, so that the buzz from the Oscars,
27:42if it does anything at the Oscars, will cross over to the cinema.
27:46And then Dune is on Sky slash Now TV.
27:50Well, Now Movies, not Now TV, obviously, but yeah, so if you have a subscription to Now
27:55or if you have a Sky Movies subscriber, you can watch Dune part two there.
28:00Amelia Perez is on Netflix, and The Substance is on Mubi, which is another one of those
28:06sort of streaming services to take money out of your bank account.
28:11But speaking of bank accounts, it's January, well, it's not January, it's February, isn't it?
28:15I've lost track of the month, but yeah, so you must have a real Christmas.
28:20So I did a bit of a back of the cigarette maths packets.
28:24Now, the cinema price is based on the cinema tickets where I am in York.
28:29It was over 120 quid if you wanted to, like, you know, binge your way through all of them.
28:34You know, when you factor in different subscriptions, you know, rental prices, cinema prices.
28:41Yeah, it's a hefty fee to see all of them.
28:43It is.
28:45If it's not like a vintage year, are you going to go to that effort?
28:49I think the key as well is, you know, to maybe listen to the hubbub and sort of go to the films
28:54when they come out and then you can stretch it out a little bit.
28:56But they do. It's always backloaded, isn't it?
28:59Most of them, I mean, not most of them, but some of them don't come out to quite near the actual
29:04or we're not aware of them, even that aware of them until it kind of closer
29:08to the actual nominations and the awards.
29:11So but you know what?
29:13I think the thing is, I never manage even back in the day when it was like five or six.
29:17I never managed to watch them all in advance.
29:19You kind of want to play along, you know, and have your personal favorite.
29:24But I think that it's kind of ambitious.
29:26So look, enjoy what you can before then.
29:29And yeah, just looking at your list there, the cheapest one to watch is Anora.
29:34So you could start there.
29:36Yeah. Yeah.
29:37Oh, I think you can get like a free trial for Mubi, I think, like a month, like a week's free trial.
29:42Yeah, you can.
29:44I mean, I like Mubi, but that's just because I'm just a cinephile.
29:49And a lot of the stuff that the BFI player used to have ends up on Mubi.
29:54So if you want to be pretentious like your old mate, Benji, get a subscription to Mubi.
29:59Oh, you're not pretentious.
30:01Pretend that you collect all the Criterion Collection as well.
30:06Wait, so yeah, just explain that a little bit, Benji.
30:09So Mubi is more so focused on film.
30:12It's not so much streaming TV.
30:14Yeah, so Mubi is kind of like the arthouse streaming service.
30:18You know, like if I was in London, I'd probably be heading to like those smaller cinemas to catch those.
30:23Like we mentioned, Matt, you know, Nickel Boys or another Oscar favourite, September 5th,
30:27that we neglected to mention about because it's not really on general release over here in the United Kingdom.
30:34So Mubi has those films from all your favourites, including The Substance.
30:39It's where I watched a lot of Jorgos Lanthimos' earlier work.
30:43You may remember him from Poor Things.
30:45Yeah, he did stuff called Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
30:49So if you want to go into that more arthouse kind of cinema or you want to watch a really cool version of Suspiria,
30:56the original Dario Argento version, you've got Mubi.
30:59I mean, I'm not being paid to show them by any means, but much like when you pick up a brand new iPhone,
31:05you know, an Apple TV Plus subscription for six months for free is still a free subscription.
31:10So do all your binging.
31:12You know, it's like turning up to the buffet table at a wedding reception.
31:17Just fill your boots up while you can before you have to leave.
31:20Very good. I like that.
31:23OK, so, Matt, will you just do a really quick rundown of like where the films are and where we can watch them?
31:30So Wicked is available to rent at home.
31:33The Brutalist is in cinemas now.
31:35Amelia Perez is on Netflix.
31:37A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now.
31:39Conclave is available to rent at home.
31:41I'm Still Here is coming to cinemas later this month, February.
31:45And Nora is available to rent at home.
31:48Dune Part Two is on now slash Sky Movies.
31:51The Substance is on Mubi and Nickel Boys is in some cinemas now and Prime at a later date.
31:58So we are super, super pumped for awards season.
32:01Thanks for that, Matt.
32:02Let's see how it all goes.
32:03And we'll be reporting back on it all this time next month.
32:06And keep an eye on Benji's leaderboard in the meantime.
32:09But Matt, you've been doing some crystal ball gazing.
32:12Is that right?
32:13I mean, it's a crystal ball, but yeah.
32:15Oh, my God.
32:16I think it's a Pyrex.
32:18I think it's a Pyrex ball, Matt.
32:20To be fair to Matt, right?
32:22To be fair to Matt, he had a Magic 8 ball and it got broken.
32:25So, you know, it was within the Pyrex dish.
32:29But, you know, liquid evaporates.
32:31It cost me my traitor's bet.
32:32It said it said Charlotte was going to win and I had to just throw it.
32:35Get rid of it.
32:35Oh, one of those ones then.
32:37You're going to tell us what you think is going to be happening in 2026.
32:41Go on then, give us wildly far out predictions.
32:44Like just, yeah, some absolutely like wild, early, crazy predictions for 2026.
32:50So I think Robert Pattinson is going to get nominated for both
32:53best actor and best supporting actor for Mickey 17,
32:57which is a new film from Bong Joon-ho,
33:01who won for Parasite a few years ago, 2019 I think, 2020, before the pandemic.
33:06So it's his first film since that.
33:08And Robert Pattinson's playing about 17 versions of himself in that movie.
33:12Oh, interesting.
33:12So I think it's one of those.
33:14If it hits, he could get like the double.
33:17Oh, I feel like he deserves something.
33:19He works so hard, I miss him.
33:21OK, he's so sincere.
33:23Some classic favourites who've never actually won best director,
33:26Paul Thompson and Spike Lee both have films coming out this year.
33:31I think maybe this might be the time that one of them gets it.
33:35I think when we're sitting here this time next year, Wicked 2,
33:40and the Michael Jackson biopic will get the most nominations.
33:44Albeit, there's been some problems with that Michael Jackson biopic.
33:47I think they're having to reshoot because I think a child who accused him of,
33:53one of his child accusers was made to be the baddie in the third act.
33:56And they've realised that maybe they shouldn't have.
33:58Yeah, they had to reshoot the entire third cast
34:02because part of the legal proceedings for that original Michael Jackson case
34:07was that they wouldn't use that case as part of the narrative.
34:10Somebody forgot to tell the scriptwriters on that occasion, though, didn't they?
34:15Yeah, but I feel like that Michael Jackson biopic is bound to get
34:19like absolutely tons of nominations.
34:20Do you think?
34:21I'm kind of already thinking that's going to be a controversial one.
34:24It's going to be controversial.
34:25It's a sort of thing where someone will be like,
34:27oh, look at how he's transformed into Michael Jackson.
34:30Biopics tend to do well, Kelly.
34:34And then my super wild prediction that's definitely not going to come true.
34:39A horror film will win Best Picture and it'll be either of the two
34:43movies that are coming out this year.
34:45So we've got The Bride, which is Maggie Gyllenhaal.
34:48And then we've got Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.
34:51The Oscars love Guillermo del Toro.
34:54I love Guillermo del Toro. I really do.
34:57Next year looks like a more exciting year than this year.
35:01I'm going to get into a fight with Benji over this.
35:02Watch everything get delayed.
35:04Well, you know, I haven't got the finances to go see Nickelboy on my work hours.
35:09I don't think I've got the finances to come all the way up there, eh?
35:13Oh, watch this space.
35:15I'm getting I am not a film critic, so I am the least qualified person
35:19to say whether it's a good year or not for the film industry.
35:23But listen, it's exciting all the same.
35:25And inevitably, the Oscars, regardless of the films, produces
35:30some interesting content and stuff to talk about.
35:32So we will be back next month talking about Oscars 2025.
35:36We'll leave 2026 for another little while.
35:39Thanks for joining us today, everyone.
35:41If you have any suggestions for what TV or film we need to get into our lives,
35:45drop us a line via our social media.
35:47We'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast
35:49so we can reach as many TV and film lovers as possible.
35:52We'll be back soon with more Screen Babble.
35:54Ciao for now. Bye, everyone.
35:56Ciao for now. Bye bye.