Little Gold Men

We’re a quarter of the way through 2016, and are there any good movies out there at all? Yes, says our guest Matt Patches, the senior entertainment editor for Thrillist, who is keeping a running list of the year’s best movies, and is already getting hate mail for it. From there Katey, Richard, and Mike discuss Richard Linklater’s new film Everybody Wants Some, and go back in time to rewrite history and hand Linklater that Oscar he deserves.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week we welcome special guest Franklin Leonard, the founder and CEO of The Blacklist, which is the perennial answer to the question “where are all the good movies?” We ask Franklin about how he and The Blacklist dig up the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood and what’s the good stuff we should look forward to this year. From there we look at the year’s biggest, most prestigious awards: The MTV Movie Awards (OK, maybe not). But there are some surprisingly satisfying nominees this year.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Giving in to what we’ve actually been obsessed with since the Oscars, we dive into The People v. O.J. Simpson, the FX miniseries that has us and much of the country re-obsessed with a 20-year-old trial. From there we look at an accidental trilogy of music biopics arriving at an odd time of year, and then dare to re-arbitrate the 2014 Oscars: if you were in charge that year, who would have won best actor?  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Joined by special guest Christine Lahti, who won an Oscar in 1996 for her short film Lieberman in Love, we look back at the ceremony that happened 20 years ago this week, from the bad fashion to Christine’s memorable competition with the likes of Jeff Goldblum. We also discuss this week’s new release Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, catch up on the latest in Oscar buzz, and make our cock-eyed predictions of who would win best supporting actor if the Oscars were held . . . tomorrow. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Oscars may be over, but the seeds of Oscar season are sown well before anybody actually starts campaigning— which is why we’re keeping Little Gold Men going through the “off-season” between now and Labor Day. To kick things off, we’re joined by Decider’s Joe Reid, who is one of those crazy people who has made his 2017 Oscar predictions, and who shares some of them with us. From there we talk about one of the most interesting movies of the spring so far, Jeff Nichols’s Mud, and make some truly insane predictions about what would win best picture if the Oscars were to happen tomorrow.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Oscar night is over, so how did it all happen, and why? Katey and Mike, still in formal wear from the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, join Richard to discuss the awards and the big, big surprise that came at the end of the night.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this special pre-Oscars episode, we're joined by Vanity Fair's executive director of public relations Beth Kseniak to share stories from inside Vanity Fair's annual Oscar party, from attempted gate-crashers to the good old days when a wall was knocked down every year to make the party happen. From there we dive deep into the complicated math that determines best picture: what is the preferential ballot, and why does it matter? Allow us to explain. Sent from my iPhone Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With Oscar night just days away, we welcome Deadline Hollywood’s awards expert Pete Hammond to talk about the real nitty gritty of the awards race, and how The Revenant seems to have pulled off a late-breaking surge to win the whole thing. Also this week: We did our homework and discuss all of the nominated short films, and dive into the best original song category to answer the question that’s truly on everyone’s minds this season— “Will Lady Gaga win an Oscar? " Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week we’re joined by the New York legend and awards season powerhouse Peggy Siegal, the publicist and hostess behind the New York luncheons, dinners, and cocktail parties that are crucial for anyone who wants to win an Oscar. A woman who sees plays in London with Tom Cruise and gives Leonardo DiCaprio awards season advice at Christmas parties in the Caribbean, Peggy shares her stories from the awards circuit and tells us who will win everything this year. She’s the woman who knows everything, so you should take her predictions as gospel.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Room’s best director nominee Lenny Abrahamson joins us with a dispatch from the thick of awards season, where you have to be in shape to shake all those hands and to survive the buzz that says you’re never getting nominated— having an 8-year-old accomplice definitely helps. We also look at the careers of this year’s nominees and predict who will use their nomination to make the biggest career leap. In other words, get ready to see a lot more of Alicia Vikander and Brie Larson. Finally, we go big before we go home and predict, for the final time, the best actress winner. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Two incredible guests this week: Whoopi Goldberg, a four-time Oscars host, Oscar winner, and presenter at this year’s awards, shares her stories from the stage and her thoughts on Hollywood’s ongoing push for more diversity, at the Oscars and beyond. Then we’re joined by Tom McCarthy, the Oscar-nominated director of best picture contender Spotlight. He discussed how he and his co-writer Josh Singer became journalists themselves to make the movie, and how little he expected the real-world implications the film has had.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite and the Academy's bold new rule changes to try to correct the problem, we talk about Hollywood's overall diversity dilemma, with some input from Spike Lee, Don Cheadle, and John Legend. From there we catch up on the biggest news from Sundance, including Nate Parker's record-busting hit The Birth of a Nation, and do our best to predict one more mysterious category, Best Director.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With the Oscar nominations now behind us, we take a look at the closest best picture race in recent memory, and bring back Decider's Joe Reid to talk about This Had Oscar Buzz, the 2015 class. We also make bold predictions about one of the year's trickiest categories, best supporting actress, where any one of the five nominees could conceivably win.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We react to the 2016 Oscar nominations with surprise, resignation, and in the case of Mad Max: Fury Road, awe that it happened at all. From there we share our interview with Domhnall Gleeson, who stars in two best picture nominees (The Revenant and Brooklyn) as well as two more films that received multiple Oscar nominations (Ex Machina and Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Even he agrees he probably deserves a break at this point.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

While Hollywood recovers from its hangovers, we gather for a special Little Gold Men episode to digest the Golden Globes— the winners, the losers, the many surprises, and the standing ovations that tell us a lot about Oscar season.   Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As New York floods with awards hopefuls getting in face time before Oscar voting closes, we have two great interviews to share: first with Ridley Scott and Drew Goddard, the director and writer, respectively, of The Martian, and then with Sarah Silverman, the SAG-award nominated star of I Smile Back. We also squeeze in some discussion of the Golden Globe nominees and make our picks for who will win the best original score Oscar.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For the final episode of the year, we look back at the year in film and the wacky Oscar race that has resulted. Plus, a conversation with Elizabeth Banks, star of Love and Mercy and the final Hunger Games movie as well as director of Pitch Perfect 2. Finally, we check in on the state of the extremely competitive best actress race.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Adam McKay, director of The Big Short and a fellow podcaster, joins us to talk about the sense of anger— but also humor— that led him to make the financial crisis film The Big Short, and why he absolutely had to bring in Anthony Bourdain to help him do it. From there we’re joined by Vanity Fair’s executive West Coast editor Krista Smith to dig into Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, which is just one of two movies this Christmas about men killing each other in the snow. Finally we go big before we go home and weigh on whether Leonardo DiCaprio is a lock to win the best actor category.    Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We’ve finally seen the new Star Wars film, so we discuss (with minimal spoilers!) whether it lived up to the hype, and what its Oscar potential might be. From there we talk to Jennifer Jason Leigh, a Golden Globe nominee for her role in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and one of the three voice actors in Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa. Finally we make our predictions for who will win best cinematography— and can Emmanuel Lubezki make history?  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After a crazy week of awards nominations, top ten lists, and everyone complaining about “snubs,” we sort through the SAG and Golden Globe Nominations and the critical buzz to figure what’s really happening with awards season now. Then we use all of that newfound knowledge to make our predictions, once again, of what will win the best picture Oscar. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices