Watch List Weekly Recap 3/10/23

This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to cut down on in-box clutter and receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”

It’s almost Oscar time, and this week’s posts reflect as much. First, paid subscribers got a round-up review of all 15 nominees in the three short film categories and a guide to watching (most of) them online. (Above is a scene from “An Irish Goodbye,” the likely winner for Live-Action Short.)

Oscar-nominated Shorts: The Lowdown

What place does the traditional short film have in a world of binge TV series on one hand and TikTok videos on the other? Back in the studio era, the form served as a warm-up act for the featured attraction, and in more recent decades shorts became a way for novice filmmakers to show off their chops and hopefully score a deal for a full-length movie. (Maybe someone should program a festival of early short films by great directors: Spielberg’s “Amblin’,” Scorsese’s “What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?,” Tim Burton’s “Stalk of the Celery Monster”. Oh, wait,

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And today, as I’ve done every pre-Oscar Friday for over two decades, I offer a few thoughts on the state of the awards, the movies, and the larger culture — and, more importantly, offer up some predictions for who will win (and who should win) in each category. Let us hope Sunday evening commences without undue fisticuffs.

Up the Academy: Oscar Predictions 2023

The Academy Awards are 95! When people get that old, they’re generally in assisted living or on oxygen, both of which could be said to be true about the Oscars. If they’re lucky, though, they’re also regularly visited by younger family members, and that sounds about right given the Academy’s push in recent years to bring in a more youthful and diverse m…

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