This week on Oscars Outsider, we dive into one of the Academy’s strangest and most confusing categories: Best Original Score.From the early days of studio music departments to decades of split categories, reunited categories, musical exceptions, adaptations, and shifting definitions of what “original” even means, the Oscar for film music has had one of the messiest histories of any Academy Award. We trace how the category changed over time, why musicals caused so many problems, and how the Academy ended up rewarding — and ignoring — some of the most famous scores in movie history.Along the way, we talk Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Duke Ellington, West Side Story, John Williams, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Hans Zimmer, The Lion King, and why Oscar voters keep struggling to separate great movie music from great scores.

Spielberg is back with aliens — but is that enough to make Disclosure Day a real Oscar contender?

This week on Oscars Outsider, we close the book on Cannes, revisit whether the Palme d’Or winner Fjord is now a serious awards player, and dig into the strange politics already forming around its Oscar narrative. Then we turn to the summer movie season: Scorsese’s AI storyboarding controversy, Taylor Swift entering the Best Original Song race with Toy Story 5, whether Project Hail Mary could follow the Sinners path, and the big question behind our thumbnail: can Spielberg turn aliens into Oscar gold one more time?

We also talk Netflix’s shifting awards strategy, YouTuber-to-filmmaker anxiety, horror’s box office boom, Obsession, The Backrooms, and why nostalgia for the 1980s may finally be losing to internet-era nostalgia.

Chapters:

0:00 Cold Open

0:27 Welcome

0:54 Cannes Capstone: Fjord Wins the Palme d'Or

2:01 The Black Ball & Netflix's Awards Retreat

6:53 Is Fjord the Conservatives' Oscar Movie?

12:52 Scorsese Endorses an AI Company

16:30 Taylor Swift's Toy Story 5 Song

18:14 Project Hail Mary & the Sinners Playbook

19:45 Spielberg's Disclosure Day: Best Picture Player?

25:31 Obsession: The $1M Box Office Monster

28:22 The YouTuber-to-Filmmaker Debate

31:12 Backrooms Review

34:19 The Future of Nostalgia (RIP Masters of the Universe)

36:05 Tribeca & the Holding Pattern

37:33 Honorary Oscars + Outro

The Cannes awards are here, and somehow the Oscar race feels less clear than it did before.

In this episode of The Oscars Outsider Podcast, we react to the major winners from the Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d’Or win for Fjord, and try to figure out what any of it means for the Oscar race.

The big question: did Cannes give us a new frontrunner, or did it make the whole season even messier?

We dig into the Screen Cannes jury grid, where Fjord landed at 2.5 while several other contenders, including Fatherland, Minotaur, and All of a Sudden, scored higher. We also talk through the mismatch between critical consensus and jury awards, which films feel stronger after Cannes, which ones suddenly look shakier, and whether the Palme winner is actually positioned for Oscar attention.

If you follow Cannes, Oscar season, festival buzz, or the strange gap between critics’ favorites and awards bodies, this episode is for you.

Subscribe for more Oscar race analysis, festival reactions, and awards season chaos.

Cannes is almost over, which means it is time to make our Palme d’Or predictions.

In this episode, we break down the Cannes competition, make our picks for who we think could win the Palme d’Or, and talk through which films might carry momentum into the Oscar race. We get into the strange energy of this year’s festival, the movies that seem built for jury attention, the ones that could break out later, and whether Cannes still feels like the launchpad it used to be.

Along the way, we also talk John Travolta’s honorary Palme d’Or, Paul Schrader’s Cannes grumpiness, Jacob Elordi’s jury absence, and the general chaos of trying to read festival buzz from afar. The episode sets up the Palme prediction segment directly in the intro, so this title and thumbnail are aligned with what the show actually promises.

Chapters:0:00 Intro0:42 John Travolta's honorary Palme d'Or & Paul Schrader4:24 Setting the stage: Cannes wraps up5:06 Top storylines & the Screen jury grid (Fatherland, Minotaur)9:43 Standing ovations & the clapping arms race12:08 Polarizing films & Fjord (Cristian Mungiu)14:01 Where's Hollywood? Do the studios still need Cannes?20:14 The Bolloré / Canal D scandal22:29 A quiet market & the subtitle problem24:05 Big deals: A24 bidding war & Park Chan-wook's western26:45 Hollywood no-shows: Johansson & Adam Driver27:42 The anti-AI backlash (Soderbergh, del Toro, Radu Jude)32:33 Hope by Na Hong-jin34:59 Jury dynamics & Palme d'Or predictions38:26 Parallel Tales (Asghar Farhadi) flops40:34 Was this a disappointing Cannes?43:04 Golden Globes expands its voting body45:13 Nolan's Odyssey & the casting backlash47:16 Oscar eligibility & the diversity-rule conspiracy56:05 The Daniels cast Matt Damon59:03 Wrap-up & sign-off

This week on Oscars Outsider, Cannes is open, but Hollywood might have left the group chat.

We dig into a strange Cannes lineup where the big American studio titles mostly stayed home, while European, East Asian, and international festival heavyweights take center stage. What does that mean for the Oscar race? Is Hollywood avoiding the risk of an early festival reaction, or is Cannes simply becoming less dependent on Hollywood glamour?

We also look at the films that could emerge from Cannes as real awards contenders, including potential international players, major auteurs returning to the Croisette, and the movies that might shape the Best Picture conversation months from now.

It’s Cannes season, which means it’s time to overreact responsibly.

Subscribe to Oscars Outsider for awards race analysis, Oscar history, festival coverage, and movie conversations from outside the usual pundit bubble.

#Oscars #Cannes #CannesFilmFestival #OscarRace #BestPicture #Movies #AwardsSeason #FilmFestival

The Academy just killed a rule that's been in place since 1931 — and Sandra Hüller might be the first actor in nearly a century to benefit. We get into all three big Oscar rule changes for the 99th Academy Awards: the double-nomination rule, the new path to International Feature, and the AI ban. Plus the quiet Best Original Song tweak that might actually matter most.

Then we look at what's already sticky for next year — Project Hail Mary (and why Ryan Gosling's Adam Sandler era needs to end), Michael, Devil Wears Prada 2 — and the early frame of the Best Actor race shaping up around Tom Cruise's Digger and Matt Damon's Odyssey.

Greta Gerwig's Narnia just got pushed to 2027. So what's Netflix backing now?

👇 Which actor in Oscars history would have benefited most from being able to get two nominations in one year?

Find Dylan on Substack: https://dylanferguson.substack.com/Find Craig at Bravo Outsider: https://www.instagram.com/bravooutsider/

#Oscars #SandraHüller #AcademyAwards

Scamanda is getting messy — and the more you look at it, the harder it is to pin down what’s actually going on.

We get into the shifting dynamics at the center of that story, how quickly perceptions can flip, and why this one feels different from the usual Bravo drama. From there, we move into The Valley, RHORI, and some early Cannes thoughts, breaking down the moments, character beats, and production choices that stood out this week.

What starts as a conversation about one storyline turns into a broader look at how these shows construct tension, loyalty, and narrative — and how quickly all of that can unravel.

If you’ve been following any of this, we want to hear your take.

#Scamanda #Bravo #RHORI #TheValley #Cannes #SummerHouse

With Oscar nominations just a day away, we lock in our final predictions for who will be nominated, not who will win.

This clip comes from our sister show, The Oscars Outsider Podcast, where we go deep on the Best Picture race, debating locks, vulnerable contenders, international wildcards, and whether an animated film like K-Pop Demon Hunters could actually crack the final ten. We also dig into surprise possibilities like F1, Blue Moon, and where films like Train Dreams, Begonia, and The Secret Agent really stand.

What starts as a prediction draft quickly turns into something else entirely: a live trade negotiation that reshapes both of our Best Picture slates and forces us to confront what really matters on nomination morning.

If you want the full conversation, including our complete predictions, historical Oscar context, and the chaos that followed, you can find it on The Oscars Outsider Podcast.