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