Fences

The Oscars are over, but it’s not too late to catch up with some of 2016’s most talked-about titles. But which ones are worth your time? That’s where our new series, On Demand With ScreenCrush, comes in. Every two weeks, ScreenCrush Editor-in-Chief Matt Singer joins you to recommend three handpicked films you can watch at home right now from Movies on Demand. These are big new releases you won’t find streaming on Netflix, and the choices run the gamut from indie favorites, to major blockbusters, to insightful documentaries, and everything in between — all available with your remote.

Believe it or not, Viola Davis just won her first Academy Award. The fact that Davis won for her tour-de-force performance in Fences is far from surprising, but the fact that it took Academy voters this long — the woman’s been working for 21 years and has been nominated three times — to give her the award that’s long had her name on it is pretty shocking.

After months of hype and controversy, the big night is finally upon us. The red carpet has been rolled out, the votes have been cast, and host Jimmy Kimmel has rehearsed all his best Matt Damon jokes. At last, the 89th Academy Awards have arrived.

Just when pundits had begun to reduce the Oscar fracas to a two-horse race between toe-tapping populist favorite La La Land and critically-adored downbeat character piece Moonlight, a possible spoiler has come out of nowhere. Last night, the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards gave Hollywood’s union of performers a chance to recognize some of their own whom had done outstanding work over the past year. The most coveted award of the ceremony is the prize for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture, regarded by some as a bellweather for Oscar night, and it went to unexpected contender Hidden Figures.

At the Golden Globes on Sunday night, both Jenna Bush and Michael Keaton made the embarrassing faux pas of conflating new releases Hidden Figures and Fences into the single title Hidden Fences. It’s an easy enough mistake to make — when there are a whopping two movies featuring black ensembles in theaters at the same time, who can expect anyone to keep them straight, least of all people whose one job revolves around the ability to keep them straight? It was a real foot-in-mouth moment for both celebrities, reflective of the minimal attention that white audiences pay to film championing black performers and creators.

La La Land, duh. Manchester By the Sea, right. Moonlight, you better. Deadpool – excuse me? It’s true, Ryan Reynolds’ superhero movie has just been named one of the 10 best films of 2016 by the Producers Guild of America (via Variety). Many of us thought its Golden Globes nominations were just a result of the HFPA’s always wacky taste, but it seems the Deadpool virus has spread across the nation to multiple voting bodies, from the Writer’s Guild of America to the Producers.

While some actresses would shy away from letting their line deliveries get emotional enough that their spit and snot practically flies at the camera, Viola Davis is not some actresses. If you feel like you’ve heard the word “Oscar” more than enough when it comes to Davis and Denzel Washington’s Fences, get ready to hear it one more time: Viola. Davis. Is. Going. To. Win. Best. Actress. This. Year.

The major inside-industry awards come from the Producers’ Guild of America, the Writers’ Guild of America, the Directors’ Guild of America, and the Screen Actors’ Guild. This morning, the nominations for the 2017 SAG Awards were announced from Los Angeles, with a smattering of surprises and populist favorites (what’s up, Stranger Things) among the established awards season juggernauts. (The Natalie Portman v. Emma Stone showdown continues.)

As December rolls on, so too does the cavalcade of year-end lists. The latest authority to weigh in is AFI, by which I mean the American Film Institute and not the Californian alternative-rock group also known as A Fire Inside. While we may never know which films the quartet behind “Miss Murder” favored this year, the other AFI has released their list of 2016’s ten best releases, and it’s a little more varied than some of the heretofore published lists, bringing in some films with less awards buzz along with your usual suspects of Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, and La La Land.

Film critics and awards pundits have been talking about Oscar frontrunners for months now, but it’s that time of the year when all that prognostication finally matters. This week marked the beginning of awards season with the Gotham Awards, the National Board of Review’s list of winners and yesterday’s New York Film Critics’ Circle picks. It’s still too early to tell who and what will win the gold come Oscar night, but when it comes to predictions, we’ve got you covered.