francisco

year after year the doc short category is an exercise in self-flagellation, with multiple entries trying to coast by on trauma and superficial “importance.” this year, my favorite is the dreamy and unexpected PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS. just a lovely & bizarre juxtaposition of two different worlds.

KOKUHO has some brilliant, vigorous, and absolutely transfixing displays of kabuki stagecraft. but it’s also stuffed with melodrama that makes the whole thing feel a bit like a chore. my cultural illiteracy is a stumbling block for sure, but it IS still 3 hours long, and sure feels that way. 19 left

20 nominees might seem like a typo, and that’s because i forgot to mention having watched the mediocre but sweet VIVA VERDI!, about a milanese retirement community for aging musicians. we should all be so lucky to live in a society that values the arts this way. 20 to go… again?

SONG SUNG BLUE may not be great, but it’s got some charm to it as well, and it’s a WAY better way to pass 2 hours than the state of the union speech, which is empty theater even on a good day. 20 nominees to go.

There should be a bonus medal for dropping a perfect f-bomb faster than the NBC censors can catch it

IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU is a master class in pointlessness. nothing good happens, but also somehow nothing bad happens. the joyless characters have no agency, dragged by the script from argument to manufactured argument and then tossed aside. credit where it’s due, rose byrne is amazing. 22 left!

This style of light doesn't really appear in animation anymore. You know it when you see it -- it's bright, hot and almost dangerous.

Our new issue explores the tricks behind it, and how one artist has revived the look for the digital age: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/dangerous-...

Somebody tweeted once that most of modern conservative politics boils down to “I don’t like that this doesn’t give me a boner” and “I don’t like that this does give me a boner,” and I think about that tweet enough that I wish I had the foresight to screenshot it.

the action direction in THE LOST BUS is excellent, but the characters insist on diminishing the experience by saying words. the VFX nom is well deserved, though i wonder what sins the matchmovers committed in a past life to be handed 130 minutes of paul greengrass shaky cam. 23 nominees left!

ARCO is dazzling and sincere and goofy and touching and just all-around delightful. well worth your 90 minutes! 24 nominees to go

seriously though, RIP to an absolute king. the influence of this movie on my life can’t possibly be overstated

Bud Cort, star of ‘Harold and Maude’ and 'Brewster McCloud,' dies at 77 Bud Cort, whose performance in the 1971 romance ‘Harold and Maude,’ helped turn the film into a cult classic, died Wednesday at 77

we, uhhhhh… we should definitely check his coffin to make sure he’s actually in there

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

i love this industry, exhibit 735

YouTube video by Ancient Digital Iris

"Animated Bokeh" has been on my whiteboard for a long time, and this is the result.

I thought it would just be for cheesy novelty effects, but it also does lightfield manipulation that was cooler than I expected.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_2...

QA workers at Blizzard ratify union contract with Microsoft The three-year contract delivers generative AI protections, wage increases, disability accommodations, and more.

NEW: QA workers at Blizzard Albany and Austin have ratified a union contract with Microsoft after three years of negotiations.

The contract delivers protections against generative AI tech in the workplace, wage increases, disability accommodations, crunch restrictions, and much more.

it’s absolutely brilliant!

more years than not, the worst nominee of the bunch is something that got nominated solely for a dianne warren end credit song. now she’s nominated for a crowd-pleasing song she wrote for a crowd-pleasing documentary *about her*, and i feel like i’m seeing the matrix.

to be fair, she IS a legend.

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB packs a hell of a punch, integrating performance and dramatization with real life video and audio recordings. the violence we witness feels at once impossibly far and impossibly close, and that disorientation is hard to shake; it’s like vertigo for the soul. 26 nominees to go

it’s creepy and sad to watch the corrosive effect of propaganda on young minds, as we witness in MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN. as a movie it’s just okay, but as a portrait of chilling, banal, relentless cynicism it’s valuable and incredibly timely.

i expected to hate JURASSIC WORLD, so was surprised by a few genuinely fun moments early on. these offered a glimmer of cruel hope; a sliver of promise it brutally squandered, as if to punish me. reader, i did in fact hate it.

but hey, terrific VFX work! even when in service of bad design. 28 left

The official policy of the government of the United States of America is that they will murder anyone they want, that they will tell any lie necessary to justify that murder, and that no one who resists them has any rights they are bound to respect.
/1

i do genuinely think we need to jail every single person currently working for ICE

next up is BLUE MOON, and watching ethan hawke in this, right after an episode of THE LOWDOWN, is an easy reminder of why he’s nominated. 29 to go!

first up was ZOOTOPIA 2, which isn’t my favorite but which absolutely NAILS everything they put on the screen. incredible sets work, lighting, FX, etc

2 of my 3 favorites this year (sinners, one battle after another) were HEAVILY recognized by the academy. the other (sorry, baby) was COMPLETELY ignored. the academy! so hard to pin down!

The 98th Academy Awards | 2026 The 98th Academy Awards | 2026

oscar season is upon us once again! my pregaming was absolutely spot on, but that doesn’t mean i don’t have a lot of work to do. i have 31 nominees to watch, including 15 shorts. no problem!

www.oscars.org/oscars/cerem...

it left me completely flummoxed, the more i think about it the less i understand

it was so great!

The Animation Guild Notches Organizing Wins at Netflix, DreamWorks Several organizing drives launched in 2025 have paid off for The Animation Guild.

Several organizing drives launched in 2025 have paid off for The Animation Guild.