Welcome to The Contending’s Contending at the Water Cooler podcast! Hopefully, if everything goes well, you’re able to subscribe, download, and listen to our latest podcast. If not, then no worries! We will figure it all out.
This week, Clarence, Megan, and Joey bring their annual tradition of the Fantasy Oscar pool to The Contending. They each select five actors, five actresses, and three films to track throughout the year. Each selection earns points for awards at festival, critics groups, guilds, and of course the 2025 Academy Awards. Joey won last year. Will he repeat?
Then, Joey and Megan break down Zoe Kravitz’s Blink Twice, now playing in theaters.
As always, we list the media we’re most anticipated in the upcoming week.
We’re expanding the reach of our podcast, so we’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes, and positive ratings!
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Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex
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Hey!
Had I been picking my fantasy draft here is who I would be fighting for:
ACTRESS
Angelina Jolie – Maria
Mikey Madison – Anora
Amy Adams – Nightbitch
Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
Lady Gaga – Joker Folie a dieu
ACTOR
Coleman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Samuel L Jackson – The Piano Lesson
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain
Stanley Tucci – Conclave
FILMS
Sing Sing
Conclave
Emilia Perez
Excellent selections! Our goal is to have some sort of user interface for people to play along on the site. We will work toward that next year.
how does fantasy draft work?
It's really a game the three of us (Megan, Joey, me) play together. Before the festival season, we pick 5 actors, 5 actresses, and 3 films and "follow" them through the season. They win points for each award they win from festivals, critics, guilds, etc. We trade at midyear and go through the Oscars.
I'm really hoping to build something for this site to allow people to compete against us.
Love it. BTW, I got assigned to go to Middleburg Film Fest and a little earlier in the process, hope to see you there again this year
Just bookmarked! I look forward to this site.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4927726f9d72afd1f4af1f83640eb88d442c86bdba775a3595b19220330d0df9.gif
I didn't listen to the podcast yet, but it's cool you are doing a fantasy draft. Claudiu and I do a fantasy Oscar draft in November. I won't give my early favorites on here, but I do have a strategy. 🙂
In our draft, he picks Picture or Director and a first choice, then I pick a second and third, and he ends with a fourth. So we each have two. So then I go first in the other category. So then I go first in Actor or Actress, my choice, and so on… We do 8 categories: the Pic, Director, acting categories, and screenplays. Last year I think I won by a small margin since I had Oppenheimer, Nolan, Stone, Murphy, and Downey, while he had Randolph, American Fiction, and Anatomy of a Fall. However, he would've tied or even won had he straight-up predicted. He didn't want to go in heavily with movies and people he liked and be disappointed.
The Jolie/Adams/Madison battle in best actress is going to be a doozy