Oscars Week 2025

Alright everyone, it’s finally here! What we’ve been waiting an entire year for. It’s….Oscars week. What? No excitement?

Ok, I get it. It feels like the Oscars gets it wrong way more often than they get it right. Crash over Brokeback? The King’s Speech over The Social Network? Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan? Anthony Hopkins over the late Chadwick Boseman? And let’s not get started on Do the Right Thing. We can go on and on and on.

But for some reason, we are hooked on the Oscars. It’s probably the pageantry or the pretty people telling us how brave they are. Plus, it’s fun to have favorites—I think we all do. And if you didn’t see all the movies, you can be just like that guy in class who didn’t do the reading but has an opinion anyway.

And besides, you cannot argue that winning an Oscar is a career-defining moment. For actors, it’s like when historians are finally able to announce they have been on my podcast. Sure, Annette Gordon-Reed won a Pulitzer for The Hemingses of Monticello, but I’m told that she prefers to be introduced as guest of the Die Hard episode on HATM.¹ So in watching the Oscars you get a chance to see history being made and if you’ll pardon the pun, sometimes you get to watch a star being born.

And if I can be serious here for a second, the Oscars also remind us that history and how it is told is still important to the public. It is easy to dismiss that sometimes. It’s easy to be cynical. But let’s look at the list and see the historically-influenced films and nominees:

• The Brutalist: Best Picture; Best Actor (Adrien Brody); Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce); Best Supporting Actress (Felicity Jones); Cinematography (Lol Crawley); Best Editing (David Jancso); Best Director (Bradley Corbet)

• A Complete Unknown: Best Picture; Best Actor (Timothee Chalamet); Best Supporting Actress (Monica Barbaro); Best Costume Design (Arianne Phillips); Best Director (James Mangold)

• The Apprentice: Best Actor (Sebastian Stan); Best Supporting Actor (Jeremy Strong)

• Sing Sing: Best Actor (Colman Domingo)

Even Gladiator II was nominated, which is amazing since Sarah Bond, Bret Devereaux, and I weighed in on this film already with almost this exact quote:

Sorry, Sir Ridley, you lost us.

We can even look at films like Wicked and Nosferatu and see them as modern day reflections of memory through film. So, what I’m saying here is that the past still matters. It still serves as a cultural touchstone to guide our understanding of who we are and where we want to go. And if you’ve been reading or following me for a while, you know how strongly I believe in film as a mechanism for opening dialogue about ourselves.

That said, one of the things we’ve talked about over the last six years is some kind of historical awards, though I’ve never figured out how to do them. What would be the categories? Are they movie related? Can we give awards to history? The possibilities are there:

• Best contingency: Abraham Lincoln is not assassinated; the Vietnamese achieve independence after WWI; Hannibal captures Rome

• Most unlikely war victory: US over England; Vietnam over France the United States; Emus over Australia²

• Order of the 49 better states than Indiana

Or maybe we should do a series of pods where we rank certain types of history film. War films are obvious examples. We could talk about World War II in film (The Best Years of Our Lives will win this running away) or best films about women’s rights or Africa or any number of things. What I could you are your suggestions. What kinds of categories would you like to see in an HATM History Awards? Let me know in the comments below and we’ll come up with something.

Ok, so back to this year’s Oscars. It’s hard to me to have a say in this other than to root for my favorites. I’m annoyed that Denis Villeneuve did not get nominated for directing Dune II. That movie is an ACHIEVEMENT and I think one of the best five films of the 21st century.³

So, I’m rooting for Adriend Brody and Guy Pearce. I’ve been a fan of both for the longest time. I’m also hoping Monica Barbaro hears her name called. I saw her reaction to being nominated (she fell on the floor) and it just hit me on a personal level. Oh, and it might be cool if Sebastian Stan won an Oscar, just because I’d like to see Hot Tub Time Machine featuring Oscar winner Sebastian Stan. But that’s me.

What about you? What are your predictions, or who do you want to see win?

All of this is saying that this week’s HATM watch party will again be the Oscars for the seventh year in a row. Wow. How have we been doing it this long? Ask me next year. I won’t remember.

So join in with us this Sunday March 2, at 7pm eastern on ABC to watch The Academy Awards. Together.

One final word- I’ll be heading back home to Florida tonight to see my boys and my one eyed-dog. So, God willing and the Creek don’t rise, this feed will be full of stories from Tampa coming soon. Stay tuned.

Oh one more last thing- we picked up a bunch of new readers in the last few weeks (Hi!). So if you’re interested in learning about history and movies, or just like both of those things, check out the podcast. Our most recent episode questioned why we don’t have a motion picture focusing on George Washington. But we have over 100 episodes for you to choose from so subscribe and have fun. Let me know what you like.

1. Ok, I am now being told that that doesn’t actually happen. But it could. Think about it, Annette. I’ll buy you a Dr. Pepper.

2. Yes this actually happened

3. Before you ask: The Social Network; Godzilla Minus One; Brokeback Mountain; La La Land; Dune II