IF THIS YEAR'S OSCAR-NOMINATED FILMS HAD REALLY HONEST POSTERS...

If Hollywood was really honest about posters to celebrate their 2017 Oscar-nominated films, this is what you might get… 

“The more talented Affleck”

“An Intro to Racism”

and you know that one with the kid from Slumdog…

(T/Y Stephen, via College Humor)

EVERY DRESS WORN BY BEST ACTRESS OSCAR WINNERS SINCE 1929

In 2014, the UK website Big Group wanted to explore the fashion aspect of the Oscars in depth and decided to create a poster that shows all the Best Actress Oscar Winners in order up to the that date. (Julianne Moore won last year in Chanel) They say,

“Other than the pleasure of looking at the dresses and remembering them from the occasion (depending on your age), it is interesting to see how styles change over the decades. The 50s are classically elegant, as one might expect, while the love/hate relationship people have with 80s fashion is on full display with wildly different and highly original designs each year. The early ceremonies were a far less extravagant occasion and fashion choices reflected that, while today’s events see luxurious flowing gowns from the world’s leading designers.

Research for this required us to look up every award-winner and find several photos of them in the dress. Older photos, being in black and white presented an issue so we made every effort to find written references to the dresses so we could recreate them in colour. The other significant challenge was in finding the name of designer of each dress. We’ve done our best within the time we could spend on this but many are still marked as ‘unknown’…”

I’d say excellent job. You can find an interactive version of the poster here. I love studying this and it might go into the Gay Handbook of Essential Knowledge. (Please TRY and find some reason to be offended by that last remark…) Seriously, have fun even if you’re straight!

HERE'S YOUR FREE OSCAR COLOR-BY-NUMBER BALLOT!

Are you having an Academy Award party? It doesn’t take much; a TV, (cocktails), some colored pens and pencils… You can turn The Wow Report‘s FREE Color-By-Number Oscar Ballot (created by me, Trey Speegle) into a party for 2 or 20. Click on the image to enlarge for a hi-res version to print out. (It’s designed for oversized 11 x 17″ paper, but it’ll reduce to an 8.5 x 11″ standard sheet. Go here for a hi-res image you can drag to your desktop.) It doesn’t include every single nominated category, but do you really want to try to guess “Best Sound Effects Editing?” If so, the full list of nominees is here. You know the odds-on faves for the major categories, right? Barring a MAJOR upset, here’s a little cheat-sheet with my predictions for the top row: 

Best Actor, Michael Keaton. Best Actress, Julianne Moore. Best Supporting Actor, J.K. Simmons. Best Supporting Actress, Patricia Arquette. Best Director, between Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater, but I’d give it to Linklater (Anderson will likely get Best Original Screenplay). Best Picture, Boyhood ,  but I wish it would Birman, as it's my personal fave. 

If you take pics of your coloring party and completed ballots, tag them #coloroscar @wowreport, and you may see them here and on The Wow Report next week. Just to make it more fun, you could make it a drinking game too! Take a sip every time you hear Boyhood, Birdman or Budapest. Cheers!