Shows / Academy Vs Audience
Academy Vs Audience
Ever since 1928, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has handed out trophies to what it considered the best in film. Sometimes they were absolutely right, sometimes they were entirely wrong, sometimes they were so, so basic. But in all that time, audiences have had their own opinions, sometimes better, sometimes much worse. And sometimes, when the stars align or the fates allow, they even agree. Academy Vs Audience is a deep dive into Oscar history, revisiting film history from the…
Episodes
- Academy Vs Audience
2022: Every Maverick, Every Avatar, All At Once (w/ Kevin Weir)
Two years after the lowest rated Oscars ever, two different Box Office Champions and one sleeper hit vied for the throne! Everything Everywhere All At Once…
- Academy Vs Audience
1989 Revisited (feat. Munsi Parker-Munroe)
While we sort some technical difficulties and get schedules aligned for our final episodes, please enjoy this look back at the end of All 80s Summer/Fall, as…
- Academy Vs Audience
2021: CODA Way Home
It's singing and spiders and Hollywood began to emerge from lockdown! A fierce awards race between two lauded competitors resulted in an unexpected result as…
- Academy Vs Audience
2020: Demon Hunter Nomad Boys (w/ Munsi Parker-Munroe)
In the year of 2020, a global heath crisis shut down the film industry, and the Academy chose to meet the moment by extending deadlines and loosening rules on…
- Academy Vs Audience
2009 Revisited (feat. Kevin Weir)
As we begin to enter the decade of Way of Water and Fire and Ash, we look back to 2009, when Kevin Weir joined Erin, Claire, and Dan to unpack James Cameron's…
- Academy Vs Audience
2026 (so far) In Review (w/ Olav Rokne)
While the stars align to kick off the 2020s, Dan takes a look at what 2026 has had to offer so far: the best of what he's seen up until mid July, the…
- Academy Vs Audience
2019: Avenging Parasites
Is 2019 the apex year for Oscars and audience? Some say the Oscars made one of their best choices ever as embarrassment over Green Book caused voters to look…
- Academy Vs Audience
Extra Credit: Claire's Top 10 Dogs
The dogs were good in cinema, here are Claire's top 10. We've talked about the best in Best Pictures, the champions of Box Office Champions, but have missed a…
- Academy Vs Audience
2018: Green Panther: Infinity Book
It's 2018, and Marvel is lurching towards the climax of ten years of interconnected movies, while the Academy manages to trip over itself. The Oscar went to…
- Academy Vs Audience
2017: The Shape of Jedi (feat. Kevin Weir)
It's 2017, and it's time for space wizards and award-winning amphibian erotica! Guillermo Del Toro made a Creature From the Black Lagoon slashfic so…
- Academy Vs Audience
2016: Rogue War in the Moonlight
In 2016, the Oscar race seemed to be hurtling towards "White people get their dream show biz careers but are still sad about it," until a mid-acceptance speech…
- Academy Vs Audience
The Comics That Made the MCU (w/ Munsi Parker-Munroe)
Here in the heart of Peak MCU Times, we pause our trek through the 2010s to look at the actual Marvel Comics event books that at minimum leant their titles to…
- Academy Vs Audience
2015: The Spotlight Awakens
2015 is all about nostalgia, be it for classic space operas or this old-timey thing called "investigative journalism." The Oscar went to Spotlight, an…
- Academy Vs Audience
2014: Birdman (And The Unexpected Virtue of Optimus Prime) (w/ Munsi Parker-Munroe)
It's 2014, and the gang hits another good news/bad news situation. First up, the Michael Keaton Renaissance began with Birdman, in which a former superhero…
- Academy Vs Audience
The 2026 Oscar Recap (feat. Olav Rokne)
As the 98th Oscars recede into the background, Erin, Claire, and Dan run down the nominated films and look ahead to our 2025 topic. Dan's seen them all, Erin's…
- Academy Vs Audience
Should it Have Been Nominated?
While Erin and Claire are away, Dan is left unsupervised, and thus takes us on a journey through the remaining years of the 2010s, looking at popcorn movies…
- Academy Vs Audience
2013: 12 Years Catching Frozen Fire (feat. Gina Stewart)
It's 2013, and it's all about oppressive systems! And Disney. Award season cleared a path for the historical tragi-horror 12 Years a Slave, recounting the true…
- Academy Vs Audience
2012: The Argovengers
Ben Affleck escapes Hollywood purgatory while the Marvel Age begins as we reach 2012! Affleck directs a tense yet also funny thriller on the Iran Hostage…
- Academy Vs Audience
2025's Oscar Snubs
While Claire and Erin are away, Dan digs into the idea of Oscar snubs, why the term still matters, and which big or acclaimed films of 2025 are conspicuously…
- Academy Vs Audience
2011: The Artist and the Furious
We reach the second silent movie to win Best Picture, and it only took 83 years. French-made silent era throwback The Artist claims Best Picture, and briefly…
- Academy Vs Audience
2010: The King's Toys (And Everything is Cute)
It's a new decade, and intentionally or not, everything is cute. The King's Speech pulled in as many Oscar-bait elements as it could to take the trophy, but…
- Academy Vs Audience
Year in Review 2025
As the year comes to a close, it's time to look back at a year of cinema, and look forward to what our 2025 episode may look like. Erin, Claire, and Dan try to…
- Academy Vs Audience
(Trans)Formative Franchises with Munsi Parker-Munroe
As we take our last between-decade break, Munsi Parker-Munroe returns to challenge Dan to a game. Munsi looks back at franchises from their youths, and asks…
- Academy Vs Audience
2009: The Na'vi Locker (w/ Kevin Weir)
Awards season 2009 came down to a telenovela-worthy duel between Kathryn Bigelow with her war drama The Hurt Locker, and her ex-husband James Cameron…
- Academy Vs Audience
2008: The Slumdog Knight
After the directors of Goodfellas and Fargo won Oscars for their bleakest movies to that point, Danny Boyle won over the Academy with something basically…
- Academy Vs Audience
2007: No Country For Disappointing Threequels (w/ Keith Kollee)
In the wake of Martin Scorsese getting nominated for his bleakest movie (pre-Silence), the Coen Brothers deliver their bleakest effort (pre-A Serious Man) with…
- Academy Vs Audience
2006: Departed Pirates
It's 2006, and get ready for the most thrilling, action packed, high quality bummers of a movie. The Oscar finally found its way to Martin Scorsese, with his…
- Academy Vs Audience
Does That Best Picture Need a Remake?
While schedules align, Dan presents a one-man crossover between us and Recovered by asking the question... do the Best Pictures of the 20th century need or…
- Academy Vs Audience
2005: Crashing Jedi (feat. Munsi Parker-Munroe)
It's 2005, and Munsi Parker-Munroe rejoins Erin, Claire, and Dan to discuss what is often called one of if not the worst Best Picture winner ever... by people…
- Academy Vs Audience
2004: Million Dollar Ogre
In the wake of Lord of the Rings dominating the Oscars the previous year, the Academy decided to go small and serious again, while the audience remain here for…
- Academy Vs Audience
2003: One Rings to Rule Them All (feat. Gina Stewart)
It's 2003, and we reach our final Joint Champion, as after two years of being Best Picture nominees and lurking near the top of the box office, Peter Jackson's…
- Academy Vs Audience
2002: Spider-Cago
It's 2002, and Hollywood is swinging, be it to all that jazz, or by webs through the city. The Academy, still waiting to see if Lord of the Rings could stick…
- Academy Vs Audience
Erin's Men of Spider
While we align schedules, Erin gives us a sneak peek at next episode and beyond as she breaks down the first entries of all three live-action Spider-Man eras…
- Academy Vs Audience
2001: A Shrekiful Mind
In 2001, the question on the mind of Academy voters was "Well we can't risk just awarding Lord of the Rings three years in a row, can we?" and thus an…
- Academy Vs Audience
2000: Gladiator Impossible
We enter a new century by jumping back to an old trend and an adaptation of an old TV show, seems about right for 21st century Hollywood. First, the Oscar goes…
- Academy Vs Audience
The Secret Masterpieces of the 90s (feat. Munsi Parker-Munroe)
Before we enter the 21st century, Munsi Parker-Munroe returns to present their Top Ten Secret Masterpieces of the 1990s: ten films that weren't hits, didn't…
- Academy Vs Audience
Dan's Extra Credit Corner: The Missions Impossible
Before we reach the 2000s and spend half an episode breaking down Dan's least favourite entry of one of his favourite franchises, he's here to get the Mission…
- Academy Vs Audience
1999: The Phantom Beauty (feat. Munsi Parker-Munroe)
The decade wraps up with one beautifully crafted but disturbingly hollow Best Picture, and one beloved franchise returning with a controversial entry…
- Academy Vs Audience
1998: Love, War, and Asteroids (feat. Kevin Weir)
It's 1998, and was all fair in love and war? Some say no, as Harvey Weinstein launched an Oscar campaign of attrition to get himself an award for theatre kids'…
- Academy Vs Audience
Extra Credit: Titanic II (feat. Keith Kollee)
While Erin and Claire are busy on a stage, Dan succumbs to his ongoing Titanic brainrot, and drags his Recovered co-host Keith along for the ride by asking…
- Academy Vs Audience
1997: Titanic, Babyyyyyyy
The day Erin's been waiting for arrives as she, Claire, and Dan dig into the third of three Joint Champion Juggernauts, James Cameron's Titanic. A star crossed…
- Academy Vs Audience
Oscars in Review 2025 (feat. Olav Rokne)
Another year, another Oscars has come and gone, and returning guest Olav Rokne of the Hugo Book Club blog is back to help Erin, Claire, and Dan break down how…
- Academy Vs Audience
1996: The Independence Patient
It's 1996, and Dan is yelling "Elaine was right" as Claire, Erin, and he dissect Harvey Weinstein's first big Oscar win, The English Patient. Was this an early…
- Academy Vs Audience
1995: Brave Toys With a Vengeance
1995 wasn't the best year for Hollywood. The Oscars (and only the Oscars) decided to go with Mel Gibson cosplaying a biopic in the epic of Braveheart, loved by…
- Academy Vs Audience
1994: Life is Like a Box of Lions
One year after Schindler's List, the Academy chose to take it easy, and go with a heartwarming crowd-pleaser, in fact the biggest hit of the year, Forrest…
- Academy Vs Audience
1993: Schindler's Park
In 1993, everything was coming up Steven Spielberg! The king of blockbusters won his first Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture with his look at the…
- Academy Vs Audience
2024: Year in Review
Erin, Claire, and Dan look back at the films they watched over 2024, both new releases, old classics first seen, or the stuff they watched for this, for you…
- Academy Vs Audience
Erin's Extra Credit Episode
Season's greetings from your Academy Vs Audience film historians! While turkey was eaten and presents unwrapped and schedules attempted to align, Erin went…
- Academy Vs Audience
1992: Assassins and Aladdins
It's Clint Eastwood vs the Disney Renaissance as we reach 1992. Clint returns to the western genre in order to deconstruct its myths and tropes with a story of…
- Academy Vs Audience
1991: Silence of the Terminators (feat. Gina Stewart)
Two very different classics take the titles in 1991 as traditional Oscar bait has not fully developed. The Oscar goes to classic thriller Silence of the Lambs…
- Academy Vs Audience
Minisode: Dan's Extra Credit Corner
While the gang takes a minute to catch up and prepare to get further into the 90s, we present a special mini-episode of Dan's Extra Credit Corner. A quick and…
- Academy Vs Audience
1990: Dances With Ghosts Alone
It's another triple-header, as the Oscars went for the first Extra Long Kevin Costner Western, while audiences were split between Christmas hijinks and the…
- Academy Vs Audience
1989: Miss Daisy and the Last Bat-Crusade (feat. Munsi Parker-Munroe)
At the end of the 80s, the Oscars found themselves short on meaningful, artful, epics, tried to find some heartwarming story about ending racism, and settled…
- Academy Vs Audience
1988: It's Rain(ing) Man, Hallelujah (feat. Chris Gibbins)
It's the one Joint Champion of the 1980s, as neither Oscars nor audience can resist Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise teaming up for the road movie Rain Man, which…
- Academy Vs Audience
1987: Three Men and a Little Emperor (feat. Kevin Weir)
In 1987, both Academy and Audience were making questionable choices in very different directions, so Kevin Weir's back to help Erin, Claire, and Dan get into…
- Academy Vs Audience
1986: Platoon to the Danger Zone
In 1986, Hollywood was in two minds about the military. Oliver Stone won an Oscar for his ground-level examination of the destruction and darkness of the…
- Academy Vs Audience
1985: Out of the Future (feat. Gina Stewart)
It's 1985 and the tonal gap between Academy winners and Audience favourite isn't getting smaller. The Oscar goes to Meryl Streep and Robert Redford's languidly…
- Academy Vs Audience
1984: Amadeus, Key of Axel F
It's buddy cops and classical music frenemies as Academy Vs Audience reaches 1984! First off, the Oscar goes to Amadeus, a film version of the what-if story…
- Academy Vs Audience
1983: Terms of the Jedi
It's 1983, and the big movies are all about difficult parent/child relationships. The Oscars went to Terms of Endearment, a mother/daughter story conceived…
- Academy Vs Audience
1944 Revisited: Going Back to Going My Way
While Erin and Claire are busy with the all-new theatrical experience of Riverona, travel back with us to 1944 and what Dan insists against all opposition is…