- 14
- Episodes
- 2025
- First episode
About Oscars Outsider Archive
Oscars Outsider is a podcast where Craig Midwinter and Dylan Ferguson break down the Oscars the way most people break down sports. We follow the awards race week by week — the narratives, the precursors, the surprises, the discourse, and the strategy behind every contender’s campaign. We treat awards season like a competitive ecosystem, tracking momentum, analyzing the politics of voting bodies, and running our own Oscars Fantasy Draft to score nominations, wins, snubs, and everything in between. If you care about movies and the game behind the movies, you’re in the right place.
- Publisher
- Oscars Outsider
- Category
- tv & film
- Language
- en
- Explicit
- No
- First episode
- 9 Dec 2025
- Latest episode
- 17 Mar 2026
Latest episodes
14 episodes in the feed.
17 Mar 2026
Did Sinners Get Robbed? | 98th Academy Awards Reaction
The 98th Academy Awards are in the books — and we've got thoughts. One Battle After Another holds on for Best Picture, Michael B. Jordan upsets Timothée Chalamet for Best Actor, and Sinners walks away with 4 wins from 16 nominations — the most losses in Oscar history. Did it get robbed? We break it all down.We also get into Conan's hosting, the ceremony's surprise technical issues, the K-pop Demon Hunters getting played off stage, Javier Bardem's Free Palestine moment, Sean Penn's no-show, and the final results of our season-long Oscars fantasy draft.This is the final episode of Oscars Outsider Season 1. Thanks for coming along for the ride.🏆 Final Fantasy Draft Score: Craig 592 – Dylan 548
11 Mar 2026
Can SINNERS Steal Best Picture? | Oscars 2026 Final Predictions
It's the final reckoning. The Oscars Outsider crew is back one last time before Hollywood's biggest night to go through EVERY category and give you our ultimate predictions for the 2026 Academy Awards. The big question: Can Sinners pull off the upset and become the first horror movie to win Best Picture? Or does One Battle After Another hold the line? We break down the Sinners surge, the late-voting wrinkle that could change everything, and why you'd have to go back to Crash 20 years ago to find a precedent for what Sinners is trying to do. Plus: Is Timothée Chalamet actually going to lose Best Actor? Could Ethan Hawke be a spoiler? We get into the dumb scandals (Chalamet vs. ballet, Jesse Buckley vs. cats), the new Best Casting award, who's winning King or Queen of the Dead in the In Memoriam, and much more. Featuring Dylan Ferguson, Craig Midwinter, Sean O'Rourke, and Rory Follis. 🗳️ Drop your predictions in the comments — we'll see who got the closest after Oscar night.
3 Mar 2026
Is Timothée DONE? SAG Just Flipped the Oscar Race
The SAG Awards may have just blown the Best Actor race wide open.Michael B. Jordan wins. Sinners surges. And suddenly Timothée Chalamet doesn’t look so inevitable anymore.In this episode, we break down:What Jordan’s SAG win actually means for the Oscar raceWhether “front-runner fatigue” is realIf Sinners is building unstoppable momentumWhether Best Picture is suddenly back in playAnd as part of our ongoing Best Picture deep dive series, we discuss this week’s nominee: Sentimental Value — does it have a real path to a win, or is it peaking too early?Plus: Craig faces an Oscars trivia quiz you can play along with at home.The race just got interesting.
25 Feb 2026
Why Were the Oscars Started? The Real Story of 1929
In this episode of the Oscars Outsider Podcast, we go back to 1929 to unpack why the Academy Awards were created in the first place.The Oscars weren’t born as a pure celebration of art. They emerged during a moment of labor unrest, censorship pressure, and a rapidly changing Hollywood industry. We break down the real institutional motives behind the founding of the Academy, the first ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel, and the strange split between Wings and Sunrise at the very first awards.Plus:– The BAFTA controversy and what it says about institutional risk– The transition from silent films to talkies– Whether The Secret Agent could be a Best Picture dark horseIf you enjoy film history, awards strategy, and looking at the Oscars as a cultural institution — this one’s for you.🎙 Subscribe for weekly Oscar race analysis and deep dives.
19 Feb 2026
Was Goodfellas Robbed at the Oscars?
At the 1991 Academy Awards, Dances With Wolves beat Goodfellas for Best Picture — a decision often called one of the biggest Oscar snubs in Academy Awards history. In this episode of Oscars Outsider, we revisit the 63rd Oscars and break down why the Academy made the choice it did, how the Gulf War and early ’90s cultural climate shaped the vote, and whether this was truly an Oscar robbery.We also continue our Best Picture deep dives with a review and discussion of the F1 movie — including how it plays as blockbuster Oscar contender and what makes it work (or not) as a prestige film.If you’re tracking awards season yourself, check out CineRace.com — a web-based app that lets you follow nominations across ceremonies, compete with friends, and track how many nominated films you’ve seen.And don’t forget to visit OscarsOutsider.com to see our fantasy Oscar standings and what the Outsider Supercomputer says about this year’s race.Topics covered:• Goodfellas vs Dances With Wolves• Biggest Oscar snubs ever• 1991 Best Picture controversy• F1 movie review and Oscar chances• How cultural context shapes Academy voting
10 Feb 2026
How we'd change the Oscars, plus Frankenstein reviewed!
This week on The Oscars Outsider Podcast, we talk through the changes we’d make to the Academy Awards — from category structure and voting rules to the bigger philosophical question of what the Oscars are supposed to reward in the first place.We also review Best Picture nominee Frankenstein, breaking down what the film is trying to do, how it works as a Best Picture contender, and where it fits into this year’s race.Plus, we talk through the latest Oscar season news, including the recent DGA winner and what it might signal for the Best Director and Best Picture races going forward.If you love film analysis, awards season strategy, and overthinking the Academy, you’re in the right place.
4 Feb 2026
Is Someone Trying to Kill Marty Supreme’s Oscar Chances?
This week on The Oscars Outsider Podcast, we break down the growing evidence that Oscar season might be getting messy — from tabloid stories and anonymous mass emails to trade reporting connecting the dots behind a possible smear campaign targeting Marty Supreme. Then we shift gears to a classic Oscars gimmick: each of us reveals our Top 5 favorite Best Picture winners of all time… and, because we’re who we are, our Bottom 5 most hated Best Picture winners too. Plus, we review and discuss Best Picture nominee Bugonia, digging into what works, what doesn’t, and where it fits into the broader race. Along the way, we talk about what makes a great Best Picture winner, why some winners age beautifully while others evaporate, and what this year’s chaos says about the modern Oscar race. If you love film history, awards season gossip, and overthinking the Academy, you’re in the right place.
28 Jan 2026
Is "Sinners" the new Best Picture Frontrunner?
Sinners just broke the all-time record for Oscar nominations — but what does that actually tell us? We start by taking the temperature of the current Oscar race, digging into what the nominations and BAFTA longlists reveal about shifting momentum, category surprises, and where the major contenders stand right now. Then, in our main feature, we trace the evolution of Best Cinematography at the Oscars — from the silent era through New Hollywood and into the modern digital age — to explore how the Academy’s idea of “great cinematography” has changed over time, and how those changing values shape what kinds of films get rewarded. Finally, we turn to Sinners itself: not just as an awards juggernaut, but as a film. We talk about its aesthetic identity, why it’s resonating so strongly with guilds and voters, and what kind of movie it ultimately is within the larger Oscar tradition.
23 Jan 2026
The Oscar Nominations Went as Expected… Mostly
The Oscar nominations are finally here — and they didn’t break the way we expected. In this episode, we react in real time to the full list of nominees, sorting through the surprises, the snubs, and the calls that completely upended our predictions. From Best Picture curveballs to category shake-ups that force a rethink of the entire race, this is our immediate read on what the Academy actually did — not what we assumed they would do. This conversation builds directly off our final nomination predictions, revealing where we were right, where we were wrong, and what these nominations signal about the season ahead. If you’re looking for level-headed Oscar analysis without hot-take hysteria, you’re in the right place.
21 Jan 2026
Oscar Nomination Predictions, the 82nd Oscars, and One Battle After Another
With Oscar nominations just a day away, we lock in our final predictions for which films will make the Best Picture lineup, not who will win, but who will get in.We debate the strength of films like Hamnet, Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, F1, and the wild-card case for K-Pop Demon Hunters. We also break down how vote-splitting, international contenders, and late momentum could shape the final ten.Then we rewind to the 82nd Academy Awards, the first modern ten-nominee Best Picture race, and unpack why it remains one of the most chaotic and revealing Oscar years ever. From The Hurt Locker vs Avatar to the surprise inclusion of The Blind Side, we explore how the Academy struggled to redefine itself in a changing industry.Finally, we review One Battle After Another, talking through what works, what doesn’t, and where it lands in the current Oscar conversation.Plus: fantasy draft trades, nomination strategy, and the constant fear that by the time you’re watching this, we already look completely wrong.
13 Jan 2026
The Weirdest and the Most Iconic Oscar Campaigns
The Weirdest and the Most Iconic Oscar Campaigns The weirdest Oscars campaign of all time. The most iconic Best Actress campaign of all time.In this episode of Oscars Outsider, we explore two unforgettable moments in awards history: Melissa Leo’s self-authored “Consider…” campaign in 2011, and the legendary 1969 Best Actress tie between Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn.Along the way, we unpack how Oscar campaigns really work — who gets to author their own narrative, why some efforts are seen as bold while others are dismissed as desperate, and what these moments reveal about age, gender, and power in Hollywood.We also recap the Golden Globes, dig into the current awards race, and debate one of this year’s top Best Picture contenders, Train Dreams, including a rare disagreement between us about what the film is actually saying about progress, memory, and history.Different eras. Same system.
6 Jan 2026
The Golden Globes Were Rigged (And Everyone Knew)
For decades, the Golden Globes were Hollywood’s strangest open secret.Long before their modern reboot, and long before the scandals that finally brought down the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes operated less like a serious awards body and more like a social club where access, schmoozing, and favors mattered as much as the votes.In this episode of Oscars Outsider, we trace the bizarre history of the Golden Globes, from their origins as a tool for foreign correspondents to gain access to celebrities, to FCC intervention, alleged vote manipulation, and open bribery that everyone in the industry seemed to understand.We also share our thoughts on Marty Supreme, preview this year’s Golden Globes, and break down what the ceremony could mean for the Oscar race as the season starts to take shape.
24 Dec 2025
The Oscars at the End of History
In 1999, the Academy Awards didn’t just celebrate movies — they celebrated a worldview. In this episode of Oscars Outsider, we revisit the 71st Academy Awards and ask whether the ceremony represents the Oscars at the end of history: a moment of brash, unapologetic confidence at the height of American cultural dominance, in the narrow window between the Cold War and 9/11. From Roberto Benigni’s ecstatic wins and WWII prestige filmmaking to Miramax’s campaign blitz and the Shakespeare in Love vs. Saving Private Ryan showdown, the night plays like a time capsule of peak certainty. We also check in on our Fantasy Oscars league following the latest Golden Globe nominations, debate key risers and fallers in this year’s race, and close with a review of Hamnet, one of the season’s most talked-about contenders. If this really was the Oscars at the end of history — what came after? More episodes, rules, and fantasy standings at oscarsoutsider.com. Intro & thesis: 1999 as “end of history” Fantasy Oscars update & Golden Globes fallout The 71st Academy Awards as cultural time capsule Shakespeare in Love vs. Saving Private Ryan Roberto Benigni, WWII prestige, and empire myths Hamnet review & awards-season outlook Oscars Outsider is an awards-season miniseries examining Oscar history, cultural moments, and the modern awards race — with just enough competition to keep things interesting.
9 Dec 2025
Our WAY TOO EARLY Oscars Fantasy Draft: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Welcome to Oscars Outsider, a limited-run awards-season spinoff from the team behind Bravo Outsider. Each year we obsess over the Oscars, the gossip, the precursors, and the chaos — so this season we’re making it official.In this episode, Craig and Dylan kick things off with our WAY-too-early Oscars Fantasy Draft, recorded before the Golden Globes nominations drop. With almost no precursor data and only vibes to guide us, we each draft a slate of eight films, plus bonus actor picks, to see who can predict the most nominations and wins across:The OscarsThe Golden GlobesThe BAFTAsPGA, DGA, WGA, and SAGWe break down the scoring system, discuss how narratives build over awards season, and argue about which contenders are real, which are smoke, and which sleepers might surge once the discourse machine kicks in.You can find full rules and scoring on our website:👉 https://oscarsoutsider.comAnd check out our sister podcast, Bravo Outsider, where we analyze the social strategy of Bravo’s biggest shows:👉 https://bravooutsider.com👉 / @bravooutsider (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzVSFLK3zusxFaszCE71B0g)What We Cover in This EpisodeWhy we're launching Oscars Outsider this yearHow our Oscars Fantasy Draft works (nominations, wins, bonuses, swaps)Early awards-season vibes before the precursor wave hitsThe risk of drafting before the Golden GlobesPredictions, overreactions, and completely unearned confidenceWhich films could surge — or collapse — once the discourse sets inOur male + female acting picksOur “snub prediction” bonus roundFollow & SubscribeOscars Outsider – YouTube, podcast apps, and oscarsoutsider.comBravo Outsider – YouTube + all major podcast platformsFollow us on social for episode drops and awards-season chaos
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