Hugo Awards 2025

I remembered to become a member this year in order to vote, huzzah! Which means I had access to the voting packet (AKA the giant packet of PDF books), which meant I was able to review many more things than I can on my own (given affordability and library waiting times).

Also, ALSO, WorldCon is in Seattle this summer, so I'll theoretically get to be there in person when they announce the winners!

Oscars 2025 Nominations

It's that time again! Films marked in blue are ones I watched prior to the nominations and green are those I watched afterwards. For the few I decided not to watch, you'll find them struck through. As per usual, I've arranged them in the order of my preference.



Best Picture

1. Anora
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Nickel Boys
4. The Brutalist
5. I'm Still Here
6. A Complete Unknown
7. Conclave
8. Wicked
9. Emilia Perez

And the one I chose not to watch, since horror isn't my bag:

• The Substance

Hugo Awards 2024

Hey-o, the Hugo Awards nominations came out on March 29, 2024. Which was earlier than I expected, but given the scandal of last year's awards, I imagine the procedures for this year's are SPOTLESS.

I totally forgot to become a member for this year's voting, which I only realized three days before ballots were due, so. I did not vote this year, and also did not get the handy voters' packet--which means I didn't get to read some stuff, alas!

In any case, as per usual, media I consumed before the nominations came out on March 29, 2024, are highlighted in blue and stuff I read afterwards is in green. (Purple are those I had already obtained but hadn't read yet.) I've ranked the media in the order I would have voted for them. I did not rank media I didn't consume, and I've included handy snippets from the stuff I did consume.

Since I'm posting this after the winners have been announced, I've opted to bold and underline the actual winners, while preserving how I chose to rank them.

Oscars 2024 Nominations

Oscars time! And man oh man, I honestly owe the number of nominated films I've watched beforehand largely to my Cinemark Movie Club membership, because I have often watched one, if not two, movies per weekend. I've also become a devoted listener of The Big Picture podcast, which has nudged me towards films that weren't showing in theatres in my area yet. (I live SO CLOSE to Seattle, and yet am I willing to drive out there to see films that haven't gone into wide release yet? NOPE.)

As per usual, I have colored the names of films I watched before the nomination announcements on January 24 in green, and films I watched after the nominations in blue. Films I opted not to watch are struck through. (Sorry, Society of Snow, but I'mma skip the trauma and cannibalism.)

Also as per usual, I've re-ordered the films according to how I would rank them, and included clips that I felt were relevant. I opted to just not rank films that I didn't watch for whatever reason. And some of these categories were REALLY HARD, y'all. Just gorgeous stuff all around, I must say.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCVI (September & October 2023)

August is traditionally the "we don't know where else to open these movies" dumping ground of studios, and November is the "last chance to get in the big awards nomination window" timeslot, so September and October are generally pretty chill. (Except for horror movies, but I do not watch horror movies, so.) I found myself a good batch to watch, though!

Showing Up | Bottoms | The In-Laws | A Haunting in Venice | The Creator | Dumb Money | Killers of the Flower Moon

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCV (August 2023)

That's right, it's BARBENHEIMER time. Here are my quick reactions to the…*counts*...twelve films I watched in August.

Haunted Mansion (2023) | Spy Kids | Oppenheimer | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | How to Blow Up a Pipeline | Blue Beetle | The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Meg 2: The Trench | Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story | Golda

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCIV (July 2023)

Once again, I am way behind on my movie updates! I'm trying to catch up before the end of the year, so I won't be writing a ton about any of these. Expect a lot of GIFs, though!

July was a pretty busy month for me, between a conference and a family wedding, so I didn't see a TON. But among them were some good 'uns!



Past Lives | Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken | Joy Ride (2023) | Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning, Part One | Kung Fu Panda 2 | Kung Fu Panda 3

Hugos 2023 Voting!

It's Hugos time again! I became a Hugos voter a few years ago after the whole mess before they adjusted the nomination and voting process. It's actually super-easy to become a voting member--if you pay for your annual membership (it's been about $50-60), you get a packet of most of the books and stories that have been nominated (not all of them--providing copies for voters is not required of the nominees; publishers just happen to be quite generous most of the time). And then you get to vote!

There's also the associated possibility of actually, like ATTENDING Worldcon, but that's an additional cost I haven't taken on as yet. (But if they have it in Seattle in the near future, as some have suggested....)

As the host of Worldcon this year is in China--Chengdu, specifically--there have been some interesting hurdles that I won't really grumble about. It's worth noting, however, that because of the location, there was a slightly different body of voters/nominators than before. (Worldcon, in my recollection, has most often been hosted in English-dominant locations.) Which is neato, in that there are many more folks of Chinese nationality (not just descent, mind you--in recent years, the diversity of nominees has been markedly increasing) nominated. Between that AND a short window for nominees to provide materials (I think a couple of the zine/podcast nominees specifically noted in their packets they only had eleven days), that also meant not everyone was able to get their materials translated in time.

Or: There were several nominees who were only able to share their materials in Chinese and not any translations in English. (And, to be fair, vice versa: Several of the nominees who shared things in English only added apology notes.) Some nominees could only share part of their materials in both languages; some folks who shared translations confessed they had to rely on AI/machine-translation in order to get it done before their deadline. In those cases, you could almost feel the absence of nuance. (In the case of one short story, that's almost the point--in the Astounding category, Maijia Lu's story "Left" is specifically about how the pictographic basis of Chinese language means some elements of physics can be expressed more wholly than in phonetic-based scripts like English.)

I find this interesting and not irritating, though YE GODS, can you imagine how I feel, having multiple stories and books in my possession that I cannot read? My heart, she is breaking. But also, this is a cool problem to have, no? From my perspective, anyway.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCIII (May & June 2023)

I love summer movie season. I love living ten minutes away from a movie theatre. What a time to be alive!

The Hating Game | Big George Foreman | Love Again | The Green Knight | Five Easy Pieces | Fast X | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | You Hurt My Feelings | The Flash | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | The Little Mermaid (2023) | Elemental | Asteroid City | No Hard Feelings | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Movie Moments XCII: Guardians of the Galaxy Edition (April/May 2023)

It's been a while since I've done a themed movie post, but with the last Guardians movie rolling in--or, at least, the last one helmed by James Gunn--I figured this would be worth doing. Hilariously, I dug into my old posts and discovered the vast discrepancies between how I used to do movie reviews (literally one-sentence random thoughts) and how I do them now (hefty TL;DR meditations on narrative). I'm trying to split the difference with this post, because I'm really tired, y'all.

Guardians of the Galaxy | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Avengers: Infinity War | Avengers: Endgame | Thor: Love and Thunder | The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XCI (April 2023)

We've reached the time of year--long days and mild weather--when I will go see pretty much any film that's not a horror movie. I am largely omnivorous.



Although I've got to confess: I did not diligently take notes on the miscellaneous films I watched this month, so it's mostly bullet-ish points to go along with the usual GIFs.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | A Thousand and One | Suzume | Air | Renfield | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Chevalier | L'Avventura | Star Wars: Episode VI--Return of the Jedi | Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments XC (March 2023, Part Two)

Now that Oscar season is over, I felt it was time to go on an action movie spree! Also, my Spring break started. We've got five delightful (to me) films that are nonstop violence, LET'S GO.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | Creed III | 65 | Shazam! Fury of the Gods | John Wick: Chapter 4

2023 Oscar Nominees

2023 Oscar Nominees Oscars season! I actually made a good dent on most of the films this year, though (as detailed below), I did not catch all of them. But still!



Movies I saw before the Oscar nominations announcement on January 24 are marked in green, and ones I saw after the announcements are marked in blue.

Movies of which I consider myself a conscientious objector are struck through. (No shade, Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau, I'm sure you were great, but nothing I've heard about The Whale makes it sound like anything I want to see. And while I'm sure Women Talking is good, not to mention Ana de Armas's work in Blonde, I try to avoid films that specifically focus on sexual assault.)

I've re-ordered the films according to how I would rank them, and included clips and pics where I felt they were relevant. I opted to just not rank films that I didn't watch for whatever reason.

Best Picture | Best Director | Best Actress | Best Actor | Best Supporting Actor | Best Supporting Actress | Best International Feature Film | Best Cinematography | Best Adapted Screenplay | Best Original Screenplay | Best Animated Feature | Best Visual Effects | Best Editing | Best Production Design | Best Makeup and Hairstyling | Best Costume Design | Best Sound | Best Documentary Feature | Best Documentary Short Subject | Best Live Action Short | Best Animated Short | Best Original Song | Best Original Score

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXIX (February + Partial March 2023)

I didn't quite watch all of the Oscar films, but I made a decent dent! Plus the latest in MCU, of course.

Tár | Causeway | Aftersun | Marcel the Shell with Shoes On | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | Close | Empire of Light | Babylon | The Fabelmans | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Triangle of Sadness | The Sea Beast | Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVIII (January 2023)

The time has come, y'all! OSCAR WATCHING SEASON. I do like January as a movie-watching month--it's a good mix of genre stuff and awards bait stuff, and sometimes those two things even overlap.

Willow | Black Adam | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Top Gun: Maverick | The Banshees of Inisherin | Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | RRR | Elvis | Fire of Love | All Quiet on the Western Front | Shortcomings | Fancy Dance

Media Consumed 2022

What things have I kept count of this year?

316 Books | 21 Cities Visited | 27 Comics | Two Concerts (ish) | 6 Conferences and Festivals | 77 Movies | 21 Museums and Cultural/Historic Sites | 15 Readings and Talks | 1 Sports Match | 6 Theatre Productions | 801 TV Episodes

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVII (November & December 2022)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Rise of the Guardians | Slumberland | Avatar | Avatar: The Way of Water | Ratatouille | Christmas with a Prince

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, 11 November 2022, Century Olympia 

I went to a 9 AM showing of the film, forgetting it would inevitably start with a funeral. Guys, I wept watching the friggin' Marvel Studios logo.

Four specific things I really, really love about #WakandaForever:

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXVI (July/August 2022)

While I didn't watch all that many movies these past couple of months, the ones I did watch were pretty excellent. Action galore! #RepresentationMatters!



Thor: Love and Thunder | Everything Everywhere All at Once | Space Sweepers | Vengeance | Easter Sunday | Prey

Chicon 8 AKA Hugo Awards 2022!

Fun fact: the Hugo award voting is via ranking, which I honestly find pretty satisfying. And I managed to read/watch/listen to all of them! Yay for me!
As with the Oscars, I'm marking texts (in all formats) consumed previously to the nominations in green and those consumed afterwards in blue. I am, however, also going to add in purple to indicate stuff I already owned but hadn't read because, as all book lovers know, at least a third of one's own library is built upon intention. (It's worth distinguishing which ones I owned because one of the nicest perks of being a voting member is getting a packet of most of the texts prior to voting.)

Largely, I've ranked things in terms of my enjoyment. I've tried to explain my rationale for some, but AS IS MY WAY, I've included snippets of the texts to give you a sense of how I feel about them.

Best Novel

1. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

   The thing that held a society together, Roveg had been taught, was shared narrative. A common history, a bedrock of ethics. This was the shell that held the world together, and protected all that was soft and fragile. Turning away from your own story was to open yourself to chaos. This was not academic opinion, his teachers had told him. This was observable fact.

   
   
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

   I can't imagine explaining "sleep" to someone who had never heard of it. Hey, I'm going to fall unconscious and hallucinate for a while. By the way, I spend a third of my time doing this. And if I can't do it for a while, I go insane and eventually die. No need for concern.

3. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

   Lucy was tempted to ask if she'd had a nice date, but she was still Shizuka Satomi, and one does not casually ask the Queen of Hell about her relationship with the donut lady.

4. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

   "Half-blood. Your sire was djinn."
   "I prefer double-blood. And the djinn who 'sired' me was hardly superior."
   "Still, you are djinn-touched. Even if lesser, you may share in the coming glory."
   "How gracious. But you can keep your glory."

5. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

   The adjutant, Twenty Cicada, made an entirely remarkable noise, like he'd drowned a laugh and swallowed its corpse.

6. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
   

   Lady Rui's jaw was tight with the same intensity Zhu had glimpsed earlier: a compressed rage that had as its heart the female desire to survive all that sought to make her nothing.

Miscellaneous Movie Moments LXXXV (April/May/June 2022)

After my Oscars binge, I vowed to take a break from prestige films and go all in on my most beloved genre, science fictiony action. It's been a good three months, let me tell you.



Death on the Nile (2022) | Stargate: Continuum | The Batman | Spider-Man: No Way Home | The Lost City | Turning Red | Moonfall | Casablanca | Galaxy Quest | Ghostbusters: Afterlife | Ron's Gone Wrong | Dog | Moneyball | Morbius | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore