Oscar Talk: Ep. 84 — Special Edition! — 2011 Oscars postmortem, Meryl Streep’s upset, Billy Crystal, ‘The Artist”s big night

Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

As of last night, the season is over. There are no more predictions to make, no more logic to peddle, no more considerations of how voters are responding to this or that. We know how they responded. Now it’s time to pick over the rotting carcass of the season. So, with Guy Lodge in tow once more this season, let’s see what’s on the docket for today…

The Oscars happened, in case you hadn’t heard. And there were a couple of surprises throughout, though not too many.

One of them, of course, was Meryl Streep upsetting friend and former co-star Viola Davis in the Best Actress category. Naturally we chew on that for a bit.

There was also “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” popping up in the Best Film Editing category with a show of support from the Academy, clearly being the place where members focused their love.

There was of course the actual show, which was safe and reserved and signaled an overall retreat from the embarrassment of Brett Ratner in November. How did Billy Crystal do? We discuss.

And finally, there is a whole other year of filmmaking to look forward to. What will we be talking about this time next year? Well, we don’t get into it too much, but we offer up some things we’re certainly looking forward to.

Have a listen to the new podcast below and listen to our final calls. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. And as always, remember to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

“Can’t Truss It” courtesy of Public Enemy and Def Jam/Columbia.

“It’s a Process” courtesy of Mychael Danna and Madison Gate Records.

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