Mark Harris’ latest Oscar column is, as usual, a good read. The first half of it deals with the already much-discussed Oscar prospects of “Gravity,” but things get really interesting when he turns to the Best Actress race, which is in danger of becoming only the second acting category ever to consist wholly of past Oscar winners. (The first, of course, was last year’s Supporting Actor lineup.) And that, Harris writes, is “deplorable”: “I don’t know what’s most dispiriting, the strong suggestion the Best Actress field lacks a deep bench, the comparative paucity of opportunities for actresses that a non-deep bench implies, or the assumption that Academy voters are disinclined to look beyond people they already know can give a nice speech.” Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Delpy, Gerwig, Exarchopoulos, Garcia: think outside the box, Academy. [Grantland]
Why “Gravity” should brace itself for the same backlash that “Avatar” faced. [Movies.com]
Updates on category classifications at the Golden Globes: “Blue Jasmine” will be competing as a drama, “Before Midnight” as a comedy. I guess you can make a case for either as either. [Gold Derby]
Writer-director Dan Mirvish offers 13 screenwriting pointers for successful adaptations. [Filmmaker]
“Blue is the Warmest Color” is unable to play in Idaho’s only art house cinema to an arcane obscenity law. [Hollywood Reporter]
Quentin Tarantino on why Batman is “not very interesting,” and why “The Lone Ranger” is awesome. No comment on the former, but he’s dead right on the latter. [The Playlist]
Honored at the NYFF earlier this week, Ralph Fiennes reflects on his experience of directing “The Invisible Woman.” [Variety]
Matt Singer on the unsolvable problems that 3D presents, even in films where it looks great. [The Dissolve]
Thinking ahead: why independent-minded filmmakers should capitalize on the tentpole-heavy slate that looms in 2015. [Tribeca Film]
And looking back: Richard Corliss pays tribute to the influential, invaluable film critic Stanley Kauffmann, who passed away this week aged 97. [TIME]