Contending at the Water Cooler

With Joey, Megan, and Frank all back from the first rounds of film festivals, we take stock of the 2027 Oscar race and see how the landscape has changed.

The recent Telluride, Venice, and Toronto film festivals gave us our deepest view yet into the 2027 Oscar race. Many contenders emerged and faced shifting winds as they screened for varied audiences. Joey, Megan, and Frank attended the major three early festivals and share their informed view of the 2027 Oscar race on this week’s podcast. Which films surprised or disappointed them? What can we expect now that La Bola Negra received the often predictive TIFF People’s Choice Award? Can anything stop The Odyssey‘s march to the podium?

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

We’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes, and positive ratings on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Click here to listen, and our video podcast follows below!





Podcast Music:

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The post Oscars 2027: First Fests Wrap-Up, Updates on 2027 Oscar Race appeared first on The Contending.

The whole Contending team gets together to review and recap the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards.

And with that, another Emmy season comes to a close.

Last night, Apple broke last year’s The Studio record for wins with Widow’s Bay completely steamrolling over Hacks in all the acting categories (except for Jean Smart, of course). Many predicted The Pitt to dominate, but it only went home with two in the major categories, for Drama Actor and Drama Series. Finally, it was a good night for DTF St. Louis, which took home Outstanding Limited Series, except most of the other wins it took home weren’t televised (we would have dropped some of those music numbers to see Linda Cardellini and David Harbour receive their trophies).

Team Contending got together to review the 2026 Primetime Emmy Awards hosted by Mariska Hargitay and discussed how the newbie host did overall (she at least gets an A for effort), why some of us were left unfulfilled by the Dolly Parton dedication, whether The Pitt needs to rethink their actor and episode submissions, and why Love Story fell out of love with voters.

Plus, we open our 2025 Emmy Time Capsule to find out whether last year’s predictions came true and make predictions for next year (hint: Furious might be on some of our wish lists).

We’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes, and positive ratings on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Click here to listen or watch our video podcast below!





Podcast Music:

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Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex

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The post 2026 Emmys Review Podcast: The Good (Rhea!), the Bad (No Hacks?), and the Ugly (Those Songs) appeared first on The Contending.

Jalal and Clarence consider the 2026 Creative Arts Emmys winners and how that might forecast next week’s Primetime Emmys.

Joey and Megan are taking a much deserved rest after their brilliant Telluride experience. This week, Clarence and Jalal leverage the recent 2026 Creative Arts Emmy Awards to see if their initial thoughts on the Primetime Emmys have changed. Can Pluribus upset The Pitt? Is Beef still a contender, or did DTF St. Louis sew it up? And can Widow’s Bay break into Hacks‘ final season Emmy run after dominating the Creative Arts ceremony?

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

We’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes, and positive ratings on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Click here to listen, and our video podcast follows below!





Podcast Music:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex

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The post Emmys 2026: Final Thoughts Ahead of Next Week’s Primetime Emmys appeared first on The Contending.

It’s time for the 10th Annual Fantasy Oscar Pool, another one of our favorite podcasts of the year, as we head into film festival season!

For long time listeners of our podcast, this is the one where we really earn the Explicit rating (thanks largely to Joey). It’s the 10th edition of our Fantasy Oscar Pool! Before Megan and Joey head to the mountains of Telluride, Colorado, we make our first round draft picks for the Fantasy Oscar race. Then, we’ll follow our selected performances and films throughout the 2027 Oscar season. We regroup for our second round drops and swaps shortly before the critics groups weigh in after Thanksgiving. We’ll be tabulating results on the website across the season.

We close our podcast, as always, with the Flash Forward to the media we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

We’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes, and positive ratings on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Click here to listen, and our video podcast follows below!





Podcast Music:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex

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The post Oscars 2027: It’s Time For 10th Annual Fantasy Oscar Pool! [VIDEO] appeared first on The Contending.

The 2026 Telluride Film Festival runs September 4-7 at Telluride, Colorado. In this podcast, Megan McLachlan, Joey Moser, and special guest Mark Johnson discuss what they’re expecting out of the film schedule lineup.

The 2026 Telluride Film Festival is right around the corner, meaning we’re gearing up for another awards season.

This year looks like a doozy, with past Oscar winners like Julianne Moore in the mix, newbies like Jordan Firstman campaigning their first awards season, and actresses like Sandra Huller with not one, not two, but four films in contention this year (eat your heart out, Hathaway!).

With the TIFF schedule out and Venice lineup announced, we thought it would be a good idea to take a stab at figuring out the Telluride schedule — although one can never predict when a Frankenstein will show up for a last-minute screening. The great Rebecca Hall will be a guest director, curating her own selection of films (one of her own might even be on the schedule at this fest—she’s in Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love).

In this new Contending at the Water Cooler Podcast, Megan and Joey are joined by Mark Johnson to talk about what to expect out of the film lineup, including what celebrities will be traipsing around Main Street. (Will Joey lose his mind if he sees Penelope Cruz? Probably.)

We’re deeply appreciative for your shares, likes or subscriptions, and positive ratings on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Click here to listen to our audio podcast. Our video podcast follows below!





Most Likely to Be at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival

A Long Winter

Bucking Fastard

Club Kid

The Debut

Elsinore

Fatherland

Fjord

Gentle Monster

Ink

Knife

La Bola Negra

Minotaur

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Rose

Tender Loving Care

Wild Horse Nine

Maybe at the Festival as a TBA or Surprise

Artificial

Behemoth!

Digger

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

The Man I Love

Primetime

The Social Reckoning

Probably Not at Telluride

All of a Sudden

Being Heumann

Bunker

Josephine

Klara and the Sun

Misty Green



The 2026 Telluride Film Festival takes place September 4-7. 





Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com

Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex

https://tunetank.com/track/802-here-we-go/ 

The post Podcast: What to Expect at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival appeared first on The Contending.