The Envelope Please

The cracks of the Hollywood Production Code are really starting to show in this year's Best Picture lineup, especially with Mike Nichol's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Yet, it's A Man For All Seasons that reigns supreme. Tune in to find out why we think that happened!

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Well, you give her a Best Picture Academy Award. The Sound of Music is now the third movie musical (and second in a row) to win the top honor in the 1960s.. and it won't be the last. Tune in as we also spotlight other great movies of the year like A Patch of Blue and Inside Daisy Clover.

The 1960s really was the decade of the musical, and there is no better example than the extravagance of My Fair Lady. However, not even this movie could escape controversy! Between the casting of the leading lady and the film's sour ending, there is much to discuss.

Season 2 of The Envelope Please kicks off in 1963 with an all-out, gut-busting comedy taking the top honors: Tom Jones. This movie is also one of only a few to garner five acting nominations for its cast. Tune in and see if we agree with the Academy's choice!

We've reached the end of our first season! A huge thank you to everyone who has followed us on our Oscar journey. This episode we break down our favorite Leading Actress and Best Picture winners from the first 35 years of the Academy Awards. And join us in 2021 for our second season starting with the Best Picture winner of 1963: Tom Jones.

On this special episode of The Envelope Please we break down some of our personal favorites from the first 35 years of the Academy Awards. On Part 1, we list our favorite Best Supporting Actor/Actress and Leading Actor winners. On Part 2, we conclude our finale by listing our favorite Leading Actress and Best Picture winners.

David Lean takes the top honors for the second time this year with his sprawling epic, Lawrence of Arabia. 1962 was a strong year for film. It includes the classic screen adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, Bette Davis's last Oscar nomination for Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?, and the criminally overlooked The Manchurian Candidate. Tune in to find out if we agree with the Academy's choices.

The record for the most Academy Award wins for a movie musical goes to West Side Story. It collected, in total, ten statuettes at the 1961 ceremony. However, do both Rance and Sam agree with all of the wins? Did perhaps Judgement at Nuremberg deserve a little more love? Tune in to find out.

The 1960s kick off with Billy Wilder's second victory in both the Best Picture and Best Director races. However, the Best Picture nominees seem to be missing one very important movie: Psycho. Why did the Academy shun Alfred Hitchcocks most enduring picture? Tune in to get our take.

We take a look back over the ten movies that won Best Picture during the 1950s and rank them according to our own personal preferences. Do our lists match up with yours?

The 1950s end with quite the bang as William Wyler's Ben-Hur becomes the most honored film in Academy history. However, do we feel that Ben-Hur warrants the praise that it continues to get to this day? This was a big year for movies and it includes some of our all-time favorites; so tune in to hear which movie we think should have won instead.

We have made it to our first Oscar sweep! Gigi set the record by taking home trophies in all nine of its nominated categories. However, when viewed with our modern-day, 2020 eyes the subject matter can feel a little.. shall we say.. icky. Tune in as we discuss in detail exactly what that "ick" factor is.

David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai led the 1957 Academy Awards winning seven of its eight nominations.. but don't let that fool you! This was an amazing year for other movies as well, so tune in as we highlight other classics such as Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men and Peyton Place.

1956 was truly a strange year for the Academy Awards. It was the first year where every Best Picture nominee was in color, it was also the first year for the Best Foreign Language Film category, and it is one of only a couple of years where the top awards all went to different films. Tune in as we break down this peculiar year and the big winner: Around The World In 80 Days.

And now we take you on a drastic turn away from the darkness of On The Waterfront to one of the most charming and delightful movies to take the top award: Marty. Originally produced as a tax write-off, Marty would win four Academy Awards and launch the career of its star Ernest Borgnine. 1955 also marked the first posthumous acting nomination for James Dean. Tune in to hear our take.

1954 saw one of the most controversial filmmakers of all time walk away with his second Oscar for Best Director: Elia Kazan. He undoubtedly changed cinema forever, but his actions in front of HUAC tarnished his reputation so much that when he received his Honorary Award decades later only half of the audience applauded him. That being said, On The Waterfront is one of the greatest American movies...

The second Best Picture movie to claim eight competitive Academy Awards in one night was Fred Zinnemann's From Here To Eternity. This movie also went on to become one of the highest grossing films of the entire 1950s.. and for good reason! Tune in as we break down all the major categories and offer some insight on all the winners.

To celebrate the Silver Anniversary of the Academy Awards we take a look back at the first 25 years of the ceremony to see how it has changed and grown over time. Tune in to find our who we crown as our first King and Queen of the Oscars!

It is finally Oscar's silver anniversary and to celebrate the occasion the Academy decided to honor The Greatest Show On Earth as the best movie of the year.. Yikes! This Cecil B. DeMille spectacle has now gone on to be considered one of the worst Best Picture winners of all time, and it's for very good reason. Tune in to hear our take on this bizarre film.

This week we decided to pay tribute to the late Olivia de Havilland. Her movies played a huge part in the creation of this podcast, so we felt it was our duty to devote an entire episode to her. Tune in as we discuss the early days of her career, her Oscar nominated performances and the reasons she decided to leave Hollywood behind.

It's time for us to discuss another big, glossy MGM movie musical. An American in Paris managed to win Best Picture over the likes of A Streetcar Named Desire and A Place in the Sun, two films that have gone on to be considered American movie classics. So how did it manage the upset? Tune in to hear our take!

We have reached a new decade! And what a way to kick things off. All About Eve is one of the most nominated movies in Academy history. It holds the record (along with Titanic and La La Land) with an astounding 14 nominations; 5 of which were in the acting categories. It is no secret that this is one of our favorite movies, so tune in as we break down the year 1950.

We look back on the 1940s and rank the ten Best Picture winners in order of personal preference. Do our lists match up with yours? Tune in and find out!

In the final year of the 1940s, the Academy gave their top honor to the political thriller All The King's Men. The movie also saw wins for its leading actor Broderick Crawford and the supporting actress Mercedes McCambridge. However, 1949 was also the year of The Heiress, staring Olivia de Havilland and a young Montgomery Clift. Which movie do we think stands the test of time? Tune in and find out...

Laurence Olivier's 1948 screen adaptation of Hamlet is the only Shakespearean work to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Olivier is also the only person to direct himself to an Oscar winning performance. Viewed today, it is a cinematically breathtaking plunge into the dark world of Film Noir; and Shakespeare's text is almost too perfect for the popular genre.