Features

Best Picture Winners, Ranked: Nos. 15-11

In this fifteenth part of my retrospective Oscar Outlook, I’ll be eliminating last year’s Best Picture winner, a film directed by one of Wilkes-Barre’s own, and the perfect romantic comedy and disaster films.

Best Picture Winners, Ranked: Nos. 20-16

In this fourteenth part of my retrospective Oscar Outlook, I’ll be eliminating a pair of films that won Best Picture prizes at the same ceremony, an X-rated masterpiece, and one of the most influential films of the past 20 years.

Love Clicks: Navigating the world of online dating

EDITOR’S NOTE: We partnered with WBRE/WYOU to find out more about the online dating world. Gabrielle Lang teamed with WBRE’s Jason LiVecchi to investigate the story. Here Gabrielle shares in her voice what they’ve learned.

Comedy show set for WB on Friday. But where?

There’s a comedy show coming to Wilkes-Barre on Friday.

Sam’s Oscar Outlook: Best Cinematography

Cinematography is cinema. It separates the artform from music, photography and theater. It puts imagery to sound. It portrays the world as a moving, dynamic place. It’s art we can basically return to whenever we want. When a film is literally lost, meaning that no copy of it exists, it means the treasured work of a cinematographer has died, and there is no more upsetting fate for a film. But the Oscars in the year 2023 do a decent job of hyping up their own nominated movies, meaning that the cinematographers nominated this year have likely reached a place of immortality.

Sam’s Oscar Outlook: Best Film Editing

The Academy has a habit of confusing most editing with best editing. One of those things is quantifiable and objective, and the other is most certainly subjective. Other than the concept of the Oscars in general, this is perhaps the starkest example of the Academy attempting to bring objectivity into a subjective race. That being said, the Academy does make some fun choices in this category, and all others, and I love them for it.

Sam’s Oscar Outlook: Best Production Design

If you enjoyed reading about the films nominated for best costume design yesterday, get ready for another round of that. “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon,” “Oppenheimer” and “Poor Things” doubled up in costume design and the subject of this piece, production design. I think this is a strong field, with any one of these options being a worthy contender for the win in just about any other year.

Sam’s Oscar Outlook: Best Costume Design

At this point in the Oscar Outlook, most of the nominated films have already been discussed. The Academy likes to reward films that are technically strong across the board by acknowledging each discipline individually, and it makes sense. If the costume design in a film is distracting or lacking, every other aspect of the film can get dragged down in the process, making it less likely to receive at-large love from the voters. The nominees this year in costume design didn’t drag their films down at all. In fact, they made them better.

McGowan Charitable Fund presents $25,000 to Junior Achievement of NEPA

The William G. McGowan Charitable Fund recently presented $25,000 to Junior Achievement of NEPA in support of programs to bridge the gaps in educational attainment caused by the pandemic disruptions in learning. Through this partnership, students will participate in programs to re-engage with the learning process, understand the importance of finances, explore career options, and become inspired toward a pathway for future success.

Weekender Spotlight