An Open Letter from The Oscar Buzz

Scene from Gentleman's Agreement

Well, well, well... it's that time of year again. The Oscar season has wrapped up and everything that needs to be said has been said (for now). It leaves one major question in the balance: what is there left to do for The Oscar Buzz now that there's some significant downtime? Long time readers will recognize that it's during this time that I take a break from Oscar coverage, and that pattern is likely to hold true this year as well - with some exceptions. Yes, it's hiatus time once again, and I hate to say goodbye for awhile. I hope in this time that I will be able to get my ideas together and prepare for an eventful off season once again. The following is a look into what I have planned for the interim between now and my return.

As the idea of a hiatus will suggest, I am going to be shutting down a lot of my regular coverage. As much as I have unfortunately stopped doing Birthday Take regularly, I am putting that on a break with hope that I will bring it back this summer. It is also the end of Failed Oscar Campaigns for another eventful season full of great content (which I admit was probably more politically charged than normal). I also may be announcing new columns to fit alongside my returning series of The Runner-Ups, though I will be saving that for later conversation. I unfortunately won't be posting reviews on here as well during this time, even though I plan to republish  my Isle of Dogs review sometime among my return in roughly a month. If you wish to see my regular coverage, including talk about recent movie trailers, you can check out my other blog Optigrab for regular coverage.

With all of this said, there are two columns that will continue running during the hiatus. As much as I have tried to think of postponing them, I find that there's too much satisfaction in keeping a regular schedule for Composing Greatness and A24 A-to-Z. To me, those columns are too special to retire, especially since I'm sadly behind on the John Williams series. I hope to take that more seriously now that I have little interfering content. I also think that A24's output is far too massive to take a long time away from. As it stands, their current schedule of releases through this year puts me at "completing" the column in 15 months. While I hope this column will last a long, long time, I do think having some leeway is helpful.

So, I apologize for this news of having to take a hiatus. It's what I do to recharge my batteries and focus on other projects. I apologize for not having a totally satisfying Oscar season coverage this year (at least in terms of quantity), but personal life has been difficult in the past few years, and that takes a certain precedence. I don't want to shut this blog down, as I love covering all things Oscars, but I hope you understand why the output is maybe not as large as before. It's not that I don't care. It's just that life is life and I unfortunately have had scheduling conflicts all season. Here's hoping that I can find a happy medium and that we can continue to enjoy movies and awards season together. See you real soon. I'll be posting something around my proposed return.