Another Oscar contest
Actors and directors get all the attention. Me, I'm a devoted fan of the names of film-production companies.
The 96th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 10, and although I’ve seen all but one of the Best Picture nominees — I couldn’t bring myself to sit through three and a half intermission-less hours of the latest Scorsese drama, and I haven’t streamed it because I don’t subscribe to Apple+1 — I have no predictions. If you’re in the mood for a cynical take, I commend you to Devin Gordon’s story in The Atlantic (gift link). His foolproof method for picking winners: “The movie that takes Best Picture is the movie that makes Hollywood feel the best about itself.” Feel free to adopt this strategy for Best Actor and Actress, too.
I do, however, have some thoughts about Martin Scorsese’s production company, Sikelia Productions. Well, about its name, which is good! Even award-worthy! In fact, the names of many production companies have better names, and better stories, than the production companies’ productions. In full recognition of the fact that this movie/name obsession of mine is a niche interest at best, I’ve written a story for Medium in which I select this year’s Best Film-Production Company Names in a bunch of madeupical categories, from Best Location-Inspired Name (A24) to Best Surf-Bum Reference (T-Street). Use this friend link to bypass the paywall and read the story. And use this link to read last year’s story about how Oscar got its name.
Why did I publish that story on Medium and not here? Good question! I launched this Substack newsletter in August 2023. I’ve been publishing on Medium since November 2018. I pay nothing to publish on Substack and also charge nothing. (As
writes about her own Substack, “My newsletter is free, and worth every penny.”) I pay $50 a year for the privilege of publishing on Medium, and I earn a tiny amount of it back when other paid-up Medium members read and “clap” for my stories.2So far this year I’ve earned just under $25 for all 88 of my published Medium stories. I admit that’s discouraging, but frankly not as discouraging as the lack of intelligent engagement through comments and sharing over there. I prefer the Substack community and audience, but I nevertheless have a perverse need to prove I can make it on Medium. Right now, “make it” means earn at least $50 in the calendar year, to cover my membership fee. What can I say? It keeps me — well, if not humble, then realistic.
My Zero Apple streak remains unbroken.
But not just a single clap! No, as I patiently remind my readers, you can clap up to 50 times per story. Hardly anyone bothers to do this, and who can blame them?
Nancy, that was a terrific (and persuasive) piece about Oscar at the Medium link you supplied. But the "bypass paywall" link just before that leads to an Oscar trophy (?) website.