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.

Not an Oscar. Source

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

Laura Lippman

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.²

So 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.

1. My Zero Apple streak remains unbroken.

2. 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?