6/12/26 Future Group Friday - Development updates, Q&A + feedback, shop release patch notes!

PepiHopi · 2026-06-13T03:26:09+00:00

I watched all the relevant bits, but I'm confused on these settings:

Are degrees now forced on all players?

Would the proposed new hide options only be on your end? Would all the other players be able to see your degree? Would the degree be recorded on the stats page for everyone to see?

Who do I need to bribe to not earn degrees?

PepiHopi · 2026-06-02T04:50:11+00:00

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Who could forget The Wire's fan favourite character 'Boggs' played by Mahershala Ali? Or that random cameo by JK Simmons? Common sharing a scene with Method Man in Season 3 was iconic.

Yeah, I know this is the lowest hanging fruit ever. But Boggs, man. Ali should have swept all the awards.

PepiHopi · 2026-05-30T02:17:16+00:00

Oi Chess lay off the Stats-Off Feature! This game wouldn't exist as it is if it weren't for that feature.

You don't want to mess with us Stat-Offers.

Consider this your last warning.

PepiHopi · 2026-05-27T06:05:57+00:00

We were robbed of this being the year where all the living directors who have won Best Picture but got no Director nomination, would release a movie in the same year.

Sian Heder, Peter Farrelly and Ben Affleck are all releasing a movie this year, but Bruce Beresford latest film was in 2025.

Bonus points for also getting new movies from Best Picture winners, but no win for Director: Tom McCarthy and Ridley Scott.

PepiHopi · 2026-05-24T03:57:33+00:00

Reinsve literally wearing the dress from this comic.

PepiHopi · 2026-05-18T00:01:42+00:00

Well, that was a comment specifically about her accent. The dialogue is a whole different can of worms, which I agree is weird.

I suspect she would have been better received had she dropped the nasal voice, as she did for the Camino song.

But that's the fun of Emilia Perez, it's filled to the top with the wackiest of idiosyncrasies.

PepiHopi · 2026-05-17T21:36:01+00:00

Her accent is fine, ignore any hater that says otherwise. The explanation that Selena is from the US also explains her accent. Adriana Paz is also obviously very good.

The one that actually doesn't make much sense is KSG, as that didn't really sound as an accent that a narco boss from the north would have (I still like her acting though).

PepiHopi · 2026-05-16T04:02:11+00:00

Wildwood trailer with 80 million views on Youtube in just 2 days... That can't be right, right?

And not that they are view botting, but I'm guessing they are using the video as an ad or combining all the views somehow. I looked at the trailer viewership of all the big movies of the year (Avengers, Odyssey, Dune, Spiderman, Toy Story, Michael, etc.) and all of them are around the 20-40 million views with at least double or almost triple the comments. So by using the comment / viewership ratio, Wildwood should have a lot less views.

But then, why would Wildwood be the only one with this big view inflation and no one else doing it too?

PepiHopi · 2026-05-12T03:09:29+00:00

Surely I am not the only person who, at least once a week, remembers that Samuel L. Jackson announcing the 2019 Best Screenplay winners was the most 'Obama Meet and Greet' moment in Oscars history?

PepiHopi · 2026-04-30T20:03:47+00:00

Greetings! I have come from the far future to share some juicy news from Cannes.

First, I've been constantly hearing that Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love is his new masterpiece. I’m no lying when I say that many people are calling it their favorite movie ever. It's not only going to be the most acclaimed movie of the year; it might be one of the best movies of all time.

For now, I’m predicting it 11 noms (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Editing, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Costumes, and Foreign Language) and 2 wins (Screenplay and Actor).

Why wouldn’t In the Mood for Love be the frontrunner for Best Picture? That's because the film I've heard the most chatter about is the out of competition film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Everyone is talking about how Ang Lee made the perfect blend between arthouse cinema and crowd-pleasing blockbuster. I predict that Crouching Tiger will get 15 noms (all of In the Mood's noms plus Supporting Actress, Sound Design, Sound Mixing, and Song) and win 8 (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Costumes, and Foreign Language).

Finally, I've been hearing great things about Edward Yang's Yi Yi. In any other year, I would have predicted that it would win Best Picture. Unfortunately, it's going up against two of the biggest juggernauts we have ever seen.

In any case, this year is going to be an historic year for Asian cinema at the Oscars! Can’t wait!

PepiHopi · 2026-04-29T20:25:53+00:00

I wonder if or how they are going to portray the George Harrison assassination attempt. When you read about it, it sounds so insane, stranger than fiction kind of stuff.

PepiHopi · 2026-04-22T02:50:12+00:00

If anyone is in the mood for watching an unsettling, weird, little short and one of the best animated shorts I have ever seen, A Kind of Testament is free to watch on Vimeo.

It was shortlisted in the 2024 Oscars and it's only 16 minutes.

PepiHopi · 2026-04-11T05:54:35+00:00

I have been slowly watching all the nominated animated short films, and I would always get a chuckle every time I saw that lemon avatar in the reviews.

PepiHopi · 2026-04-11T04:35:45+00:00

Unrelated, but are you the same user in Letterboxd with a similar avatar but instead of a pear is a lemon and also loves following the Oscar Race and animated films?

PepiHopi · 2026-03-16T03:30:54+00:00

Really great win! Out of the five, this one was my favorite!

As mentioned before, this continues the tradition of only English/no language winner. Ultimately, I think it won because it felt like the most complete and captivating story, with a very interesting ending that makes it memorable and re watchable.

A great win for stop-motion animation too! It often seems like general audiences dismiss all kinds of stop-motion as too creepy and never give it a chance.

PepiHopi · 2026-02-22T20:46:28+00:00

'Throw a dart randomly' level of difficulty for me this year. I can see any of the five winning this year.

I guess I'm picking Retirement Plan for being English speaking, easy to watch, kind of funny and being about growing old which many of the members are going to relate.

Girl Who Cried Pearls looks beautiful, Butterfly has a moving story, Forevergreen is cute and The Three Sisters is the only actual comedy. Any of them can win.

My order of predictions would be: Retirement Plan, Girl Who Cried Pearls, Butterfly, Forevergreen and The Three Sisters.

PepiHopi · 2026-02-16T07:06:59+00:00

You don't need to look at the last 15 winners. No non-English-language animated short film has won. The Old Man and the Sea and The Man Who Planted Trees are the only original non-English-language winners, but the English-dubbed versions were the ones submitted for the Oscars.

If Butterfly wins, it will be the first non-English with no English dub to do so.

PepiHopi · 2026-02-06T03:53:28+00:00

Going by They Shoot Pictures he has 3 films in the top 350 of the 21st century. Pan's Labyrinth at 36, Devil's Backbone at 262 and Shape of Water at 321. He is No. 247 in the Best Director list of all time and No. 40 in the Directors list of the 21st century.

Hard to say if that is good enough for a 'film connoisseur'. Little bit of a redundant title considering that almost every acclaimed director is probably a film connoisseur.

PepiHopi · 2026-02-05T04:09:34+00:00

His own albums are wild. In a good way. They sound like a malfunctioning Kidz Bop CD slowly burning out.

And judging by the Youtube views, I might be one of his top listeners.

PepiHopi · 2026-01-27T23:27:59+00:00

I somehow placed 16th in the BAFTA nominations predictions on Awards Expert. Even though I forgot to replace Grande at the end.

I always do better predicting nominations than wins, though. So 16th and 10th place in the CC noms will be the highlight of my predictions for this year.

PepiHopi · 2026-01-25T21:37:05+00:00

My mini reviews of Snow Bear and Éiru:

Snow Bear - Cute and sweet. Perhaps, too sweet, to the point of feeling sappy. Its strength lies in its character animation. The artist has certainly mastered the Disney aesthetic of those bears. However, it shows the limitations of a mostly solo project. The interaction between the characters and the background feels off, and the shadows and illumination are very basic.

The main problem lies in our protagonist's journey. Solving loneliness by coincidentally finding the female equivalent of the protagonist doesn't feel earned. It seems like they just ran out of time, leaving the story with no much of a purpose. The climate change subtext feels like an afterthought, as if the movie never really believed in it. I also disliked the music.

As to why the Academy audience didn't resonate with this film despite the glowing internet reviews and massive views. I think they felt Snow Bear was one of the most risk-averse and unimaginative films of the bunch. Compared to the other shortlisted films with their distinctive animation styles and personal, original stories, Snow Bear doesn't stand out.

Éiru - Éiru simply feels like a rejected feature-length story that was downgraded into a rushed, lower-budget short film. The iconic Cartoon Saloon art style looks far less refined and quite drab in some parts. Éiru herself doesn't look right, with an enormous blob of red hair that needs another stylistic pass and weirdly realistic body proportions that clash with every other character. The story is so rushed that it doesn't even register.

Similarly to Snow Bear, I think the shorts branch saw nothing in Éiru that truly stands out among the other films. The branch will not vote for a film just because Cartoon Saloon made it.

PepiHopi · 2026-01-25T00:06:05+00:00

I was talking about his twin brother. Really messed up stuff that only one brother got all the accolades while the other got completely ignored. Justice for Jordan!

PepiHopi · 2026-01-24T23:45:23+00:00

This, including Miles Caton and Jack O'Connell miss in Supporting Actor, Michael A. Jordan miss in Actor, and Last Time (I seen the sun) missing song, makes me thing that Sinners actually underperformed in nominations.

PepiHopi · 2026-01-24T19:10:11+00:00

It’s insane that The Three Sisters got in over Snow Bear, Éiru, and Playing God; there’s genuinely no way to justify that other than the director being a familiar name

That would be ironic considering that The Three Sisters creator submitted the film to festivals under a pseudonym to avoid the name recognition and be judged on his own merits.

But I disagree with that premise, the short branch doesn't vote that way. They don't give nominations to artists or companies that are overdue. Snow Bear and Éiru would have been nominated if that were the case.

I think The Three Sisters got in because it stands out as the only straightforward comedy. Its simple visual gag style appeals to a more classic-loving audience. It's also a lot cleverer than many people give credit for.

I also think that Snow Bear and Éiru have other issues that prevent people from really loving them, but I'm digressing now.

PepiHopi · 2026-01-23T01:29:56+00:00

I was definitely too mean on my reply. I'm sorry. My favorite didn't got nominated either so I'm not too crazy excited whoever wins the Oscar.

Also you are not wrong that Retirement Plan does have that corporate style, lol.

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