ReelBlend

Raise your hand if you haven't yet seen Black Panther? No one? Good, then you all can listen to the latest episode of AwardsBlend, where co-hosts Sean O'Connell, Kevin McCarthy and Jake Hamilton kick off their weekly film-geek discussion with a breakdown of Ryan Coogler's Marvel masterwork, then lay out their personal Top 5 Marvel movies to see if Black Panther makes the cut.Raise your hand if you haven't yet seen Black Panther? No one? Good, then you all can listen to the latest episode of AwardsBlend, where co-hosts Sean O'Connell, Kevin McCarthy and Jake Hamilton kick off their weekly film-geek discussion with a breakdown of Ryan Coogler's Marvel masterwork, then lay out their personal Top 5 Marvel movies to see if Black Panther makes the cut.

This week, we're down a co-host, as Fox 32 Chicago's Jake Hamilton has to deal with a tooth problem. (The way he tells it, he chipped his tooth saving a bevy of adorable puppies, but we're guessing that's an embellishment.) So, AwardsBlend co-hosts Sean O'Connell and Fox 5 DC's Kevin McCarthy hold down the fort, and they kick off their discussion with a spoiler-free review of Ryan Coogler's new Black Panther.

What is Christopher Nolan's best film? Is it the twisty dream-infiltrating thriller Inception? Or the galaxy-hopping Interstellar? Maybe you'd choose one of his Batman films, or something else entirely? It's a question that the AwardsBlend hosts -- Sean O'Connell, Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy -- tackle in this week's episode of the AwardsBlend podcast

AwardsBlend is your weekly catch-up on all things Oscars as we inch closer and closer to the Academy Awards, which will be held on March 4 this year. Why in March? How come we haven't had this ceremony already? For real, these movies have been in theaters for weeks... even months. It seems like we easily could have had the Oscar ceremony already. The guys -- CinemaBlend Managing Director Sean O'Connell; Fox 5 DC Entertainment Reporter Kevin McCarthy, and; Fox 32 Chicago Entertainment Reporter Jake Hamilton -- weigh in on the current state of the race, and then some.

AwardsBlend co-hosts Sean O'Connell, Kevin McCarthy and Jake Hamilton hop behind their microphones this week to talk about the various Oscar nominations, where Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi creature romance The Shape of Water led all contenders with 13 noms, but Jordan Peele's Get Out followed right behind. Peele and his colleague, Greta Gerwig, also made headway as first-time filmmakers who broke into the coveted Best Director race. And we made connections to the Screen Actors Guild Awards winners, who all got Oscar nominations -- so we wonder if that makes them frontrunners in their respective categories.

This is AwardsBlend, a regular podcast on the CinemaBlend podcast network that is hosted by Managing Director Sean O'Connell, Fox 5 Washington D.C. Entertainment Reporter Kevin McCarthy, and Fox 32 Chicago Entertainment Reporter Jake Hamilton. Sean and Kevin start off by talking about the Critics' Choice Awards, an event they were both able to attend (Jake was missed). From there, the show dives into the controversy swirling around a few current awards contenders, from James Franco of The Disaster Artist to the entirety of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Do bad headlines affect a movie or actor's awards chances? The boys discuss. Oh, then they play a really fun game where they take an actual Best Picture winner from the past 10 years and strip away its win, handing the Oscar to the movie that really SHOULD have won in that year. Things get heated!

AwardsBlend #3 finally has the guys talking about an actual Awards telecast, as the Golden Globes handed out trophies to Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, as well as wins for the likes of Saoirse Ronan, James Franco, Frances McDormand and Gary Oldman. What does this mean for the Oscar race? And what surprising wins might we see out of the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, which are handed out on Thursday, January 11, on The CW. Sean, Kevin and Jake dissect the Globes, predict the Critics' Choice, and then each pick ONE movie that is their top Must See in 2018. Enjoy!

In AwardsBlend #2, Sean, Kevin and Jake talked about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and its awards chances (they are slim). They discussed their disappointment in the film, and the backlash being thrown at Rian Johnson by Star Wars fans. From there, the trio offered up their individual Top 5 films of the year. And if you know Kevin McCarthy, then you know that Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk received a lot of love. Enjoy!

CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O'Connell, Fox 5 Washington D.C. Entertainment Reporter Kevin McCarthy and Fox 32 News Chicago Entertainment Reporter Jake Hamilton are seasoned veterans of the film and entertainment beat. All three are members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. And they are long-time friends who spend way too of their own free time discussing movies -- usually on a text-message chain that keeps them busy for days. Well, they are taking their texts to the Podcast Airwaves at CinemaBlend, and this is their debut episode. Awards Blend will be a LIVE Podcast that goes straight to YouTube. But it also will be available on various streaming services. And it will lead right up to the Oscars... and beyond.