🎬 Oscars 2022: a Notion Template

After the great feedback I got last year, I’m back with the 2022 version of my popular Oscars Tracker Notion Template, following the announcement of all the nominees this week:

Even though I'm calling this a template, since anyone can duplicate it into your own Notion system, this works more as a guide than a template, since all the content is already there ready to be used.

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share music recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for the different pages:

« 2 » When you click on "Nominees", you'll access the database with all the films nominated in all the categories, organized alphabetically by title. Here you're able to quickly mark a film as "watched" and give a rating from 1 to 5 stars:

« 3 » Each film is its own clickable page where you can go a little further, adding a date when you watched (optional), watch the trailer, find a link to learn more about the specific film, as well as a dedicated space for you to write down a few personal comments:

« 4 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Watchlist" will bring you to a side-by-side view for a quick glance of the films that you've already seen and what's still on your watchlist. Once you mark a film as "watched", it automatically moves to the proper column, changing its view to the film poster instead of just the title:

« 5 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Favorites" you can access a separate page with all your Favorite Films, which means the ones that you rated as 3 stars or more. That way you can look back and remember your favorite films from the award season!

« 6 » And finally, as a bonus, I created a “Ballot” page, where you can simply mark your bets for the films you think will win and you want to win on each category, so you get ready to enjoy the big night!

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

And if you love music, like me, consider subscribing to Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter with personal recommendations to help you find your next obsession. All directly to your inbox for you to consume at your own pace. Click here to learn more!

🎬 In & Of Itself

The first time I’ve heard about “In & Of Itself” was through Austin Kleon’s newsletter, where he recommended this movie to be watched knowing as little as possible about it. In an act of trust, I followed his recommendation and hit the play button without watching any trailers or even reading the synopsis.

It was an unusual experience, I must say, but I was so glad I did it that way. I was so hypnotized and enthusiastic about it, that as soon as the credits started rolling up, I started calling friends to recommend the movie! I wanted them to have the same experience I just had, and I also wanted to have people to talk about what I had just seen.

So, assuming that you enjoy my recommendations, I urge you to follow Austin’s (and now mine) advice. Watch this movie without looking for any information beforehand. If you do that, I’d love to hear about your experience!

Available on Hulu.

🎬 The King of Staten Island, by Judd Apatow

Did you ever watch a movie where you have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen at the end, but you just keep watching because you are so attached to the characters that it doesn’t really matter? That’s exactly what happened to me while I was watching “The King of Staten Island”, the new movie by Judd Apatow.

It’s a comedy-drama with a storyline that we’ve all seen before many times, sort of a semi-biographical coming-of-age film, as an adaptation of the life of Pete Davidson, who you may be used to seeing more often at SNL. Don’t let the whole “he spends his days smoking weed and dreaming of being a tattoo artist” on the synopsis take you away from a really sweet and emotional journey.

🎬 Umbrella, by Helena Hilario & Mario Pece

If you’re looking for a short and sweet piece of content to watch, look no further.

Produced by the studio Stratostorm, and directed by Helena Hilario and Mario Pece, Umbrella is an 8-min heartwarming short film that will make you emotional from beginning till the end — think Pixar’s UP, for example. Out of curiosity, this is the first Brazilian animated short to qualify for a chance to be nominated for the Oscars. Unfortunately the nomination didn’t happen, but you can still watch the animation on YouTube:

☔️⚡️ Inspired by true events and filled with messages of empathy and hope, Umbrella follows Joseph's story, a boy who lives in an orphanage and dreams of hav...

🎞 Oscars 2021: a Notion Template

After the great feedback I had on the template I created to keep track of all the Golden Globes nominees, I got excited to work on a similar page, this time focused on the Oscars 2021:

Even though I'm calling this a template, since anyone can duplicate it into your own Notion system, this works more as a guide than a template, since all the content is already there ready to be used.

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for the different pages:

« 2 » When you click on "Nominees", you'll access the database with all the films nominated in all the categories, organized alphabetically by title. Here you're able to quickly mark a film as "watched" and give a rating from 1 to 5 stars:

« 3 » Each film is its own clickable page where you can go a little further, adding a date when you watched (optional), watch the trailer, find a link to learn more about the specific film, as well as a dedicated space for you to write down a few personal comments:

« 4 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Watchlist" will bring you to a side-by-side view for a quick glance of the films that you've already seen and what's still on your watchlist. Once you mark a film as "watched", it automatically moves to the proper column, changing its view to the film poster instead of just the title:

« 5 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Favorites" you can access a separate page with all your Favorite Films, which means the ones that you rated as 3 stars or more. That way you can look back and remember your favorite films from the award season!

« 6 » And finally, as a bonus, I created a “Ballot” page, where you can simply mark your bets for the films you think will will on each category, so you get ready to enjoy the big night!

---

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

If you love movies, like me, consider subscribing to Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter with personal recommendations of things to watch, read, listen to, and even play. All directly to your inbox for you to consume at your own pace. Click here to learn more!

---

This is a labor of love (for Movies and for Notion), but you can always Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support my work 🤗

🎬 Bacurau, by Juliano Dornelles & Kleber Mendonça Filho

Have you ever watched a movie that has been so praised by everybody that you can’t figure out if you liked it because you genuinely did, or if because you felt the pressure to like it? That was my feeling towards the end of Bacurau, one of the most acclaimed Brazilian films of recent years. Not that I didn’t like it, otherwise I wouldn’t be here recommending it to you, but it took me a little while to get my head around it and understand what was I really feeling.

Bacurau is a mixed genre movie that takes place in the “near future”, and sees the residents of a small village going through some obscure events that keep escalating until a turbulent ending. It’s one of those stories that can be as simple or as complex and you want, depending on how further is one willing to go with the numerous interpretations and metaphors that are available to grab. Don’t expect to be completely hooked right at the beginning, but don’t be surprised if you can’t stop thinking about it at the end. An instant classic!

Now on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD: bit.ly/3ow0Vb1A few years from now... Bacurau, a small village in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, C...

🎬 movie: Nomadland: a quick review

Nomadland is one of those movies that, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Directed by Chloé Zhao, and starting Frances McDormand, the story goes around a woman who embarks on a journey through the American West, after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

Mixing real-life with fictional characters, with most actors playing versions of their lives using their real names, Nomadland has a powerful narrative with a natural backdrop that will tempt you to forget about quarantine and get on the road. The backdrop, in this case, is the beautiful landscape of the west coast of the US and some of its famous deserts and national parks. I’m not sure I could ever adapt to van-life, but there’s no question on how tempting it looks like.

Part of me wanted to understand a little more of all of the reasons for Fern (Frances McDormand) to be living like that. What exactly she was chasing, looking for? But aren’t we all going through life more or less like that? We have the impression that people around us have all figured out, but that’s so far from reality.

While watching the movie, I couldn’t stop thinking how weird is the lifestyle that those people have chosen to live, abnegating their past lives and comfort. But in the end, I realized that those of us who chose to leave our hometown and chase a different life far away, are not that much different from the nomads portrayed in the movie. Deep inside it’s a constant battle with our past, present, and future, in a way that our families and close friends may not ever understand all the reasons behind our choices.

In a way, we are all nomads in our own land.

» Nomadland is currently available through Hulu in the US.

Soul, by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers

Pixar's most recent animated film is another masterpiece that instantly became my favorite movie of 2020 and one of my favorite from the studio of all time.

A journey into finding our purpose in life, something that we all think about it at some point, but that artists and creative people will easily identify since the main character here is a jazz musician. Beautifully animated, trippy at times, with an equally incredible soundtrack, alternating jazz music from Jon Batiste, with electronic ambiance composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. {available on Disney+}

Emicida: AmarElo - It's All For Yesterday (É Tudo Pra Ontem)

When I’ve heard that this historic concert was going to be released on Netflix I got super excited with the idea of being able to watch the live version of AmarElo, one of the best albums of 2019, by Emicida.

Emicida: AmarElo - It's All For Yesterday (É Tudo Pra Ontem) - Netflix, 2020

Must say I got a little frustrated when I realized that it was actually a documentary with excerpts from the show and not the whole show, but turns out that little I knew that the experience of learning about the stories behind the songs (and much more) would make the whole experience ten times better! It’s the history of Brazil. A history of the African-Brazilian people through art, music, politics, and social events. It’s exciting, it’s powerful, it’s sad, it’s shocking, it’s all of that and much more!

Sometimes it’s mindboggling to think about how far we’ve come in so many ways, but how far we still are from being able to live peacefully with our differences of race, genre, class. It feels like if for each year we advance in the future, we are forced to set back many more.

In a strange year where so much happened while we were all forced to stay home, this movie becomes an instant classic, absolutely urgent and necessary!

3 Brazilian movies on Netflix

If you’re into foreign films and are looking for something different to watch on Netflix, check it out this three great Brazilian movies available on the streaming service right now:

• Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho), 2016

The final holdout in her historic beachside building in Brazil, a retired music critic refuses to sell her apartment to developers bent on demolition.

• The Way He Looks (Daniel Ribeiro), 2014

A new classmate transforms the daily life of a blind teenager who longs for independence and disrupts his relationship with his best friend.

• The Man From The Future (Cláudio Torres), 2011

Accidentally inventing a time machine, Zero returns to college to avoid losing his dream girl. But how many times will he have to change the past?