Why F1 the Movie should win the best picture Oscar

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It may not be in pole position, but Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski’s sleek, technically inventive ode to motor racing definitely qualifies for the Academy podium Could, should, would F1 the Movie win the best picture Oscar? Well, we have to be realistic here: F1 is currently a massive outsider, at 200-1 along with The Secret Agent , which has no chance either but for very different reasons. It’s not hard to see why: this is a swaggeringly mainstream film, where tech and branding dwarf the human input, with the film itself acting as a front-end battering ram for a sports organisation desperate to break into the promised land of the US auto racing circuit. (I mean it’s right there in the title.) So even the most reactionary, conservative Academy voter is going to find it hard to mark F1 with their tick. So no, I don’t think it could win. That’s not to say F1 doesn’t have quite a bit going for it. The Oscars, as we know, have historically had a problem with so-called “popular” ...
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‘A kitten on heat with a racy physique’: the mystery of the bloodcurdling cat screech used in hundred of movies

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From Babe to Pet Sematary to Toy Story, the same furious yowl crops up in film after film. So who was the cat and who made the recording? We solve the enigma of the ‘Wilhelm Miaow’

There is a movie star you’ve never heard of, but whom you’ve almost certainly heard. She’s in Toy Story and Babe, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Home Alone 3. You can catch her in Les Misérables. And if you’re a fan of being frightened, she’s also in End of Days and Pet Sematary. Once you’re familiar with her work, you start to hear her everywhere. Picture the scene: a frustrated character flings something, possibly a boot, off-camera. Perhaps we hear a bin lid clattering to the ground, and then it comes: the sound of a shocked cat screeching ferociously.

You may have heard of the Wilhelm Scream. In the 1953 western The Charge at Feather River, a character named Private Wilhelm loudly yelled “Argh!” after being shot in the thigh with an arrow. This yell subsequently became an overused sound effect, appearing in Star Wars and Indiana Jones among many, many other films. Hollywood is full of similar stock noises – spooky birds, ominous thunderclaps and generic telephone rings. The one I’m talking about could perhaps be christened the “Wilhelm Miaow”.

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