Alan Zilberman on life as a critic during awards season

Alan Zilberman, a critic for the Washington City Paper and the Washington Post, joins Sonny Bunch for a very special episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood in which the two discuss life as a part-time film critic during awards season. Both Sonny and Alan are members of the Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association, and both Sonny and Alan slaved away on our annual year-end nominations for the WAFCA awards. No one knows the struggles we’ve seen—until now! What’s it like to have to watch multiple movies a day in order to futilely try to impact an award that’s just going to go to an Oscar frontrunner anyway? How are the awards in 2020 different from the awards in almost every other year? Why is everyone so in love with Nomadland anyway?

For the full list of WAFCA winners and nominees, go here: http://wafca.com/awards/index.htm You’ll notice a disturbing absence of both Fatman and The Wolf of Snow Hollow from the nominees. It’s like most critics can’t recognize great art unless it comes wrapped in a pricey Oscar campaign!