Oscar Glory for ‘Oppenheimer’ Rewards Studio Chief’s Vision by Brooks Barnes

This was a good year for journalists on the awards circuit beat. The outcome of the Academy Awards’ biggest category was such a foregone conclusion by Oscar night that it was easy to have a deep-dive follow-up all loaded up and ready to go. Brook Barnes decided to go the studio chief route, profiling Universal boss Donna Langley, whose preferred place outside of the spotlight’s glare has arguably led to an underestimation of the success of her artist-friendly approach. In particular, she swooped in and poached Christopher Nolan from Warner Bros. after he was angered by the studio’s quick abandonment of theatrical exhibition during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns. This piece is published by The New York Times.

What Women Want: A Place to Watch the Game by Frankie de la Cretaz

Writing for Eater, Frankie de la Cretaz uses the recent opening of A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis, just down the interstate from my current place of residence, as a prompt to write about the building trend of sports bars that cater to fans of women’s sports. Rigorously reported, the piece makes it clear that these establishments are more than business gimmickry. They stand for a righting of persistent chauvinistic wrongs. A Bar of Their Own and its kindred watering holes are creating a space for enthusiasts who have been made invisible by regressive notions of who wants to root, root, root for the home team.