It is that time of year again when the who's who of Hollywood bask in the glow of their own work.

It is Oscar season. I'm Rachel Martin. This is up for Sunday. And yes, the Academy Awards are

just a weak way. So who is likely to win and why? For answers, we're going to turn to our

in-house experts over at NPR's pop culture Happy Hour. As always, they have insights and some

predictions on who may walk away with a coveted golden statue. Before we hear from the team,

though, I thought that we should call up Linda Holmes. She's one of the hosts of the pop

culture Happy Hour podcast. Hi, Linda. Hi, Rachel. So I wanted to start with a question about the

overall industry because I mean, we all know, COVID did a big number on the film industry and movie

theaters shut down. Some to never reopen again. And how has the movie industry recalibrated itself?

Well, there's no question that it's still a time of high anxiety for the theatrical business.

As you mentioned, there have been a bunch of theaters that closed this year from some of the big

chains. It was already a very hard time for movie theaters because of streaming and because of

changes in the industry. Definitely, COVID kind of slammed down on them. I do think this year,

there were some signs of life that have been pretty promising. The ones that get the most player

top gun Maverick and Avatar the way of water, but also, you know, slightly smaller, but still really

successful films like everything everywhere all at once, which did really well in theaters despite

not being that kind of massive sequel blockbuster. So there are some signs of life. It's still really tough.

Let's talk about that film. Everything everywhere all at once. It's getting a whole lot of attention.

This Oscar season actor James Hong. He's one of the stars. He made a speech recently at the

Sagawords, right? That's gone viral. So I got my first S.H.E. card in, well, anyway, 70 years ago.

What happened? Absolutely. James Hong, you got to understand, has been working steadily in both

movies and television since about 1955. If you look up his resume, you will find literally hundreds

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