With only one major wide release coming this weekend, it may be up to the limited releases to find anything nominated for an Oscar.

There are a few foreign language films in the mix and at least once documentary that could find their names into the Oscar nominations this winter, but other than that, it will be slim pickings for at least another week.

As I'm doing more of these monthly posts, I'm starting to see the trend of films coming onto Netflix for several months at a time before disappearing again. I was again able to find a list of the films leaving Netflix this month and many of them were part of my April post in the spring, meaning they were available for six months.

​The good news is you still have a week to check some of these out before they disappear, and rest assured, they will probably be back in the future at some point.

It's not often that I sit back and opine about something that I've seen that isn't a direct review of a film or preview of upcoming films, but today is that day. I wanted to talk a bit about the outstanding limited series from CNN simply titled The Movies.

I'm a little late to the party in talking about this since it originally premiered back in July and the full slate of episodes has been released. The good news is you can watch the entire thing on demand through most cable providers.

The bad news, once you watch this series, you'll realize how many great films of the past you might have missed. For some reason the series started with the '80s, moved to the '90s, and 2000s before going back to the earlier eras of Hollywood. I'm not judging, but wouldn't it have made more sense to start with the classic age of film?

Anyway, the series is stellar and includes interviews with dozens of high profile writers, directors, actors and other film personalities from Tom Hanks (who also Executive Produced the series) and Robert Redford to Martin Scorsese and the late John Singleton.

It's great to watch these episodes (each of which runs for two hours minus commercials) and listen to the people involved in making these films talk about each other, who they were influenced by, and what they saw in films of the past that they bring into their directing and performances today.

My one rant against this series is that it has considerably lengthened the list of films I have to watch. That's not a bad thing, but I only have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and even with all the classic films I HAVE seen in my life, there is a seemingly endless list of films that I still haven't seen.

So in addition to my stated goal of watching every Oscar nominated film ever, I'm adding the list of films that The Movies talks about to my watchlist. I'm also working my way through source materials including books and previous films that served as inspiration for the films discussed. I will be posting lists of the films discussed in the series throughout the rest of the month along with some notes about which ones I've seen so far.

After a few down weeks, we are starting to hit full stride for films coming out in the fall in time for consideration for the major awards. We get huge stars including Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Maggie Smith, Donald Sutherland, Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, Nicholas Cage, and Laurence Fishburne, just to name a few.

​There are definitely some Oscar contenders in this pack so check out the full post below.

Since I did an updated post about movies based on books yesterday, I wanted to make sure the remakes and sequels received the same attention. With so many remakes, reboots, franchises, and sequels at the box office today, I often like to see the original film(s) before checking out a new addition to a series.

Just to remind you what we're looking at here, this is a list of the films scheduled for release in Fall 2019 that fall into one of the following categories:​

• Direct sequel/prequel or part of a franchise
• Remake of a previous film
• Inspired by or based on another film
• Documentary covering a specific movie, director, or actor

Click on the titles of the films for trailers where they are available.

Last October I tried starting a series of posts previewing films scheduled for release in the following quarter that were based on books. As I'm sure you've noticed, things got busy with the site here as the Oscars ramped up in the first few months of the year, and I never revisited that type of post.

Now is the time to bring it back. Below is a list of films coming out in October through December this year that are based on books, or other printed material such as comics or newspaper/magazine articles. If you're like me, you like to read the source material before seeing the film so hopefully this gives you the chance to do that before the films release!

The cool thing about these books is that they span the range of authors and genres. There is drama, horror, humor, kids, and even a classic thrown in the mix. The authors include Stephen King, T. S. Eliot, and Louisa May Alcott while the directors of these films include Martin Scorsese, Taika Waititi, Edward Norton, Steven Soderbergh, and Greta Gerwig.

One important note, I have included links to Amazon where you can purchase the materials referenced and to WorldCat to search a local library near you. The Amazon links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage of what you pay for them, but it doesn't change what you pay. Libraries are free, but you might have to pay a small hold fee if your library has a hold program. 

There are only two wide releases this weekend. You either get a look into the lives of strippers who try to take advantage of their wealthy clients, or a mystery centered around a boy who survives a bombing at an art museum.

I'm working on getting back in the flow with these posts, so look for them to come more regularly going forward into the major swing of awards season.

The Nominee Watch is back for the first time in over a month and it hits with a sequel to a remake of a Stephen King classic adaptation along with an animated import expanding from limited to wide release.