Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

Oscar predictions are running rampant now with the Gurus o’ Gold at Movie City News publishing again finally and Entertainment Weekly putting out its annual look with a new prognosticator. We look at where things seem to stand among the consensus.

“Lincoln” landed at AFI Fest last night as the closing night presentation and makes its way to theaters today. We revisit the film, somewhat, and Anne reports from last night’s event.

We take a gander at the field of cinematography contenders, dipping our toes into the below-the-line water.

And finally, reader questions. We address queries concerning the potential for more live sung-through musicals and the voting practices of the crafts branches.

Have a listen to the new podcast below. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. You to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here. And as always, if you have a question you’d like us to address on a future podcast, send it to OscarTalk@HitFix.com.

“Here I Come” courtesy of Stuart Park.