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.

In the middle of a big lull here, so we’re scraping the barrel, but this week we discuss the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and what films are looking to take advantage of it.

“Anna Karenina” and “Silver Linings Playbook” open in limited release today, while “Lincoln” is expanding wide. We revisit all.

Moving along on category assessments, we dig in on Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

And finally, reader questions. Well, one. Regarding actors in danger of falling off the map after being perceived contenders early in the race.

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.