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.

This week the New York Film Festival rages on and the Academy made a pretty significant announcement, among other bits and bobs that bubble up. So let’s see what’s on the docket today…

The biggest news of the week was the Academy’s announcement that Seth MacFarlane will be hosting the 85th annual Oscars. We discuss the pluses and minuses of the somewhat surprising pick.

Also, it’s time to dig in on another category, and this week, it’s Best Actress. A survey of Movie City News’s Gurus o’ Gold collective shows that, beyond a handful of agreed-upon bets, things are a bit all over the place. We run through the players.

One of those contenders, young Quevenzhane Wallis, won’t be in the hunt for SAG recognition as the guild has disqualified the film from contention. We briefly touch on that and whether the film, as well as fellow indies like “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” can come back around in the season.

And finally, reader questions. We address queries regarding perceived frontrunners at this early stage, Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis.” IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR US, please write in to OscarTalk@HitFix.com.

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.