The Morning Watch: 'The Florida Project' Edition - Oscar Snub, Screenwriting Lecture & More

The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.

In this special edition, find out why The Florida Project should have been nominated for Best Picture this year and was unjustly snubbed. On the lighter side, check out an interview with the cast of the film, and watch an extensive screenwriting lecture with writer and director Sean Baker.

First up, even though it's important to never take the Academy Awards too seriously, at least when it comes to the winners. But the nominations are important because they call attention to movies that beg to be seen. That's why it's frustrating that The Florida Project from director Sean Baker wasn't nominated for Best Picture, and Nerdwriter explores why it deserved to be.

Next up, The Florida Project writer and director Sean Baker hosted an hour and a half screenwriting lecture for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts where he talked about amplifying voices that might not otherwise be heard through the characters of cinema.

Finally, director Sean Baker and stars Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, and Willem Dafoe sat down with Variety to talk about the experience making the film. It might have been a familiar job to Willem Dafoe, but for the other two unknown talents, it was something entirely new to cherish and soak in.