> Until its final 45 minutes, the one thing that could be said about this year’s Oscar telecast was that it was at least brisk.  Merely 2 hours and 15 minutes into the show, there were amazingly only 3 awards and the In Memorium segment still to go.  But for ABC, running under the appointed […]

  The big news this week in Oscarland was the confirmation that Martin Scorsese’s WOLF OF WALL STREET (Paramount), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill and many more, which wasn’t finished in time for its scheduled November 15 opening, will arrive on Christmas Day, just in time for the potential Oscar equivalent of an election’s […]

  Here are links to all our Oscarland “Why and Why Not” pieces, running through the rationales for and against all the nominees in the major Academy Award categories: Best Picture Best Director Best Actor Best Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress  

> The Motion Picture Academy came up with 2 great choices and a puzzler in their selections for this year’s honorary Academy Awards.  (Remember–as of last year, the honorary Oscars are no longer part of the televised ceremony, but will be presented at a private banquet on November 12.) The unoffcial lifetime achivement award goes […]

  Another day, another set of nominees. The Golden Globes, of course, whose nominees in full can be found here, have become their own thing, even though as an organization the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has no more credibility than the National Board of Review.  That’s what a celebrity-packed, network-aired primetime telecast will get you. […]

  The Writers Guild is unusual among awards-giving groups in that it strictly enforces the rule that only screenplays written for films produced under Guild agreements are eligible.  That tends to exclude some of the major indie movies of the year and many foreign imports, which are produced non-Guild for budgetary and other reasons.  The […]

> The National Board of Review is an organization with a virtually unknown membership that exists in public consciousness for precisely one day per year, and this is their day:  the announcement of their film awards.  Their claim to fame, such as it was, came from being the first ones out of the awards gate–but […]

Following up on Mitch Salem’s Best Picture overview, here’s an updated look at the odds for the major Oscar categories. After its winning streak at the various guild award ceremonies, Argo has traded places with Lincoln as the favorite for Best Picture.  London bookmakers would pay $1.15 on a $1 bet if Argo wins, a movement of +6 in […]