We’ve reviewed all the performers in the Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress and Best Actor categories, and now it’s time to look at the filmmakers themselves.  Here’s a last rundown of the factors for and against each Best Director nominee, with merit taken for granted and precursor awards put aside.  Also, read […]

  The Broadcast Film Critics Association is one of those organizations that wants everyone to be happy, including the television network (CW) that carries its yearly telecast, so it gives out a number of MTV-like silly awards, like Best Actor/Actress In an Action Movie (a chance to award Robert Downey, Jr for The Avengers!) and […]

  What do Blue Is the Warmest Color and The Past have in common?  Two things, actually:  they’re both widely considered among the best foreign-language films shown in the US this year–and neither will be nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.  Blue was the victim of arcane Academy rules regarding its theatrical release date […]

  It was a bad morning for some veterans (Harvey Weinstein, Ridley Scott), and a good one for others (George Miller), as well as for quite a few newcomers.  Let’s dig in: BEST PICTURE The Big Short Bridge Of Spies Brooklyn Mad Max: Fury Road The Martian The Revenant Room Spotlight Neither of the Weinstein […]

> And the hits keep on coming for the Academy:  following Brett Ratner’s hurried exit yesterday, Eddie Murphy has packed his host bag and left the building as well.  This isn’t a huge surprise, as Murphy was brought in by his Tower Heist director in the first place (and Heist isn’t proving to be the […]

After its Golden Globes win for Best Drama, the odds of winning Best Picture for Argo improved a bit (moving from a $7.50 payout on a $1 wager to $5.25 and moving past Les Miserables into second place).  But the favorite remains Lincoln, which also actually tightened to a $1.29 payout (from $1.40 last week), as Les Miz and especially Zero […]

  The Directors Guild of America tonight gave its prize for best film direction to Alfonso Cuaron and GRAVITY. This was not an unexpected result, but it solidifies the sense that this year we have what is (at least) a three-horse race for the Best Picture Oscar:  Gravity, 12 YEARS A SLAVE (which split the Producers Guild […]

> It’s a measure of how desperately this year’s Oscar needed some kind of surprise that the closest thing to a thrill all evening was Meryl Streep’s win as Best Actress.  Streep has been winning Academy Awards since 1979, and she’d been touted for her performance as Margaret Thatcher since months before THE IRON LADY […]