The polls close for Oscar nomination votes at 5PM today LA time, amid anecdotal reports of many last-minute ballots being cast in a season crowded with contenders.  There is much last-minute maneuvering going on, from the movie ads unusually swelling the LA Times’s Calendar section this midweek, to an insta-controversy about Meryl Streep’s speech […]

  With a little over 24 hours before polls close for Oscar nomination voting (ballots must be submitted by 5PM tomorrow LA time), the big winners from today’s announcement of the Directors Guild nominees were Martin Scorsese and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET.  While it can never be considered a “surprise” for Scorsese to get […]

  The National Society of Film Critics is the only major group that withholds its honors until after year-end, and for the most part its choices today were as idiosyncratic as its scheduling.  With the exception of Best Actress to Cate Blanchett and Foreign Film to Blue Is The Warmest Color, the awards were off […]

  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 calendar has turned to 2014, and the critics, for the most part, have spoken.  Now Oscar season is moving into the Guild part of its schedule, and today the Producers Guild announced its Best Picture nominees.  The PGAs have been a fairly accurate precursor of Oscar nominees, with 8 of its picks last […]

  The Broadcast Film Critics Association and their “Critics Choice” awards seem on the whole way too eager to please, desperate to have as many movies and stars in their tent (and on their CW awards telecast) as possible, with the wealth spread to 10 Best Picture nominees, 6 nominees in each major acting category, […]

  Say what you will about the Golden Globes, on the TV side they’re often more open to acknowledging new talent and shows than the Emmys (let alone this week’s stodgy SAG Award nominations) tend to be.  That’s the case again with today’s nominees, particularly in the acting categories. BEST DRAMA SERIES BREAKING BAD (AMC) […]

  Putting aside the question of whether the Golden Globes actually deserve to be considered important (hardly anyone not actively campaigning for their votes would know a Hollywood Foreign Press Association voter if they fell over one), the fact is that we collectively act as if they are, and that makes them so.  And to […]