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THE SKED: Emmy Thoughts

Posted September 19, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Another TV year is officially in the books, and the statuettes have been handed out to prove it.  Since the Emmys end at 8PM LA time for the convenience of East Coast eyes, by midnight the main parties are trailing off, and those winners lucky enough to still have jobs for the new season […]

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CRITICS AWARDS: “Zero Dark” Fires the First Shot

Posted December 3, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  Year-end awards from critics groups have two purposes in the big-picture (which is to say the Oscar) context.  In the aggregate, if enough of the groups are in agreement to form a consensus, they can make an accolade seem like an established fact–sort of a “how could you dare to ignore this?” message.  (Although […]

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THE SKED: Writers Guild TV Nominations Announced

Posted December 5, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  Picking five dramas as the best of television (or “television,” as it’s more properly referred to these days) is a tough task, and the Writers Guild just announced its nominees, all of them worthy and yet hardly the only possible choices:  BREAKING BAD, THE GOOD WIFE, HOMELAND, HOUSE OF CARDS and MAD MEN.  At […]

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OSCARLAND: Post-Mortem on Hollywood’s Yearly Selfie

Posted March 3, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  The only thing more boring than a typical Oscars is one without surprises, and the closest thing to a major upset this year turned out to be Disney’s loss in the Best Animated Short category.  (The studio almost instantly rebounded with the much more important Animated Feature prize for Frozen.)  All the conventional wisdom […]

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OSCARLAND: The Critics Choice Nominations

Posted December 16, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  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, […]

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STATUETTE STAKES: The Ides of Golden Globes

Posted December 15, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> The Golden Globes are given out by 80 international journalists whose opinions, when they’re not voting on these awards, are of no importance whatsoever to anyone on the planet other than their particular loved ones.  But the combination of a usually entertaining TV show (hosted again this year by Ricky Gervais) and enough years […]

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Oscar Odds: After the Nominations

Posted January 10, 2013 by Mitch Metcalf

With the announcement of the Oscar nominations today, Lincoln only became more of a favorite by London oddsmakers (moving from a payout of about $1.80 on a $1 bet last week to about $1.40 today).   The odds got a bit longer for Les Miserables and Argo, but Zero Dark Thirty had the biggest swing (from a payout of about $5.50 last […]

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OSCARLAND: Directors Guild Nominations Boost Scorsese and “Wolf”

Posted January 7, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  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 […]

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