As we did with Best Supporting Actor and will do the rest of this week with the other major categories, this is a final look at the rationales behind and against each nominee’s likelihood of winning.  We’re assuming deserved merit for all, and we’re not going to count up precursor wins.  So, onward: BEST […]

  The votes are in, and all that’s left is the counting.  The Calendar section of the LA Times has returned to normal size, the pop-up website ads have subsided, the screenings and Q&As have finished, and the talent can take one deep breath before heading into the frenzy of this coming weekend.  In these […]

  We’ll never know if this year’s Best Picture race is as close as we think it is, since the Academy has no intention of ever releasing its vote totals (something it did back at the very beginning of Oscar history).  Nevertheless, all signs are that this is the hardest race in years to call, […]

  Although there were some new faces due to release patterns and category differences, in the big picture, the BAFTAs–Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars–turned out to be very much like the Golden Globes.  The full list of winners is here, but the headline is that 12 YEARS A SLAVE managed once again to win Best […]

  Over the past 10 days or so, a multitude of groups have presented awards for 2013’s best, with prizes given to screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, animators, and production designers.  FROZEN solidified its commanding lead for the Best Animated Film Oscar, but that’s about the only conclusion to be found, as the other honors were spread […]

  Tonight the Writers Guild of America followed the lead of the Golden Globes and gave its award for Best Original Screenplay to Spike Jonze for HER rather than to AMERICAN HUSTLE.  The WGA awards were seen as Hustle‘s chance to recapture some of the momentum it had lost after 12 YEARS A SLAVE and […]

  The Oscars are not the Golden Globes.  That appears to be the underlying message of today’s action by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, revoking the Best Original Song nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” from the film of the same name.  (According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is just the 2d […]

  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 […]