Tag: Oscars 2012

2012 Golden Globes Recap

“Ricky Gervais’s monologue is over, and we’ve heard all we need to about Jodie Foster’s Beaver. Can I stop watching the #goldenglobes now?”

So I tweeted roughly five minutes into the ceremony. I did watch the entire evening, and because they kept Gervais locked in a cupboard (or occupied at the bar) all night, it never reached that same level of amusement, but it at least did not sink to absolute wretchedness and languish the way last year’s Oscars did.

But what the evening lacked was a clear winner or any convincing surprises that would give us a deeper insight into the Oscars. Continue reading “2012 Golden Globes Recap”

2012 Oscar Nomination Predictions

My predictions for the 2012 Oscars have eight films being nominated for Best Picture, including “The Tree of Life” and “The Artist.”

1/21 Update: I’m going to stick to my original predictions that I said I had set in stone less than two weeks back, but already with the Golden Globes, the DGAs and a variety of other nominations and awards being announced within days of one another, the field has changed somewhat drastically. Films thought dead are now serious contenders, and some considered front runners are now on the bubble to even be recognized. I detail all my new changes and thoughts in bold and italics below, but the long and short of it is that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Bridesmaids” have some momentum, “War Horse” has tripped on the last furlong, and “Drive” and “Young Adult” were perhaps always too hopeful of picks on my part.

Welcome to Oscar season, where an analysis of which period pieces will be nominated for Best Costume Design can make a bracketology advocate during March Madness look sane.

This year’s race is closer than the Iowa caucuses (and most of the candidates just as mediocre) and the new voting system is more confusing than the BCS Championship.

But I’m here to coach you through what will happen when the nominees are announced on Tuesday, January 24. Continue reading “2012 Oscar Nomination Predictions”

2012 Oscar Analysis Post Golden Globes Nominations

Here’s the state of the 2012 Oscar race following some surprises with the Golden Globe nominations.

So I kind of forgot the Golden Globes were a thing this year.

Each year the Globes and a few bloggers at Entertainment Weekly pretend it’s the only other awards ceremony after the Oscars that means something, and yet every year the nominations come out and thoroughly embarrass themselves with their shameless glorification of A-list driven pictures (I’m looking at you “The Tourist”) and moneymakers.

Instead, I’ve been greatly invested in the 2012 Oscar race but have not yet gotten an opportunity to write about them. Simply put, in a year that has been mediocre to weak to plain bad for movies, it has surprisingly led to the most interesting Oscar race in years in which no front runners, or even clear nominees for each category have truly presented themselves. And with the rule change in the Best Picture category from 10 nominees to God-knows-how-many, anything can happen.

And in looking at this year’s Golden Globes nominations that were announced Thursday morning, a few unexpected wrenches have been thrown into the race that have made everything that much more intriguing.

The real reason for this is that the Globes did not completely vomit in their own faces with their nominations this year. They awarded “The Artist,” a modern silent movie, with six nominations, the most of any film in the race. People assumed that even the Oscars might not get behind such a movie, and this says a lot.

In fact, “The Artist’s” nomination, amongst other nods, illustrates what sort of indicator the Golden Globes are for the Oscar nominees. Movies expected to be nominated for GGs that do doesn’t mean a thing in the Oscar race, and it only sometimes matters when movies expected to be nominated for GGs don’t. But Golden Globe surprises revitalize an Oscar campaign. It says, if this group of geniuses in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association look like they know what they’re talking about, what’s the Academy missing?

Best Picture Continue reading “2012 Oscar Analysis Post Golden Globes Nominations”

Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10

AMPAS announced a rule change to the Best Picture prize today, nominating anywhere from five to 10 films.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times and Associated Press

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences dropped a bombshell of Oscar news two years ago when the Best Picture field doubled from five to 10 films.

In a press release on Wednesday, AMPAS dropped yet another with the changed rule that the Best Picture field will now range anywhere from five to 10 films. This is based on the criteria that a movie must receive at least five percent of a first place vote to qualify for a nomination.

The Academy justified this decision by explaining that from 2000 to 2008, prior to the switch to 10 films, votes tabulated through this new method would have resulted in six, seven, eight or nine films. The idea is to find the middle ground of praising all of the highly loved films of the year without snubbing some and without padding out the field to include ones that aren’t worthy.

One other rule change affected the Best Animated Feature category. Originally, unless the list of eligible movies was 16 or above, nominees were limited to three films. Now if the list falls in between 13-16, there will be four nominees. Continue reading “Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10”