I married into the cult of cinema at a very young age - I wasn't of legal marriage age, but I didn't care. It has taken advantage of me and abused me many times. Yet I stay in this marriage because I'm obsessed and consumed. Don't try to save me -- I'm too far gone.
At this late stage of the Oscar race, you will comes across two schools of thought. One is that the stars have aligned for The Revenant and we are poised for an Oscars sweep. The other is that the preferential ballot doesn’t work in The Revenant’s favor and that, in spite of an inevitable Best Director win for Inarritu, Best Picture is still open for The Big Short or Spotlight to take.
Has The Revenant become a juggernaut? That’s what you’re probably hearing in many circles in the wake of last Sunday’s BAFTA Awards, in which Alejandro G. Inarritu’s film claimed five trophies, including Best Film and Best Director. As expected, it split the tech categories with Mad Max: Fury Road (although it was a lopsided split in that regard; Fury Road claimed four below-the-line wins …
This year’s crop of Live Action Short nominees is not entirely different from the Animated Shorts, actually. There is a psychic link when it comes to the themes at play in all of these Oscar-nominated works. But whereas their animated counterparts used high-concept whimsy to explore notions of identity and the fragile state of the human condition, the …
In terms of the annual precursor circuit, the Big Three have spoken. And they would appear to stand in direct conflict with one another. The PGA opted for The Big Short, SAG picked Spotlight, DGA went with The Revenant. The season’s wide open. We pundits are screwed. But that’s fun, right?
Soooooo…the DGA happened. With Alejandro G. Inarritu winning for The Revenant, this race just became even more of a question mark than it was before the DGAs, if you can even believe that. We had an uncertain, two-film race for Best Picture, and now we add a third to that uncertain race. Gonzo.
So last week we talked about the prospect of a “Third Party Candidate” (i.e., someone not named Adam McKay or Tom McCarthy) winning the DGA award creating a sort of “Oscar Chaos,” busting this race open even wider than it already was.
Well then…we have a race.
One week removed from The Big Short claiming the lead in the Oscar race with is PGA win, Spotlight hit right back with a Best Cast win at the SAG Awards, and low and behold, we have an uncertain Oscar chase yet again. Shouldn’t be remotely surprising given the way this season has unfolded, but each new turn is nevertheless delightful.
The race is on. With Spotlight’s victory at the SAG awards last Saturday, Tom McCarthy’s film officially re-inserted itself into the Best Picture conversation in a significant way. Not that any of us had really forgotten it; it’s just that all attention had been hastily directed at The Big Short following its PGA win the previous week, and rightfully so, since the PGA was the first …
Of the 24 categories in the annual Academy Awards lineup, the three short film categories always seem to be the most unknowable to those “civilian” Oscar-watchers. It’s harder to track them down, it’s harder to for them to gain traction or publicity, and it’s almost impossible to identify what they are unless it’s the token Pixar and/or Disney entry. For …
Just over a month to go…and it seems a new frontrunner has stepped onto the pedestal. Adam McKay’s The Big Short took top honors at the PGA Awards last Saturday, claiming the first major industry precursor prize – ya know, the ones that indicate where Academy voters might be leaning as Oscar Night nears. The …