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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 10

The most significant guild precursors are now over with the DGA giving its prize out Saturday evening. There are other guilds still to come and a couple of major precursors left (BAFTA anyone?), but we're through the most significant phase of Oscar season. Now just to get a few precursors to point the way in lower categories (and possibly some major upper category surprises) and we'll be all done for the year.

But, before we get into this week's winners and losers, let's take a look at what's coming up this week:

Week 11

Monday, Feb. 4 - Academy Award Nominees Lunch
Tuesday, Feb. 5 - Visual Effects Society Awards
Friday, Feb. 8 - Academy Awards Voting Begins
Saturday, Feb. 9 - Academy's Scientific & Technical Awards
Saturday, Feb. 9 - USC Scripter Awards
Sunday, Feb. 10 - British Academy Awards
Sunday, Feb. 10 - American Society of Cinematographers Awards
Sunday, Feb. 10 - Grammy Awards
Sunday, Feb. 10 - Online Film & Television Association Awards

Big Winners

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Precursor: 65th Directors Guild of America Awards (2012)

And with the Guild Hat Trick (DGA, SAG & PGA) in hand plus a handful of other prizes, Argo seems unbeatable, but there are still a few weeks until Oscar. Thing can change quickly with that much time still to go (the ballots haven't even been sent yet).

The Awards

Best Director

Ben Affleck - Argo

Directors Guild of America Data

Year Founded: 1936
First Awards: 1948 (65)

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Precursor: 17th Art Directors Guild Awards (2012)

Down to the wire and to be overshadowed, the Art Directors Guild have made their selections confirming everything I already suspected about the race. The Oscar battle will be between Anna and Pi.

The Awards

Best Period Art Direction

Anna Karenina

Best Fantasy Art Direction

Life of Pi

Best Contemporary Art Direction

Skyfall

Art Directors Guild Data

Year Founded: 1937
First Awards: 1996 (17)

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Precursor: 21st Annie Awards (2012)

The Annie Awards presentation has completed and the winners are all listed below. While the awards presentation, streamed live, was chaotic, plagued by technical difficulties and flubs, the presenters were largely having fun and in spite of everything, it was a fun time. Wreck-It Ralph now becomes the key contender for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Whether it will win or not remains to be seen, but it has had a solid trajectory over the last few weeks and this victory helps.

Award Tallies

(5) Wreck-It Ralph
(2) Brave, ParaNorman, Rise of the Guardians
(1) The Avengers, Life of Pi, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, Paperman

The Awards

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Precursor: 6th Houston Film Critics (2012)

Argo, which seemed to be emerging as a Best Picture steamroller before the Broadcast Critics and the Golden Globes, a concept many are claiming.

Award Tallies

(3) Lincoln
(2) Argo, Skyfall

The Awards

Best Picture

Argo
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 9

There were only three precursors this past week, led off by the Producers Guild of America on Saturday evening, then the Online Film & Television Association on Sunday morning and finishing off with the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday evening.

But, before we get into this week's winners and losers, let's take a look at what's coming up this week:

Week 10

Saturday, Feb. 2 - Annie Awards
Saturday, Feb. 2 - Art Directors Guild Awards
Saturday, Feb. 2 - Directors Guild of America Awards

Big Winners

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Precursor: 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards (2012)

And there you have the winners of the Screen Actors Guild awards. Few surprises filled the night with every winner becoming the odds-on favorite to win their respective categories at the Oscars.

Best Cast

Argo

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor

Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables

Best Stunt Cast

Skyfall

Screen Actors Guild Data

Year Founded: 1933
First Awards: 1994 (19)

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Precursor: 17th Online Film & Television Association Nominations (2012)

The Online Film & Television Association, an organization which I have run for the last 17 years, have announced their nominees for the achievements of 2012. The group has categories for all of the feature-length film categories at the Oscars, plus a number of categories the Academy doesn't have. There are three new categories this year and one consolidated one. Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay have been combined into a category where one or multiple awards may be given based on the voting of the membership. The three new categories fare for Voice-Over Performance, a category that existed in the early days of the organization and has now returned; and categories for Best Movie Poster and Movie Trailer. Here are the nominees as announced on their website a few moments ago.

Nomination Tallies

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Precursor: 24th Producers Guild Awards (2012)

The Producers Guild of America awards have been announced. As expected, Searching for Sugar Man took the Documentary prize while Wreck-It Ralph showed its first strength of the season with a win for Best Animated Feature (will it duplicate that feat at next week's Annie Awards?). However, the big news here is the predictive capability of the PGA Best Picture prize. Argo wins. And were it not for the lack of a Best Director nomination, it would suddenly become the to-beat film. It goes into the Oscars now with three major precursor prizes and could easily make that four tomorrow night with SAG.

The Awards

Best Picture

Argo

Best Animated Feature

Wreck-It Ralph

Best Documentary

Searching for Sugar Man

Producers Guild of America Data

Year Founded: 1950 Film; 1957 TV; 1962 Unified
First Awards: 1989 (24)

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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 8

Two guilds and an organization announced nominees this week including the always interesting USC Scripter Awards and the costume designers and sound editors guilds.

But, before we get into this week's winners and losers, let's take a look at what's coming up this week:

Week 9

Saturday, Jan. 26 - Producers Guild Awards
Sunday, Jan. 27 - Screen Actors Guild Awards
Sunday, Jan. 27 - Online Film & Television Association Nominations

Big Winners

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Precursor: 33rd London Film Critics Awards (2012)

The quirky London critics stuck mostly to previously-honored names, giving Ang Lee a rare win and recognizing mostly Oscar nominees.

Award Tallies

(3) Amour
(2) Life of Pi, The Master

The Awards

Best Picture

Amour
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Precursor: 60th Motion Picture Sound Editors Nominations (2012)

Four films lead the nominations for this year's 60th annual Golden Reel Awards, the prizes given out by the Motion Picture Sound Editors. Typically a precursor for the Sound Editing award at the Oscars, Oscar nominee Zero Dark Thirty isn't among the nominees while all of the thrice-nominated features except The Hobbit are included on the Oscar slate. Django Unchained rounds out the Oscar list. Typically, a film that earns nominations in all three feature film categories is a prime contender for the Oscar. I would need to do some researching, but I don't think any film has won the Oscar without earning at least one nomination from the MPSE and if it has, it's been a long time. (NOTE: Apparently, the list of nominees that had been posted contained a number of errors. I have corrected the nominees below)

Nomination Tallies

(3) Argo, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, Skyfall
(2) The Dark Knight Rises, Django Unchained, Lincoln

The Nominations

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Precursor: 15th Costume Designers Guild Nominations (2012)

As expected, all five Oscar nominees made the Costume Designers Guild list, with a double-hit from the Fantasy category. Surprisingly, there are no gerrymandered contemporary/period selections in this list, everything fitting neatly where it's supposed to. The most interesting fight here will be between the late Eiko Ishioka's Mirror Mirror and the beloved Colleen Atwood's Snow White and the Huntsman in the Fantasy category while Anna Karenina's Jacqueline Durran, Les Mis' Paco Delgado and Lincoln's Joanna Johnston compete in Period. Of all of the contemporary nominees, Skyfall is probably the most stylish, though Marigold could surprise.

The Nominations

Best Period Costume Design

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Precursor: 26th USC Scripter Nominations (2012)

The USC Scripter nominees are typically fairly intriguing. This year's batch, however is a been-there-done-that list of Oscar and WGA nominees that doesn't really go for anything original or exotic. And apparently, they couldn't leave anything out, nominating SIX films for the award when they typically select only five.

The Nominations

Best Adapted Screenplay

Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Silver Linings Playbook

USC Scripter Data

Year Founded: 1988
First Awards: 1987 (26)

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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 7

While there were some precursors of note this past week, most of the focus has to be on the Oscar nominations that were announced. Below, the winners and losers article will discuss the biggest winners and losers of the week, largely because of their performances at the Oscars.

But, before we get into this week's winners and losers, let's take a look at what's coming up this week:

Week 8

Monday, Jan. 14 - USC Scripter Nominations
Thursday, Jan. 17 - Costume Designs Guild Nominations (guesstimate)
Friday, Jan. 18 - Motion Picture Sound Editors Nominations (guesstimate)
Sunday, Jan. 20 - London Film Critics Awards

Big Winners

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