Category: Precursors
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Precursor: 14th Visual Effects Society Awards (2015)
As expected, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a huge night. After a longstanding history in the visual effects community of being the industry leader in visual effects, the Star Wars franchise seemed like the perfect honoree here. This also bolsters its chances of winning the Oscar, something that some had thought might be shifting…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 10
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). While this past week was the calm before the storm, the first showers are about to fall before…
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Precursor: 20th Art Directors Guild Awards (2015)
The big surprise that no one here saw coming was that The Revenant would parlay its lack of sets into a win for Best Period Art Direction. It proves the film has some teeth going into the Oscar race whereas the other two races for Fantasy and Contemporary seemed to be right on expected target.…
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Precursor: 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards (2015)
What could have been a closing of the door towards other potential Best Picture winners, The Big Short went home empty-handed, losing the big award to Spotlight, which needed this win to stay in the competition for Best Picture at the Oscars. DiCaprio, Larson and Vikander have now cemented their frontrunner statuses. Idris Elba took…
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Precursor: 55th American Cinema Editors Awards (2015)
With the first guild tech prize out of the box, it looks like the leaders are every bit as expected. Mad Max was an unsurprising victor in Best Drama Editing, while fellow Oscar Best Picture nominee The Big Short won in comedy. The leaders of the Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature competition won…
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Precursor: 63rd Sound Editors Guild Nominations (2015)
Most guilds announce their nominations before the Academy Awards. These can often be instructive as to what the branches are thinking. This year, one of the guilds decided to release quite some time after the nominations and their results aren’t very elucidating as a result. However, it’s worth noting that the Motion Picture Sound Editors…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 9
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). After another situation where a website said one thing when I looked and something else was the truth,…
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Precursor: 20th Online Film & Television Nominations (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road was the big nominee at this year’s OFTA film awards. With a nomination in Best Picture, a clean sweep of the techs and a number of categories in between, the film tops the nearest nominee by 3. Carol finds a boon with the group, securing a massive ten nominations, including a…
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Precursor: 27th Producers Guild Awards (2015)
The big story is that The Big Short took a mostly unexpected win with the PGA. In spite of a mediocre box office performance, the producers chose the housing market crash comedy as its choice for Best Picture, which positions it very well for a Best Picture run at the Oscars. Inside Out and Amy…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 8
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). It may not seem like it now, but a lot has happened in the last week. While there…
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Precursor: 21st Critics Choice Awards (2015)
The Broadcast Film Critics Association have put forth their awards for 2015 picking Spotlight as Best Picture, giving it two other awards for Best Ensemble and Best Original Screenplay. It tied The Big Short for second place among the year’s winners. That film took two prizes from the Comedy segment on top of Best Adapted…
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Precursor: 36th London Critics Awards (2015)
The London Film Critics Circle has selected their favorite achievements for 2015. The results are below. Mad Max: Fury Road picked up the top two awards while 45 Years, their selection for Best British/Irish Film of the Year, also took both Best Actor and Best Actress. The rest of the selections weren’t unusual, but clearly…
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Precursor: 7th Make-Up Artists Guild Nominations (2015)
Earning nominations in all three categories in which it was eligible, Mad Max: Fury Road proves to be the year’s dominant film with the craft guilds. This award, a modest forecaster of the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, may shine some lights on the situation. Of the seven films on the Academy’s shortlist for…
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Precursor: 68th Directors Guild Doc Nominations (2015)
The final set of DGA nominations have been announced and all five titles are on the Academy’s Best Documentary Feature shortlist. Most notably absent from this list and likely expected was Joshua Oppenheimer for The Look of Silence. His prior film, The Act of Killing was nominated both for the Oscar and the DGA director’s…
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Precursor: 36th Golden Raspberry Nominations (2015)
It is tradition for the Golden Raspberry awards to announce nominations the day before the Oscars. Other than their “dark” period where they shifted to after the Oscars, this has been the case as long as I can remember. Typically, they go for very obvious choices and this year is no different. Among the year’s…
