Category: Precursors

Although it wasn’t eligible for the WGA award, 12 Years a Slave seems certain to take Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, this award should help it considerably. The Awards Best Adapted Screenplay 12 Years a Slave (Wesley, Peter, Tripp) USC Scripter Data Year Founded: 1988 First Awards: 1987 (27)

The first step towards the Oscar begins with the Art Directors Guild award. As expected, the two films that are most competitive at the Oscars won their various awards tonight. The Great Gatsby‘s period win should be key to its eventual win. Gravity won fantasy meaning it’s still in the hunt and Her won contemporary.…

Leave it to the American Cinema Editors to do nothing to help predict this year’s Oscars. Giving their award to Captain Phillips seems a bit like cheating since they gave its director a Golden Eddie award this year. It’s obviously favoritism, but it’s not really that surprising. Most of Christopher Rouse’s recognition for editing has…

It seems fitting that the London Film Critics Circle announced on Super Bowl weekend. In sports, you tend to root for the hometown team. At the Critics Circle awards, they celebrated one of their own giving 12 Years a Slave a sizable boost. That of course didn’t stop them from giving Alfonso Cuaron and not…

The ASC finally recognizes a cinematographer working in a digital medium, something they’ve been resistant to do for a few years. Gravity should have little problem taking the Oscar now. The Awards Best Cinematography Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki (Wesley, Peter, Tripp) American Society of Cinematographers Data Year Founded: 1919 First Awards: 1986 (28)

The winners have been announced and, as expected, Frozen had a huge night. This should be the springboard to a guaranteed Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The strange part is that it lost in several key categories where it should have been more dominant. Award Tallies (5) Frozen (3) The Croods (2) Monsters University (1)…

American Hustle took a major hit with the Writers Guild of America deeming Her a more worthy screenplay. While it’s still possible the Oscar could go its way, it will be hard for anyone to argue that it’s a frontrunner. The Awards Best Original Screenplay Her (Wesley, Peter, Tripp) Best Adapted Screenplay Captain Phillips Documentary…

With the weird eligibility period of the Grammys, they often regress with their selections. This time, they chose last year’s winner for Best Original Song at the Oscars for this year’s win, “Skyfall” and then gave the same prize to the score soundtrack. Sound City wasn’t nominated for anything at the Oscars this year, so…

The Online Film & Television Association have announced their 18th Annual slate of the best of the year. Founded to recognize excellence, the small but dedicated group always has interesting choices, even if some of them are modestly questionable. 12 Years a Slave becomes only the fifth non-musical film in the group’s history to secure…

After an interminable wait (the awards ceremony went long), we finally have a winner. As expected, the director of the biggest spectacle with the most technical aspects to jungle has won the DGA award. It’s not surprising and after his run of precursors, should we have expected anything else. This is likely to mean the…

When I was writing the intro to our DGA predictions for yesterday, I was contemplating the Best Picture/Best Director split and how the Directors Guild of America (DGA) may help us forecast such an occurrence. Keep in mind, this is a theory as the Oscar electorate changes each year as younger members join. With the…

For the first time in its history, the Producers Guild has ended in a tie giving their awards to 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. With American Hustle shut out, this race may have shifted into a two-film competition. Don’t count David O. Russell out. He could still pick up the DGA prize next weekend…