Category: Precursors

It’s like The Hurt Locker all over again, by now The Artist seems as inevitable as a Sunday (at the Oscars). There were no major surprises, though a handful of Oscar nominees did lose this year, but for the most part, this could be considered the Academy Awards, Part 1. Matter of fact, if I…

Well, these winners throw me off completely. I had entertained the possibility of W.E. winning the Oscar, but not the CDG who I thought for sure would go for The Artist if anyone. Now it looks like Madonna’s feature debut may be heading towards an Oscar win. I still think Anonymous has stronger credentials and…

With no film winning more than one award, the Motion Picture Sound Editors did only one thing that really pointed us towards an Oscar winner…it picked War Horse for best Sound Effects and Foley, the best indicator of what film will probably win the Oscar for Best Sound Editing, an award they’ve corresponded four of…

The two films most people see as leading their fields for the Oscar took home the WGA prize tonight. Both categories have a solid 4-for-5 record comparing with the Oscars. In the case of The Descendants, carrying over should be no problem. For Midnight in Paris, a lot depends on whether the Academy wants to…

The USC Scripter awards is an adequate, but not infallible predictor of the Oscars. However, I’m thinking their selection this year is fairly likely to carry over. In addition to the nominees and/or winners listed below, this year, we’re giving you a quick background on each individual precursor including founding year, first awards year and…

If you wanted a signal that Hugo could be popular enough to take this category at the Oscars, look no further. While they missed last year, the CAS has done fairly well naming all four of the prior contests, so it’s a fairly good bet that this one should duplicate. In addition to the nominees…

Looks like The Artist might be taking the editing prize at the Oscars after all. Or perhaps, surprisingly, The Descendants. The ACE has correctly predicted the Oscar winner five out of the last five years. While it has historically been the Drama Editing prize that corresponds, I think this year may be different considering The…

Emmanuel Lubezki has reason to be excited and to be fearful. His work on The Tree of Life was honored by the American Society of Cinematographers last night, yet it’s not even a guarantee of a win. In the last five years, only three winners have gone on to capture the Oscar. This is the…

Prior to the live broadcast, the Grammy Awards for all of the film-related categories have already been announced. Here are the winners. With television in one category and 2010 releases in the other two, these will have absolutely no influence on this year’s Oscars (nor even next year’s). Of course, last year’s Oscar nominees (but…

And there you have the winners of the 53rd Annual British Academy of Film & Television Arts Awards. There were very few surprises and a lot of waters became clear, but a couple of contests remain as competitive as ever, though BAFTA may give us the final glimpse into the Oscar competition. Streep picking up…

I’m rather astounded that Rango was so well loved. When comparing effects between Rango and several other films, I never would have expected it to win this big, especially not over The Adventures of Tintin. I guess Tintin wasn’t really that well loved. On the Effects-Driven Visual Effects from Rise of the Planet of the…

Going out on a limb in a few categories (and ruining their record in Best Actor), the Online Film & Television Association has made several eclectic choices and quite a few that are likely to carry over to the Oscars. I don’t have a lot to say since I run the organization, so here are…