Category: Precursors

Not exactly known for their Oscar forecasting, the AARP Movies for Grownups nominations nevertheless feature all of the major players, at least the ones eligible for their AARP card. Matter of fact, most of the older contenders are here with the exception of Ian McKellen, Willem Dafoe, and maybe a few others. There’s not a…

A couple of noteworthy/surprising things happened in this year’s Annie Awards nominations and a couple of the surprises aren’t a good sign. Let’s start with what we expected. Frozen II was sure to clean up here and Toy Story 4 was also supposed to do well and they did. How to Train Your Dragon: The…

The Hollywood Critics Association got out of the gate first among critics organizations, but their newness isn’t something that speaks to credibility. They seemed to love Quentin Tarantino’s film more than others while several titles earned strong nomination sets in spite of earlier letdowns (Waves and The Farewell for example). Still, Bombshell, which earned 9…

For years now, the Spirit Awards have almost looked like a preliminary ballot for the Academy Awards with a large swath of Oscar contenders in tow. This year, however, the list seems to be more in line with the lists of old where some categories have nary an Oscar contender in them and some with…

As expected, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite dominated the awards taking five awards. While it was up for several more and it didn’t win in expected places like Cinematography, Editing, and Screenplay, there’s no question the film was a huge success. Award Tallies (5) Parasite (2) E.X.I.T, Swing Kids The Awards

There isn’t much to say about these selections except that they don’t seem like the kinds of choice the Academy would make, but stranger things have happened. Award Tallies (2) The Biggest Little Farm The Awards

The Grammys have never been able to lay claim to being Oscar harbingers thanks to their much earlier eligibility period that overlaps the Oscars eligibility period by three months. However, this year’s slate is even less indicative of the potential for the Oscars. First, toss everything in Compilation Soundtrack and Music Film as they have…

Of the seven nominations, two are titles that have received consistent buzz for Oscar consideration: Apollo 11 and One Child Nation. Three are titles that have received some small buzz: American Factory, The Cave and Honeyland. The remaining two, Advocate and For Sama haven’t been mentioned much at all. There are several documentaries that aren’t…

The big surprise of these nominations is the triple nomination for Bombshell, a film that never seemed like the kind of film to earn nominations from this group. The Irishman is also surprising considering the de-aging technology used on that film, which will likely make it Oscar-ineligible. Rocketman is certainly no surprise and Joker also…

While the People’s Choice Awards have never been the bastions of taste, they have always had a popular streak. That popularity was reserved for the biggest movies of the year; however, over the years, the organization seems to be attracting fewer and fewer mainstream audience voters and more and more younger voters. While Avengers: Endgame…

Ever since the Broadcast Film Critics Association split their documentary awards off from their main awards ceremony, they’ve been able to recognize far more documentaries than previously. This gives us a broad idea of which documentaries are in contention for the Oscars and a lot of selections that aren’t. Titles like They Shall Not Grow…