Category: Precursors

One of the things to consider here is that these directors may be from television or film, so programs like The Vietnam War and Wormwood aren’t Oscar eligible. The other three are all on the Academy’s 15-film shortlist. That bodes well for their Oscar chances, though members of the DGA aren’t likely to have much…

The Costume Designers Guild, although breaking their awards into three categories, are still an accurate Oscar precursor. They have more chances to get it right, but they are also able to put forth a list of contenders that none may have considered or, in this case, all may have considered. Films that I thought might…

The Cinema Audio Society, one of the strongest precursors for the Sound Mixing award at the Oscars, has announced their nominees for this year. Of note here is Wonder Woman making the list and Blade Runner 2049 not. The Greatest Showman was a bit injured by this exclusion, but Baby Driver was certainly helped. The…

Announcing a day earlier than they said they would, the American Society of Cinematographers have made their choices known. The big news here is that Three Billboards, which just this morning was nominated at BAFTA in the same category, is left off the list. The other big news is that Rachel Morrison might now be…

There’s a lot to unpack with these nominations. First, it should be noted, that BAFTA never nominates more than five films for Best Picture. They are one of the few groups who have resisted that urge, thus the five nominated here are also strong contenders for Best Picture at the Oscar along with others that…

The technical marvel The Shape of Water tied for most nominations with the decidedly non-technical marvel Lady Bird. Several other films earned large numbers of nominations. There aren’t a lot of selections here that are out of the ordinary, though the love for A Ghost Story and Best Director nomination for Edgar Wright are certainly…

Not an unpredictable winner in the bunch. These picks could have come form any other group announcing this year. The only real notable thing here is that Get Out won Best Film, but ranked seventh on their collaborative top ten list. Award Tallies (3) Call Me by Your Name, Get Out (2) The Shape of…

The minute-by-minute commentary has been moved to the end of this post. The Golden Globes made a lot of choices that upended current wisdom, making races tighter or more interesting as a result. They gave Shape of Water the most nominations, but gave the most awards to Three Billboards. In the future, anything by Martin…

The big winner at the Houston Film Critics awards was Lady Bird, which won the trifecta of Picture, Director, and Screenplay. Otherwise, the list is very commonplace. Award Tallies (3) Lady Bird, The Shape of Water (2) Blade Runner 2049, Coco The Awards

In some of the closest races this organization has ever seen, Lady Bird won Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay by one or two votes (two for Best Picture, one each for the other two prize). The Best Director award was so incredibly close that the top three vote-getters were were all within one of each…

The first thing one must remember about the Producers Guild of America is that they very much look at success as a portion of the measure of quality. Films that underperform, even with acclaim, are seldom recognized. They also tend to avoid films that don’t have some importance to the awards seasons. Further, if a…

Here we have the five categories presented by the Make-Up Artists Guild. They ar ean eclectic bunch, but the quesiton is how they may or may not impact the Oscars. The only film on the Oscar shortlist not referenced here is Victoria & Abdul, all of the others are. Two of them, both I consider…

Here are your Writers Guild of America nominations. First, let’s look at the films that weren’t included that are still Oscar contenders, then we’ll look to see which of them were excluded from the eligibility list for specified reasons. Titles missing from the list: Darkest Hour, Downsizing, The Florida Project, Phantom Thread, The Post, and…

Adding a new category this year for animation, the Art Directors Guild have entered into the Oscar race with a slate that looks like it’s expected to look. The notable exclusions here are The Greatest Showman, Alien: Covenant, The Beguiled, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Phantom Thread, Victoria & Abdul, and Wonderstruck. Of these,…