Summer’s almost halfway over, which means the season of serious films will finally soon be upon us. Since most of the predicted Oscar contenders have yet to be fully screened, there is not a whole lot to report. Nonetheless, marketing strategies, insider word of mouth, festival buzz, and other factors have helped us to narrow the field. Let’s take a closer look at who’s ahead, who’s dropping, and who’s still hanging around in the prestigious Best Picture sweepstakes.

The favorite at this point has got to be Dreamgirls. The advance buzz has been terrific and a limited screening of…
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Before its release, A Prairie Home Companion was hyped as the first Oscar worthy film of the year. Although it opened to decent, but not amazing reviews, some experts are still calling it a contender due to its high profile fans.

After seeing A Prairie Home Companion this weekend, I cannot imagine that it has a real chance of winning best picture. The movie’s major problem is that is has the pace of its famous radio show namesake. It consists of a series of bits tied together by Garrison Keillor’s somewhat…
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Months later, we are still smarting from Brokeback Mountain’s loss to Crash. Instead of reanalyzing the many reasons why Crash won, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to see what other deserving best picture nominees have failed to win the Oscar in the past decade.

1996: The English Patient Beats Fargo
Did anyone actually like the English Patient? The English Patient is the equivalent of cinematic cough syrup. Everyone felt obligated to like it because it has all of the hallmarks of an Oscar epic. However, although the English Patient boasts stunning…
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I had to revise our 2007 Oscar prediction chart to work with the new website design. Let us know what you think of the new design and of the chart. This chart is currently outdated. For the most recent predictions, go to our PredictMatrix.

 
Entertainment Weekly
In Contention
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And the Oscar Goes to:
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Total

All the King’s Men
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I created the following chart of Oscar Foreign Film winners using a mapping website called Wayfaring…
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