“Little Miss Sunshine” continued to gain Oscar momentum at last night’s Screen Actor’s Guild Awards when it picked up the award for Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture. Oscar Frenzy correctly predicted four out of five awards. Eddie Murphy took home the Best Supporting Actor statue instead of our pick, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Here is the list of winners:

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Forest Whitaker / THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Helen Mirren / THE QUEEN

Outstanding Performance

There will be heightened drama at this year’s Screen Actor’s Guild Awards. The primary reason is due to the wide open Best Picture race, thanks to the Academy’s snub of “Dreamgirls” a few days ago. Many of you will remember that last year, “Brokeback Mountain” steamrolled the competition and won every precursor award until…that’s right, the Screen Actor’s Guild ensemble award. “Crash” took it down, and apparently rode that momentum all the way to the Oscar. Though experts will point out that the ensemble award doesn’t match up with Best Picture that frequently, the awards schedule allows it to make…
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It is probably the most shocking omission from the Best Picture race this decade. But in a strange way, maybe we should have seen it coming.

Since the beginning of this year, “Dreamgirls” had all the hype. Perhaps too much. After a 20 minute clip was screened at Cannes, it was prohibitively declared the favorite to win Best Picture. If you study past years, you’ll realize there is frequently a backlash against heavy favorites. Of course, usually the backlack occurs AFTER the nominations are announced. But every year is different.

Remember, the National Board of Review awards, the…
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A hush fell over the crowd at the Oscar nominations this morning when it became increasingly clear that “Dreamgirls” was being shut out from the Best Director and Best Picture categories. With “Dreamgirls” out of contention, the new leading contenders for best picture are “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “The Departed.” “Letters from Iwo Jima” picked up three nominations and “The Departed” earned four nominations.

With the exception of the “Dreamgirls” predictions, Oscar Frenzy did well this morning. In the acting categories, we only missed two nominations — Mark Wahlberg for best supporting actor and Ryan Gosling for best…
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All right. The time is finally here. On Tuesday morning, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will announce their nominations for the 79th annual Academy Awards. Here’s how we think the major categories will shake down.

Best Picture:

Babel
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Dreamgirls
The Queen

“Letters From Iwo Jima” probably deserves to be in there, but not enough people have seen it.

Best Actor:

Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Peter O’ Toole, “Venus”
Will Smith, “The…
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This year’s Producer’s Guild of America award is hotly anticipated as the Best Picture race is more tightly contested than in recent years. Past PGA winners include Oscar winners “American Beauty,” “Gladiator,” “Chicago,” and “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” They also include non-winners “Moulin Rouge,” “The Aviator,” and “Brokeback Mountain.” While the DGA is normally a better indicator for Best Picture, this year might be different since most experts agree it’s Marty’s year for sentimental reasons. Or in other words, a DGA win for Scorsese doesn’t automatically put “The Departed” over the top. So who will the…
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The Oscar race just got a lot more interesting Monday night. “Dreamgirls” captured three awards, including Best Picture (Musical/Comedy), Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, re-establishing itself as an Oscar frontrunner. Meanwhile on the drama side, “Babel” upset “The Departed,” proving once again that the film with the most number of nominations usually prevails.

Good news for Martin Scorsese, who finally broke through, trumping double nominee Clint Eastwood to win Best Director. In 2004, Scorsese (“The Aviator”) lost to Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby”), who went on to win the Oscar. In the acting categories, Forest Whitaker and Helen…
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It’s widely regarded as the second biggest awards show next to the Oscars and Hollywood’s first big bash of the year. Winning a Golden Globe, even without an Oscar, is a highlight in itself (although I have yet to see movie previews touting “Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey” or so and so). This year, the drama is heightened as the Best Picture race remains wide open. “The Departed” and “Little Miss Sunshine” performed well at the Broadcast Awards, but can they continue their run at the Globes? Or will “Babel” and “Dreamgirls” elevate themselves to the top of the list?…
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“The Departed” won both best picture and best director at last night’s Broadcast Film Critics Association awards show, which is a historically good Oscar predictor. This year’s acting locks — Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, and Jennifer Hudson — each collected one more award.

As for predictions, Oscar Frenzy did not do so well. We underestimated the power of “Little Miss Sunshine”, which won for best acting ensemble, best writer, best young actor, and best young actress.

The actual awards show will air on E! January 20th.

BEST PICTURE
The Departed

BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitaker -…
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