Now and then you go to a movie and you find yourself cheering for the hero or heroine. You fall in love with a character (a dog for instance), and you leave the theater wondering why it all happened so fast because you want to be back in the darkness–living with those characters up on the screen one more time. . . or maybe two more times or maybe even forever. Woody Allen was on to some of that when he made The Purple Rose of Cairo–that idea of being transfixed by the cinema, of somehow making the leap through…
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As expected, “The Artist” keeps on rolling, racking up a leading six Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay, and Score. “Descendants” also fared well with five nominations. “The Ides of March” resurrected its Oscar chances with surprise nominations for Best Picture Drama and Clooney for Best Director. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted four of the six Best Picture Drama nominees and three of the five Best Picture Musical/Comedy nominees.  Here is the complete list:

Best Picture
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture Comedy or Musical
50/50
The Artist…
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Tomorrow, bright and early, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will announce their nominations, capping off an eventful week where the Broadcast Film Critics and Screen Actor’s Guild weighed in with their selections. The Best Picture race should be a lot more clear after tomorrow. The two frontrunners so far, “The Artist” and “The Descendants” will likely find themselves on opposites sides. The Globes have both drama and musical/comedy categories. It will be interesting to see if either film leads the nominations, or if another film takes center stage, such as “Hugo” or “The Help.” Also, it could be make or…
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The Artist continues its early season run, capturing 11 nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Hugo also finished with 11 nominations. More importantly, directors Michel Hazanavicius and Martin Scorsese picked up nominations, confirming that these two films are Oscar frontrunners. The Best Director category was perhaps more revealing than Best Picture. Alexander Payne, Steven Spielberg, Stephen Daldry, and (surprise) Nicolas Winding Refn, joined Hazanavicius and Scorsese as nominees. That most likely means Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, War Horse, Drive, and The Descendants are serious contenders. We’ll know more once the Golden Globe nominations are unveiled on Thursday. Awards…
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Tomorrow, the Broadcast Film Critics Association announces their nominations in all major categories. Over the past decade, the BFCA has lined up most consistently with the Academy Awards. Their selections for Best Picture often mirror the Academy’s choices. Unlike the National Board of Review or American Film Institute, there are usually no huge surprises in their top ten list. Sometimes, they pick films with a bit more commercial than critical appeal, such as Memoirs of a Geisha and Cinderella Man, but usually all the expected contenders are accounted for. Here are our predictions for Best Picture:

The Artist…
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Now we have a race. Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” takes home Best Picture from the LA Film Critics, setting up a potential showdown with “The Artist” at the Academy Awards. It is the first time in a long while we have had three different winners for the first three major awards. As you will remember, “The Artist” won the NY Film Critics while “Hugo” captured the National Board of Review. It should also be mentioned that “The Artist” did go on to win the Boston Film Critics, making it the most awarded film to date.

The acting races still…
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In a total surprise, Martin Scorsese’s 3D children’s story “Hugo’ walked away with the Best Picture Award from the National Board of Review last night. “Hugo” is now a huge threat for an Oscar Best Picture nomination. Meanwhile, “The Descendants” fared well as both George Clooney and Shailene Woodley won acting awards. Notably missing from the top ten films were “Midnight in Paris,” and “The Help,” two films many Oscar prognosticators were high on. We wonder if perhaps Midnight’s early May release hurt it with some voters. Awards Frenzy correctly predicted both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor as well…
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Welcome back Oscar fans. It’s been a long hiatus, but we’re back as Oscar season officially begins with the arrival of December. Tonight, the National Board of Review hands out its awards. Traditionally, this is the first major award of the year. However, things were a little skewed this year when the New York Film Critic’s Circle decided to move up their awards. So for those who don’t already know, the NYFFC on Tuesday bestowed their Best Picture award to “The Artist.” Brad Pitt (Moneyball) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) took home acting honors.

The NBR has traditionally…
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