There are plenty of questions heading into Tuesday’s announcement of this year’s Academy Award nominations. How many nominations will “The Artist” get? How many Best Picture nominees will there be? Can “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” garner nominations for Picture, Director, and Actress, or will it be deemed too edgy for the Academy’s tastes? We forsee one big surprise in the Best Picture category and a lot of conventional wisdom throughout the other selections. Here are our predictions in the main categories:

Best Picture:

The Artist

The Descendants

The Ides of March

The Help…
More...

Tonight may be the most critical night in the entire Best Picture race. The Producer’s Guild is the first major guild to vote and their Best Picture race adopts the same preferential ballot used by the Academy. Historically, the Producer’s Guild, along with the Director’s Guild have dictated the Best Picture winner more than any other group or organization. There is no better illustration than the last two years. In 2010, “Avatar” had just won the Golden Globe for Best Picture drama and was soaring at the box office. Most pundits were predicting that Cameron would saunter off with his…
More... | 2 Comments

“The Artist,” continues to impress, racking up three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture Musical/Comedy and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin. But “The Descendants” is right on its heels, thanks to wins for Best Picture Drama and Clooney nabbing Best Actor. In a minor surprise, neither Payne or Hazanavicius won Best Director. It went to the beloved Martin Scorsese instead. Streep’s win for Best Actress Drama was no surprise, since she is well liked by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It sets up a three way contest for the Oscar with her, Michelle Williams, and Viola Davis. Meanwhile, it looks like…
More...

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) weighs in tonight with their annual awards ceremony. Over the last few years, the Globes have had less of an influence in the Best Picture race and more in the acting categories. Past Best Picture drama winners “The Social Network,” “Avatar,” and “Atonement” all failed to win the Oscar. However, tonight could go a long way to cementing the frontrunners in the acting categories should the winners from the Broadcast Critics Awards triumph again. On particular interest are the Best Actor and Actress Drama categories where George Clooney faces off against his good friend…
More...

Can anyone stop “The Artist” now?  The French indie hit racked up four Broadcast Film Awards including Best Picture, Director, and Score. Having won the top prize at Cannes, along with the New York Film Critics Award and now this, “The Artist” is your undisputed frontrunner. Still, as illustrated by last year, when “The Social Network” won everything in sight, then lost the Oscar, anything can happen. In the acting categories, George Clooney and Viola Davis solidified their frontrunner statuses with victories and moving speeches, especially on the part of Davis. They will be hard to beat, particularly because their…
More...

This Friday, things really heat up as the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) holds their annual awards ceremony. This is the first major awards show of the season which will be televised on VH-1. Winners of the Best Picture, Actor, and Actress awards have often gone on to win the Academy Award. In fact, BFCA matches us with the Academy much better than the Golden Globes. Past winners of the Best Picture award include The Departed, Sideways, The Hurt Locker, Slumdog Millionaire, No Country For Old Men, and The Social Network. Here are our predictions for this year:

Best…
More...

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…
More... | 3 Comments

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…
More...

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…
More...