Later tonight, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association will unveil their annual awards. Will they follow in the footsteps of the National Board of Review and honor “Letters From Iwo Jima” or will they vault another film into the upper echelon of Oscar contenders? Historically, the LAFCA has bestowed honors on both Best Picture nominees as well as more obscure, but critically acclaimed movies. Past winners include “Brokeback Mountain,” “Sideways,” “About Schmidt,” “American Splendor,” “In the Bedroom,” and “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.” Here are our predictions:

Best Picture: “Letters From Iwo Jima”

Best Director: Clint Eastwood, “Letters From…
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Here we go. Tomorrow, the National Board of Review officially kicks off the Oscar season with their annual awards. In the past, the NBR has been an excellent indicator of the Best Picture nominees. Usually, four out of five nominees can be found within NBR’s top ten list. As well, NBR’s top film is virtually a lock to be nominated.

Let’s take a quick look at years past. Last year, “Good Night and Good Luck” snagged the top prize. The year before it was “Finding Neverland” with “Mystic River” and “The Hours” before that. Sounds like a pretty good…
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This past March, OscarFrenzy revealed its five selections for 2007 Best Picture. Now that we’re in the heat of the summer, it’s time to revisit our predictions. 2006 was, for all intensive purposes, the year of the small film. Best Picture nominees such as Brokeback Mountain, Crash, and Capote came from such lesser known studios as Focus Features and Lionsgate. We believe this coming year will mark the return of the heavyweights. Universal. Paramount. Warner Brothers. You can’t keep big money down for long. So without further adieu, let’s usher in the contenders.

BREAKING AND ENTERING: We predicted this…
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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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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.

 
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The summer movie season is officially in full swing and you know what that means. Big blockbuster action movies. Sequels galore! Comic books and cartoons. Bruckheimer. On occasion however, you can find that rare high quality, Oscar-caliber film. Truth is, this used to be more common years and years ago. Remember Forrest Gump, or Apollo 13, or Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator? All were big, popular summer movies. In recent years, the summer flicks haven’t achieved as much impact on the Oscars, but you could still spot an occasional top line drama in the fray. Such as Road to Perdition…
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This is an old article. Please visit our December predictions for an updated analysis.

Here at Oscarfrenzy, it’s never too early to start looking ahead to next year’s awards. Whereas 2005/2006 marked the year of the socially-conscious, small budget independent film, this next year will likely signal a return to traditional big studio, big star, big budget Hollywood movie-making. We’ll take an in-depth look at Best Picture and offer bold predictions for all the major categories.

BEST PICTURE:

The nominees will be…

Breaking and Entering (The Weinstein Company)
The Departed (Warner Bros)
Flags of Our…
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After much deliberation, here are our final picks:

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain
Best Director: Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz
Best Original Screenplay: Crash
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Best Foreign Film: Tsotsi
Best Documentary Feature: March of the Penguins
Best Animated Feature Film: Wallace & Gromit
Best Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Best Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Documentary Short: God Sleeps in Rwanda
Best Film Editing: Crash
Best Makeup: The Chronicles of…
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