The common refrain this season has been one of despair, of theatrical death by dearth.
It’s unavoidable to look at Octavia Spencer’s sunny Oscar odds though the filter of co-star Viola Davis’s ascendance in the Best Actress category.
In recent years, Academy members have repeatedly favored the most high-profile, buzzed-about doc in this category, from The Cove to Man on Wire to March of the Penguins.
At this point, being a Meryl Streep diehard who also cares about Oscar hoopla is a kind of brutal self-flagellation.
Even though Lubezki is backed, for the first time ever, by a Best Picture nominee, he’s also almost entirely surrounded by nominees that can boast the same.
At the risk of milking a joke whose teets have been sore for weeks, The Artist’s musical score will do just fine without Kim Novak’s vote.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who truly understands how the Oscars work that the still above isn’t from Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation.
One could argue that voters might feel compelled to use this final opportunity to throw the highest-grossing film franchise ever a bone for its last chance at bat.
We’re not exactly batting a thousand in this category, but we’re pretty sure we got this year’s winner pegged.
Is it just us or can the Academy’s infatuation with The Artist be felt even in categories where the film isn’t nominated?
In years past, we’ve written off this category’s most obvious UNICEF candidates by virtue of their lack of any value outside of insistent efficacy.
The boy wizard’s last hurrah still, however, has a better shot in this category than Midnight in Paris.
J. Cole is the only one nominated for best new artist that we can’t see winning.
Bridesmaids is just glad to be invited, no? A “memorable” quote from the film according to IMDb: “You’re like the maid of dishonor.”
Christopher Plummer has earned this year’s “It’s time” with absolutely no resistance.
As long as there’s a Transformers film franchise, there’s a good chance Oscar nominations for special effects are going to be thrown at it like alien shrapnel.
The most delightfully animated feature in this bunch, Kung Fu Panda 2 is still at best a slab of warmed-over holiday seconds.
We kick off our Oscar winner-prediction coverage this year with the category even AMPAS wants to flush.
Let’s keep the voting blather to a minimum and focus on what seem to be the most pivotal factors in this year’s top race.
This category is historically a haven for the quirk, verve, and humor that can’t quite crack the tougher races.
Michael Fassbender appeared in almost as many movies this year as Oldman has throughout his career.