Another year in the books, but what a more unusual journey. I could be sitting here this fine Monday morning with spit and ire for Brett Ratner’s production job and Eddie Murphy’s hosting duties, but thankfully fate (and Ratner’s mouth) had other plans. It would’ve certainly given the ceremony a unique flavor, but I have a [...]

The 84th Academy Awards offered minimal surprises, as the silent film “The Artist” took home five awards including three of the biggest prizes: Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. “Hugo,” nominated for 11 Oscars, tied “The Artist” with five wins, but all for technical achievements including both sound categories, Best Art Direction and a [...]

Happy Oscar Day! Below is my full list of predictions in the event that you care or want to know what the safe picks are for potential use in an Oscar pool. The nominees for each are listed followed by the prediction and a link to my post breaking down the category.  My total award [...]

Perhaps the most unexciting category at the Oscars this year is Best Picture. Only two films were even in the conversation to begin with, and the momentum turned toward squarely toward just one of them in January. Now for the diatribe. Maybe it was just the poor selection of Oscar-caliber films, but the new Best [...]

Last year, being a veteran filmmaker meant nothing, as Tom Hooper walked away with an Oscar for what was his third major project (and second film) ever. That looks to be the case again this year despite even more veterans.

In the acting categories this year it’s been all about the ladies. The powerhouse performances of 2011 were all of the female persuasion. The Best Actress in a Leading Role category is maybe stronger than it’s ever been this year and I gave my thoughts on Best Supporting Actress and Actor yesterday.

The best supporting actors steal scenes. When a film focuses on its central character and his or her predicament, these are the performers who snatch that attention for that brief moment they enter the frame. Perhaps the moments aren’t brief, sometimes they can be quite long, but there’s always that lightbulb that goes off when [...]

The screenwriting categories always feel the most genuine of all the major awards. It’s not about big films for buzzing films—just about good writing. It seems as if these are the “safe” categories in which to nominate popular films or independent films that just flat-out told good stories in compelling ways.

Considering the high bar set these days for animation, Best Animated Feature seems to be the only category with an upward trajectory at the Academy Awards. While the music categories and documentary categories need some serious fixing, the right animated features seem to be in contention each year. Best Foreign Film tends to still be [...]

Unlike in previous years, the Best Documentary Feature award has none of the widely released, popular or well-known documentaries. I’m not sure who make the shortlist, but they’re probably the same people who choose what constitutes an “original score.” In the short subject, it’s all about the topic of discussion, as the Academy has shown [...]

My first year of predictions, I could find all these shorts on YouTube, but that hasn’t been the case the last two years. As if I wasn’t taking enough of a shot in the dark already. Much of this was done through reading reviews and watching trailers.

Although both categories have to do with music, audience favor in these two Oscar categories are going in opposite directions. With more and more noteworthy musicians, artists and composers trying their hand at film scores, Best Score is becoming a category of intrigue, whereas Academy rules have completely butchered the Best Original Song category over [...]

My final technical predictions come in the Best Cinematography and Best Editing categories. The people whose names are recognized alongside these categories are pivotal in the filmmaking process. Most filmmakers work exclusively with one cinematographer or “director of photography” their entire careers. When a film turns out visually just as the director sees it, it’s [...]

Stop number two on my 2012 Oscar breakdown involves the more old-school technical categories, the stuff that can’t be done entirely by computer. As you might imagine, these categories tend to be a parade of period pieces with some musicals thrown in. In fact, the final “Harry Potter” film looks to be the only exception [...]

So it begins—my third go-around dissecting every category at the Academy Awards in a three-week span. This year, the 84th Academy Awards take place on Feb. 26, three days before we leap. Fittingly, I am experiencing dejá vù all over again, because I began this quest for the 2011 Oscars exactly one year ago today—Groundhog Day. [...]