20 Weeks to Oscar

10 Weeks To Oscar: Let The Great Settling Begin!

The field has been narrowed, but there is still no clear front-runner. Things should start to settle in, as they do with Oscar every year, in the DVD players over the next 10 days of holiday hanging out. The Voters can influenced by what they see and what they hear from their kids, grandkids, and friends. Ho ho ho!

Critics Top Ten List 2010: Eric Kohn

Eric Kohn indieWIRE 1.  Dogtooth 2.  Exit Through the Gift Shop 3.  Winter’s Bone 4.  Daddy Longlegs 5.  Another Year 6.  Animal Kingdom 7.  Catfish 8.  Alamar 9.  Prince of Broadway 10.  Enter the Void

15 Features in Line for 2010 VFX Oscar

15 Features in Line for 2010 VFX Oscar

13 Weeks To Oscar: Movies and Pundits and Airs, Oh My!

“Have you heard that Mimsie Starr
Just got pinched in the Astor bar?
Well, did you evah?
What a swell party this is!”

15 Weeks To Oscar: Don’t You Forget About Me

There are a lot of good films in the Oscar race this year… but here is a list of five that feel like their Best Picture hopes may be fading away and not only deserve consideration, but could be an embarrassment to The Academy if not given a full hearing and some nods.

16 Weeks To Oscar – The Ongoing Story Of 10

The difference between being “in” and being “out” is, in most cases, no less dramatic or emotional for Academy nominees than for Project Runway contestants. A Best Picture nomination would significantly change the financial life of many films, if not in theatrical release, in DVD and other ancillary markets. But even more so, it would elevate the filmmakers and actors involved with those films, even though they all have serious credentials going in.

17 Weeks To Oscar: It’s Raining Men

There are 7 Undeniable Best Actor performances this year… and only 5 slots. And that doesn’t even touch on another group of performances that will still draw serious attention and could pass up the Undeniables. What’s an Oscar voter to do?

18 Weeks To Oscar: In The Shadow Of The Hurt Locker

The clearest lesson of last year’s Oscar winner was that you don’t have to kill yourself in September or October or November to win Best Picture. But does that trend-setting experience set the season on a good track or a bad one?

19 Weeks To Oscar: Looking For A Rush

So far, the season hasn’t sizzled. But new films and the thrill of seeing new faces rise and old faces coming back may turn this into a season of happy fireworks.

A 20 Weeks Special Edition – Let The Premature Awardulation Begin!!!

Ah, as the temperatures finally drop from the 80s in Los Angeles, it’s time to start giving out year end awards months before the year has ended. Now, there are two classes of premature awardulation. There is the sincere and well-intended. That would be your Gotham Awards. Desperately trying to compete for attention and position…

10 Reasons Why The Academy Moving To January Makes Perfect Sense

Some people think Oscar will be ruined by moving into January. All I can say is, “What have they been waiting for?”

22 Weeks To Oscar: The Year Of Good Being Good Enough

This is a very competitive race for a dozen or so movies looking to fit into a few slots. GREAT is not necessary. In fact, GREAT may be a problem for some of these films. This is the Oscar season of Really Good.
(New Charts This Week, Including Acting Races)

26 Weeks To Oscar: The Year Of… Patience

The awards season has gotten off to a rousing “uh, okay.”

Yeah, the festival season is upon us and there is a lot of drool dripping over some of these films – including my own happy salivations – but festival excitement is not, in and of itself, an answer.

30 Weeks To Go Yeah… It’s Time To Start Thinking Oscar Again

We’re a few weeks away from Venice/Telluride/Toronto, which kicks off the Oscar season in one 19-day period. What these festivals do is to get a few titles rolling, but mostly, they start eliminating would-be contenders from the race. It’s not just press, fans, and reality in play here … it’s the studios too. Fox Searchlight…

9 Days To Go, Going Dark

It’s been quite a week. I started this week’s 20 Weeks column a few days ago. Back then, the story was about how the two frontrunners in the race are movies that I have been embedded with – for lack of a better term – from their first public screenings, so I will be happy…

16 Days To Go, Backing Into The End Zone

It’s fourth down, 16 days to go, and even though one team is poised to score and put the game out of reach, they can’t just kick the field goal… they need to go for it. Because this year, the game seems to be about who has “the ball” last. “The ball,” of course, is…

23 Days To Go Sit Back, Relax, Enjoy Being The Show

Once again, frontrunners emerge with such force that everyone – except Paramount – is laying down and letting it happen to their movies. Not the least of this are Fox and Summit, who really care… but are just not that interested in spending money on this Best Picture fight… at least, not much money.

7 Weeks To Go, Ten Is Good

At this quiet moment, between a rock rippling the voting pond and a hard count of nominees, a moment of reflection on the State of The Oscars. I couldn’t be happier with the 10 nominee thing. Sure, it has taken an annual narrow race and made it wider, but still narrow. The group of films…