19 Weeks To Oscar (20W2O) Charts: October 23, 2011

With 19 weeks to go, the Oscar race has barely moved. The only real event of the last week was the successful release of Tintin in 19 countries overseas.

That’s all about to change. In the next 3 weeks, most of the award season will take root. All but a couple of the contenders will be exposed to the light. Talent will be filling the corridors of LA’s hotels and screening rooms at a nearly insane level. Some will rise. Some will fall.

But for now… animation.

Brett Ratner Is Amused

Brett Ratner Is Amused

19 Weeks To Oscar: The Mean Season?

It’s a tough year for Oscar voters. Lots of great movies… but not too many that will leave them walking out of the theater with a smile on their face for the whole human race. Insanity, rape, murder, sex addiction, 9/11, and even one of the “feel goods” is about sacrificing something you love for your country. Fun Fun Fun!

(Charts to come.)

20 Weeks To Oscar (20W2O) Charts: October 23, 2011

We are now on the 20 week road to Oscar and here, to go with
the first column of this year’s series, are the first set of post-Toronto charts for Best Picture and the four acting categories. Six unseen movies are still major question marks in all of the races, especially Best Picture, which could have anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees this year.

(BP Chart corrected, Monday 11:30a)

20 Weeks To Oscar: Line Dance

20 years of Oscar consultants, in-house and out, figuring out how to game the system, and a decade of deteriorating media standards has led to an out-of-date response mechanism at The Academy, which just wants to do what it’s been doing all these years and to protect, as best they can, their membership from being prayed upon by the vultures.

But where is the line?

1 Week To 20 Weeks To Oscar: Counting Best Picture Ballots

So I’m a week from writing the weekly column… but the one issue that seems to keep cropping up is how the change in the Best Picture vote accounting rules really works. Steve Pond did a nice job trying to lay it all out when it happened. But people still seem to be unsure what is really up. So I had a chat with AMPAS’ Ric Robertson and Leslie Unger in the name of clarity. This is where I landed…