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Prediction Revamps -Best Picture
Film Experience Blog — ... Updated: Picture, Director, Foreign Film, Costume Design and Sound Categories *

Oscar Eye: Predicting The Best Directors Way, Way Early
Cinema Blend News — Oscar Eye: Predicting The Best Directors Way, Way Early I said this week we would take a look a the Best Director candidates, and since it'll be almost another month before any seriously big Oscar contenders show up, it's time to venture into speculation mode. I've avoided doing this, mostly because all I know about any of these movies is hearsay, but Oscar buzz is already starting around all these movies, which means the race has really already begun. I's not like there's any other kind of race or election to pay attention to, right? To steer clear of speculation as much as possible, lets take a look at the Best Director possibilities with ...

(Cartoon) Lambs to the Slaughter
Film Experience Blog — ... category. You know the one. The category that will prevent WALL•E from going where Beauty & the Beast (deservedly) went: straight into the Best Picture race. ...

Oscar Prediction Revisions
Film Experience Blog — ... with the immediacy of its message and Slumdog just because it's, well, a true one-off. But Oscar has five spots. 1,2,3 ...4?5? That leaves two spots wide open and any combo of the six most Oscarable December releases seems plausible: Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader and The Wrestler. What say you Oscar watchers? All new text on the Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress pages... ...

Oscar Prediction Revisions
Film Experience Blog — In process. Best Picture, Actor and Actress so far... more to come. *

Oscar Eye: SAG Nominees Clarify A Boring Race
Cinema Blend News — Oscar Eye: SAG Nominees Clarify A Boring Race It's a week before Christmas, a solid handful of Oscar frontrunners haven't even opened yet, and the race is becoming almost crystal-clear. It's been a strange month, December, as contender after contender has been knocked out, or seemed to be knocked out only to rise again as award after award gets handed out. Now that we've seen what the Screen Actors Guild thinks of as the year's best performances, adding that in with the critic awards thus far gives a pretty good idea of how things will shake out in January. Primarily, and somewhat surprisingly, Slumdog Millionaire has emerged as the only Best ...

Wrestling With Florida
Film Experience Blog — ... , the Oscars are all but over, a month before the nominations are announced: Slumdog Millionaire will win. Barring Benjamin Button becoming a huge hit (iffy) with the public when it opens @ Christmas, Slumdog just has too large a constituency to leapfrog. Especially when the other Best Picture hopefuls have larger obstacle to a win (genre, gay focus, too lightweight, etcetera). ...

In 55 Days...
Film Experience Blog — These four actors must pass on their crowns -- er, statues. Figuratively speaking... But who will each of them present the new trophies to? My new Oscar predictions are up in all four acting categories: ACTOR, SUPPORTING ACTRESS, ACTRESS and SUPPORTING ACTOR (plus Best Pic & Director). But winners? That's another story entirely... *

National Society of Film Critics & More...
Film Experience Blog — ... announced just before Christmas so we forgot to mention it (who has time to think about what's going on in Oklahoma while wrapping presents? Unless that's where one purchased them). They went crazy for Slumdog as many critics organizations had before them. They gave it Director, Picture and Adapted Screenplay. Expect it to continue to fight it out with Benjamin Button for winning the most Best Picture momentum. Heath Ledger won his billionth posthumous supporting actor prize for The Dark Knight. Sally Hawkins (her name gets ...

EVE as "EVE" in WALL•E (Supporting Actress Blog-a-Thon)
Film Experience Blog — ... I know there are a lot of killjoys out there that don't want to see this movie in the Oscar running for Best Picture. These same stingy types are probably barking mad that I'm recognizing EVE here today. I can hear them now "She's only a computer. She has no business competing with flesh and blood women who have brains and not 'directives'. She's a glorified iPod with a raygun!" These naysayers clearly have never owned an iPod. Those things have a mind of their own. ...

Producers Guild Nominations
Film Experience Blog — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Dark Knight Frost/Nixon Milk Slumdog Millionaire exactly as I've been predicting for Best Picture since December 10th. I was hoping for something mildly surprising like WALL•E... or a shock addition since we're always hoping for the Oscars to be less than entirely predictable. But that's your shortlist. Full steam ahead to the Kodak.

The Directors and the Sound Guys
Film Experience Blog — ... The DGA is the single best predictor each year of Oscar's Best Picture lineup --I've been predicting the same five for quite some time now but we didn't really need this reminder. It's proved to be a predictable five. It's the acting categories that have some doubt/action. It is interesting to note that the DGA don't do quite as well in predicting the ...

Oscar Eye: Predicting Best Picture Just Got A Lot Easier
Cinema Blend News — Oscar Eye: Predicting Best Picture Just Got A Lot Easier Wow, it's been a while. So long, in fact, that the Oscar race has seemingly solidified in my absence, as if the movie industry went on vacation and all of a sudden came back having decided what the five Best Picture nominees would be? Don't believe me? The proof, or the closest thing to proof you'll get, is today's Director's Guild nominations coupled with those from the Writer's Guild and the Producer's Guild. Those three groups, more than all the critics in the world, tell us more about the Oscars, since they actually include, uh, the people who vote for Oscars. Bloviate as we may, critics ...

My Supporting Actress Ballot
Film Experience Blog — ... as one of the best female "performances" of the year. I was joking but I'm completely serious about that great film's achievements... in multiple areas, too (I am sad that it will be passed over for a Best Picture nomination in two week's time. I've seen WALL•E three times and each time it improves). So, let's get serious now and talk Best Supporting Actress ballots ...sans robots. ...

FINAL Oscar Nomination Predictions
Film Experience Blog — My final Oscar predictions are in process. Nothing has happened this past week to suggest that there will be many surprises so this was easier to settle on than I was thinking. Just a few adjustments to reflect the dominion of Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button... and Ms. Kate Winslet. Completed pages: Best Picture, ...

Oscar Nomination Talking Points (Baker's Dozen)
Film Experience Blog — ... Would WALL•E have gained more Oscar Best Picture traction if all of these guilds didn't declare animated films ineligible? I believe it would have. What a shame. It's quite obvious that 50 years from now people will still love WALL•E... but will any of the actual nominees have devoted fans by then? ...

And The Link Goes To...
Film Experience Blog — ... on the web reactions to The Dark Knight snub including some homophobic ones of course (figures since Milk made it. How would the world spin without scapegoats?). Sigh. Would that moviegoers understand the history of Oscar better. Eight nominations is A LOT. I realize it's not in best picture but that is a huge haul as movies go. I keep hearing words like "shut out" which is a laughable description of what happened. 8 nominations is a ringing endorsement. Only Best Pictures and just-miss Best Picture hopefuls ever reach ...

Now Playing: Bollywood's Brightest and Hollywood's Darkest
Film Experience Blog — ... have both added 600+ screens this weekend for their widest releases yet. It's a bit strange that Milk, which is the third biggest grosser among the Best Picture nominees, has never hit the 1000 screen mark, making it the BP nominee with the smallest "wide" release. ...

Oscar Race Ends 23 Days Early
Film Experience Blog — The DGA Awards aren't exactly known for throwing the Oscar race into a frenzy of "what ifs" but last night's crowning of Danny Boyle, or plaqueing of Danny Boyle as the case may be, officially makes this the dullest most predictable Best Picture race (Slumdog Millionaire wins with ease) since... since... Maybe since Titanic. If it wasn't already. Which it probably was. And the 1997 lineup was almost as meh as 2008's. In the absence of real Oscar drama which category are ...

Comic Con
Film Experience Blog — ... even need to share the obsession. Have you ever seen a website devoted to an actor or movie that is totally half-assed and hasn't been updated in two years? It's depressing. You know that the fancy was fleeting and that just ain't right. If you're going to love someone / something, love it with everything you've got. Geek out on it! Live for it. If you love The Dark Knight which is better: bitching about how Oscar ignored it for Best Picture? OR dressing up as Batman's rogue gallery for a night ...

Drooling On Brad. Or Why Benjamin Button Might Win the Cinematography Oscar
Film Experience Blog — ... fields) tend to limit their selections to Best Picture candidates so it says something when a film can get nominated in a category without being in play for the big prize. No cinematographer who has ever caressed Brad's cheekbones with a golden filter or outlined his musculature with a back light needed Best Picture momentum to be nominated (Benjamin Button is only Brad Pitt's second appearance in a Best Picture nominee -- Babel was the first but strangely missed a cinematography nod). ...

Final Oscar Predictions: Will Slumdog Sweep?
Film Experience Blog — ... . You read that right. The momentum for the picture seems unstoppable and ever growing. Backlash hasn't hurt it. It keeps handily winning or being nominated for things you'd think it would have no business getting anywhere near (acting prizes and the like). And awards season keeps clearing the way for it in strange ways: think of the Springsteen snub in Best Song or the Best Picture snubs for the only other movies with comparably nutso passionate fanbases ( ...

Oscar Symposium Lift Off. (But AMPAS Won't Fly)
Film Experience Blog — ... AMC Theaters is hosting a marathon of the Best Picture nominees in several cities the day before the Oscars. I've considered going for the blog fodder but who wants to sit through these five particular films back to back to back to back to back and again for that matter? That's someone's idea of hell surely, or at least one circle of it. There's not even a comedy to break up the 12 hour day. Could you do it? Or would you like to propose a separate marathon. Is there an entire category you could sit ...

Slumdog Beats Button Again
Film Experience Blog — ... , which makes it the top grossing Best Picture nominee from 2008 (as well as the winner). This will put Slumdog at #19 for ...

DVD: Toxic Sisters, Wooden Boys and Swedish Vampires
Film Experience Blog — ... she's ever done including Broadway's Vertical Hour and the awesome Beckett short Not I. Most importantly this week a full 33% of my top dozen films of 2008 arrive on DVD simultaneously: Mike Leigh's clear-eyed ode to optimism Happy-Go-Lucky with Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins (interviewed here), the terrific Swedish horror flick Let the Right One In, Best Picture nominee Milk and my pick for the cherry ...

The 13th Link
Film Experience Blog — ... a review of Up. I link to this primarily because I'm always heartened by actual movie/tv industry professionals who believe in the award worthiness of non-traditional awards material. Even if I don't personally think Up is Pixar's best (I already know I'm going to be sad about WALL•E's Best Picture snub for many years), it'd be so swell if people stopped ghettoizing animation. ...