It’s a good time of the year to remind ourselves of what I consider to be the Ten Commandments of Oscar Watching. It’s important to remember them because they are always forgotten. The truth is, there is no there there right now. There is a lot of hot air, a lot of people making sweeping assumptions and generalizations based on their own impressions of a film — or by talking to other bloggers and film critics at parties — or film festivals. But none of it is real yet. The race is fluid, not static.
Herewith, the Ten Commandments of Oscar Watching
1) Though shalt not predict a movie to WIN that has not yet been seen. It’s tempting — I want to put Les Miserables and Lincoln right at the top but anyone who’s been at this a while knows that it’s not a wise thing to do. Sure, you can spit in the wind and maybe you’ll be right on down the road but it’s always better to go with what you know versus what you don’t know. Right now I feel like three films can win: Argo, Silver Linings and Life of Pi. None of them have been reviewed by the majority of critics (which will make a difference in how they are perceived) and none of them have yet opened to the public (also makes a difference). They are all November releases, so we will know pretty soon how the majority of people will respond to these three films. But it’s an even bigger gamble to say Les Miserables is going to win because as yet, no one has seen anything except the trailer. Ditto Lincoln, The Hobbit and Zero Dark Thirty.
Anne Thompson, Dave Karger and Steve Pond are still predicting Silver Linings Playbook to win because that movie’s cred does not come from one blogger’s own impression — it comes from the film’s successful reception in Toronto — the applause by the crowd and the audience award. That was when that same group of folks knew that The King’s Speech was going to win — because of its reception in front of a much larger crowd. It’s a valid call because of that. I might disagree with them on the ultimate fate of the Silver Linings Playbook but I respect their basis for making that decision. My feeling on Silver Linings is that it is a good movie, not a great one and that it loses what it has going for it once it abandons the mental illness storyline. So then it becomes a fairly predictable romantic comedy. That usually does not amount to Best Picture. But the acting is good enough that it seems destined for nominations for principal players.
2) Thou shalt not lose perspective because of one’s own biases. No one will ever convince me that The King’s Speech deserved to beat The Social Network — in the end, I never jumped ship with the film I thought should win but predicting what will win is different from hoping something will win — the emotional component to The King’s Speech trumped The Social Network because The King’s Speech was the one film in the lineup that made people cry. There were many dazzling visionary films up that year but what ended up standing out was the sappy factor — and it can never be underestimated. Life of Pi, Beasts of the Southern Wild and to an extent, Silver Linings are all films that pack an emotional punch. One should never count out films that do that, even if they are roasted by the critics — take Extremely Loud, for example. How this year rounds out is a story yet untold.
3) Though shalt not elevate one’s own importance. It’s easy to sucked into the idea that you are important person because you have a platform to say what will and what won’t get an Oscar nomination. The platform doesn’t translate to power. Sure, you can champion something small that no one has noticed. I remember championing In the Loop, Frozen River, Winter’s Bone and Margin Call and it was a thrill to see them end up with screenplay nominations. But you can’t really kill a movie by planning a war to take it down. You just can’t. The movie has the stuff or it doesn’t. Voting is done anonymously so no one owes anyone anything. They vote for who and what they like best. They don’t think, oh, that Oscar blogger hated that movie so I won’t vote for it. We advocate and sometimes someone may try to sabotage but only very rarely does it stick. Most of the time, it does not. We should never falsely believe that we’re entitled to rail against a film before it opens to the public. To actively set out to take apart something other people worked so hard to create is a critic’s job, not an Oscar blogger’s job. We are supposedly here to figure out what will be nominated, what will win, or even what should win — but sabotage is not part of our job description and never should be.
4) Thou shalt not underestimate the greatness of a film because one does not recognize its effectiveness. Because I never really connected with the King’s Speech does not necessarily mean it wasn’t, for many people, a great film. I acknowledge this possibility when I look at a movie like Silver Linings, which didn’t quite do for me what it did for others though I still walked out of it thinking it was a good movie. There is no accounting for taste. We bring to films our current state of mind, our past, our hopes and dreams, our loves, our disappointments, our education — and all of those things combined equal what happens to us when we watch a film. Those inclined more towards life’s bigger themes might fall in love with Life of Pi. Those inclined more towards romantic love might fall for Silver Linings. Those who feel strongly about American history might love Lincoln, and those who like films that have absolutely no flaws will love Argo. Where Oscar is concerned, the only thing that matters is what becomes the common denominator.
I respect Scott Feinberg as an Oscar blogger. But I am not sure I agree with his police work on how Life of Pi will do in the Oscar race. He is underestimating its emotional power based on several conversations he had with a small sampling of people, but nothing he heard equals the way most of us read the film’s reception on Twitter. A lot of people LOVE The Master but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily headed for a Best Picture win. That’s because the kinds of people who write about film — film critics — aren’t Oscar voters. Life of Pi is a wait and see kind of film — wait and see what it does, where it goes. My sense of it is that if it’s hits, it hits big. I don’t think, as Feinberg says, that it’s only a below the line movie. It’s way too good for that. Ang Lee has already won TWO DGA awards and one Oscar for Directing. We don’t judge Oscar movies based just on what people at a party thought of them. We also judge them on the respect and position a director has in the industry. Hell, War Horse was nominated for Best Picture on Spielberg’s cred alone. You don’t dismiss a film this good directed by Ang Lee that easily.
5) Never forget that the Oscars are not about Ms. Right but about Ms. Right Now. The zeitgeist is a slippery thing. You don’t really know it’s there until you see it right in front of you. So far, 2012 is a year of dazzling filmmaking all barreling towards the end of the year. The film will capture the zeitgeist this month might not be the same film to capture Oscar voters in February. In the past two years the two films that won were safe, nostalgic throwbacks — completely inoffensive vanilla. They were crowd pleasers with no rough edges. Standing the test of time doesn’t mean it ends up on Sight & Sound’s top 50 ten years from now. Standing the test of time means in 40 years someone might say, hey, did you ever see this movie? It’s really great. Oscar is not in the business of finding that movie. Sometimes it does by accident — like Casablanca, All About Eve, The Godfather I and II . But more often than not it doesn’t.
6. Thous Shalt Keep an Open Mind. There are two competing forces at work to call a film great. One is the critical reception and the other is the public’s. The Oscar race has become like political elections — with nasty campaign tricks from all sides, which tends to result in the least offensive candidate winning the day. But none of us can really say what Ms. Right Now will look like in two months. It will all happen much too quickly and the early awards will take their lead from the chatter about awards on the web. Then the industry will take their lead from the early awards. Eventually, it becomes too predictable to be worthwhile. We have one film right now that is being ignored across the board — Looper is a movie that might end up being both a success with critics and a success with the public but why aren’t the Oscar bloggers talking about it?
7. Thou Shalt Remember That Nobody Knows Anything The best Oscar bloggers don’t dumb it down but offer up endless possibilities. If you look at what Guy Lodge is doing over at Gold Derby he doesn’t try to think like everyone else so as not to look foolish. He dives right in with original thinking. That keeps the race fluid, not static, not useless and predictable. Sure, he doesn’t have the power to change the race particularly, but he’s not a lemming. The only thing you risk by opening up perceptions is that someone might say you don’t know what you’re talking about. But here’s the kicker, they don’t either. They pretend to know by hiding behind what everyone else thinks. Why not go balls out? So people don’t think you’re the World’s Best Oscar Predictor. So what? We value not being ridiculed over original thinking and that is how we become the wall of noise.
8. Thou Shalt Remember that the trick is not minding. It’s easy to fall into the trap of taking things personally. No one wants an automaton who doesn’t bring his or her personal feelings into the understanding of what makes a film great versus what makes a film bad. But if the Oscar voters like the King’s Speech, the Oscar voters like the King’s Speech. Taking it personally, as I did, only hurts the ball club. It’s a silly little gold statue. It represents what 6,000 or so industry professionals “liked” best. It’s a Facebook status update with the most “likes.” And the world keeps turning. What it isn’t: a way to determine the best film of the year. I still feel burned that Viola Davis didn’t win last year. She deserved to. But the trick is not minding. If you come here to the Grizzly Maze you must never forget what you’re dealing with. You must never forget the laws of Oscar. They vote for what and whom they like best.
9. Thou shalt remember to love the movies thou loves. You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows and you don’t need the Oscar race to tell you what movies you like more than others. Go watch them for yourself. Decide for yourself and never let a silly game ruin what’s most important. Everyone always says they don’t believe in awards for art. And indeed, the Oscars are supposed to represent the highest achievement in filmmaking. We know that isn’t how they turn out. It’s a game and it’s played well by some people. Because they can play the game well means they can win the game. But that’s all it means. Love the movies you love without apology.
10. Thou shalt trust thyself. If you are making your choice based on what you know versus false perceptions of what might be (as in, thinking a movie you haven’t seen will win everything) you will be headed down a better path than simply copying what other people think. Sure, you will be met with a lot of “no ways” and “you’re crazy” but at least there will be some diversity in thinking. The person who ends up being right gets to be lifted up and showered with rose petals. It’s nice to be celebrated. But that’s nothing to build a proper foundation on. Start with original thought and go from there.
Those are the commandments as best that I know them as of September 29, 2012. If I change my mind I’ll be sure to let you know.
i’m a bit of a cynic now about your ten commandments , its a good thought in theory but in practice i wonder how far it would go until it falls by the wayside…kinda reminds me of when people make resolutions on new year’s eve only to forget about them by the end of the first week of the year!
that said nothing wrong with having standards which you measure yourself by,hope you live up to them!
i hope i do too, i’d like to think my experience here last time was a learning one in coping with the harshness of this place i’ll see how it goes
so far only film i’ve seen that’s in the award race to some degree is ARBITRAGE, i was pleasantly surprise by richard gere performance and agree he should be in the mix for best actor talk this season
Evandro Lannuci Rêgo magalhães
” It`s a very good movie, great box office and liked by the critics.”
Yes…just like The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bridesmaids, Shrek, Spider-man, Iron Man, The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Wall-E (and basically any other Pixar movie), Star Trek, King Kong, Back to the Future etc.
Unfortunately the Academy rarely goes for a genre film, the only scenario that allowed that to happen was the 2009/2010 system, when little comedies (An Education, The Kids Are All Right), a sci-fi (District 9) and dark, unconventional dramas (Winter’s Bone, 127 hours) could actually go all the way and land best picture nominations.
If they decided to go back to the OLD 10-slot-system, The Hunger Games would be actually a decent contender at the moment, but the new voting system (every bp nominee needs 5% No1 AND there could be as few as 6 nominees in the category) seemingly discriminates against EXACTLY this kind of film : genre film without huge stars or a name director. The fact that they can recognize the film’s biggest asset, Jennifer Lawrence for ANOTHER film, makes it even easier for them to snub ‘The Hunger Games’ in the main categories.
Can anyone please tell about The Hunger Games chances at the next Oscars? It`s a very good movie, great box office and liked by the critics.
It’s been two year since The King’s Speach clean the floor with The Social Network. Can you just let it go?
THE MASTER 3 ½ stars A-
A World War II Navy Veteran named Freddie Quelle(Joaquin Phoenix) who’s fighting on the Pacific side ends up in a religious cult group called The Cause head mastered by Lancaster Dodd(Phillip Seymour Hoffman) after World War 2 has ended in 1950 because he has a nervous illness. Dodd is a writer, a philantripalist, a doctor, a scientist and a nuclear physicist. Quelle has a hard time just being himself and being around other people. Freddie Quelle is a human being with an idioysranrctic power. He has a girlfriend named Doris, like Doris Day the movie star. He’s basically a drunk with too much alcohol in his system. Lancaster Dodd is a good stick to the point person. A person who is of higher power. Then, there’s the loveable but cruel Amy Adams who nurses Freddie Quelle. Lancester Dodd questions his first book called “The Cause”. So he writes another book called “The Split Saber” which is about a guide to Homo sapiens, man. This book you’ll find all the answers in. There’s a lot of chemistry between Freddie and Lancester. They could agree or disagree on things. “The Master” is slick with originality and interpersonal thought. It has it’s flaws but detracts them. The movie is unpredictable, and something of daydream or nightmare that comes true. It’s heavy on drama and light on comedy. The film was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who is one of the few directors who sticks to independent film channels and following directions and details with his film art. He paints a culprit canvas. This is a not film to like; it’s a movie that inspires impact and tolerance plus striving for righteousness. The parts that grabbed me the most was when Dodd in his office his asking him these yes and no questions. Did you have sexual intercourse with your Aunt? Are you insane? Are you envious? Are you a liar? Do you lie? Do you have regrets? Another part that grabbed me is when Freddie Quelle gets upset and Lancaster Dodd asks him to touch the wall and touch the glass. Freddie touches the left wall inside the Dodd’s house. Then he is asked to touch the glass and describe in detail what it feels like. His response is “It feels like glass. It’s smooth and unbreakable.” Another part that grabbed me by the neck is when Freddie Quelle is riding Dodd’s motorcycle into the sunset. Another part that hit me is when Freddie is a photographer at a convention. He moves to the light closer to the person that is wanting to take the photograph and the man gets all in a teesy because the light feels hot but all Freddie wanted to do was the lighting right. I also liked the part when he’s passing out fliers outside of a theater on the streets to get people interested into “The Cause”. “The Master” has above average performances and visuals that context with human emotions like anger, acceptance, power, grief therapy, hypnosis, insanity, inappropriateness, frustration, smiling, war in peace, health, sickness, friendship, and much, much more. It’s one of the year’s most inspiring movies
i think life of pi might win the oscar but i’m awaiting lincoln, the hobbit, zero dark thirty and les miserables. i think once the reviews start pouring in then will know what to except.
laugh out loud. these are great commandments.
I don’t call her the Oscar Goddess for nothin’.
They did a piece on the upcoming fall season on CBS Sunday Morning. And as I sat there and watched it I started to feel like I’m not gonna make it. lol It’s too much.
Possibly the best piece I’ve ever read on Oscar blogging. Reflective, introspective, and insightful.
“Thou Shalt Remember that the trick is not minding.”
That’s a good tip.
Shame it’ll probably fall on false ears, like it did these last two years.
@Jesse Crall, Not that you asked my opinion but I have a love/hate thing about Jeff Wells too. He does have a strong voice and you can’t discredit his intelligence. But I hate that he thinks his opinion is the only correct one. Also, some of his pieces are so offensive and snobbish that he comes off as a borderline bigot.
Hey, nice article. I had 15 commandments but I dropped one of the tablets…
In a year stacked with great films ( I feel I have seen enough brilliance this year) that a film like The Impossible can get overlooked. In predictions anyway. I have not seen the film, but I have read the poster and seen the trailer. As I mentioned I have seen great films this year, but not great conventional ones. Conventional films with standout performances is the Academy’s bread and butter, and I hear they’re real strong in this one (Ebert called Naomi’s performance as “gob-smacking” in his blog)
@Daveylow: Just basing what I saw on the trailer and how people reacted to it. Seems like a lighting rod for snark, big emotions, heartfelt, that deal. Is the overall film different from the previews?
@Jesse Crall The Impossible is nothing like War Horse, nor is old fashioned in terms of conception.
Well I saw The Impossible and I loved it for the most part though the last few minutes got a little sappy due to the music. But the first 30 minutes of the film are incredible and Tom Holland, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor are all fine. I have no idea if it’s BP material but i think it will make top 10 lists.
A.O. Scott has already written something snide about Life of Pi but maybe he won’t be doing the full review.
M1, I didn’t think THE KING’S SPEECH was bad. I don’t think it was good enough to be an Oscar Winner. Not even close really. I wouldn’t have nominated it. Now I only saw it once, in a full-ish theater in Boston with a crowd that applauded at the end. It might have been the first weekend of its release. The worst thing about it imo was the art design/set design that wasn’t there. It was an ugly ass room they spent most of their time in. So that whole aspect of film making didn’t come into play. No sweep, no beautifulness, no nothing. Then you have the performances which were all great. Did it have a soundtrack? I don’t remember. Then you have a story which is mostly just true I guess. Dude couldn’t talk. He stuttered. That’s the beginning middle and end right there. Whoopie. So taking all emotion out of it, all I saw was the performances. Add that to the fact that I had no emotional connection to it. I’ve never had a problem opening my trap. So I’m not in the ‘fear of public speaking’ crowd, which is fairly huge, and probably accounts for a lot of love for the film. So for me, it’s that it’s missing almost everything except the performances. So how can something that’s missing that much be the best film of any year? There have to be at least a handful every year that have more to them than that. And there were. And there already are this year.
I saw a trailer for The Impossible before a showing of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and there were a LOT of snickers. It came across as very earnest and heartfelt, which I’m cool with but a lot of hipper-than-thou’s might slam the effort. There was a War Horse kinda vibe to it, that very old-school epic deal that didn’t trade much on cool but instead tried to pry out the emotions. It’ll do fine with older audiences and critics, I’m sure.
” Who in the hell takes [Jeff Wells] seriously?”
I do. Guy’s a helluva writer with a strong voice. I’d rather have that coupled with some ludicrous viewpoints than the usual bland, technically sound-but-dull writing I see from most writers, myself included.
And when Jeff’s wrong, he sounds so batshit that the comedy value is immense.
“I still feel burned that Viola Davis didn’t win last year. She deserved to.”
You will surely get burned if you have seen Won’t Back Down. Thelma Adams predicted her to be nominated for this crap. Honestly, if Viola is as famous as Halle Berry, she would definitely win a razzi.
Jerm
Yes, the ones claiming ‘The Impossible’ received terrible reviews, were indeed VERY wrong and considering that so far it has only screened at the Toronto Film Festival – where it got a rare standing ovation AND several raves (http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-impossible/critic-reviews) – I have NO idea how those commenters came to the conclusion that it was anything BUT remarkably well-received. Seemed textbook-trolling to me. Having said that, good early word not always translates into universal praise, we’ll see !
There is no accounting for taste.
Amen, sistah. I mean I get #4 but I don’t agree with it. I think this falls under the whole objective thing. I root for my favorites as do we all but I can tell when something I didn’t like DESERVES awarding. If I don’t recognize its greatness, I don’t think it is great. And I don’t mean that’s my opinion. I mean I would feel good preaching my case in a court of universal law. lol Because the people who thought THE KING’S SPEECH was great were wrong. It was a well made film with great performances in it. But the film itself wasn’t great. That goes for a lot of films that win major awards. And I will testify against them if asked. 🙂
Hell, War Horse was nominated for Best Picture on Spielberg’s cred alone.
Nah, I thought it belonged there.
So far, 2012 is a year of dazzling filmmaking all barreling towards the end of the year. The film will capture the zeitgeist this month might not be the same film to capture Oscar voters in February.
We could have a real race this year. I’m gonna hope against hope that the zeitgeist takes a powder.
This is a good article, Sasha. Now let’s hope everyone listens.
Actually, Lean may have won from two sonsecutive, so I take my words back. I just checked two consecutive years which Hooper missed already, of course.
Silly me.
Pete: That was interesting so I checked. David Lean has not won two in a row, but Joseph L. Mankievicz (1949-50) and John Ford (1940-41) have.
Not only based on that, but Hooper ain’t winning. No chance.
Paddy M > Please provide an example of when 15k/theater on 300-some-odd screens was not impressive.
Thanks.
And, I agree with Mel.
No way will Tom Hooper win Best Director for two consecutive films. Wasn’t David Lean the last (only?) person to do that? Hooper is NO David Lean.
The Impossible’s reviews have, thus far, all been quite positive, some of them highly so. Variety gives it a thorough rave. Perhaps some less enthusiastic reviews will surface in the run-up to its release (I expect the same to happen for Life of Pi too, although this may hurt Pi’s chances more due to its earlier release date), but not as yet.
Jeffrey Wells has always seemed like such a fucking tool to me. He talks big shit on his absolutely ridiculous blog, but fire up an episode of Oscar Poker with Sasha and others and he comes off as a bumbling fool with zero percent of the attitude he tries to exude on his blog. My favorite quote of last week was when he called Les Miserables, “Les miz-er-aub-bulls”
Hate that I was just so negative, but that guy is a bit of a joke and clear troll for web hits. Who in the hell takes him seriously?
I thought someone on here on some other article mentioned The Impossible getting terrible reviews and that there was no way it could even get nominated for anything….so according to phantom, those people would be wrong? Just curious, cause I have no idea…
Little regard paid to how the particular element contributes to the whole.
Of course! It’s the entire Academy voting for the winners – dumbass actors and songwriters trying to figure out what Best Sound Editing even means. Loud noises and bright colours = lots of Oscars.
An actor winning for a bad film usually gives a hammy performance and probably should have won previously. Art Direction – yeah, almost always goes with the gaudiest. Same can be said for music (most sweeping), costumes (showiest) and makeup (thickest). Little regard paid to how the particular element contributes to the whole.
I’m with you on BP, though, but a truly bad film rarely wins.
An Actor winning from a bad film is OK. Just as an Art Direction win from a bad movie is OK. Best Picture win for a bad film is NOT OK.
Right now i would predict:
Motion Picture
Winner: Les Miserables
Runner Up: Life of Pi / Argo / Silver Linings Playbook
Director
Winner: Tom Hooper – Les Miserables
Runner Up: Ang Lee – Life of Pi / David O. Russel – Silver Linings Playbook / Ben Affleck – Argo
Leading Actor
Winner: Joaquin Pheonix – The Master
Runner Up: Anthony Hopkins – Hitchcock
Leading Actress
Winner: Marion Cotillard – Rust and Bone
Runner Up: Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Supporting Actor
Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Runner Up: Robert de Niro – The Silver Linings Playbook
Supporting Actress
Winner: Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
Runner Up: Amy Adams – The Master
Foreign Language Film:
Winner: Amour
Runenr Up: The Intouchables
Again, a great great piece! 🙂
Cor, the Meryl maniacs are still here?!? Aren’t we over that?
Sasha,
Any thoughts about the new Viola Davis movie (33% RT rating) and her nomination chances?
I hope you continue to remember #3. Your campaign last year for Viola Davis by discrediting Meryl Streep still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Please praise but don’t attack.
Nobody wrote anything to discredit Meryl Streep. Nobody could.
Lots of us thought The Iron Lady was an awful movie. Actors sometimes win Oscars for roles in awful movies. We know that and expressed reasonable feelings about it.
There is no troll like Wells in whole web 🙂
Jeffrey Wells just referred to you as a “type”, in reference to those admiring “Life of Pi”. I’d take offense.
Jeff’s been a bit high-strung this week. Still touchy since his emotional incident in the underground parking garage.
A curious curio that I hope doesn’t happen – the actors don’t vote for Naomi Watts this year because she has Diana coming out next year.
i think it was meryl streep winning that’s why it felt passable but actually viola davis deserved to win, i agree with sasha.
iron lady was one of the worst movies and best opportunity wasted which never did justice to meryl’s performance, never lifted it up.
15k/theatre is nothing out of the ordinary. With a theatre count that low and the social-network-heavy marketing campaign, I would have expected 15k at least.
Paddy, ‘Pitch Perfect’ will make around 5M from 335 theaters and will end up in the Top6. It isn’t a prestige pic nor a masterpiece, it is a commercial comedy, so taking all that into account, I think that 15K PTA is damn impressive.
I think there is a film that seems to be right up the Academy’s alley yet we are all criminally underestimating it at the moment : THE IMPOSSIBLE
1. Acclaimed actors delivering powerful performances
2. Rare standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival
3. Excellent early scores (100 RT, 89 MC)
4. Potential moneymaker with an Academy-friendly Holiday Season release date
5. Big emotional family drama based on a true story
“Anne Thompson, Dave Karger and Steve Pond are still predicting Silver Linings Playbook to win ”
Bizarre, that’s all I can say. And Ebert saying Argo is the one to beat. They haven’t seen much and yet they declare a winner. This lodges in the back of voters minds who figure “they know what I like so I don’t have to bother”. When it’s over, the articles about how predictable it all was appear.
Looper may be connecting with critics and the online community, but it’s unlikely that it properly breaks out at the box office. Its estimated Friday gross suggests a decent opening weekend, but not a great one, and upcoming releases like Taken 2 and Paranormal Activity 4 could diminish its potential as a sleeper (I know, wtf).
Also, Pitch Perfect isn’t on for a stunning opening weekend, phantom. It’s on for a good opening weekend in semi-limited release.
I don’t think either Looper or Pitch Perfect has it in them to make it very far, never mind how well they’ve been received.
Argo actually comes out October 12, not in November. I also think it is the frontrunner (though Les Miserables is a not-distant second). Beasts of the Southern Wild has a decent shot, and Life of Pi is probably a bigger contender now.
As for The King’s Speech, I want a nicely written opinion from someone who thought the film was bad (which is almost everyone on this site). I have seen it three times and loved it each time, and I can’t see any reason why anyone would hate it. So please, someone convince me.
Speaking of an open mind, now that Pitch Perfect received decent reviews and is making headlines at the moment for delivering a stunning limited opening weekend, I think we should at least consider scenestealing Rebel Wilson for the supporting actress race. She got some good ink and several raves for this, she has been building buzz since last year’s ‘Bridesmaids’ and if the film delivers next week in wide release, she might just have everything an awards contender could ask for.
I worship at the church of Sasha Stone.