Ryan McNeil
With just a few days to go until the nominees for the 85th Oscars are announced, one thing is clear. One thing that hasn’t happened in a few years now: There is no front-runner. There are heavy contenders, but nothing has broken away from the pack.
In terms of keeping everything interesting, this is a very good thing. First though, a few updates on what’s gone on since my last entry on the awards race.
- The Producers Guild announced their list of nominees. For the most part things were rather predictable, but there was a surprise in the works: namely the nomination of SKYFALL. The PGA are an interesting body to watch, because while there is overlap between PGA members and Oscar voters, they have the tendency to see things as a complete piece of entertainment. Case in point, in the past HARRY POTTER & THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE landed a PGA nomination…not to speak ill of PHILOSOPHER’S STONE, just to say that it never factored into that year’s larger Oscar conversation. What does this mean for SKYFALL? Maybe big things, maybe nothing.
- Also last week, the Writers Guild chimed in with their nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. Again, many of the familiar names came up…but in certain spots there were omissions. The main reason for this is that there are a lot of snappy stories that peppered 2012 from non-WGA writers. Thus, while it’s possible that the screenplays for DJANGO UNCHAINED, AMOUR, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and LES MISERABLES might still be honoured – they weren’t even up for consideration here.
That brings us up to today. We are one day away from learning the Director’s Guild Award nominations, which not only give a large measure of clarity into what will be nominated for best director and best picture, but what could ultimately take home the top prize.
Besides that, we are just four days away from learning the Oscar nominations themselves, and as I mentioned earlier there is no front-runner. At the moment, there is a cluster of three that seem to jockey for position at the front of the pack, those being ARGO, LINCOLN, and ZERO DARK THIRTY (the latter getting a major lift as the nomination stage entered its final stretch). After that is a second tier of strong contenders consisting of LES MISERABLES, LIFE OF PI, DJANGO UNCHAINED, and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. Beyond those seven your guess is as good as mine.
The biggest x-factor is just how many nominees there will be. Because Oscar is holding on to the curious practice of making sure every BP nominee has a certain measure of support, the number of nominations could be anywhere between 5 films and 10. So if there are only seven, I would bet good money that those titles listed above are your nominees. If it goes to eight, nine, or even ten? Your guess is as good as mine.
Hell, at this stage, guessing what titles will be named over and above those seven is more interesting than guessing how those seven will do! THE MASTER? BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD? SKYFALL?
Oughta be interesting, that’s for damned sure.
Below is the full list of PGA and WGA nominees. As for me, I’m certainly looking forward to Thursday morning, and likewise to finally seeing ZERO DARK THIRTY on Friday as it’s the heaviest hitter from the 2012 class that I’m yet to catch up with.
PRODUCERS GUILD AWARD Nominations:
Argo
Producers: Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Producers: Michael Gottwald, Dan Janvey, Josh Penn
Django Unchained
Producers: Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher
Les Misérables
Producers: Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Life of Pi
Producers: Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark
Lincoln
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
Moonrise Kingdom
Producers: Wes Anderson & Scott Rudin, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales
Silver Linings Playbook
Producers: Bruce Cohen, Donna Gigliotti, Jonathan Gordon
Skyfall
Producers: Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson
Zero Dark Thirty
Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison
WRITERS GUILD AWARD Nominations
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Flight
Written by John Gatins
Looper
Written by Rian Johnson
The Master
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Moonrise Kingdom
Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty
Written by Mark Boal
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Argo
Screenplay by Chris Terrio; Based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the Wired Magazine article “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman
Life of Pi
Screenplay by David Magee; Based on the novel by Yann Martel
Lincoln
Screenplay by Tony Kushner; Based in part on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Screenplay by Stephen Chbosky; Based on his own novel
Silver Linings Playbook
Screenplay by David O. Russell; Based on the novel by Matthew Quick