Once again, it’s time to present our year in advance predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards. Our track record continues to be quite good. Last year, we predicted five of the nine eventual Best Picture nominees, including the Best Picture winner (Argo, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty)! In 2010, we predicted both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor winners (Colin Firth, Christian Bale) and in 2011, we predicted the Best Actress winner (Meryl Streep). This year, we aim to put out our most successful predictions to date.  So after careful deliberation, here we go with our…
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Welcome to Awards Frenzy’s Live Blog for tonight’s show. We will update you on all the awards as they are presented and provide some insightful commentary for the show. Ten minutes and counting…

5:33: And we’re off! Seth McFarlane is doing a pretty okay job. As in just “okay.” He kind of feels like an outsider already. Nice joke about the Affleck snub though.

5:38: Wonder how many times they will cut to Jennifer Lawrence tonight. I’d say the over and under is 25.

5:45: This is getting better. They are certainly playing to McFarlane’s strengths. Great…
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For the eighth consecutive year, we will be live blogging the Oscars. Stay with us for the latest commentary, analysis, and to track all your predictions, and ours. The show and blog starts at 5:30 PST tomorrow night. See you then!…
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Well, another year is about to come to a close, and what a year it has been! Most people will agree it has been one of the wildest and most unpredictable years in Oscar history. In November, everyone was saying that “Lincoln” could not lose. After all, you had Steven Spileberg + Daniel Day-Lewis + critical raves. But there was just one problem. People just generally did not “like” the film. At least not enough. Then in December, “Zero Dark Thirty” was the flavor of the month. It snatched up critics’ group awards left and right and was the most…
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Here we go. After weeks and months of deliberation, we are pleased to offer our expert predictions in all categories. Enjoy!

Best Picture: Argo

Best Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Original Screenplay: Amour

Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo

Best Animated Feature: Wreck It Ralph

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina

Best Production Design: Anna Karenina…
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With Amour, filmmaker Michael Haneke cements himself as the Master of Ordinary Horror. No Michael Myers. No paranormal activity. No elaborate contraptions of humans sewn together. Just humans being humans. Haneke terrorizes audiences with the horror of the human condition, shot with simple yet assured cinematography. Nested in the plain, repetitive existence of French and German bourgeois lifestyles, the Haneke horror machine churns out monsters of human boredom, guilt, consumption of violence, repressed desire and aging. Thus, no matter the settings of contemporary French and German bourgeois families, Haneke’s films feature direct, austere portraits of seriously scary real life issues…
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Last year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences changed their voting rules to a preferential ballot. Now, what does that mean? If you’re not a numbers person, as I am not, it is kind of a complicated process. So I shall do my best to explain.

We have nine Best Picture nominees, so the Academy members all receive their ballots and rank the nine nominees in order of preference. As PricewaterhouseCoopers tabulates the votes, if there is a majority of ballots that name a particular film as Number 1, then the vote is over and that film…
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How many Best Animated Feature Oscars® would have gone to Walt Disney (or his studios after his death) if the category would’ve existed in the 20th Century?  Out of eleven years so far, Disney has taken home seven — albeit six from Pixar and one from Japan’s Ghubli Studios — none from their traditional 2-D artists.  This year they have a sixty-percent chance of winning with three films.  BRAVE seems like the right choice on paper.  It’s Pixar, it won the Golden Globe, it has an awesome poster, a spunky heroine, is great looking, and, well — the title is…
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As usual, the documentary short category is a shot in the dark, but all subjects deal with survivors: elderly retirees in Florida dealing with loss and life (KINGS POINTE), a homeless illegal alien trying to realize her dream as an artist (INOCENTE), hair stylists helping cancer victims (MONDAYS AT RACINE), African kids needing heart surgery (OPEN HEART), and people digging through trash looking for bottles and cans (REDEMPTION).  Most awards “experts” will probably go with REDEMPTION because of the title, but our money is on RACINE or INOCENTE, the former with the edge…
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