Saw those and thought it was funny, but what's funnier was Oswalt thinking he was an actual contender for nomination. Sure he was good in Young Adult and he got some nominations from critics here and there, but the buzz didn't seem too serious, even as a right field choice.

I don't think Jonah Hill thought he was an actual contender either. Oswalt wasn't great but he was certainly better than Hill.

This describes every year in the history of the Academy Awards.

Agreed. While everyone will always have their personal list of snubs, at the end of the day, we all have different tastes and no matter what the Academy chooses, they are bound to tick a bunch of people off.

Although I've contributed in this thread quite a bit, I really felt like the misses this year weren't nearly as bad as some in the past few years (i.e. no Nolan director nomination for "Inception", no "Dark Knight" best picture nomination).

I was just thinking this today...I think Woody may win either Best Screenplay or Best Director. Owen Wilson can just accept on his behalf.

You aren't allowed to have a proxy accept on your behalf any more. Thanks a lot, Sacheen Littlefeather!

^
we all know James Bond stole it!

I blame Roderick Jaynes.

Really pulling for Woody to pick up Director and Original Screenplay Oscars, but I'm not holding my breath.

It would be great to see Max Von Sydow win in the Best Supporting category too...he is a screen legend and was the only good thing about that film.

I think Allen has an excellent chance to win Best Original Screenplay. His only real competition there should be The Artist. And this sounds like a joke, but I have doubts about the writers giving the award to a script with no dialogue (besides the intertitles).

Yeah I should have clarified, Allen does indeed have a good chance at getting the Best Original Screenplay nod... but I would love to see him pick up his 2nd Best Director Oscar also.

Michel Hazanavicius took home the DGA last night, which guarantees 0 suspense on Oscar night.

We'll see. I have a feeling that The Artist might be too "out there" for Best Picture. I wouldn't be surprised to see a split with BP going to something more accessible (The Descendants) instead. The Artist may not get enough support from the writers, and even the actors, who are likely to give Best Actor to Clooney.

Following SAG, I think The Help has a better shot than The Descendants.

Considering the actors just gave Jean Dujardin the Best Actor at SAG, I think he's pretty much a lock for the Oscar.

No chance The Help wins. It didn't get nominated for Directing, Editing, or Writing. The BP winner usually at least gets nominated for 1 or 2 of those. The Artist is going to coast.

I hope so. The Descendents was definitely very solid, but The Help was superior to me.

Clooney still has mega star power, so I think the race is still open.

Rourke took home the Globe and BAFTA. Penn won the SAG and then the Oscar. So I think it's still a toss up. The BAFTA might clue us in this year.

The SAG has been matching up with Oscar though for the last several years. 2004 they chose Depp for Pirates and Penn won the Oscar.

I had to post that right before Clooney lost the SAG award, didn't I?

I wouldn't read too much into The Help winning. I think it won because it just had the most "quality" performances, with 3 of them getting Oscar nominations compared to 1 for The Descendants and 2 for The Artist. In the history of that award, it has matched up with the BP winner 8 out of 16 times so far.

Art Directors Guild winners:

Period Film
HUGO

Fantasy Film
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY
HALLOWS PART 2

Contemporary Film
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Well at least one award organization honored some good films this year.

The Artist tidal wave continues with 7 wins at the BAFTA, including Picture, Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay. After winning the SAG and the BAFTA, I think Dujardin will now take the Oscar.

Best Film: The Artist
Best Director – Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Best Leading Actress – Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Best Leading Actor – Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan)
Best Original Screenplay: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Best British Film: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Academy Fellowship: Martin Scorsese
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Documentary: Senna
Best Film not in the English Language: The Skin I Live In
Production Design – Hugo (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo)
Best Cinematography: The Artist (Guillaume Schiffman)
Best Editing: Senna (Gregers Sall, Chris King)
Best Original Music: The Artist (Ludovic Bource)
Best Costume Design: The Artist (Mark Bridges)
Best Sound: Hugo (Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley)
Outstanding Debut: Tyrannosaur
Best Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 2
Best Make Up & Hair – The Iron Lady (Mark Coulier, J. Roy Helland, Marese Langan)
Best Short Film: Pitch Black Heist
Best Short Animation: A Morning Stroll
Outstanding Contribution To British Cinema: John Hurt

Outstanding Contribution To British Cinema: John Hurt

Hell yeah.

I just saw all of the live action and animated short films. Let me just say WOW. The animation ones for the most part sucked. The only one that was remotely good was Pixar's La Luna, so at least they have a horse in the race this year. They also showed 3 or 4 other animated ones that didn't make the cut, which also weren't good. I was extremely disappointed. Last time I saw the shorts was in 2009, and most of those were pretty high quality.

As for the live action shorts a few of them were pretty good. The time travel one was funny but seems like an extended version of what happens in a Doritos commercial or something. Very puzzled by that nomination. The Shore was great. Good to see Ciarin Hinds in a role and actually get to do something, unlike in Tinker Tailor and There Will Be Blood. Plus he was re-teamed with Rome's Kerry Condon, so that was sort of cool.

Raju was also pretty good. My friends liked Tuba Atlantic the best, but I wasn't a big fan.

I second this