You Snooze, You Lose

For those of you who follow us for our Oscar Race coverage, you know we cut through the hoopla and hype, and we tell the truth, even when it's not pretty.  And here's another sad truth.  Many of the critics groups give out their "year's best in film" awards from late November to late December.  But a few of the hold-outs wait until January to name their favorite films.  And for those late-bloomers who are just now giving out their trophies, we have some bad news:  You don't matter.

Oh, you January critics can matter to the readers in your local region; a few of those people might enjoy reading which films were your favorites, and your selections might even influence a few of them as to which movie to see, but in terms of the overall Oscar race, you blew it.  The Oscar voters want their nominees and ultimate winners to be a respected group, and whether they admit it or not, they are highly influenced by what the critics think.  But the voting for the Oscar nominations ended yesterday, so for those late-announcing January critics, you missed the boat.  The Oscar voters were influenced by the November and December critics winners, not the January winners.  In the Oscar race, as in life, you snooze, you lose.

A good example of how these late critics affect the Oscar race is in the case of Matthew McConaughey.  The "Magic Mike" star won the very first critics award of the season for Best Supporting Actor, and suddenly, all of Hollywood was abuzz that the actor previously best known for appearing shirtless in public might actually win an Oscar.  But then, McConaughey never won another critics award and the Oscar buzz disappeared.  Lo and behold, though, McConaughey won a big one yesterday when a very respected critics group, The National Society of Film Critics, handed McConaughey his second Best Supporting Actor win of the season.  Unfortunately, it's too late, the voting for the Oscar nominations is already over.  Who knows how much this win from the NSFC might have helped McConaughey to get an Oscar nod?  We'll never know; way to go, National Society of Film Critics!  We doubt you'll ever get an invite to run shirtless on the beach with the dazed and confused one.

The Producers Guild announced its nominations a few days ago, and you can bet that these are the films that will be up for an Oscar for Best Picture.  The nominations list is as follows:

Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Moonrise Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty.

The only surprise on this list is the James Bond flick, "Skyfall".  The film has been steadily increasing in respect in the past few weeks, not to mention the fact that it's now crossed the magical $1 Billion dollar mark at the box office, so don't be surprised if it becomes the first Bond movie in the legendary franchise to contend for serious Oscars.