We’re lumping the rest of our precursors in a single article because I couldn’t be bothered to write one yesterday and one today.
We’ll run through the awards in the order they were handed out, which will be quick, since three of them are single categories and the fourth is double.
First, the PGA Awards. CODA won Best Picture there, making the Best Picture race slightly more interesting. Power of the Dog is still the favorite there (as much as we like to think the PGA is the surefire predictor, don’t forget that since 2015, they’re 3/6), but at least there’s an avenue for CODA to win and for you to take them as a potential upset choice. That’s more than we got for a lot of years. Also, Encanto and Summer of Soul won there as well, in case you still need the help in those categories.
Second, CAS, for Sound Mixing. Dune won. Which means a clean sweep for that in the Sound categories, to absolutely no one’s surprise. That’s another easy category for your ballot. Oh, and guess which films won the Animation and Documentary awards there?
Third, the WGA. Don’t Look Up won for Original Screenplay and CODA won for Adapted. CODA I was expecting. Power of the Dog was ineligible and it’s clearly between the two of them for the Oscar. Don’t Look Up, though… that beat Licorice Pizza (which won BAFTA) and King Richard. Belfast, which was my presumed Oscar winner, wasn’t eligible. Which now means the category is a complete fucking tossup and I have no goddamn clue what they’re gonna do. But I’m also pretty sure it’s not gonna be Don’t Look Up. But alright.
And finally, ASC, for Cinematography. Dune won. So that basically sews up that one too.
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So those are your last precursors. At this point, aside from the obvious categories that are always open (Shorts), the only two categories that feel remotely ‘could go a variety of places’ are Editing and Original Screenplay. Otherwise every other major category is either locked or between two very clear choices. That’s about as good as you can hope for.
Predictions article goes up bright and early Sunday morning. Til then, take the week and think about your choices.
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