That begins with the Writer's Guild Awards this weekend, followed by next weekend's DGA (Director's Guild) and very important SAG (Screen Actors) Guild Awards the following weekend (March 9 and 10). I'll present my predictions, personal choices, discussions, recaps, and news throughout the next three weeks leading up to the Oscars, in a seven part series of articles, the final part to be a complete preview of the 74th Annual Oscar experience on Friday, March 22, right as we enter Oscar Weekend. The first six parts will break down my Oscar predictions in all the major categories, and recap major news as it's available. Two articles a week, and an article recapping the Oscars the week of the 25th. It's a brand new way of presenting my pre-Oscar March articles, but I hope it's something that allows me to spread out my predictions throughout the month and provide some organization which I'm always in need of!
So this week, I begin with a recap of the latest precursor awards presented since my last article, and I reveal my predictions for four categories: Art Direction, Film Editing, Best Live Action Short Film, and Best Animated Short Film.
Three major precursor awards have been presented since my last article. The Art Directors Guild presented their awards for the best Art Direction of 2001 recently, and they gave the award to Moulin Rouge for Period or Fantasy Production Design, and Amelie for best Contemporary Production Design.
The American Cinema Editors Association presented their honors for Best Editing of the year, giving the awards to Black Hawk Down for best Dramatic Film Editing, and Moulin Rouge for Best Comedy Film Editing.
The Chicago Film Critics, usually the latest of the film critics organizations to present their honors, continued the critics' roll for Mulholland Drive, giving it the title of Best Picture of the Year. Their acting selections were all actors who did not receive Oscar nominations ... Gene Hackman winning Best Actor, Naomi Watts winning Actress, Steve Buscemi winning Supporting Actor (he really was robbed at the Oscars), and Cameron Diaz winning Supporting Actress. David Lynch claimed their prize for Best Director.
