74th Oscar Countdown: 13 Days
You know, maybe it's a good thing that all of the Oscar precursors are now finally completed. This weekend gave us a couple of surprises that threw some more wrenches into the Oscar race, but to expect otherwise this film awards season has become illogical. But now they're all over ... there's nothing but Oscar left, and we're down to the final stretch, where Academy members will be filling in their ballots as everyone tries to predict what their collective will finally say about the best of 2001. As I continue my countdown to the 74th Annual Academy Awards, now only 13 days away, I will continue my announcements of my predictions in all the Oscar categories with four more categories. And I know, I know, I promised that I would announce my predictions in the four acting categories this week, but I have to re-think a couple of them and make some final decisions, so I will delay those predictions until my Part 5 article on Friday. So this week, I will announce my prediction for Best Director, and a couple more categories, including the new Animated Feature Oscar.
But first up, let's look back at what the final two precursors of the film awards season contributed to this film awards season. The Directors Guild announced their choice for Best Director Saturday night, and it was Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind. This certainly boosts not only his but the film's chances for victory in the Picture-Director Oscar race, but it's still not a sure thing, not in this crazy year. Poor Ron Howard, imagine if he is the footnote to another Director's Guild-Academy Awards Best Director mismatch. Since 1949, when the DGA first began giving Best Director honors, all but five DGA winners have gone on to win the Best Director Academy Award. Ron Howard is already one of those five exceptions, when he won the DGA for Best Director in 1995 for Apollo 13, but wasn't even nominated by the Academy. But he is not the sure thing that the DGA Award usually promises ... because Robert Altman was not included in the DGA running, he still has to be seen as the biggest threat to Howard fulfilling a dream and winning his first ever Best Director Oscar. And especially after Altman's film Gosford Park got a surprise boost at the SAG Awards, Altman's chances are looking better and better.
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