Latest in Oscar Buzz

EXCLUSIVE: Fandango’s top daily ticketseller is now The King’s Speech as of yesterday even though The Weinstein Co released the film 8 weeks ago. The pic has seen a 76% increase in ticket sales on Fandango since the Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday morning. But attendance could really soar if The Weinstein…

If The Social Network had been able to pull off a Best Picture win at the Producers Guild Awards Saturday night, as most everyone had expected, it might have been on an unstoppable path to doing the same at the Academy Awards. But it didn't. The King's Speech won. Now the race is on. For the second straight year, the P…

When Inception was released back on July 16th, the strikingly original film shook up a summer marketplace filled with derivative sequels and unfortunate remakes that had critics decrying the creative barrenness of studio films. Which is why writer-director Nolan garnered respect from Hollywood for using his clout from…

SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM UPDATE: If everybody like me is getting on or off a plane, then who’s at the movies this weekend? This is why, between shopping and partying and travelling, the last full weekend before Christmas is traditionally a lousy time for North American grosses. “They’re not rushing out to see movies…

Now it gets serious. After a flood of critics awards and nominations in the last week, the Screen Actors Guild this morning became the first peer group to realistically match what might happen for the Oscar nominations. SAG has a good track record in generally summing up the sentiments of the Academy of Motion Picture…

It has been common wisdom as this awards race moves into full gallop that Best Picture Oscar may come down to The Social Network and The King's Speech. But, after this week, I believe we may be adding a new heavyweight contender if mounting buzz is any indication. Academy members who are starting to see…

Harvey Weinstein tells me that, for the first time ever, he plans to personally make the appeal to the MPAA this Wednesday. He will urge them to reduce his award season hopeful Blue Valentine's current NC-17 rating to a more exhibition-friendly R instead. He was in town briefly last week and I caught up with him in…

If they weren't first out of the gate every season, the New York-based National Board Of Review (a self-described group of film enthusiasts, academics, film professionals, and students) probably wouldn't garner a whole lot of attention for their awards choices. But their announcement (<a title="1ST AWARDS: 'The…

UPDATE: True Grit doesn’t open until December 22nd but started screenings this week just under the wire of critics groups and SAG nominating committee deadlines. It’s the last unseen film of this awards season thought to have a serious chance of cracking the Best Picture Oscar list, especially now that there are 10…

Ben Affleck's career trajectory rarely happens in Hollywood much less all by age 38: from unknown actor (Mallrats, Chasing Amy) to Oscar–winning co–writer (Good Will Hunting) to leading man (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Changing Lanes, The Sum of All Fears, Daredevil) to tabloid fixture ("Bennifer") to washed–up star…

Traditionally, most Hollywood businesses grind to a halt for the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday. But not this wide-open awards season. Tangled had its official Academy screening last Sunday morning but only drew about 200 people. Instead, the holidays actually seem like a good time to push an animated Disney musical. So…

In this year's wide-open Oscar race, many of the contenders are films that traveled long and hard roads just to get made. By that measure, few put in more work than Mark Wahlberg did for The Fighter, the David O. Russell-directed drama in which he plays Irish Micky Ward, the welterweight who fought his way to an…