That’s right. Everyone in Hollywood already knows The Artist is going to win Best Picture. It has already won top honors at the awards ceremonies for the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice and Producers Guild.
Sure there will be Academy Award nominations announced this week and everyone will handicap which film is likely to win.
It’s all hype. After all, the Oscars are a very lucrative business for a lot of people and it’s important that the “Best Picture” race look like, well, a race. But it isn’t. Not anymore than it was a few years ago when Slumdog Millionaire won.
When they open the envelope and read the words “The Oscar goes to…” you can be sure the words that follow will be “The Artist.” Our own critic Nicole Marchesani said this in her Smackdown (against Singin’ in the Rain) from late last year:
It’s completely unexpected and brilliant, not too long and laugh-out-loud funny. No easy task for any film, much less a silent. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it went on to win a 2012 Best Picture award either.
We just thought we’d get the fake suspense out of the way and just say it now so you can get on with the rest of your life.
If, on the other hand, we’re wrong about this, you can be sure we will unpublish this post and deny we ever said it…
On another score, Steven Spielberg received the Producers Guild’s David O. Selznick Career Achievement Award at this year’s Producers Guild Awards. Everyone — including Spielberg — is lauding the clip reel put together to highlight Spielberg’s work, edited by Todd Sandler. We think it’s pretty spectacular, too, and so… here it is…
httpvh://youtu.be/fxiMDqo_nXo
Treacly and over-hyped. The experience of viewing this film was the equivalent of taking a bottle of Xanax. A full bottle.
I really hope you’re wrong! It’s pleasant enough, but I don’t think a lot of the hype is deserved.