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85th Oscars. The Oscar Contenders of 2012
For prediction, discussion and entertainment purposes.

discuss on the blog

Who Won: Argo
Nathaniel's Vote: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Reader's Choice: Argo. It was a tight race in your balloting with no barnstorming frontrunner. Argo came out on top but only with a measly 17% of your support; Amour was in second place with 15% of your votes; Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln formed a practical third place tie with 14%; Beasts of the Southern Wild 9%; Life of Pi 8%; Silver Linings Playbook 7%; Les Misérables 6%; and in ninth and last place Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained with only 5% of the votes.

THE NOMINEES... (alpha order)

AMOUR Michael Haneke (SPC, Dec 19th) 5 Noms \| 1 Win (Screenplay)	ARGO Ben Affleck (Warner Bros, Oct 12th) 7 Noms \| 3 Wins (Picture, Screenplay, Editing)	BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Benh Zeitlin (Fox Searchlight, June 27th) 4 Nominations (No Wins)	DJANGO UNCHAINED Quentin Tarantino (Weinstein Co December 25th) 5 Noms \| 2 Wins (Supporting Actor, Screenplay)	LIFE OF PI Ang Lee (Fox, Nov 21st) 11 Noms \| 4 Wins (Director, Cinematography, Score, Visual FX)
This drama about an elderly couple at life's end is a tough sit but it's undeniably sticky and moving. Haneke has built momentum as a master on a real role though Oscar and Palme D'Or are often strange bedfellows Box Office: $5+ RT Score: 92% precursors wins: LAFCA, NSFC Cannes noms: EFA, BAFTA, Cesar	THE WINNER Affleck is well regarded in Hollywood and this political thriller gains extra points with its "feel good about the power of the movies" plot elements and showmanship. Box Office: $130+ RT Score: 95% precursors wins: BFCA, GLOBES, SAG, DGA, PGA, critics prizes noms: BAFTA	This hypnotic one-of-a-kind indie built its fan club early --Smart! This poetic yet grungy story of a young girl named Hushpuppy "who lived in the bathtub" in fantastical survival mode struck a chord Box Office: $12+ RT Score: 85% precursors wins: -- noms: BFCA, Spirit, PGA,	Oscar embraced Tarantino's slavespoitaton western as a worthy follow up to Inglorious Basterds revisionist history shenanigans. Tarantino the Entertainer is well regarded Box Office: $159+ RT Score: 89% precursors wins: -- noms: BFCA, Spirit, PGA	The Academy respects huge financial and artistic risks that succeed. Les Miz saved it from possible punching bag status as an easy target (earnest spirituality comes with that risk) Box Office: $114+ RT Score: 89% precursors wins: critics prizes noms: GLOBE, BFCA, BAFTA, PGA
				TRIVIA Average Running Time of these Features: 2 Hours and 16 minutes. Longest: Django Unchained at nearly 3 hours; Shortest: Beasts of... 93 minutes (the only nominee that's under 2 hours) Average gross $76 million (at nom' time) Average gross $105 million (Oscar Night) Neato - Lincoln is almost an exact carbon copy of Schindler's List in terms of Oscar. 12 nominations, the only different is Supporting Actress (Lincoln) to Makeup (Schindler's List) Boo Beasts of the Southern Wild, which should have had a heftier nomination tally, was the only Best Picture nominee to win zero Oscars more
LINCOLN Steven Spielberg Touchstone Nov 16 12 Noms \| 2 Wins (Actor, Prod. Design)	LES MISERABLES Tom Hooper Universal Dec 25th 8 Noms \| 2 Wins (Supp Actress, Makeup)	SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK David O. Russell Weinstein Co Nov 21st 8 Noms \| 1 Win (Actress)	ZERO DARK THIRTY Kathryn Bigelow Columbia Dec 19th 5 Noms \| 1 Win (Sound Effects)
Oscar loves a biopic and Lincoln isn't half as stuffy or redundant as the genre often settles for. Audiences like it too. That big box office for a talky history play is an unmistakable sign that it's a real deal across-the-board hit. Box Office: $179+ RT Score: 91% precursors wins: critics prizes noms: GLOBES, SAG, BFCA, DGA, BAFTA, PGA	The source material is superb and widely beloved but the film has experienced a bizarre whiplash from ecstatic first screenings to mixed and sometimes vicious reviews. Oscar loves it anyway. Box Office: $147+ RT Score: 73% precursors wins: GLOBES noms: SAG, BFCA, DGA, BAFTA, PGA	Russell's idiosyncratic heart / funnybone finally got to Oscar with The Fighter. Curiously it's still a "crowd pleaser" without a crowd. But they've finally gone wide (albeit just barely). Box Office: $109+ RT Score: 90% precursors wins: critics prizes noms: Spirit, GLOBES, SAG, BFCA, PGA	Bigelow was ideally situated to capitalize on The Hurt Locker's huge critical and Oscar success with this film and critics agree she succeeded. But then the "pro torture!" claims started and things got ugly... Box Office: $92+ RT Score: 93% precursors wins: NBR, NYFCC, + critics prizes noms: GLOBES, BFCA, DGA, BAFTA, PGA

THE NOMINEES... (alpha order)