The Home Stretch

The Oscars are three days away, folks. As I expressed in an earlier post, it has been a particularly long season for this Oscar watcher.

This year, the Oscars were pushed back about two weeks to prevent a ratings clash with NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics. As a result, the season's schedule has shifted in an odd way that allowed several precursors to unfold before the nominations were even announced. It's been about a month since the nomination unveiling, and we've only had the BAFTAs, the SAGs, and a handful of guild awards to talk about. In other words, just give out the damn awards already.

Starting around two weeks ago, the smear campaign began against the current frontrunner, The Hurt Locker. There's already some great stuff out there written on this subject (like this piece from the NYT), but the big question is "what are the consequences?"

Last year, the smear campaign began against Slumdog Millionaire when stories popped up on the internet about the modest salaries of the child actors. This year, it's interviews with Iraq soldiers on how The Hurt Locker's portrait is inaccurate. The LA Times published 11 stories over 4 days that put The Hurt Locker in a negative light, culminating in the Chartier email and his ultimate banishment from the ceremony. Last year, Slumdog Millionaire was unstoppable. I'm not so sure that The Hurt Locker is.

I'm of the opinion that this year's smear campaign was simply too little, too late. With the Chartier story breaking just under a week before the ballots were due, I have a feeling that most voters had 1) already turned in their ballots, or 2) enough sense not to punish Bigelow and Boal for one financier's stupid move.

That being said, I'm not all that attached to any of the nominated films for Best Picture this year. And if an upset is on its way, I'll be grateful for the excitement.


Cheers, and check back on Saturday for my final predictions.