In Contention

Tag: Gurus o’ Gold

  • Gurus back on the attack

    Here’s the pre-Toronto guesses from the group, via Movie City News. Additionally, we were polled on picks for an actor and an actress that could pop up as a “surprise” nominee. People like Michelle Yeoh and Charlize Theron don’t really qualify for me (the former dripping with bait, the latter stretching herself again in a role many expect to find traction). Ditto Gary Oldman, certainly. So I went with Kristin Scott Thomas and Rhys Ifans, one of which potentially has a stealth studio push coming, the other getting talked up by everyone I know who has seen the film. In any case, we’re just getting our engines humming, I guess.

    (EDIT: Now that Poland has corrected his typo, the order is slightly different.)

  • Gurus on the march

    Gurus o' GoldIt’s been so long since I actually ranked the Best Picture contenders (given that we did away with the charts some weeks back), that when I sat down to do so for this week’s Gurus o’ Gold update at Movie City News, I really didn’t know which way was up.  It’s liberating to stop thinking about things in reductive terms, but I gave it a go, as did 14 other pundits, and this is what we came up with.  Sasha Stone also has charts from past years up for comparison.

    It seems like USA Today’s Anthony Brenican is the only guy who got his votes in after the big “Crazy Heart”/Jeff Bridges news, but suffice it to say the film would likely be a bit higher on the Best Picture chart and certainly Bridges and Gyllenhaal would be formidable in the lead actor and supporting actress fields.

    “Up in the Air” is leading the pack, though “Precious” isn’t that far behind.  My top 10 matches the Gurus’ exactly, except rather than Quentin Tarrantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” I’ve placed a bet on James Cameron’s “Avatar” (which sits at #11 on the chart).  Intriguingly, Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are” is close to the bubble, at #12.  I’d say that’s too high, frankly, but critics adore the movie.

    Head on over to Movie City News for the full spread.

  • Gurus back on the scene

    It looks like David Poland beat The Envelope to the punch again this year with his collective of Oscar prognosticators, the Gurus o’ Gold.  I’m back on the team again this year after missing the boat last time around.

    Poland has done away with the Gurus 2.0 experiment, which was an interesting look at what the peripheral awards sites were thinking.  I guess he decided it better to whittle it down to a refined list of guessers, while The Envelope’s thing is having casting a huge net.  There are pros and cons of each approach, but at this point in the year, we’re all guessing anyway.

    I was surprised to see “Slumdog Millionaire” make it into the Best Picture predicted five with so much authority.  And despite my recent change of tack on the major category hopes of “The Dark Knight,” I certainly wasn’t anticipating a tie for #6.

    (The Gurus’ top 10 predicted Best Picture hopefuls with commentary after the jump.)

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