Fans truly believe that Ben Affleck was “snubbed” by the Academy and that the Academy will be sorry when Argo wins Best Picture. Every pundit from Scott Feinberg to Steve Pond is saying Argo can’t lose – by now, the guilds tell the Academy what to do anyway so perhaps the Oscars are just an afterthought — or maybe they will surprise us. Doubt it. This scenario has only played out twice and both times the Academy chose a film that had a corresponding director nomination – they defended their choice. The DGA backed their choices for Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg but the Academy went a different way with Out of Africa and Braveheart. Now, Spielberg will be on the losing side of that scenario as Argo sails to victory. So Spielberg will have lived twice through one of the rarest events in Academy history. Argo is fifth in line for most nominations and has no director nom. That pretty much sends the message that the movies the Academy nominated most strongly, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings, Les Mis are not as worthy as the one that got less nominations than any of those. Funny, that. Either way, an object in motion stays in motion and the winning streak doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
A tweet just now: