With a flurry of activity between Monday night and Tuesday morning, the 2011 awards season served notice that it's ready to start even if all the movies have yet to be seen.
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" has barely screened and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" hasn't been seen by any voters, but a string of judgments came in this week – first at the Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York on Monday night, then with the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations on Tuesday morning, and finally with the New York Film Critics Circle voting, which was taking place as the Spirit Awards was making its announcement.
Also read: 10 Burning Questions -- and Answers -- About This Year's Oscar Race
Nothing that happened this week is likely to have a serious impact on the awards race, but it's certainly possible to trace the up and down movement of contenders, companies and awards bodies.
UP: "The Artist"
It won an upset victory in the New York Film Critics Circle voting, which speculation had said was liable to favor "The Tree of Life" or "The Descendants" or "Shame" or something less user-friendly. And it tied with "Take Shelter" for the most Indie Spirit Award nominations, when most of us didn't even realize it was eligible.
The Weinstein Co. has been trying very hard to position its film as an Oscar favorite; at this point it's there, and they might want to start scaling back expectations.
Also read: 'Take Shelter,' 'The Artist' Lead Indie Spirit Award Nominations
DOWN: 'The Descendants"
The problem for Alexander Payne's deft blend of drama and comedy isn't that it wasn't recognized by the Gothams or the Spirit Awards – it was nominated for the top award at the former, and scored four noms from the latter. The problem is that it had been anointed the frontrunner in some circles (including this one), and it didn’t behave like one.
The hits it took were small, but it took three of them: losing the top Gotham award to "The Tree of Life" (acceptable) and "Beginners" (ouch), falling short of "Take Shelter" and "The Artist" in Spirit nominations, and then being overlooked completely by the New York critics.
The National Board of Review will probably ease the pain on Thursday, though.
UP: "The Tree of Life"
It wasn't eligible at the Spirits, but Terrence Malick's film did well otherwise, even if the New York critics opted for "The Artist." It won (or tied for) the top award at the Gothams, then was saluted three times by the critics.
The film probably needs a strong showing in early awards to keep it on the Academy's radar, and so far it appears to be getting what it needs.
DOWN: Spirit Awards rules
"The Artist" (foreign writer-director, shot in the United States, and distributed by a U.S.
