Exploring the 85th Academy Awards: Best Picture
There were nine nominees for Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards: Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Les Misérables, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty.
What Won:
The victor was Ben Affleck’s Argo (produced by Grant Heslov, Affleck, and George Clooney).
What the Precursors Suggested:
The chief predictors of the Best Picture Oscar are the Producers Guild award for Theatrical Motion Picture and the British Academy Award for Best Film. Argo won both of these, as well as the Critics Choice Award for Best Picture, the Screen Actors Guild award for Ensemble in a Motion Picture, and the Golden Globe for Motion Picture – Drama.
In distant second place was likely Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables (produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, and Cameron Mackintosh), which was nominated at every ceremony and won the Golden Globe for Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Also popular: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, each of which was nominated at all ceremonies. Less immediately popular: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, each of which missed with the British Academy, and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, which missed with the British Academy and at the Golden Globes. Michael Haneke’s Amour, which had only won in foreign-language categories at three of the four ceremonies, was the surprise nominee here.
This was a sweep for Argo, with no real chance for another movie to spoil the category – though, curiously, the film was among the relative few to win Best Picture without its director nominated.
In a Field of Five:
In a field of five, I believe the nominees would have been: Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Les Misérables, and Zero Dark Thirty.
Other Films in Play:
The proverbial tenth slot might have been filled by Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, which was nominated by the Producers Guild and at the Critics Choice and the Golden Globes. On the outside looking in: John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Robert Zemeckis’ Flight, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall.