The process of Oscar predictions has changed completely over the last twenty years. Where there may have been favorites and hopes before that came with no sense of what could actually happen on Oscar night, blogging has turned the award ceremony into a stats game, where there are way fewer surprises than ever before. But, if you pay attention to the guilds, you have a great guide as to who is likely to win or lose. That doesn’t keep us from guessing, and our picks for Sunday’s Oscar ceremony are here. Hint: expect big wins for The Artist. Check it out…

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The award season is getting close to wrapping up, and – as expected – Michel Hazanavicius‘s The Artist is continuing to sweep. Its latest victory was at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts film awards, where it walked away with seven prizes, including best film, director, screenplay and best actor for Jean Durjardin‘s lead performance. Meryl Streep‘s win for The Iron Lady was the only upset of the usual winners (beating Viola Davis), but Octavia Spencer  for The Help and Christopher Plummer for Beginners were also awarded, which goes with most of the major awards to date. Check out the full list…

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Racism is still a hot button issue in America, and though the civil rights movement was a previous generation’s struggle, it’s hard to address those issues cinematically and still make an entertaining film. 2011′s The Help comes at a time when issue pictures are out of fashion, and so it seems slightly fresher than it might have had it come out in any other decade. And yet, it’s the same sort of empowerment movie as we’ve seen before. The bottom line is that the film is fun and has good performances from performers like Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Bryce Dallas Howard. But as a commentary on the issues of race in America, it’s decidedly lacking. Check out our review…

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