After the DGAs, The Artist looks poised to win it all

DGA Winners-

Best Director for a Feature Film
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Feature Documentary
James Marsh, Project Nim

Drama Series
Patty Jenkins, The Killing, “Pilot” (AMC)

Comedy Series
Robert B. Weide, Curb Your Enthusiasm, “Palestinian Chicken” (HBO)

Movies for Television and Miniseries
Jon Cassar, The Kennedys (Reelz Channel)

Reality Series
Neil P. Degroot, The Biggest Loser, “Episode #1115” (NBC)

Musical/Variety Series
Glenn Weiss, 65th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)

Daytime Serials
William Ludel, General Hospital, “Intervention” (ABC)

Children’s Programs
Amy Schatz, A Child’s Garden of Poetry (HBO)

Commericals
Noam Murro, Ads for Heineken Premium Light, DirecTV, Volkswagen Tiguan, and EABattlefield 3

The Directors Guild of America had their awards ceremony last night. Up for Best Director was Michael Hazanavicius, director of The Artist; David Fincher, director of Dragon Tattoo; Scorsese (Hugo), Alexander Payne (The Descendants), and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris).

Now generally speaking, when a film wins the DGA award and the PGA (Producer's Guild), it's pretty much a shoo-in that it'll win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Screen Actors Guild Awards is tonight and if the Artist wins for Best Ensemble, it's over. But even then, the winner of the SAG awards usually doesn't mean all that much. It either cements knowledge that we already knew or it will just feel like a consolation prize for a film that will otherwise lose all other awards (like Inglourious Basterds back in 2009).

I'm surprised that The Artist is doing so well mainly because it just seems so self-serving to continually award a film that's about the Hollywood industry, it's an homage to silent films, and it hasn't been seen by very many people. Is it really that great of a movie or does it just push all the right buttons for these voting bodies? It may be a well-produced and well-directed film, but did Michael Hazanavicius really do the best directing job over Fincher, Scorsese, Woody Allen? Heck, even Alexander Payne?

Once again, I haven't seen The Artist, but I will this Friday. So maybe then I can see what the fuss is all about. It kinda sucks because I don't want to go into the film expecting greatness simply because it's winning all these awards. That's not how we should approach movies in the first place. It's not The Artist's fault that it's winning all these awards, people in the business just really like the film. Maybe it's Harvey Weinstein's fault since it always seems a film from his studio is always doing serious business during awards time. I don't know how he does it, I don't know what he does, all I know is I hope he does the same thing to either Tarantino or PT Anderson's film next year (both of their films are being released by The Weinstein Company). So, really, whether or not I like The Artist, I am willing to forgive its win if Harvey can pull the right strings so that Django Unchained or The Master wins all the awards next year. C'mon Harvey!

At the end of next week, I'm going to be going over all the 2011 movies I saw in January/early Feb that I had yet to write about (there's quite a few). So basically there'll be a bunch of short reviews posted and hopefully I can officially put 2011 movies to rest and focus on 2012.