Argo continues to tell Oscars to Argo fuck themselves with Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild awards
While it seems likely that the Academy Awards tipped its hand toward a Lincoln sweep, then used its other hand to extend a taunting middle finger at Ben Affleck, the weekend nevertheless added to a growing groundswell of support for Argo. This year’s film about Islamic extremists that the whole family can agree on took top honors at the Producers and Screen Actors Guild Awards, potentially portending an upset win at the Oscars. After all, the PGAs are often a pretty reliable omen, accurately predicting the last five Best Picture winners. But then again, Best Picture wins without at least a Best Director nomination are all but unheard of, so it basically comes down to which statistical superstition you choose to believe. Personally, we’ll stick with the traditional, foolproof method of divination by chicken bones, ritualistically hurled at our TVs until they finally just announce the winner already during the Oscars telecast.
Until then, of course, you can probably add certain non-Argo locks in the acting awards: Daniel Day-Lewis, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Lawrence repeated their Golden Globes wins at the SAG Awards, while Tommy Lee Jones also finally got one to justify all the time he’s wasted at awards shows, when he could have been home strangling calves. And at the PGAs, support for Wreck-It Ralph and Searching For Sugar Man seems to have been shored up in the animated and documentary categories. Meanwhile, over in the lower-stakes television arena, the Producers Guild picked Homeland, Modern Family, Game Change, and The Colbert Report as the best shows of the year, while SAG concurred on Modern Family and Game Change (thus bringing to a close nearly a full year of hearing Julianne Moore talk about playing Sarah Palin).