Oscars 2012: Too Close to Call?
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Jamie McCarthy/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Blame it on the expanded best picture race, on the films themselves or on the guilds that honored a variety of movies: This year’s Oscar race is still too close to call in some categories.
“There is a little tension going into Sunday,” Yahoo! Movies contributing editor Thelma Adams told ABCNews.com. “I know who I should be saying is in the lead, and then I think there is still a little bit of mystery left.”
ABC News’ Oscars Stock Market Index, a collaboration with Bluefin Labs, which provides a real-time snapshot of social sentiment, what’s trending and the collective assessment of entertainment industry experts, shows just how much uncertainty there is going into Sunday’s ceremony.
At the final guild awards before Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, The Descendants and Midnight in Paris got a boost but not the presumed front-runner The Artist.
The black-and-white, mostly silent homage to the era before “talkies” was excluded from last Sunday’s Writer’s Guild Awards because its writers are French. Instead, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, another film set in the 1920s, won for best original screenplay, while The Descendants earned the trophy for best adapted screenplay.
Earlier in the year, the producers guild gave The Artist their top prize, while the film’s director, Michel Hazanavicius, was hailed as the year’s best by the directors guild.
On ABC News’ Oscars Stock Market Index, Hazanavicius overtook Alexander Payne who directed The Descendants and Martin Scorsese who directed Hugo as of 7 a.m.
Also on the index, Descendants star George Clooney seemed to be hanging on to the lead in the best actor category, with Jean Dujardin from The Artist coming in a close second.
Clooney’s pal Brad Pitt who starred in Moneyball followed behind in third place.
“These front races are so close,” Adams said, “there is a little wiggle room.”
Iron Lady Meryl Streep was keeping her lock on the best actress race, but Viola Davis, star of The Help, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara were closing the gap.
“The issue is how much people love The Help versus The Iron Lady,” Adams said, believing the race is between Davis and Streep.
Supporting actor Christopher Plummer and supporting actress Octavia Spencer were still holding onto the lead in their respective categories on the index.
Ultimately, the winners will be decided by the nearly 6,000 Academy members, which, according to a recent report by the Los Angeles Times, are overwhelmingly white and male, with a median age of 62.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio