As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences).

If last week seemed, this week may well seem glacial. The Christmas and New Year’s weeks are the slowest of the season, but after this week, all bets are off as we start getting into the late precursors, including most notably the guild nominations.

But, before we get into this week’s winners and losers, let’s take a look at what’s coming up this week:

Week 5 (Tue.-Mon.)

Tuesday, Dec. 28 – Austin Critics (Nominations) (Unconfirmed)
Tuesday, Dec. 28 – North Carolina Critics (Nominations) (Official)
Friday, Dec. 31 – Columbus Critics (Awards) (Unconfirmed)
Friday, Dec. 31 – Houston Critics (Awards) (Unconfirmed)
Friday, Dec. 31 – Casting Society (Nominations) (Unconfirmed)
Sunday, Jan. 2 – Chicago Independent Critics (Awards) (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Jan. 3 – Latino Critics (Awards) (Unconfirmed)

Big Winners

The Power of the Dog still managed to earn the praise of all of the entities nominating or awarding this past week. While it doesn’t seem to have benefited greatly from any of them, it remains at the top of the heap nonetheless.
Pixar & Disney have been struggling to win awards so far this season, with most of the victories to The Mitchells vs. the Machines. They received some solid news this past week as the top three nominated films at the Annie Awards were Disney/Pixar titles: Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Luca. All three came in just slightly ahead of Mitchells. While none of this is a guarantee for Oscar’s attention, it does point towards all three still being in competition for nominations and with the Annie Award winner likely going to the top-nominated film (a tie this year), it’s at least some positive news for the studio for once.
The Green Knight has very quietly been amassing a steady list of accomplishments with several nominations over the course of the season. This past week, the film picked up its first Best Picture prize this last week from the North Texas Film Critics. While that might not mean a lot, the film’s producers have to be overall excited about this development.
Nicolas Cage also won with the North Texas Film Critics, bringing his total awards so far this season to six. That’s second only to Benedict Cumberbatch and his total nine. That’s an extremely important milestone to pass as it means Cage could be heading towards an Oscar nomination, something many of us weren’t sure would happen considering his penchant for small arty projects that people respect, but don’t love.

Big Losers

Belfast continues to fade as it heads into the film stretch, a bad position to be in to be sure. While Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Washington DC critics saw fit to honor the film with their Best Picture awards, the film seems to have hit several road blocks in the past week that have significantly slowed its momentum.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is the last of the year’s major Oscar contenders to be seen, yet outside of a scant few citations for star Denzel Washington and the film itself in categories like Cinematography, it continues to disappoint. Now that it’s finally being seen, that calculus might change, but so far there’s no indication of that.
Ben Affleck‘s supporting turn in The Tender Bar has earned positive praise even while George Clooney’s latest has struggled for better than middling reviews. Yet even with the praise for an actor who’s often gotten flack in the past, he’s received a total of ONE citation from a critic group and that’s the Dallas-Fort Worth critics. The film was a late release, so there’s still time for his momentum to build at the Academy, but early signs from critics aren’t supportive to his candidacy.
Cyrano has received some downright glowing reviews, but other than star Peter Dinklage, it’s been struggling to gain traction. The film has been nominated several times, but this past week, a week it should have begun to excel upon widening release, has been rather slow for the film, which doesn’t bolster its chance with the Academy, especially when it isn’t proving to be a box office hit.