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).

A small raft of precursors were handed out this week, both in terms of actual award and nominations. These announcements will steamroll across the next two weeks with a boatload announcing next Monday.

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

Week 3

Tuesday, Dec. 6 – Grammy Awards Nominations (Official)
Thursday, Dec. 8 – Golden Globes Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Thursday, Dec. 8 – St. Louis Critics Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Thursday, Dec. 8 – American Film Institute Awards (Official)
Friday, Dec. 9 – Detroit Critics Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Friday, Dec. 9 – San Diego Critics Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Saturday, Dec. 10 – San Francisco Critics Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Sunday, Dec. 11 – San Francisco Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)
Sunday, Dec. 11 – Toronto Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)
Sunday, Dec. 11 – Boston Critics Awards (Official)
Sunday, Dec. 11 – Broadcast Critics Awards (Official)
Monday, Dec. 12 – Vancouver Critics Nominations (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Dec. 12 – Chicago Critics Nominations (Official)
Monday, Dec. 12 – North Carolina Critics Nominations (Official)
Monday, Dec. 12 – Dallas Area Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Dec. 12 – Indiana Film Journalists Awards (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Dec. 12 – San Diego Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Dec. 12 – Southeastern Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)
Monday, Dec. 12 – St. Louis Critics Awards (Unconfirmed)

Big Winners

Moonlight continues to chug along at an excellent pace. Director Barry Jenkins has been chosen three times so far as Best Director. No other candidate has been consistently recognized. The same goes for Mahershala Ali in Best Supporting Actor. The film has received several nominations as well making it the most promising indie performer of the year so far.
La La Land finally won a top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle and proceeded to come in second in several categories with the Los Angeles critics. The pattern seems to be solid for the film to perform strongly with the Academy at this juncture, perhaps even in categories that modern-set films don’t normally (Production Deign & Costume Design).
Manchester by the Sea has earned plenty of attention for star Casey Affleck and the film has been nominated quite frequently. However, for a film with such critic-friendly indie sentiment, it’s not performing better in terms of winning awards.
Hacksaw Ridge hasn’t won much, but the regular recognition the film has received from the nominating bodies bodes well for Mel Gibson’s cinematic return. Whether this continues throughout awards season or not remains to be seen, but it’s performing quite well all things considered.

Big Losers

Silence just started screening for critics last week and it’s been roundly ignored in the subsequent prizes. Perhaps not enough people have seen it. Perhaps it’s just not as good as Martin Scorsese’s legions of never-doubting fans believe it will be. Whatever the reason, it needs to start doing much better if it wants to be in the hunt for Oscars this year.
Emma Stone was thought to be the frontrunner for Best Actress this year, but so far, she’s come up empty-handed. While she’s been nominated every time she could possibly be, not winning awards does not give her much of a boost in terms of Oscar potential. There’s still time, but that time is fading fast.
Loving has performed well, but not to the level of expectations it had just a few months ago. That said, I suspect it’s still going to continue building up a respectable batch of nominations that may result in Oscar consideration along the way.
Jackie has gotten rapturous reviews, especially for star Natalie Portman. However, it seems to be going unheralded, which is a bad thing for the film. While many consider it a sure nominee, things aren’t looking bright and the parallels to Carol are starting to develop. Ultimately, the film is likely to be nominated, but Portman is no longer the solid contender many once thought she was.