It rained hardware on the final weekend before the Oscars, when no fewer than five awards bodies deployed their year-end kudos to some front-runners you may have heard of. These may be the some of the last prizes these films receive during the Awards Season That Will Not Die, so let's sort it all out and pay appropriate tribute below.
· Precious took home six honors at the NAACP Image Awards, including perennial winner Mo'Nique's Best Supporting Actress prize. Her Oscar-nominated peers Lee Daniels (Best Director), Gabourey Sidibe (Best Actress), Geoffrey Fletcher (Best Adapted Screenplay) also earned recognition; Sidibe broke down in tears accepting her first prize of the long, grueling season, and the orchestra unsuccessfully attempted to break down Daniels's long, grueling acceptance speech -- twice. Amateurs! The Oscars have a trap door for that. On the TV side, Tyler Perry's House of Payne won four awards including Best Comedy Series, while Lincoln Heights won Best Drama.
· The Foreign-Language Oscar nominee A Prophet all but swept the Cesar Awards in its native France, taking nine mentions including Best Picture, Best Director for Jacques Audiard and Best Actor for Tahar Rahim, who accepted his trophy with the exultation, "Long live French cinema!" Hear, hear! At least until The White Ribbon steamrolls the hell out of it Sunday night at the Oscars.
· Oh, hey, speaking of The White Ribbon, Oscar-nominated D.P. Christian Berger won this year's top feature prize from the American Society of Cinematographers. That's what Movieline karma will do for you! On TV, Eagle Egilsson won the episodic laurels for Dark Blue, and Alar Kivilo won for HBO's movie Taking Chance.
· Avatar enjoyed six wins at the Visual Effects Society Awards, including Best Picture and pretty much everything else it was eligible for. District 9 did manage a win in Best Compositing; 2012 was shut out, the jerks. Up won three awards on the animation side.
· And The Hurt Locker hasn't been slandered out of the awards running yet, scoring Best Sound Mixing from the Cinema Audio Society. Grey Gardens took the same prize a feature on TV, and Mad Men and Deadliest Catch took home episodic honors for drama and reality respectively. Congrats to all, and adjust your Oscar pools accordingly.