Best Picture Upset Brewing at the Oscars?! Uh, No

The Descendants, Midnight in Paris win big at Writers Guild Awards, but The Artist probably will still win biggest of all at next weekend's Academy Awards

By Joal Ryan Feb 20, 2012 5:12 PMTags
The DescendantsFox Searchlight

So, at Sunday night's 2012 Writers Guild Awards, The Descendants and Midnight in Paris won big, while The Artist didn't win at all.

But don't get antsy, and don't fiddle with your office Oscar pool ballot.

The Academy Awards race has not been upended.

For one thing: Guild membership rules.

Because of them, The Artist wasn't eligible for a WGA Award.

This means the valentine to Hollywood neither got beat last night for Original Screenplay by Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris nor lost its front-runner status heading into next weekend's big show.

For another thing: Academy membership demographics.

Per an eye-opening Los Angeles Times survey published Sunday, Oscar voters are  way, way more male, white and not-young than you imagined.

With that mix, The Artist  can't lose: To the average Academy member, after all, the silent movie isn't an irrelevant period piece, it's a depiction of his youth. (We kid—sort of.)

Now what is meant here is that The Artist can't lose Best Picture; it probably will lose Original Screenplay—and it probably will lose to WGA Award winner Midnight in Paris.

While both The Artist and Midnight in Paris are set in the Academy-favored 1920s, Allen has the edge over Michel Hazanavicius because, one, he's won the category twice previously, and, two, like Oscar voters, he's 30 or so years older than the French filmmaker. (We kid—sort of.)

The Descendants, meanwhile, should likewise duplicate its WGA Award win for Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. The George Clooney movie just seems to have been penciled in for that honor for a long while; also, it benefits from Martin Scorsese having made the fatal mistake of setting Hugo in the 1930s instead of the 1920s—d'oh!

Speaking of catchphrases from The Simpsons…The historically long-running sitcom picked up a WGA Award for animation writing Sunday night to go along with its 500th episode.  

Here's a rundown of some of the top winners, including the TV honorees, at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards:

Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris

Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants

Documentary Screenplay: Better This World

TV Drama Series: Breaking Bad

TV Comedy Series: Modern Family

New Series: Homeland

Episodic Drama: "Box Cutter," Breaking Bad and "The Good Soldier," Homeland—tie

Episodic Comedy: "Caught in the Act," Modern Family

Long Form Original: Cinema Verite

Long Form Adapted: Too Big to Fail

Animation: "Homer the Father," The Simpsons

Comedy/Variety Series: The Colbert Report

Comedy/Variety Special: After the Academy Awards

Daytime Drama: General Hospital

Children's Episodic & Specials: "Hero of the Shadows," Supah Ninjas