Oscar Watch: 'The Big Short' holds an early lead over its December rivals - Los Angeles Times
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Gold Standard: Oscar Watch: ‘The Big Short’ holds an early lead over its December rivals

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Oscar Watch, charting the smiles, the frowns, the ups and downs of the awards season, comes to you every Monday from now through the end of February.



"Joy," "The Hateful Eight" and "The Revenant" were the last three would-be Oscar contenders to screen for critics in 2015.

Each came from a filmmaker whom the academy has lavished with Oscar love over the years. "Joy," the Jennifer Lawrence-topped story of a striving young entrepreneur, came from David O. Russell, a five-time nominee as a writer and director. Russell's last three films -- "The Fighter," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle" -- earned best picture nominations too.

Quentin Tarantino, writer and director of the chamber western "The Hateful Eight," has won two Oscars and been nominated for three others.

And Alejandro G. Inarritu won three Oscars last year as a writer, director and producer of "Birdman." He hopes to add to that total with his latest film, the bloody revenge western, "The Revenant."

Now that the movies have been seen, though, it's another December movie -- "The Big Short," a jaundiced look at the 2008 financial meltdown -- that's vacuuming up all the awards and nominations. Its director? The guy behind "Talladega Nights" and the "Anchorman" movies, Adam McKay.

Can "The Big Short" continue its surge and win big with the academy? Oscar Watch, charting the awards season every Monday from now through the end of February, looks at its current standing as well as the fortunes of the other three December films.

Steve Carell appears in a scene from "The Big Short."

Steve Carell appears in a scene from “The Big Short.”

(Jaap Buitendijk / AP)
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