In Good Company

This Slumdog juggernaut continues to intrigue me. This evening it won the ACE “Eddie” award for Best Edited Feature: Drama (Wall-E and Man on Wire won for Comedy and Documentary, respectively.)

Glancing back at all the Pre Oscar awards this season, it’s interesting to look at the few trophies that this movie HASN’T won. This includes a few of the established critics groups that gave their Best Picture citations to something else (NY went for Milk, NSFC for Bashir, and LA and Chicago for Wall-E)

So, with nothing better to do this evening, I took a look at best-picture-only awards over the past thirty odd years, going back to 1975 when the LA Critics began announcing their choices. At that time the group joined five other organizations already making annual awards: NBR, NSFC, NYFCC, Globes, and BAFTA. Taking these six groups –and only these six — for a tally of Best Picture awards, we get some interesting statistics.

Slumdog Millionaire got the majority this year, 3 out of 6. Not bad. With three wins, it’s keeping company with some other fine films which ultimately won Best Picture, such as ROTK and American Beauty, as well as several that did not (Sideways, Saving Private Ryan, and All the President’s Men, to name a few).

Slumdog did not do as well as a few others that actually nabbed 4 out of 6:
Brokeback Mountain, LA Confidential, Goodfellas and Terms of Endearment (the latter being the only one which actually won the Best Picture Oscar)

So far only one film actually went 6 for 6: Schindler’s List.

For what it is worth, Crash, Braveheart and (surprisingly) The Departed did not win a single one of these precursors. Amazing how a few wins from DGA, SAG, WGA, and the guilds can suddenly beef up your pre Oscar status, don’t you think?

The following films won the majority of these six precursor awards for their year. In the years not listed, a handful of films nabbed two apiece. And on two occasions, 1978 and 1988, every group named a different best picture winner.




Here are those, then, that made an impressive show:

2008 Slumdog — 3
2005 Brokeback Mountain — 4
2004 Sideways — 3
2003 ROTK — 3
1999 American Beauty – 3
1998 Saving Private Ryan — 3
1997 LA Confidential — 4
1995 Sense & Sensibility — 3
1993 Schindler’s List — 6. Perfect score.
1990 Goodfellas 4
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters – 3
1983 Terms of Endearment — 4
1982 Gandhi — 3
1980 Ordinary People — 3
1979 Kramer vs Kramer — 3
1977 Annie Hall – 3
1976 All the President’s Men — 3

I did not include Producers Guild, BFCA or Chicago since they are relatively new to the game. But a quick glance shows that the top films remain tops: Schindler picks up another two from PGA and Chicago (BFCA wasn’t awarding in 1993) and still holds the record with 8 out a possible 8. And of course you see Crash getting its award from Chicago and The Departed picking up Chicago and BFCA.

With all three of these newer awards under its belt, No Country becomes a contender (now with 5 total) but most of the others continue to expand their leads. So if you only go back to 1995 (in which the perfect score now becomes a nine), it’s still looking impressive – but not a slamdunk – for Slumdog. Here are the top films, with at least a majority of four out of the possible nine:

2008 Slumdog — 5
2007 No Country for Old Men –5
2005 Brokeback Mountain — 6
2004 Sideways — 5
2003 ROTK — 6
2000 Gladiator — 4
1999 American Beauty – 6
1998 Saving Private Ryan — 6
1997 LA Confidential — 6
1995 Sense & Sensibility — 4

One final note, going all the way back to the mid 1940s when BAFTA and The Hollywood Foreign Press jumped into the game, joining the New York Critics and National Board of Review, “Braveheart” and “The Godfather Part 2” remain to this day the only Best Picture Oscar winners not to claim any of these other best pic award. Even “The Greatest Show on Earth” won a Golden Globe.