Is the Argo juggernaut unstoppable?

The Ben Affleck film won best picture at the British Academy Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, Sunday. This coming on top of similar awards from the Producers Guild, Director’s Guild, Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes.

Will the Best Picture Oscar go to a film other than Argo? At this point it doesn’t seem likely.

The Academy Awards are only two weeks from now and voting got underway Friday: Argo’s awards momentum can impact Academy voters. More importantly the film has bested the other Oscar nominated films head to head.

It is one hell of a picture.

In addition to being named BAFTA’s Best Picture, Affleck won as Best Director and William Goldenberg won for editing (he was also nominated for the editing award for Zero Dark Thirty).

85-year old Emmanuelle Riva won in the Leading Actress category for Amour. The award is well deserved, she gives an amazing performance. However, her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant gives an equally moving performance and frankly deserves some awards recognition himself.

Riva has a legitimate shot at the Oscar as well.

The other nominees were Helen Mirren for Hitchcock, Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty and Marion Cottilard for Rust and Bone.

Amour also won Best Picture in the ‘Not in the English Language’ category. This also bodes well for its win for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It is also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but as I said, it is difficult to see any winner other than Argo. I think it highly likely that Amour will take the Foreign Language Oscar.
It, too, is a hell of a picture.

Daniel Day-Lewis won the Leading Actor award. It was the only award Lincoln received from 10 nominations. The other nominees were Ben Affleck for Argo, Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook, Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables and Joaquin Phoenix for The Master.

Anne Hathaway won Supporting Actress for Les Miserables and seems destined to win the Oscar as well. Also nominated were Amy Adams for The Master, Judi Dench for Skyfall, Sally Field for Lincoln and my personal choice and favorite Helen Hunt for The Sessions.

Christoph Waltz won the Supporting Actor award for Django Unchained. Also nominated were Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master, Alan Arkin for Argo, Javier Bardem for Skyfall and Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln. I continue to believe that Jones will win the Oscar. He won the Screen Actors Guild Award and the actors branch is the largest voting memberhsip of the Academy.