The Descendants, Breaking Bad, & Homeland Receive Industry Awards

Oscar ballots are due tomorrow and the Academy Awards are next Sunday. But while we all wait, there were plenty of other awards being given out this weekend and it was The Descendants that got most of the love in the film side of things perhaps signaling the possibility of the tides turning in its favor.

First, the ACE Eddie Awards which honors editing both in film and television. The winners are:

Feature Dramatic Film: The Descendants
Feature Comedic or Musical Film: The Artist
Animated Feature Film: Rango
Half-Hour TV Series: Curb Your Enthusiasm
One-Hour Commercial TV Series: Breaking Bad
One-Hour Non-Commercial TV Series: Homeland

Yes, Oscar front-runner The Artist won as well, but more often than not the drama winner repeats at the Academy Awards and Editing-Best Picture are also quite closely related. As for TV, I'm glad two of my top ten TV shows of last year were awarded here. For the rest of the ACE Eddie Awards winners, click here.

It was more of the same at the Writers Guild Awards which of course honors screenwriters. The winners are:

Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants
Documentary Screenplay: Better This World
Drama Series: Breaking Bad
Comedy Series: Modern Family
New Series: Homeland

Breaking Bad and Homeland rule again here as they did with the Eddies. They even tied in the Episodic Drama category. For film, the two films most everyone expected to win, won. They both could very well repeat at the Oscars, but there were too many films ruled ineligible by the WGA that were nominated by the Academy that things could still shift. The Descendants has a better chance than Midnight in Paris especially since the latter faces greater competition in The Artist or even A Separation. The Descendants might still be worried for Hugo or Moneyball, but it has momentum those two other films don't, at least in this particular category. To note, this film also won this year's USC Scripter prize going it 2 for 2 in adapted screenplay honors this weekend. It's not one of my favorite films of the year and I'm in fact confused as why everyone seems to love this film, but I'm happy that Descendants co-writer Jim Rash of Community fame is getting his share of the spotlight. For the complete list of WGA winners, click here.

Finally, just a few more notable awards results from this very busy weekend:
- War Horse, Super 8, Hugo, and The Adventures of Tintin picked up top honors at the MPSE Golden Reel Awards
- Hugo and Boardwalk Empire won at the Cinema Audio Society Awards
- The Help and Jumping the Broom swept the film categorizes over at the NAACP Image Awards including wins for Oscar-nominated Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer