“A strong Oscar contender needs to keep moving, like a shark. Lose your forward momentum, and you’re dead. Which is how, this year, some high-priced Oscar consultants and strategists shot themselves in the foot. That’s because they were looking at some of the movies that did well in recent years, such late-starters as Shakespeare in Love, Traffic, Monster’s Ball, Million Dollar Baby, and Letters From Iwo Jima, and stealth campaigners that didn’t wear their Oscar hopes too loudly, like Martin Scorsese’s Best Picture winner, The Departed. They also noted that, on the other hand, Dreamgirls, Brokeback Mountain, and Flags of Our Fathers all stumbled after leading the pack as early front-runners”…. <More>
