- The Academy Award ‘Precursors’ are second tier awards from Critics Groups and Professional Guilds.
- Hollywood observers follow ‘Precursor’ results trying to predict the Academy Award winners.
- The Costume Designers Guild Award Winners will be announced on Tuesday, January 28 2020 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
We’re in the stretch run to the 92nd Academy Awards to be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. In the meantime, the ‘precursor’ awards will continue apace. The precursor awards are preliminary events typically put on by film critics, the media or in this case a professional guild within ‘the industry’. These precursor awards are significant for several reasons, at least in terms of predicting what will happen on Oscar night.
On a ‘micro’ level, many of these awards–particularly the professional guilds like the Directors Guild or Costume Designers Guild–are voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and actually vote on the Oscars. On a ‘macro’ level, a close reading of the precursor awards can reveal if an Oscar favorite is consolidating their support or if that support is eroding. Equally as important is the mood of the entertainment and film media.
EVEN MORE ABOUT THE PRECURSOR AWARDS
In our preview of the 72nd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards odds a day or two ago we covered the ‘Precursors’ and their significance in detail. In particular, the Cinema Sight website gives a succinct explanation of what the precursors are:
The Academy Awards is one of the few major prizes that has generated more than its fair share of preliminary contests, frequently known as precursors. These precursors sometimes influence, sometimes prognosticate and sometimes go their own way. Below are the precursor awards that precede the Academy Awards.
There are three groups that are highlighted here. Industry Guilds, other Organizations and Critics. As an added bonus, I’ve created a separate page that shows when each group started handing out awards. The list will be sorted alphabetically by group, chronologically by group and chronologically in comparison. Some of these even pre-date the Oscars if you can believe it.
Another website, Awards Circuit, has section devoted to coverage of the various precursor awards that is well worth bookmarking if you’re looking to handicap the Academy Awards:
PRECURSORS @ AWARDSCIRCUIT.COM
THE COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD AWARDS
As you’d likely surmise, the Costume Designers honorifics aren’t considered as influential within the industry as the Directors Guild Awards that take place a couple of days earlier. For one thing, the CDG is a much smaller and narrowly focused organization. According to their website, the CDG is comprised of approximately ‘875 Costume Designers, Commercial Costume Designers/Stylists, Assistant Costume Designers, and Illustrators working throughout the world in every kind of moving picture including motion picture, television, animation, commercials, and music video.’ By way of contrast, the Directors Guild has a membership of over 18,000.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD AWARDS
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD AWARD CEREMONY
22ND COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD (CDG)AWARDS 2020 BETTING ODDS
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY FILM
Knives Out +200 Hustlers +225 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood +300 The Laundromat +450 Queen and Slim +450
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PERIOD FILM
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood +200 Dolomite Is My Name +250 Rocketman +275 Jojo Rabbit +450 Downtown Abbey +450
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCI FI/FANTASY FILM
Avengers: Endgame +175 Aladdin +225 Captain Marvel +300 Maleficent: Mistress of Evil +500 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker +500
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION
Fleabag +225 Russian Doll +225 Killing Eve +250 Schitt's Creek +450 Big Little Lies +450
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PERIOD TELEVISION
Fosse/Verdon +150 The Crown +225 GLOW +350 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel +500 Chernobyl +500
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCI FI/FANTASY TELEVISION
Game of Thrones +185 Watchmen +250 The Handmaid's Tale +250 Carnival Row +500 A Series of Unfortunate Events +500
TO WIN CDG AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN VARIETY, REALITY-COMPETITION, LIVE TELEVISION
The Masked Singer +200 RuPaul's Drag Race +200 Dancing With the Stars +300 Late Late Show with James Corden +500 Saturday Night Live +500