Movie Award Show Season Events and Honors

List of all events - including prizes, critics awards, film festivals and guild awards - making up the award show season. Award show season consists of a variety of events and honors for the "best movie of the year," and culminates in the Academy Awards ceremony, usually some time in February or March of the following year. A number of these previous film awards and commemorations are seen as predictive or influential in choosing the eventual Oscar winner, and the influence of various nominations or awards is always an intense subject of debate among industry insiders and film bloggers.

Among 2011 films, "Tree of Life" (which won prizes ranging from the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival to the Toronto Film Critics Association selection as "Film of the Year") and "The Artist" seemed to particularly benefit from award season buzz and eventually were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

However, success during the award season is never a guarantee of success on Oscar night. Films such as "We Need to Talk About Kevin," "Take Shelter" and "Drive" from 2011 proved popular among film critics and professional guild members, but not with the Academy.