Customer Reviews

Movie Awards: The Ultimate, Unofficial Guide to the Oscars, Golden Globes, Critics, Guild, & Indie Honors, Revised and Updated Edition

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While this book is fun for movie trivia fans, a reader has to wonder how much fact-checking was done. In addition to a number of typos, MOVIE AWARDS also claims that Cecil B. DeMille was in charge of "Ben-Hur" and "Count Your Blessings" won the Oscar as best song of 1954. ("Three Coins in the Fountain" won.)

A number of other equally careless errors that should have been caught prior to publication make MOVIE AWARDS unreliable as a reference.

Finally, all of these awards are in one book so we can see how they all affect each other! Author O'Neil likes to say "the Oscars are just the finish line in the annual film-awards derby" -- and he's right. What's really neat, though, is that, in this book, we get to see how all of the horses run in the big race year by year. I've got Tom O'Neil's other two books too (about the Emmys and Grammys) and they're really good, but this time he's outdone himself! The book came today and I CAN'T STOP reading it! The critics' awards are really SCANDALOUS. The best part of the book is the trivia section in the back. It covers who's won the most Golden Globes, DGA awards, NY critics circle awards and all that stuff. It's interesting to see how all the awards disagree on what movies (and how they all agree on Jack Nicholson -- why Jack?)

This book is a must have for every awards buff out there. It has inside information on every major awards group from the early beginning of '27-'28 up to the present. It's filled with trivia on all the major films that were up for awards, easily indexed and compiled by years. Author Tom O'Neil is an expert on how awards are awarded during awards season.

Finally, we have a resource which discusses a lot of the other so-called "precursor" awards to the Oscars ... finding information on the history of these various awards has been somewhat difficult in the past. With this book, however, it's all together in one place. It's very well written, and leads you through the movie awards seasons, allowing one to see exactly how the different trends for certain films began, and we finally see the path they took until they finally took home the Oscar Gold! Definitely one of the best overall resources for those interested in all aspects of the film awards season.

OK, so a few typos and mistakes made it into this book's first edition. They'll be fixed in future updates. Meantime, here's what to think of this book over all, according to the pros:

"For the film buff, this year-by-year rundown on the Oscars, the Golden Globes and other awards is a dilly. And dishy, too!" -- PEOPLE MAGAZINE

"Its a vertiable feast for the trivia junkie. Not only does O'Neil list the awards chronologically, from 1927 to 1999, but he also introduces each year with behind-the-scenes, blow-by-blow info culled from the archives of Variety, New York Times and a number of other sources. There's even trivia about each of the awards. While it's undeniably a fantastic reference, it's also a pretty darn good and frequently amusing read. It's a one-stop awards info shop and deserves a place on the bookshelf." -- DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA MAGAZINE

"Numerous excellent books chronicle the Oscars or cite awards, but none combines pure pleasure and fact so well, at such a good price. Essential for all libraries." -- LIBRARY JOURNAL

Thomas O'Neil's "Movie Awards" is an absolutely no lose purchase for even a casual movie maven. Serious movie fans should be enthralled. It's all here-all the important awards from 1927-1999. Listed are such disparate grantors as the New York Film Critics, the Writer's Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
Trivia and solid information alike abounds. This reviewer was shocked-shocked!-to read that "The Searchers" was nominated for NO awards in 1956. The pages devoted to 1969 make no mention of the Hollywood aphorism that John Wayne received that year's Best Actor Oscar (for "True Grit") to make up for being bypassed in 1956. The entire cast and Director of "The Searchers" was ignored! I also learned that Clark Gable did not win the Oscar for "Gone With the Wind" and that Tex Ritter's theme to "High Noon" won an Oscar in 1952. I still believe that is the best of the themes because it was an integral part of the actual movie. A trivia section informs us that Walter Brennan won the most Academy Awards for an actor (though not for "My Darling Clementine") and William Friedkin was the youngest Director to an Oscar. For which movie? Buy the book and check page 767. The very fact that there IS a page 767 indicates that this work cannot be devoured at one or two sittings. This is a thick handbook to be appreciated over a span of time as we watch those old classics one by one. Maybe when I read the section on 1949, I will learn why "The Third Man' got 0 Oscar nominations and why the entire cast of "A Letter to 3 Wives" went similarly empty handed. I can't wait.

Mr. O'Neil has done it again! His new book, Movie Awards, is fun to read and chock full of fascinating facts. Long a fan of his (I always watch him on E! network), I'm happy to see Mr. O'Neil finally take on the Oscars, having already covered the Emmy's and Grammy's previously. This book is a great read and is even more fun savored over the course of time as you pick out one fun fact...then another....then another...