With the Oscars officially in the rearview mirror, we can finally stop talking about how bad the Academy dropped the ball in the Best Director category and the (really random) internet hatred of Anne Hathaway, but not until I get one more column out of it.

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As previously discussed, it would seem that every actor is capable of giving an award-worthy performance. Many times, after that one performance, the performer will go back to the same level of (mediocre) performances and if that great performance happens to be the first, or one of the first, performances of an actor’s career, it is often downhill from there. (See: Berenger, Tom)

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As Oscar Season draws to a close, “Argo” has all the momentum riding into Sunday nights. It has won the equivalent of Best Picture at basically every awards show held over the past two months. Prior to the Golden Globes, Las Vegas had put 7-2 odds on “Argo” winning the Golden Globe Best Picture. In fact, it has now passed “Lincoln” as the favorite (Probably. Gambling numbers are confusing) and is the most popular bet to grab.

All the attention and accolades really does beg the question, though, of how this happened. “Argo” was not a movie that was supposed to garner this attention. As previously mentioned in this very space, the film’s director Ben Affleck was not nominated for Best Director, a situation that has produced only three Best Picture winners in history. Clearly, when nominations were announced way back in the beginning of January, the perception of “Argo” was that of a good, not great, movie.

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The Academy Awards are a few weeks ago and, as a result, “Tony’s Talking: Movies” will be presenting several Oscar-related posts in the weeks leading up to the awards.

Of the 20 acting-related nominees this year, four are first-time nominees or less than half the number of first-time nominees from last year. Generally, the number of first-time nominees fall somewhere between those two and, in hindsight, some signal the beginning of a great career and others are an odd footnote in a performer’s career. This year, one of the first-time nominees, Quvenzhané Wallis, was born in 2003 and was appearing in her first film. A second, Emmanuelle Riva, does not make English-language movies and, as a result, it is nearly impossible to get on the Academy’s radar. The other two Oscar virgins, though, present an interesting question and could perfectly bookend what a first Oscar nomination can do.

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