John Goodman at the NYFF world premiere of "Flight"

Credit: AP Photo/Jason DeCrow/Invision

NEW YORK -- It's not like John Goodman hasn't been working consistently enough for a couple of decades, but the last two years have shown a stunning proliferation by anyone's measure. Last year he was featured in two eventual Best Picture nominees -- the Oscar-winning "The Artist" and Stephen Daldry's "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" -- as well as a recurring role on TV's "Community."

This year he's following that up with roles in a trio of awards season hopefuls ("Argo," "Flight" and "Trouble with the Curve") as well as some voice work in Henry Selick's "ParaNorman," while 2013 will bring the antagonist of "The Hangover: Part III," some more voice work in the much-anticipated Pixar sequel "Monsters University" and his fifth collaboration with the Coen brothers ("Inside Llewyn Davis").

Now it's time for the supporting ladies. The actresses who usually steal the movie out from under their leading lady or gentleman co-stars.  And unlike the past few years, 2012 seems to be something of a wide open race at the moment.

Leonardo DiCaprio in "Django Unchained."

Credit: The Weinstein Company

In case you'd never noticed, Quentin Tarantino makes pretty snappily dressed movies. From the monochrome suits of "Reservoir Dogs" to the Bride's mustard tracksuit in "Kill Bill," the man knows the iconic power of a garment. The Academy's costume branch has never shared his taste -- not even, surprisingly enough, when he went all period on their asses in "Inglourious Basterds." Chris Laverty wonders if the jazzy-looking "Django Unchained" wardrobe, designed by former nominee Sharen Davis, could finally break their resistance: he touches on her research for the project, and the relevance of the film's narrowly pre-Civil War setting. [Clothes On Film]

George Clooney and producing partner Grant Heslov at the New York premiere of "Argo."

Credit: AP Photo/Marion Curtis

On a slow news day for awards pundits, my mind got to wandering -- as is the rather tragic wont of awards pundits' minds -- to matters of trivia and statistics. When a colleague asked me to provide him with a list of the 2012 Oscar nominees that can, even at this early stage, be set in stone, one of the few titles I could comfortably jot down for inclusion, of course, was "Argo." Its current, widely perceived status as the Best Picture frontrunner isn't unassailable, but there are no grounds on which one can doubt its nomination: critically and commercially proven, popular in the industry, with no weaknesses in sight, it's officially in the black, as it were.

That means Ben Affleck can add at least one nomination -- well, with Best Director, almost certainly two -- to an Oscar record sheet that has remained unmarked since his joint screenplay win for "Good Will Hunting" 15 years ago. Win or lose, it's a happy turn of events for a career many thought was headed for punchline status a decade ago. But he's not the only major Hollywood star for whom an "Argo" nod would represent a milestone: some guy called George Clooney stands to make history with the film.  

Daniel Craig and his very subtly placed Omega watch in "Skyfall."

Credit: Columbia Pictures

On the one hand, it's totally unseemly and self-serving to put one's own article at the top of the daily roundup. On the other hand -- well, there is no other hand, but I'm doing it anyway. With "Skyfall" hitting UK screens on Friday, I donned my Guardian columnist hat to look into at the film's layered, long-haul promotional campaign, which combines stripped-down marketing materials -- posters focusing chiefly on the 007 brand, scarcely mentioning the A-list names involved -- with a relentless assault of brand placements and tie-ins, ranging from Heineken to Tom Ford to the Queen. (You tell me she isn't a brand.) The approach has box office pundits expecting the biggest-ever global gross for a Bond effort -- will it pay off with audiences? [The Guardian]  

"Searching for Sugar Man"

Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

The International Documentary Association Awards may be commonly labelled a precursor in the doc Oscar race, though that's not strictly the case -- as an independent-minded group, they frequently follow a very different path to the Academy's documentary branch. Last year, for example, their top prizewinner "Nostalgia for the Light" didn't crack the Academy's longlist, while eventual Oscar winner "Undefeated" wasn't tapped by the IDA. Would that more race saw this kind of divergence of opinion.

All of which is to say that the IDA's nominations, announced this morning, aren't any kind of harbinger of Oscar glory, though some high-profile films made the cut in their top category, including "Searching for Sugar Man" (which caught Kris's fancy in the summer) "Queen of Versailles" and "Central Park Five" (which I reviewed out of the LFF last week).

Critics' Choice Movie Awards

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

After a number of years partnered with VH1 for its annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the first televised film awards show of the season, the Broadcast Film Critics Association has announced that the 18th annual telecast will be broadcast on The CW network.

Also included in the announcement is the now-official date of January 10, 2013 for the show, which, yes, is the same day as the Oscar nominations. So there ought to be some interesting, awkward heartbreak on the red carpet for the inevitable BFCA nominees who were shafted by the Academy. This is the first time the awards are being held after the Oscar nominations announcement.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" received the award for Original Score of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards.

Credit: Focus Features

If you forget the current Oscar race for a minute, and cast your mind all the way back to the start of this year, you may recall that Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias nabbed what rather surprisingly turned out to be the only below-the-line nomination for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."

He inevitably lost to Ludovic Bource for "The Artist," but I wasn't the only one who thought his moody, jazz-infused score for the British spy thriller deserved the win -- and not only because his tonally contrasting, predictably unnominated work on Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In" was equally strong.

Months later, Iglesias has received his due, winning Composer of the Year for both films (plus French thriller "The Monk") at the World Soundtrack Awards, presented this weekend at the Ghent International Film Festival in Belgium.

John Goodman, Alan Arkin and Ben Affleck in "Argo."

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

"Paranormal Activity 4" may have topped the box office this weekend, but the story of the chart remains "Argo" -- which, by dipping just 15% to take $16.6 million, posted the strongest ever hold for a live-action film on a non-holiday weekend. Warner Bros. are said to be confident the film will reach at least $90 million domestically, which is a pretty extraordinary projection these days for a film about grown-ups in which nobody wears a cape. All of which underlines the immediate reaction I had upon finally seeing the film for myself last week: combining that strong populist appeal with old-fashioned craftsmanship, rousing political history and Hollywood insider lore, it's unequivocally the one to beat for Best Picture. [Variety]

Steven Spielberg on "60 Minutes"

Credit: CBS

"Lincoln" director Steven Spielberg was featured tonight on CBS' "60 Minutes" tonight, and the segment pretty much put the guy on the couch, digging into his family life and history in order to find a defining thread connecting all of his legendary films.

The thing they settle on is a portfolio about the outsider, with Spielberg noting everything from his long-time denial of his Judaism to a 15-year time of estrangement from a father he finally reconciled with nearly 20 years ago. They also get his parents to sit down and discuss the impact Spielberg's early life has had on him and the impressions left, etc., but keep coming back to a sense of shattered ties ultimately informing a lot of his work over the years, right up to and including his latest.

"I saw a paternal father figure, someone who was stubbornly committed to his ideals," he said of Abraham Lincoln, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in the film. "He was living with two agendas, both of which had to do with healing: to abolish slavery/end the war, but he also had his personal life, and I think there's darkness there."