We are currently in Emmys Season. Television is the hot topic, but that never means we have to abandon our Oscar Predictions. I have said many times that every predictions before July are plane guessing, but lets face it…guessing is fun.

Last year, in May I had my Best Picture predictions up, and I had 5 of the 9 eventual BP nominees in my list (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Django Unchained and Les Miserables). That’s not bad at all for early predictions, so take it that there is at least 3-4 future Best Picture nominees in my TOP 10, this month.

This month I took more care on the technical front (visuals, sounds…). Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 are already out, and both of this films are in my list of future Visual Effects nominations. Gravity is the leader in there, based on the trailer+hype+being the only obvious movie in that category to have a shot at Best Picture nomination. Let’s not forget that for the last 5 years every winner for Best Visual Effects was also a Best Picture nominee (2008 – Benjamin Button, 2009 – Avatar, 2010 – Inception, 2011 – Hugo and 2012 – Life of Pi).

There are few films that I have pleased in various categories due to the ”I have a hunch.” I believe that Gore Verbinski’s ”The Lone Ranger” will do better than most expect in the tech. field.  Sure, it will all depend on the critical reception. I also am very interested on ”’Pacific Rim” Guillermo del Toro’s new epic. The movie looks epic, and yet it look a bit dum. But Del Toro is an amazing director and we have hopes. The movie do look like a strong contender for Visual Effects.  CLICK ON THE POINTER FOR THE PREDICTIONS …

in 2007, the Golden Europe Critics created the Television branch. It deals with a select TV Series (what we chose as BEST) and we give those shows our support in form of symbolic, Internet awards.  The very first Television Awards in 2008 and 2009, the big victor for Drama Series was Seasons 1 and 2 of ”Breaking Bad”. Then the  following year (2010), the honor went to the Fourth Season of ”Dexter.” both shows faced great competition in their respective years, including each other. We hadn’t had an idea what was coming.

In 2010-2011, HBO premiered two new shows. ”Boardwalk Empire” – a crime drama set in 1920 Atlantic City with all star cinema cast lead by Steve Buscemi and Martin Scorsese as producer and director for the pilot.  The show went on becoming the most nominated show by our organization with 19 nominations. But the second show that HBO premiered that same season, was the big knocker we did not expect.

”Game of Thrones” was a show that we, the Golden Europe Voters expected, due to the amazing trailers and clips prior the premiere. there was only one of us, who had read the books, and the rest, expected a big player in the technical field, and maybe nomination in Drama. But we did not expect the birth of the ultimate Drama series. The Lord of the Rings of Television.

The Series premiered, and we immediately fall in love with it. But it wasn’t until episode 6 ”A Golden Crown” of the season we started to realize that this was our Drama Series front runner. Then, episode 9 (called ”Baelor”) hit, and it sealed the deal. This was our new Drama Champion. After finishing Boardwalk Empire’s first season five months earlier, we did not expect to see a show that can beat it. We were wrong. Game of Thrones even beat Boardwalk Empire with nominations, outscoring it’s 19 nomination with 21 of it’s own.

When voting closed and we released the list of winners in July 2011, HBO had won 14 of the Drama Series awards. 9 for Game of Thrones (including Drama Series) and 5 for Boardwalk Empire (including Ensemble). CLICK THE POINTER FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE >>>

When we first heard about the Hannibal TV Series we were all but uber exited. Then we learned that NBC will produce the series, and we became a bit worried. NBC hasn’t made a quality drama since the first season of ”Heroes.” They always were good in comedies, but not drama. And the biggest worries were that Hannibal Lecter’s story is bloody, creepy and scary – something that is not expected from NBC.

Now, after viewing the first two episodes, all my worries are gone. The visual stile is marvelous, the acting – superb, and the writing and directing in a very good quality.

Comparing the two episodes, I have to say that episode 2 was better. The story was much more contained, and the dialog was just top quality.

But the series is good, mostly because of it’s two leads. Hugh Dancy (Husband of reigning Drama Actress Golden Europe Champion Claire Danes) is just amazing as Will Graham. He was a bit overacting in the first episode, but got it just right in the second. His truly tortured soul and a great mind, just as Will Graham has to be.

Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal in of course the big topic of discussion. To fill the shoes of Anthony Hopkins is a job impossible. That’s why the creators of the show created their own version of Hannibal Lecter, and Mikkelsen is amazing in it. In the first episode he was good, but little disappointing, but in the second he was just the Hannibal I imagined.

Overall, the series is off to a great start with lots of Awards potential from the Golden Europe. The series of course passed the 65% yes votes, and will be viewed for a complete first season, and if the quality keeps, the series might got some major nominations form the Golden Europe. At least from me, it will.