An anonymous reader has found an intriguing stat that favors a “CODA” Best Picture win on Sunday night. It turns out that either winning the PGA and/or one of the two WGA awards is considered to be the most essential path to winning BP:
“Just discovered something interesting. With one exception (MILLION DOLLAR BABY in 2004), the Best Picture Oscar has always gone to a film that either won the PGA OR one of the two WGA awards. THE POWER OF THE DOG only won a DGA, and I'd be shocked if Campion doesn't win Best Director. But it didn't win the PGA or the WGA. CODA won both.”
“With the exception of the eight-year streak we saw between 2007 (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) and 2014 (BIRDMAN), the PGA isn't always an accurate Best Picture predictor. It's only been "right" three out of the past six years. However, the Oscar has gone to the PGA winner OR one of the two WGA winners EVERY SINGLE TIME since GLADIATOR won in 2000. No, pattern recognition isn't everything. After all, PARASITE broke the losing streak for foreign-language movies the year after ROMA lost. But if history tells us anything, it's that the Best Picture Oscar will go to a movie with either a PGA or a WGA. CODA fits that bill. So does DON'T LOOK UP. But the latter isn't gonna win. The former is.”
“I went all the way back to 1989, too. UNFORGIVEN was the only Best Picture winner that didn't win a PGA or a WGA beforehand. And while most of the eventual Best Picture winners were PGA winners (rather than WGA winners), the fact of the matter remains that the Best Picture winner has been EITHER a PGA winner or a WGA winner almost every single time since 1989.“