This issue isn't your average cash-in-on-Oscar-fever special edition. It's a labor of love, and it reflects the HuffPost team's peculiar take on the Academy Awards: seductive yet infuriating, glamorous yet grubby, essential yet ultimately meaningless.

Stop me if you have heard this one before: On Saturday night, "Argo" director Ben Affleck defeated "Lincoln" director Steven Spielberg for a significant precursor award.

We're closing in on the big night -- it's less than two weeks away -- and with a dip in the calendar, it finally feels like the right time to investigate the Best Documentary category. Being a dilettante, I have failed to see even one of the nominated films thus far -- too busy watching gems like "Identity Thief," I suppose -- but this is a two-man operation, and I know you've been quite excited about this category for some time.

I still don't see "Silver Linings" gaining the kind of momentum it would need to call "Argo" back to the runway (only one more week of this metaphor, Chris, I swear!), but the campaign could help Russell win Best Adapted Screenplay and even Best Director.

After five months of speculation both outlandish ("The Master" for Best Picture!) and not so outlandish ("Argo" for Best Picture!), the Oscars are one day away. All that's left is the tired cliche about the shouting. We've made our Oscar predictions already, so now it's time to help those loyal readers who find themselves participating in Oscar pools on Sunday night. (Print your ballot here.) Ahead, five left-field picks that could help you secure glory in the living room and the office.

Championship sports teams get to prove on the field of competition that they are the best in the world -- or at least the league. By contrast, Oscar hopefuls must persuade a jury of their peers that they are worthy of the name "Best." In recent years, that campaign of persuasion has turned into a six-month marathon, costing tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. It's as if the NFL's playoff contenders spent the entire postseason trying to get the refs to look kindly on their regular season games, instead of playing any new ones.

A group of Westboro Baptist Church protesters brought their signature brand of in-your-face activism to Hollywood today, chanting and waving signs wit...

Memo to Oscar host Seth MacFarlane: it's still too soon for Lincoln assassination jokes. In an arguably tasteless reference to the fact that the ma...

After the last of the 85th Annual Academy Awards were handed out, ending a months-long saga of premieres, positioning, ego-stroking and dirt-slinging,...

Well, Mike, Oscar season -- which started when "Argo" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last August -- is finally, mercifully over.