Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

“Argo” picked up another win last weekend as Ben Affleck walked away with the DGA prize. The film keeps on keeping on but how much of its success is really tied to sympathy over an Oscar snub? Who’s overstating what?

The annual Nominees Luncheon was held Monday and Anne was there judging the applause-o-meter, whether hot (Ang Lee) or lukewarm (Jennifer Lawrence).

The Annie Awards were also held last weekend and “Wreck-It Ralph” was the big winner. Is that forecast for the Oscars or is Pixar’s “Brave” lurking as a real possibility to spoil?

Speaking of animation, we dive into the shorts this week with an analysis of the Best Animated Short category.

The Visual Effects Society Awards were also held, where “Life of Pi” was predictably the big winner. We consider that to be the easiest category to predict on Oscar night.

And finally, reader questions are back! We address the aforementioned “sympathy” play on Affleck’s snub and the notion that it doesn’t have the “gravitas” to be a Best Picture winner.

Have a listen to the new podcast below. If the file cuts off for you at any time, try the back-up download link at the bottom of this post. You to subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here. And as always, if you have a question you’d like us to address on a future podcast, send it to OscarTalk@HitFix.com.

“Here I Come” courtesy of Stuart Park.