Sunday, February 24, 2013

Oscar Predictions


I typically do not cut this so close, but life had different plans for me. Of the Best Picture nominees I only managed to see four. Back in the day, that was 80 percent of them. Now, a measly 44 percent. But slowly we are getting away from the (what I think is) ridiculous number of ten. I will also be missing the beginning of the ceremony for the first time that I can remember, and it is affecting me far more than it should.

I also decided to do something different with the Best Picture noms. Of the ones I saw, I tossed them in rankings. Just for kicks. As for the rest:

Should Win
Will Win  

Here we go...

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominees:

Amour  
Argo 
Beasts of the Southern Wild 
Django Unchained 
Les Misérables 
Life of Pi 
Lincoln 
Silver Linings Playbook 
Zero Dark Thirty 

My Order:
1.)Django Unchained
2.)Argo
3.)Beasts of the Southern Wild
*4.)Les Miserables

*I thought about adding a bunch of empty slots and putting Les Mis last, you know, as a half-joke, but the last time I spoke of that film I annoyed my anonymous commenting crowd so...we'll just leave it at it's a joke of a nomination. In my opinion! Cool it down commenter from my last post. It'll be okay.

Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:

Michael Haneke for Amour 
Ang Lee for Life of Pi 
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook 
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln 
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild 

*It Should be Quentin Tarantino, but that's besides the point.


Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:

Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook 
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln 
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables 
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master 
Denzel Washington for Flight 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees:

Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty 
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook 
Emmanuelle Riva for Amour 
*Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild 
Naomi Watts for The Impossible 


*I will say, as the only film I saw of these nominees, I did feel like my hand was forced a bit. This is the subject for a whole different blog, but I'm not sure if I agree with my own decision. Don't get me wrong, she gives a very impressive performance for her age...but that's just it. At her age, how much of her performance is her choices and how much is just doing what she's told? How much did she really understand? I don't know, and to be honest, I'd love to learn more about the process to find out. I might just be overly critical because of the hype, and I will admit, the film didn't quite meet its hype for me so I might be biased. I don't know...I'm iffy on it.

Anyway.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

Alan Arkin for Argo 
Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook 
Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master 
Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln 
Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

Amy Adams for The Master 
Sally Field for Lincoln
Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables 
Helen Hunt for The Sessions 
Jacki Weaver for Silver Linings Playbook 

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominees:

Amour : Michael Haneke
Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino
Flight: John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Nominees:

Argo: Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: David Magee
Lincoln: Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Nominees:

Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie: Tim Burton
ParaNorman: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits: Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph: Rich Moore

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Nominees:

Amour 
War Witch 
No 
A Royal Affair 
Kon-Tiki 

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Nominees:

Anna Karenina: Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained: Robert Richardson
Life of Pi: Claudio Miranda
Lincoln: Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall: Roger Deakins




Best Achievement in Editing
Nominees:

Argo : William Goldenberg
Life of Pi: Tim Squyres
Lincoln: Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty: William Goldenberg, Dylan Tichenor

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Nominees:

Anna Karenina: Dario Marianelli
Argo: Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi: Mychael Danna
Lincoln: John Williams
Skyfall: Thomas Newman

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Nominees:

Chasing Ice: J. Ralph("Before My Time")
Les Misérables : Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer("Suddenly")
Life of Pi : Mychael Danna, Bombay Jayshree("Pi's Lullaby")
Skyfall : Adele, Paul Epworth("Skyfall")
Ted : Walter Murphy, Seth MacFarlane("Everybody Needs a Best Friend")

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Nominees:

The Avengers: Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, Daniel Sudick
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
Life of Pi : Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, Donald Elliott
Prometheus: Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley, Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Phil Brennan, Neil Corbould, Michael Dawson

There they are. Just some fun little predictions. Enjoy the show tomorrow, I'm sure Seth will.