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.