UPDATE -- I did pretty alright -- 17/24 -- same as last year. At least I'm consistent, right? The show was alright. Billy Crystal was a little stodgy, I thought. It felt a tiny bit dated, but nicely reverent to cinema. A few surprises -- some good (Hugo for Cinematography), some bad (Girl with a Dragon Tattoo for editing, The Artist for Costumes), and some indifferent (Meryl for Best Actress who was very, very good in Iron Lady, but I kinda wanted Viola Davis to take it). A couple of nice moments -- Emma Stone and Ben Stiller had the best "host banter" and the Best in Show folks' take on The Wizard of Oz was a hoot -- and just like that the "year in cinema" has come to an end.
Here are my Oscar predictions for a year that contains many movies I like (surprisingly) in the Top Nine contenders for Best Picture. We'll see how abysmal I do when I tally up the results Sunday around 11:30pm...
Best Picture - CORRECT
Will Win: The Artist
Should Win: Hugo
Best Director - CORRECT
Will Win: Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Should Win: Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Best Actor - CORRECT
Will Win: Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Should Win: George Clooney - The Descendants
Best Actress - WRONG (Meryl Streep)
Will Win: Viola Davis - The Help
Should Win: Viola Davis
Best Supporting Actor - CORRECT
Will Win: Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Should Win: Christopher Plummer
Best Supporting Actress - CORRECT
Will Win: Octavia Spencer - The Help
Should Win: Jessica Chastain - The Help
Best Adapted Screenplay - CORRECT
Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: Hugo
Best Original Screenplay - CORRECT
Will Win: Midnight in Paris
Should Win: Bridesmaids
Best Art Direction - CORRECT
Will Win: Hugo
Should Win: Hugo
Best Cinematography - WRONG (Hugo)
Will Win: The Artist
Should Win: The Tree of Life
Best Costume Design - Jane Eyre - WRONG (The Artist -- almost went w/ this, too)
Best Film Editing - The Artist - WRONG (Girl w/ the Dragon Tattoo)
Best Make-up - The Iron Lady - CORRECT
Original Score - The Artist - CORRECT
Original Song - "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets - CORRECT
Best Sound Editing - Hugo - CORRECT
Best Sound Mixing - Hugo - CORRECT
Best Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes - WRONG (Hugo)
Best Foreign Language Film - A Separation - CORRECT
Best Animated Film - Rango - CORRECT
Best Documentary Feature - Undefeated - CORRECT
Best Documentary Short - The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom - WRONG
Best Short Film Animated - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - CORRECT
Best Short Film Live Action - Tuba Atlantic - WRONG
I've reached the point where I don't give a shit about the Oscars at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a circle jerk without the surprise at the end.
I dislike that not only can the winners be predicted easily but the freakin' nominees can be predicted with relative ease.
Do you know how I convinced my girlfriend to watch the Artist? "Well, it's probably going to win Best Picture"
And I was right!
It's the unfortunate build-up to the Oscars that is causing the Oscars themselves to now feel like an afterthought. Every now and then -- I think back to the Hurt Locker/Avatar year -- you get a Best Picture category that's seemingly too close to call, but too often, the various guild awards, the Globes (which for some unknown reason carry some esteem), the British Academy Awards (which all happen in the 40 days prior to the Oscars) make things a foregone conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there were some surprises last night. Meryl Streep winning (though perhaps undeserved even though she was the only thing good about Iron Lady...and she'll likely end up on my Best List which I'll get around to at some point in time), Hugo winning Visual Effects and Cinematography, Dragon Tattoo winning Editing (totally undeserved as I actually thought it was poorly edited). I'll settle with the fact that these, to me, were surprises which at least made the night an enjoyable one for me.
But, man, if the Muppets hadn't won, I may have given up watching movies forever...