Oscar Sunday

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will air tonight at 8:30pm. I've watched two thirds of the films, read other people's predictions, and made my own. I think James and Anne will make a good duo, and I'm sure there will be lots of hideous dresses (Tilda...), so I'm pretty excited for the show tonight! Also, my apologies for the odd formatting of this post, I don't know why it looks so weird, or how to fix it. Oh well.


Out of the 56 nominated films I've watched 36 (the same amount as last year), and I've seen all the films in 15 out of 24 categories (also the same amount as last year). Trying to watch all the nominated films is a goal destined for failure, as it has been impossible to find all the films (through both legitimate means and otherwise). It also requires a LOT of time- this year I skipped a few films that I found because I couldn't find the rest of the films in their category, just to save time. So that's why next year I'm going to make a more realistic goal: I'm only going to focus on the best picture nominees, and a few other categories that I'll be able to complete easily.

Back to this year's show, I was worried that reading predictions online would be like cheating, but the differences in predictions between sources in some categories is crazy (not so much in others... such as best animated feature- no one thinks Toy Story 3 can possibly lose, and I agree). So I made my predictions by taking into account a variety of sources and the reasons behind their choices, as well as my own understanding of the categories and my opinions about the films.


My predictions are below: the films I haven't seen are in gray, there is one purple asterisk beside my favourite in the category (a lot of categories have more than one favourite... I'm really indecisive, lol) and three asterisks beside my pick to win. How should I celebrate if most of my predictions are correct?? 

Actor in a Leading Role

·        Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”

·        Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”

·        Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”

·        Colin Firth in “The King's Speech” ***

·        James Franco in “127 Hours” *

Actor in a Supporting Role

·        Christian Bale in “The Fighter” * ***

·        John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”

·        Jeremy Renner in “The Town”

·        Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”

·        Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech” *

Actress in a Leading Role

·        Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”

·        Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” *

·        Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone” *

·        Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” ***

·        Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actress in a Supporting Role

·        Amy Adams in “The Fighter”

·        Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”

·        Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”

·        Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit” * ***

·        Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom” *

Animated Feature Film

·        “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois *

·        “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet

·        “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich  * ***

Art Direction

·        “Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara * ***

·        “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

·        “Inception” 
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat

·        “The King's Speech” 
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr

·        “True Grit” 
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

·        “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique *

·        “Inception” Wally Pfister * ***

·        “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen

·        “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth

·        “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

·        “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood *

·        “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi

·        “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan ***

·        “The Tempest” Sandy Powell

·        “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing

·        “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky *

·        “The Fighter” David O. Russell

·        “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper

·        “The Social Network” David Fincher ***

·        “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)

·        “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz *

·        “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic

·        “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs ***

·        “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

·        “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley - (This documentary looks SO cool!! I couldn't find it anywhere though).

Documentary (Short Subject)

·        “Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein

·        “Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block

·        “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon ***

·        “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger

·        “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

·        “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum

·        “The Fighter” Pamela Martin * (Here's why:  
I know that the real fight and the movie fight aren't exactly the same, but the way the fight is shown in the film preserves enough of the integrity of the real fight while making it serve the purpose of the film as a whole- they got the balance right. In my opinion The Fighter should have been nominated for best cinematography, but since it wasn't I think it should win in this category. However, I don't think it will).

·        “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar

·        “127 Hours” Jon Harris *

·        “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter ***

Foreign Language Film

·        “Biutiful” Mexico

·        “Dogtooth” Greece

·        “In a Better World” Denmark ***

·        “Incendies” Canada

·        “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

·        “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot

·        “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng

·        “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey ***

Music (Original Score)

·        “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell

·        “Inception” Hans Zimmer

·        “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat

·        “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman *

·        “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross * *** 

Music (Original Song)

·        “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey

·        “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater

·        “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong * ***

·        “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture <--Click for hilarious gifs from the Best Picture nominees

·        “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers 

·        “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers

·        “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers 

·        “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers

·        “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers ***

·        “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers * (I really liked all the films in this category, but 127 hours just shone a little brighter for me. Unfortunately though, it doesn't seem to stand a chance for Best Picture).

·        “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers

·        “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer

·        “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

·        “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated) (These films are all on iTunes, and they're REALLY good, so I highly recommend checking them out!)

·        “Day & Night” Teddy Newton * ***

·        “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang

·        “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe *

·        “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

·        “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action) (These films are also all on iTunes, and they're also REALLY good, so I highly recommend checking them out as well!)

·        “The Confession” Tanel Toom

·        “The Crush” Michael Creagh *

·        “God of Love” Luke Matheny

·        “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt 

·        “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite * ***

Sound Editing

·        “Inception” Richard King ***

·        “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers

·        “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague

·        “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey

·        “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger *

Sound Mixing (In all honesty I have no idea what the difference is between sound editing and sound mixing, which is why Inception is my prediction for both).

·        “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick * ***

·        “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley

·        “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin

·        “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten

·        “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

·        “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips *

·        “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi

·        “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell

·        “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb * ***

·        “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

·        “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy *

·        “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin ***

·        “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich

·        “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

·        “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

·        “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh

·        “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson

·        “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan

·        “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg *

·        “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler ***