Academy Awards - My Annual Predictions

Growing older, watching time marching by, one can only sit and find amusement at how certain rituals and customs are performed purely for the sake of performing them. I really wish I could utilize the word 'perfunctory' somewhere in the above sentence, an impossible task it would seem since my writing skills have diminished somewhat from general lack of practice.

In any case, my annual Oscar predictions have fallen in the above perfunctory ritual, serving me neither pleasure in presenting my analysis nor grief in having lost a once much loved past time.

Here goes -

Best Director

1. Darren Arofonsky - Black Swan
2. David Fincher - Social Network -- Winner
3. Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
4. David O'Russell - The Fighter
5. Christopher Nolan - Inception

Best Movie (Assuming Academy is still going with hare brained scheme of nominating 10 movies....)

1. The King's Speech
2. Social Network -- Winner
3. The Fighter
4. Inception
5. Toy Story III
6. Black Swan
7. 127 Hours
8. Blue Valentine
9. The Winter's Bone
10. The Kids are alright

Possible sneaker(s)- True Grit


Best Actor

1. Colin Firth - King's Speech -- Winner
2. Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network
3. James Franco - 127 Hours
4. Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine
5. Kevin Spacey - Casino Jack

Possible sneakers - Javier Bardem (Biutiful); Mark Wahlberg (Fighter); Jeff Bridges (True Grit); Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)

Best Actress

1. Natalie Portman - Black Swan -- Get your speech ready.
2. Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
3. Annette Bening - The Kids are Alright
4. Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
5. Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

Possible sneakers - Julianne Moore - The Kids are Alright

Best Supporting Actor

1. Christian Bale - The Fighter -- Winner
2. Geoffrey Rush - King's Speech
3. Andrew Garfield - Social Network
4. Jeremy Renner - The Town
5. Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are alright)

Possible sneaker(s) - Matt Damon (True grit), Jim Broadbent - Another Year

Best Supporting Actress

1. Melissa Leo - The Fighter -- Close.
2. Helena Bonham Carter - King's Speech
3. Amy Adams - The Fighter
4. Barbara Hershey - Black Swan
5. Hailee Steinfield - True Grit

Possible sneaker(s) - Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Screenplay (Adapted)

1. Social Network -- Winner
2. The King's Speech
3. The Ghost Writer
4. True Grit
5. 127 Hours

Possible sneaker(s)- The Town

Best Screenplay (Original)

1. Black Swan
2. Biutiful
3. Another Year
4. Inception -- Winner
5. Fighter

Possible sneaker(s) - Somewhere, Blue Valentine

2010 Oscars - The beginning of the end

The 2010 Oscars was possibly the worst show I've witnessed since I began watching the annual event in 1994.

The jokes were dull, the presentation sluggish and the winners themselves were predictable and boring. And truly a shame for this was a historic year at the Oscars with the first female director to win the top prize. But that will probably be the only memory to take away from this otherwise drab ceremony which is surely losing its relevance on the world stage.

And pray how could Avatar lose out as best picture of the year. Both the people and critics have spoken out loud. It is THE BIGGEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. It has set new benchmarks in terms of visual style and technology. And it was infinitely better than titanic which raked up all those awards a dozen years ago.

And isn't it sad that the Academy goofed up and forgot to mention Farah Fawcett as part of the In Memoriam segment. Unlucky to have died on the same day as the King of Pop Michael Jackson, and thus provided poor coverage by the news media. And now Oscar forget to pay tribute. Eh. Overall just a bad show.

Although it seemed that they cut down on a lot of the bells & whistles, yet the whole show stretched past the 3.5 hour mark. The ass-kissing testimonies to best Actor nominees were just plain embarrasing and had me squirming in my couch, spare a thought for those nominees who had to sit through it with cameras pointed straight at them..

And why was George Clooney acting all sour and Mr.Grumpy. Guy needs to really take himself less seriously. I think he really isn't laid back as he makes out to be on the reel screen.

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2010: Oscar Nominations Predictions

Oscar nominations will be announced early tomorrow. For the past 3 years I’ve being going through this exercise where I predict the nominations ahead of the actual announcement and see how close my choices were.

Writing, talking and analyzing about the Academy awards used to be such a fun thing for me. But over the past few years its becoming more a chore and my excitement levels have been mostly blah.

Last year was truly a snooze fest and personally if not for the all the buzz surrounding Slumdog Millionaire & A R Rahman I would skipped the event all together.

No such buzz this year as none of the potential nominations have roused either my interest or passion. To make matters worse the academy have come up with this brilliant plan (note the sarcasm) to nominate not the usual the 5, but 10 films for the coveted Best picture category, thereby diluting the once sacred sanctum of best picture nominations. Especially in a year where the quality of films have not quite hit the benchmark set of a few years ago.

Anyhow lets give a shot –

Best Picture-

1)Up in the Air
2)A serious Man
3)The Road
4)The Hurt Locker
5)Avatar
6)Inglorious Basterds
7)Fantastic Mr Fox
8)Up
9)Precious
10)A Single Man


Give it Avatar and be done with it. I mean it has afterall grossed over $2 billion worldwide and counting. And the film has set a benchmark, for years to come, in terms of Visual effects, pioneering 3D & gross earnings.

Two other possible candidates -District 9 & 500 days of summer

Best Actor
1)George Clooney - Up in the Air
2)Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
3)Viggo Mortensen - The Road
4)Morgan Freeman - Invictus
5)Jeff Bridges - A Crazy Heart - Winner

Possible candidate - Colin Firth – A single Man


Best supporting actor
1)Christoph Waltz - The Inglorious Basterds - Hands down winner
2)Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
3)Matt Damon - Invictus
4)Woody harelson - The Messenger
5)Alfred Molina – An Education


Best actress
1)Meryl Streep - Julia & Julia
2)Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
3)Carey Mulligan - An Education
4)Emily blunt - Young Victoria
5)Penelope Cruz - Broken Embraces - Likely winner. As long as Sandra Bullock doesnt win.


Best Supporting actress
1)Soirase Ryan - The Lovely Bones
2)Monique - Precious - Throwing a dart blind folded.
3)Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
4)Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
5)Diane Kruger - The Inglorious Basterds

Director
1)Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
2)James Cameron - Avatar - Deserves to win. Probably the first time in the history of oscar that an ex-husband & wife are going against each other in any major category
3)Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
4)Lee Daniels - Precious
5)Quentin Tarantino - The Inglorious Basterds

Best Original screenplay
1)Inglorious Basterds - Should win. Comon everybody loves QT.
2)Avatar
3)500 days of summer
4)Up
5)A Serious Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
1)Crazy Heart
2)Up in the Air
3)Precious
4)District 9
5)Fantastic Mr.Fox - Should win


Thats the word. Enough said about this non-event. I'm off to sleep.

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A little less Revolutionary Road..and more of The Reader please...

It would seem the Academy and the members of the jury were not impressed by what they saw in Revolutionary Road. That should explain why the movie was almost completely ignored in the final list of major nominations (save for the one category - best supporting actor for Michael Shannon). To be honest, I haven't watched Revolutionary Road, and I based my predictions off popular and positive reviews. Just goes to show there are no sure things when it comes to Oscars. Sally Hawkins, for instance, was strangely omitted, in spite of her dazzling performance in Happy Go Lucky. Director Christopher Nolan also found himself falling short despite creating one of the biggest movies of the year. Wall-E too, another victim.
If many(including yours truly) were led to believe that this could possibly be the year the Academy traversed off the beaten track and considered alternative motion pictures such as Wall-E or The Dark Knight or hopefully honor some of the creative forces behind these movies, they were sadly mistaken. Instead two movies in particular were showered with attention - Milk (which I haven't watched) and The Reader (which I have watched). The other nominations for best motion picture were as expected.

And having watched the Reader, I do have some reservations from it being proclaimed as one the top five 'best' movies of the year. Yes, it was effectively directed, had coherent storyline, decent performances, but best movie and best director? Really? The movie had a detached feel throughout. I personally could not empathize with any of the characters though the movie dealt with the aftermath of the holocaust and German guilt and all that. Both pertinent, powerful subjects those. But the movie strangely fails to capture the grief. I suppose that might have been the intention to begin with - portraying an emotional subject without actual emotion.
I was partly aroused but never moved. People who watched the movie would comprehend, but I suppose the members, and its their votes which really count in the final tally, got their emotions mixed up?

In any case, the exclusion of Revolutionary Road by the Academy threw my predictions off whack. I will discuss my predictions for the Oscar winners in a latter post.

Here is a link to the actual 2009: 81st Academy Award nominations -

http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees

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Oscars 2009

Its funny how sometimes you desperately look for 30 minutes or so to jot down some quick thoughts, in this case, the predictions for the 2009 Oscar nominations, and you simply can't find it, lost in a mountain of pressing needs. This has been one of those weekends. It can be immensely frustrating, as many may be well aware, to have all those words and wonderful thoughts to convey, and yet not be able to find the time of the day to pen them down.

Its been an interesting year with a good mix of pure drama coupled with serious entertainers. Dark Knight provided proof for one which combined both effectively.

So without further ado and flourishes here are my predictions of possible Oscar nominations which shall be announced within the next 5-6 hours. Definitely too close for comfort or to allow for any form of review, corrections etc.

Best Film -

1) Slumdog Millionare - Feel good, crowd favorite. Slumdog is top dog at the moment.
2) Frost/Nixon - well made ron howard special
3) Revolutionary Road - haven't seen. positive reviews
4) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - crowd pleaser, excellent direction
5) The Wrestler - Indie fav

* Will Oscar go against the grain and give Wall-E the nod? Dark Knight? We have to consider how the Academy will treat the two blockbusters of last year since that will have a big say in determining the major categories. Both these movies were beyond doubt the best movies of the year - critics and the folks loved it and it made plenty of money at the box office. So why aren't they automatic locks for the best picture category? What intangible standards, in the most likely scenario, have these two movies fail to meet? I think this should be a year the Academy decide to implement a sort of measure of public response to a certain movie, and merit the result of such measures while deciding the nominees.

Best Actor in a leading role -

1) Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon - Solid performance
2) Leo Di Caprio - Revolutionary Road - positive reviews
3) Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler - heartwrenching
4) Brad Pitt - The Curious case of Benjamin Button - On the button
5) Sean Penn - Milk - positive reviews

* Ignored by Oscar - Benicio Del Toro in Che, clint Eastwood in Gran Torino

Best Actress in a leading role -
1) Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting married
2) Angelina Jolie - Changeling
3) Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road - could be her year
4) Meryl Streep - Doubt
5) Sally Hawkins - Happy go Lucky - likely contender

*can't see too many surprises here. But will the academy overlook Meryl Streep which will pave way for Melissa Leo in the frozen river. I rather have Melissa Leo over Angelina Jolie.

Best Actor in a supporting role -
Very interesting category as always -

1) Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight - Lock to win
2) Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder
3) Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
4) Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
5) Josh Brolin - Milk

* two supporting awards for tropic thunder? Eddie Marson for Happy go Lucky & Michael Sheen for Frost/Nixon? Both Brits, both possibly unlucky. Ralph Fiennes overrated in The Reader.

Best Actress in a supporting role -
1) Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
2) Amy Adams - Doubt
3) Kate Winslet - The Reader
4) Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
5) Taraji.B.Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

* Viola Davis for Doubt maybe.

Best Director
1) Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
2) David Fincher -The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3) Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road
4) Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
5) Darren Aronfosky - The Wrestler

* Honorable mentions - Stephen Daldry for The reader, Andrew Stanton for Wall-E, Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight

Tune in a few hours for the actual nominations-

Good Night

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P.S. So it turns out the actual Oscar nominations are to be announced on the 22nd. And in hindsight some of my nominees would probably not have been picked if I hadn't been in a rush to publish before sunrise. I have this strange feeling Christopher Nolan will be nominated for best director. But I shall leave them un-touched for now.