Academy Awards Tomorrow

[jenny12]

So tomorrow are the Academy Awards. Here are the nominees: http://oscar.go.com/nominees I think overall there are some good films this year, but prior to Argo winning all the precursors, the Best Picture race seemed pretty open. What are your picks/predictions? (Here's a few of mine)

Best Picture:
Will Win:Argo
Should Win: Django Unchained

Best Actor:
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Should Win: Joaquin Phoenix

Best Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence
Should Win: Jessica Chastain

Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Win: Christoph Waltz or Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Director:
Will Win: Steven Spielberg
Should Win: Quentin Tarantino (But he wasn't nominated, so I would pick Ang Lee for doing a good job adapting Life of Pi which seemed very difficult on the page to adapt)

[Vash01]

Here are mine:

Best Picture:
Will Win:Argo (A month earlier I would have put my money on 'Lincoln', but Argo has momentum now)
Should Win: Argo

Best Actor:
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence
Should Win: Emmanuelle Riva or Jessica Chastain

Best Director:
Will Win: Steven Spielberg
Should Win: Steven Spielberg (with Affleck and Bigelow not nominated, I don't see anyone beating Spielberg)

Supporting Actor:
Will win: Tommy Lee Jones
Should win: Christoph Waltz

Supporting Actress:

Will win: Anne Hathaway
Should win: Helen Hunt

[AshleyN]

I saw this the other day and found it pretty interesting: An Oscar Voter's Brutally Honest Ballot. It looks like this guy really hates Anne Karenina, Amour, and CGI.

Obviously it's just one voter out of thousands, but I bet this guy's mixture of genuine insight, personal biases, and petty silliness is pretty common when it comes to how Academy members fill out their ballots.

[Wyliefan]

Loathing Anna Karenina? I just lost a ton of respect for that guy's opinion.

[IceAlisa]

An interesting read! I've only seen The Life of Pi, Anna Karenina and Argo. AK was dreck but the costumes were extraordinarily beautiful. They were, however, totally period inappropriate and reflected the trends of 2010 rather than the late 19th century. It's the same with many 50's and 60's period movies--everyone has cat eyes and a beehive.

PML about him voting by spin-the-iPhone! Oscar-worthy snark!

Argo has nothing to do with reality but if they were historically accurate, the movie would last about 5 minutes. We came up with this crazy idea, they bought it, we went in, we left. The end. No one wants to watch that.


Wyliefan--I thought Anna Karenina was a joke. FWIW, all the Russians I know who appreciate the classics, concur. We had a grand ole time ripping it to shreds when it came out. As previously mentioned, that train couldn't come soon enough.

[jenny12]

I didn't like Anna Karenina either. I admire the director for doing something different but I think it removed all the emotion from the story and I think Keira Knightly is too lightweight for that role.

[Wyliefan]

Wyliefan--I thought Anna Karenina was a joke. FWIW, all the Russians I know who appreciate the classics, concur. We had a grand ole time ripping it to shreds when it came out. As previously mentioned, that train couldn't come soon enough.

Well, my friends and I loved it. Guess we're not Russian. British classics are more my thing, anyway. But it was a novel idea (pardon the pun) to film it the way they did, and I enjoyed it.

[Cachoo]

I'm hoping for Naomi Watts in an upset.

[IceAlisa]

Well, my friends and I loved it. Guess we're not Russian. British classics are more my thing, anyway. But it was a novel idea (pardon the pun) to film it the way they did, and I enjoyed it.

It wasn't the idea of filming it in a theater, it was Keira Knightly's lack of acting talent and charisma (and a few other casting choices) that made us the movie. Jude Law made for a surprisingly likable Karenin though.

[Spareoom]

So, I went to see Argo today because I figured that if it was going to win Best Picture, I wanted to be able to say that I'd seen it. :p So that brings me to 4/9 on the list of BP nominees; I haven't seen Life of Pi (Netflix or dollar theater), Django Unchained (NO THANK YOU), Armore (maybe Netflix), Beasts of the Southern Wild (maybe). or Zero Dark Thirty (Netflix). Anyway, for a movie that was released quite a long time ago, there was a lot of people in the theater to see Argo...much more than I expected. Oscar buzz, you know. I guess I wasn't the only one going to a see a movie because of it.

Anyway, tomorrow should be fun!

[Vash01]

I did not see Anna Karenina because I read some very unflattering reviews of it. I knew it would have great costumes and sets, but it was not enough to lure me to a theater to see it.

I have not seen Beast of the southern wild because it did not come to any of the local theaters, or if it did, it must have been for one week. The theater for Amour is too far. Actually I was in that area today, but it was 2.5 hours before the movie, so I skipped it. If Riva wins the best actress Oscar (highly unlikely), it could be the biggest upset. I am resigned to seeing Jennifer Lawrence win it, like Julia Roberts or Gwyneth Paltrow. I am actually wondering if SLP may be the dark horse this year. I remember the year Shakespeare in Love won the BP because there were a lot of war movies and the voters said they liked seeing something light. That could happen this year, with 3 of the movies being heavily political. Like SIL, SLP has done a masterful job of marketing that movie.

I am almost afraid to see Django unchained, although I did seriously consider seeing it. I may watch it on DVD in the future, so I can either walk away for some scenes or just fast forward.

So I am still at 7 out of 9 for BP. Usually I see almost all of the BP pictures.

[smurfy]

I have seen all the best pic noms. I always have a hard time ranking really diff types of movies. Argo or Life of Pi - how do you compare? All the movies r great, except I would put Les Miz at the bottom as only good, but I think Argo n Life of Pi r the best w zero dark thirty in the mix.

Re - Anna K, I have not read the book, I saw the movie and enjoyed the artistry, but knowing the book is long, I felt like too much was missing withou even knowing what I was missing.

[victoriaheidi]

Here's my prediction sheet for all the categories to which I can speak:

BEST PICTURE
Will Win: Argo
Should Win: I'm fine with Argo

BEST DIRECTOR
Will Win: Spielberg
Should Win: I probably would have picked Affleck, but he wasn't nominated. Ang Lee also did a brilliant job.

BEST ACTOR
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis

BEST ACTRESS
Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence
Should Win: The uber in me wants Jessica Chastain, but I also think Emmanuelle Riva is highly deserving.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Will Win: Tommy Lee Jones
Should Win: Alan Arkin. He stands out from the pack for being the comic relief in his film.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Will Win: Anne Hathaway
Should Win: I'm cool with Anne. But I would have picked Sally Field.

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Will Win: Amour
Should Win: haven't seen enough of the category. Sorry Intouchables wasn't nominated.

ORIGINAL SONG
Will Win: "Skyfall"
Should Win: "Skyfall" (yay Adele!)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Will Win: Wreck-It Ralph
Should Win: Frankenweenie

COSTUMES
Will Win: Anna Karenina
Should Win: SWATH

[vesperholly]

I am hoping against hope that the support for "Skyfall" is strong enough to pull the Best Score win for Thomas Newman along with it. I looooove his scores (American Beauty, Little Women, Finding Nemo, Shawshank Redemption, I could go on) and it's a crime he hasn't won yet.

[michiruwater]

I am going to cry happy, obsessive, ridiculous buckets of tears if predictions come true and Jennifer Lawrence wins I am unrepentant in my love.

(But if Chastain wins I'll be fine with that, she was excellent and I adore her, too, plus she's a redhead).

I think ZD30 should win but Argo was great.

[BigB08822]

I also love Jennifer Lawrence and will be thrilled if she wins. That would make 2 years in a row where the Female Lead Oscar goes to who I want to win. That hardly ever happens on any one given year.

[danceronice]

"If ‘Skyfall’ does not win I will fillet my next-door neighbor’s dog.”

Won't someone think of the Oscar voter's next-door neighbor's dog? Not that I think Skyfall will lose. Even though, honestly, I heard it and went 'eh.' I'm kind of a connoisseur of Bond themes (yes, I have heard ALL of them, repeatedly, plus some end-credit songs that were clearly also-rans, like k.d. lang's awesome "Surrender", which was a lot better than "Tomorrow Never Dies" from the same film) and Skyfall was kind of...eh. Not the worst Bond theme ever (that's a tough call, but my vote goes to the painfully-dated and forgettable "The Living Daylights") but IMO not even the best of the new Bond (that's "You Know My Name", Chris Cornell's weird tantrums about it notwithstanding). Of the choices available, though, it's the clear winner this year. I really hope they don't reward Les Mis's blatant Oscar bait (bad enough they did it with the blatant Oscar bait in Evita. I can't even remember if Phantom's crack at it worked.)

[orbitz]

I don't care for the song "Skyfall" at all. That song would not have been nominated if it was anyone else but Adele singing it.

Looking forward to hear Barb singing on the telecast. I'm sure she'll get a standing O as soon as she steps onto the stage.

It'll be very exciting if DDL wins. I know everyone predicts that he will, but you'll never know. He would be the only 3-times winner in the Best Actor category.

[jenny12]

I love Adele's delivery of "Skyfall" but I think the song itself is pretty dull. I agree with orbitz that Adele's singing is what got it nominated.

[Eden]

My Oscar predictions:

Best Picture:
Will Win:Lincoln
Should Win: Lincoln

Best Actor:
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actress:
Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence
Should Win: Jessica Chastain

Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Win: Christoph Waltz

Best Director:
Will Win: Michael Haneke (Amour)
Should Win: Steven Spielberg

Best Foreign Film:
Will Win: Amour (Aus-France)
Should Win: A Royal Affair (Den)

Best Documentary Film:
Will Win: Searching for Sugarman
Should Win: The Gatekeepers