Oscar Predictions

My first Oscar Predictions on my blog! Here goes nothing!

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz

Best Supporting Actress
Mo'Nique

Best Original Screenplay
Inglourious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay
Up in the Air

Best Animated Feature
Up

Best Foreign Language Feature
El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Best Documentary Feature
The Cove

Best Documentary Short
Rabbit a la Berlin

Best Live Action Short
Kavi

Best Animated Short
The Lady and the Reaper

Best Original Score
Up

Best Original Song
"The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart

Best Sound Editing
Avatar

Best Sound Mixing
The Hurt Locker

Best Art Direction
Avatar

Best Cinematography
Avatar

Best Makeup
Star Trek

Best Costume Design
The Young Victoria

Best Film Editing
The Hurt Locker

Best Visual Effects
Avatar

Oscars Suck...

...when you can't watch them live! So Cablevision customers in the general area of NY/CT/NJ will not be able to watch the Academy Awards, or anything on ABC7 for that matter, because Cablevision and ABC7 had a falling out. If this isn't resolved, 12:01 AM on March 7th ABC goes black!

Is this some kind of cruel joke? Would this EVER happen on the weekend of the Superbowl? I think not. But then again we live in a society where a football is more revered than art. Awesome.

And what the hell ABC? Why would a television network voluntarily black out approximately 3 million Cablevision customers? Network television is already dying, and somehow losing what I presume to be one of your top three markets sounds like something I would generally try to avoid. From what I hear, you're going to become obsolete eventually, are you just trying to speed this up or something? Pull the band-aid off quickly instead of slowly sort of deal? Congratulations, you get the All That Film moron award of the year.

But is Cablevision to blame? Earlier this year we Cablevision customers lost HGTV and Food Network for a period of about two weeks because of a dispute (seems to be their favorite word) between Cablevision and Scripps Network. Should we have seen this coming? I would have never guessed that one of the networks that has been around since my 80 year old Grandma was in her twenties would ever disappear from my home. And while Cablevision has come off as the cheapest company I've really ever heard of with these two disputes just in 2010, ABC is really coming off as the scummiest company for doing this. C'mon. The weekend of the Academy Awards? Even if I switched to Fios or Direct TV I would still miss the broadcast. So thanks guys! I've only given you countless hours of my life watching everything from Desparate Housewives, to Good Morning America and The View. So honestly, what gives?

If ABC were to guess how bad I feel for them in this situation, it would probably end up somewhere between as bad as I feel for Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep at this moment. Frankly, my dears - I don't give a damn.

What's more awesome is being in high school as all of this unfolds. As difficult as it is to find a house with Verizon Fios/Direct TV, it's even more difficult to ask somebody to crash at their house until 12 AM on a Sunday night. Parents have work, we have school. Add that to the fact that the majority of people in my high school don't care or know what the Academy Awards are, and wouldn't have even known that they were unable to watch them on Sunday.

So my options are pretty limited. It's looking like a no-go for the Oscars this year. Don't worry ABC, I haven't been following the Oscars closely ever since February 23rd, 2009.

This post probably seems bitter. Good.

Oscar Presenters

With all the news floating about that Twilight stars Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, and the rest of the boring under-25 gang will be presenting at this year's Oscars, I thought I'd like to share who I'd like to see present each award. For the acting awards I'm pretty sure they aren't doing the "five past winners" idea, so I have only one person listed.

Best Supporting Actress
Celeste Holm

Why? She's always been a supporting player, and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar she won more than 60 years ago helped her to launch a film career. And I love the Old Hollywood stars that are still around. Who better to invite somebody to the club than 92 year old Holm?

Fun-fact: Penélope Cruz and Celeste Holm's birthdays are only one day apart (April 28th and 29th, respectively!).

Best Supporting Actor
Gene Hackman

Why? Well, he's pretty much 100% done with acting, so it would be nice to see Hackman up and about.

Best Actress
Julie Christie

Why? I feel she represents this year's Best Actress line-up pretty well. She's practically always better than the films she is in (Darling, Shampoo) and the actresses this year, for the most part, are better than their respective films. Despite the all around terribleness of The Blind Side, at least Sandra does her job well.

Best Actor
Maximilian Schell

Why? Because I'm big on sentiment, that's why.

Best Director
Nicole Kidman

Why? I really want a woman to give Best Director to Kathryn Bigelow. Then maybe the Academy will finally understand that woman do other things than act, design costumes, and make documentary shorts.

Best Picture
Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman

Why? The Honorary Oscars were cut from the telecast, and it would be nice to have two Hollywood legends presenting the Academy's highest honor. I mean, how much more prestigious can you get?

Best Original and Adapted Screenplay
Tina Fey & Steve Carrell

Best Animated Feature
Reese Witherspoon & Christian Bale

Best Foreign Language Film
Penélope Cruz & Pedro Almodóvar

Best Documentary Feature and Short
Ann-Margret & Rita Moreno

Best Live Action and Animated Short
Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly

Best Original Score
Julianne Moore & Mark Wahlberg

Best Original Song
Renee Zellweger & Ewan McGregor

Best Sound Editing and Mixing
Jennifer Aniston & Kevin Bacon

Best Art Direction
Amy Adams

Best Cinematography
Taraji P. Henson

Best Makeup and Costume Design
Marisa Tomei & Mickey Rourke

Best Film Editing
Thelma Schoonmaker

Best Visual Effects
Robert Downey Jr.

Who are your dream presenters?

Oscar Trivia

Click over to In Contention, they have a pretty witty and charming graph that breaks down the Oscars by numbers..

For example-

According to the graph, 21% of actors had their careers plummet after winning the Academy Award. It's easy to name a few, isn't it? Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Helen Hunt, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Costner, and Nicole Kidman are just a few of the many many actors who saw their careers take a dip (for some, a dip that still hasn't ended) after winning the much-coveted Academy Award.

So what are you waiting for? Click!

Surprise!

Just kidding! Come March 7th, I feel there will be no big surprises in the acting categories. Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, Sandra Bullock, and Jeff Bridges will all make their millionth way to the podium, look all teary-eyed and elated (you should be, it's an Oscar!) and then go backstage to the "Thank You" cam and the press.

But wouldn't it be nice if the Oscars were filled with more surprises? This is not a new thought, but it is true. Regardless of performance merit, wouldn't it be a much better show if the winners looked a little something like...

Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (who should win, but that's beside the point)
Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe for Precious
Colin Firth for A Single Man

Wouldn't those be more exciting choices? None of them are going into the Kodak and thinking "Oh it might be my name!" And that's a shame, too. There are way too many precursor awards, and while I love the Oscar season, if I were a nominee I'd love to know I had a 20% shot of winning. I mean, what's the point of Maggie Gyllenhaal getting all dolled up to go to the Academy Awards, be critiqued by E!'s snippy fashion police, and then watch Mo'Nique win?

Wasn't Adrien Brody's win (and subsequent speech) more thrilling to watch than Javier Bardem's? Of course Javier would win! Snooze. Spread the wealth, people! And if you want to give the Oscar to Javier Bardem, then okay. But why not use one of those other awards (like SAG for instance) to honor somebody who isn't going to win the Oscar. I mean, the SAG Award isn't a very prestigious prize but it's still a nice honor. I'm sure Anna, Colin, Gabourey, or Christopher would have appreciated it after being dragged out to every single award's ceremony this side of the Atlantic (oh wait..BAFTAs are tonight! Never mind!)

At least this year's race is a teeeeeeeensy bit more unpredictable than last year. The Academy hates women, so heavy-favorite Kathryn Bigelow could lose out to the more traditional choice of James Cameron. And for Best Picture there is a bit of a race, so that should be more fun than last year's Slumdog insanity! Add that to the locks of Kate Winslet, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, and Heath Ledger and it was pretty boring. People tried to make the race exciting by predicting the likes of Mickey Rourke and Viola Davis, but we all knew how it would end up. Hell, the biggest shock last year came when Departures won Best Foreign Language Film. Let's hope we have much bigger surprises in store for us this year!

The Blind Side

I finally finished The Blind Side! Whether that's something to be happy or sad about I'm still trying to determine. There's no use in me lying to myself by saying "Oh but come Oscar night Carey Mulligan will win! You'll see! And so will Anna Kendrick!" It seems pretty set in stone that Sandra's taking the gold.

I have nothing wrong with her performance. Her being nominated doesn't irk me at all, especially since Abbie Cornish's performance in Bright Star fell flat with me (I have not seen Julia with Tilda Swinton yet). But to be a winner of an Academy Award for this? That's a little much. Consider the company this performance would be joining...

Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking
Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind
Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets

All of the above are of course stellar performances, and not many can match them, but Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side doesn't even come close. The greatest of all of the Oscar nominated performances this year and the only one truly worthy to stand with these women is Carey Mulligan in An Education. But oh well. Oscar has a history of being unfair.

Don't get me started on the Best Picture nomination. If it could get a nomination for Best Picture, then I'm genuinely surprised that Jae Head and Kathy Bates didn't nab supporting nominations. Or Quinton Aaron himself for Best Actor. I mean, honestly, people must really love The Blind Side in order to give it a Best Picture nomination. They had to see past John Lee Hancock's in your face directing and overly sentimental moments (and, perhaps most difficult to overlook, Jae Head himself).

So overall, congratulations to Sandra on a deserved nomination, but can't I dream that she won't win?

What are your thoughts on The Blind Side?

Little Golden Guy...

Have you ever heard of Little Golden Guy, the website that allows you to vote for the Oscars and see how others voted? It was down for awhile, but it's back now! But the votes are really odd... I'll break it down by category, and into the "what the hell?" and "the right on the money" categories.

But before we go onto "what the hell?" let's talk a little about the site. The main purpose of it is to say "okay, here's who won, but this should have happened according to most." And a lot of the time they are right on the money.

Examples...

Cate Blanchett winning Best Actress for Elizabeth
Montgomery Clift winning Best Actor for From Here to Eternity
Billy Wilder winning Best Director for Double Indemnity

It does have a good track record, but...

What the hell?


Best Picture Avatar received the most votes, and that certainly makes sense. In second place with only six fewer votes? District 9. But this is ordinary people's favorites, so that might explain why The Blind Side is in sixth place. Yes, you heard me, sixth place. According to this website's voters, The Blind Side is more worthy of being named Best Picture than Up in the Air, Precious, A Serious Man, and An Education. Let's pray that The Blind Side is actually the tenth worthiest of the nominees when the members of the Academy get to their ballots.




Best Supporting Actress Surprise, surprise, Mo'Nique is in first here. But second place goes to...



Penelope Cruz, in Nine! Wow. I knew there was some love for Penelope (if not for the picture alone), but second place? Are these voters going by "most-deserving" or, like the Academy, what's hot right now. Hell, on the Youtube video of A Call from the Vatican, one of the comments says "I love her, another Oscar!!!"

Side-note: In this case, what's hot to the Academy actually is hot. Mmmmmmmmm.. Penelope.

Best Adapted Screenplay Maybe it's my hate of District 9 that makes this so shocking, but it got 79.8% of the vote for Best Adapated Screenplay on Little Golden Guy. This site seems to be more of the People's Choice Awards than I remember.

Right on the Money

Best Director Kathryn Bigelow inches out James Cameron by less than twenty votes, but she still does it.

Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz waltzes (so clever) away with more than 84% of the vote. Christopher Plummer is a sentimental favorite and comes in second with 7.7% of the vote. That's a bingo!

Best Actor Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth lead the pack, and boy are they close. Jeff has just two more votes than Colin, but in the race for the actual Oscar Jeff Bridges seems unstoppable. I haven't seen Crazy Heart yet, is it good?

Best Actress Unfortunately Sandra Bullock is in the lead here, but there's no used crying over spilled, rotten, unfortunate milk, is there?

And now for your viewing pleasure...

Pinch your cheeks til you say "ow!"



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Oscar Nomintations!

Of course, you aren't reading the news on this blog first, but who said being late was a bad thing? I'm still trying to get my best of 2009 ready! So many afterthought, so little time...

Barreling through the nominations I have these conclusions:

Ten Best Picture nominees was a positively horrid and awful awful awful idea. The Blind Side...?

Sandra Bullock...? No thanks. Carey Mulligan? Thank you very much!

Best Actor/Supporting Actor had zero surprises. Boring. Good job Christopher Plummer!

Penelope Cruz over Marion Cotillard? Damn Weinsteins and their stupid campaigning process that tried to get Marion for lead.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, thanks for being a surprise. Anna Kendrick, please try and win this category! It seems rather impossible to beat Mo'Nique though, but we can pray.

No (500) Days of Summer? This sucks.

Oscars 2009 - Expect Dancing! And Lots Of It

Check out the brief (but still enlightening) interview with Oscar producer, Adam Shankman! He says to expect a lot of dancers on stage, more than last year. Interesting, I like the sound of this. (I love these kind of musical numbers others hate!)

Here's a look at last year's Oscar Musical Number ( a la Beyonce ! ) . Sorry about the poor quality!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwXu4seYckI

NINE ON OPRAH!

The multi-Academy Award winning cast of Nine, the new musical by Rob Marshall, will be on Oprah on Wednesday!

Holy crap. This is so exciting- but before I go on, no mention of Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, or the man himself Rob Marshall was made in the commercial. Or Fergie.

No Sophia on Oprah !? Damn. That would've been pretty epic. However, Nicole Kidman is 50% of the allure of Nine. Unfortunately though in the preview there were some stupid tabloid "When did you meet A-Rod?" questions for Kate Hudz, but I'll stick through even that for Nine. Let's hope each star gets to show some of their singing talents like Penelope did on Leno.

By the way, Penelope's singing? I thought it was just okay, I mean she does not have the sexy/funny/enticing voice of Jane Krakowski, but who does? (30 Rock shout out! Problem Solvers!) Anyway, Penelope sounded a bit like Richard Gere in Chicago. I mean, not literally, but there's the question of "Why was she chosen over somebody with a better voice?" Also, will I listen to that again and again on my iPod (well, not I personally, of course I will! But what about other non-musical diehards?). Thoughts on this guy(s)?

Anyone else looking forward to this interview? Or just Nine itself? Or neither? Tell me in the comments!

Best Supporting Actress

Having revisted the trailer for The Lovely Bones, I've been inspired to look at this year's Best Supporting Actress hopefuls...Here I will list who I want to be nominated.

Want to be Nominated (This is without having seen any of the films, but based on trailers, buzz, and the occassional favorite actress)

Julianne Moore for A Single Man - The trailer is genius and buzz has been strong. I know Mo'Nique seems to be the most-hyped actress this side of Nine, but Moore is consistently terrific and, from the trailer alone, I'm reminded of Moore's beautifully underappreciated (awards wise at least) work in Boogie Nights. Fingers crossed Moore, I'm sure more than just me want you to get nominated!

Penélope Cruz for Nine - Penélope should have two Oscars at this point, for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Volver. The latter didn't come through, but at least she has one. Her work has become better with each new release and, taking the sexy, Tony award role from Jane Krakowski, I don't see how there can be any wrong. Also, Rob Marshall directs, and he knows his women.

Nicole Kidman for Nine - She'll probably be campaigned for lead actress, but with the ever-annoying Marion Cotillard hogging up the spotlight, I hope she'll be moved to supporting. Nicole's last musical was Moulin Rouge!, and if her work here is half as good, she'll deserve the nomination. I also love when big stars do go down to supporting performances. It's not always about being the lead ladies (See: Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago, which definitely could have been a co-lead).

Susan Sarandon for The Lovely Bones - Based on the trailer, Susan Sarandon seems her most Sarandon-y in years, no offense Speed Racer. It's hard to come by good parts when you're an actress over 40 in Hollywood, so this could be the comeback Sarandon needs. Hopefully audience affection will lean to her character, and enough momentum will build to beat that late release date in December (and even later wider release in January) to get Sarandon back to the Kodak since her win for Dead Man Walking back in 1995. It's time for a Sarandonssaince. Let's hope The Lovely Bones isn't killed by the late release date like Revolutionary Road was.

Sigourney Weaver for Avatar - James Cameron's first film since Titanic looks... interesting. At first I was anticipating it like no other, as mentioned in some earlier post where I tried to predict the Best Picture nominees, but now the interest in the special-effects bonanza has been fading. It's looking a bit video-gameish. However, my interest in Sigourney's part has been growing. She's great in everything, but I have a feeling that Avatar is going to be almost completely ignored in every category that doesn't deal with tech. I've barely even seen clips of her, but from what I can remember, it's traditional Sigourney, not so showy (The Ice Storm) but oh so good.

So fantasies aside, here's who will probably be nominated...
Mo'Nique for Precious
Julianne Moore for A Single Man
Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (why can't I get excited over this?)
Penélope Cruz for Nine
Mélanie Laurent for Inglourious Basterds

So, what do you think? Who do you want to be nominated? Who do you think will be nominated?

Oscar- The Other Five Best Picture Predictions

It's time for the could-be-maybe-nots of this section. These films now have a better chance at snagging a nomination come Oscar season, but who knows.


THE COULD-BE-MAYBE-NOTS
Amelia- Oscar does love biopics, but the trailer for this film looked particularly flat (maybe I'm just a Swank-hater). And it is a biopic about a woman, that's why this film's future isn't so clear right now.


If Swank gets a Best Actress nomination, she will have gotten a nomination every 5 years since 1999. Yuck.



Shutter Island- Martin Scorsese's newest effort has a mouth-watering ensemble cast (Patricia Clarkson, Leonardo DiCaprio), but it's a hit or miss with this kind of psychological thriller material. The names alone however may be enough to push it to a nomination.


I'm not gonna lie- I'm a big Leo fan. Can this role finally bring him Oscar like The Aviator should have back in 2004?



Avatar- James Cameron FINALLY returns to film after he proclaimed himself king of the world in 1997 and pretty much stopped working. What a jerk. But he's back! He has created an entirely fictional world using some state of the art technology or whatever. I'm not really sure how this will piece together, but this man is a genius so everything should work out smoothly. Bonus- Australian soon-to-be-megastar Sam Worthington stars in Avatar!


No words to describe how much I am anticipating this film.



The Informant!- I'm predicting a good year for Matt Damon. After no new releases in 2008, he's back and has some of the best directors on his side. The Informant! has Soderbergh and with 10 Best Picture slots to fill, this (dark) comedy could quite possibly get nominated.


Packing on the lbs. usually works for Academy members


The Hurt Locker- Strong reviews for this film indicate it may have a chance of getting nominated. And with 10 Best Picture nominations, Academy members will have to look past December and November releases.


Can The Hurt Locker overcome an early release date?