I guess I can’t put this off anymore. The Oscars will be presented on Sunday and this year I believe I have seen more nominees than in any year since I began this blog, (29/53 total nominees). However, this feels like one of the most unpredictable years I have ever witnessed. So, here are my somewhat informed, probably completely wrong Oscar predictions:
Cinematography
Life of Pi, no other film comes close to its visual beauty.
Costume Design
Haven’t seen 3 of these nominees…Why not Anna Karenina? Pretty dresses often help in this category.
Sound Mixing
Leaning towards Les Mis, mostly because of the mix of cannons and singing.
Editing
Zero Dark Thirty, I just feel it.
Sound Editing
Django? I mean come on, how many westerns have won this category?
Visual Effects
The Hobbit, maybe because I saw it in HFR 3D.
Makeup and Hairstyling
The Hobbit again. Did you see all those crazy beards?
Original Song
Skyfall for Skyfall because Skyfall. Anyone else psyched for a the Academy’s tribute to Bond films?
Original Score
Life of Pi, mostly because I really didn’t notice the other scores much and found this so beautiful.
Animated Short
Head Over Heels. Inventive, imaginative and a lot of heart.
Feature Documentary
So, I thought I saw all of them this year (it would have been my first year to do so!) but I kinda accidentally skipped The Gatekeepers and saw The Imposter instead. I don’t know what I was thinking. So..The Gatekeepers! Cause it would be just my luck to miss out on the best.
Foreign
Amour, duh. Did Up or Toy Story 3 lose best animated when they were also up for best picture? No. It’s in the bag.
Animated Feature
Ok, let’s break it down: ParaNorman and Frankenweenie seem to be treading in the same territory and may step on each other’s toes. Pixar didn’t bring their best work with Brave, that may cost them. Wreck-It Ralph depends on pop culture too heavily. Therefore, The Pirates!
Best Actor
As much as I loved the other performances, especially Cooper’s, I bet Daniel Day-Lewis gets this. He was a phenomenal Lincoln.
Best Actress
This feels like such a weird category this year. Seriously, our ladies’ ages range nearly 80 years. But I think it will fall in the middle, on Jennifer Lawrence. She was such a force in SLP.
Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway. Nuf said.
Supporting Actor
This is tough, partially cause I’m still waiting for DiCaprio to be nominated. But it might be De Niro. He owned his scenes.
Original Screenplay
As much as I want to root for the sweet, quirky and wonderful Moonrise Kingdom, I feel like Django will take it. And Tarantino’s speech will be awesome.
Adapted Screenplay
SLP had such a great script, I loved every conversation. I really hope it takes this one….and more.
Director
First…the camera might just pan over Affleck as whoever is presenting is blathering on for irony. Poor Ben. Honestly, I’m happy if it’s David O. Russell or Ang Lee. If I had to bet on one, it would be Lee.
Best Picture
In the 3 years that I have been keeping this blog, it hasn’t been this hard to pick a favorite for BP. There was only one film I didn’t really like (Lincoln) but it’s still so good. Honestly, you might have better luck tossing the names on a dartboard and blindly throwing to pick it. Lincoln, Argo, Django, Les Mis and ZDT all have some historical elements and could split that vote. Then again, Hollywood loves stories of itself in their movies (remember the Artist and Hugo last year?), therefore I can’t count Argo out just yet. Amour isn’t easy to digest. Beasts is really indie. That leaves Life of Pi, SLP and Argo. Now that is tough, two of these 3 are my favorites. However, there has been a curse lately that director follows picture…so there goes Argo. Now, I’m predicting Lee to win director, so naturally his film will take the cake. There, Life of Pi to win best picture…but I’m not sure.
Also, Seth MacFarlane will use his “Stewy” voice no less than 8 times. And I will make it a drinking game.
Let me know what you think and enjoy Oscar night!
The Best Picture Project 
What an awesome list of predictions…I actually have only 2 disagreements with your list–Film Editing should go to ARGO because of its amazing juxtaposition of 1970s footage with the present-day film action…AND, though I personally agree with your selection of LIFE OF PI for BP, (and though I would also be happy to see SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK sneak in); I have a feeling that folks are ticked off enough about the dissing of ARGO that they just might put it over the top. Every awards group so far (Critics Choice, Golden Globes, SAG, BAFTA, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, even the Writers Guild) has put ARGO on top, maybe in reaction to the slap at Ben Affleck by the Academy. This may be the chance for voters to take a slap back at the Academy for the antiquated voting requirements with %age requirements that could have been designed by the First Continental Congress. I personally would not pick ARGO as Best Picture, but will not be at all surprised if it wins…and if it does, just for payback, I will be LMAO.
Other than that, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that you are clairvoyant in your predictions.
Ken, I would not be surprised if Argo took Best Picture, but it would just feel like revenge for snubbing Affleck. No one wants it to do down like that. I too would be happy to see SLP take top prize.
It would be totally a revenge thing!!. But I’m sort of cynical about what it is that gets films Oscars, or even nominated. Hence, my attitude towards a potential win by ARGO. The history of the Oscars has been one of people winning out of sympathy, or losing because of “misbehaving”…this would just be one more good story!
I’m rooting for Moonrise Kingdom, too, but I don’t think it will win.
The thing that just struck me is that there’s been so much uproar about historical inaccuracies in Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Lincoln, and even Django Unchained, but there was no mention of this when The King’s Speech (which is full of inaccuracies) was nominated. I guess Americans only care about American history. 🙂
Also, good work on including Les Miserables with the “historical” films this year. Most people don’t realize (as far as I can tell) that while the characters are fictional the uprising depicted actually happened. But of course it happened in France. 🙂
Thanks Anthony, but like many other Americans, I know most history from seeing movies and then looking up the facts on Wikipedia. 🙂
Me, too, but a lot of people get stuck on Step 1 and never make it to Step 2. 🙂
With The King’s Speech I had the advantage of seeing it with someone (my mother) who had been around during those years and remembered a lot of what really happened. I read some articles about this later, too.
Good reasoning, most of which i agree with.
Nice predictions! For best picture I’m hoping Silver Linings Playbook will get it, but my hopes are not too high. I predicted Argo though, going with all those precursor awards. I was with Lincoln for a really long time though, it was hard for me to get over Affleck not being nominated for director. I’m still not too confident in Argo though, I’m kind of just going with the flow there. Life of Pi seems like a pretty good guess too.
I was also afraid to predict Moonrise Kingdom for original screenplay, but I hope it wins. As good as Django is, I’ve been quoting Moonrise Kingdom so much more.
Glad to see you have DeNiro for supporting actor though! I was kind of afraid to go with him for some reason, so I went with Tommy Lee Jones. This one seems like one of the toughest categories though. I do wish DiCaprio had been nominated though! Also Javier Bardem, but he probably wouldn’t have won even if he had been, being from a Bond film and everything.
I am excited to see what sort of Bond tribute stuff they have lined up though! I have to miss the beginning because I have work but hopefully they’ll still be some cool stuff at the end!
Thanks, it would have been so awesome if Bardem got the nomination. First ever for a Bond villain.