On Sunday the 84th Academy Awards (a.k.a. the Oscars) will take place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, and I predict it to be one of the best Awards shows of recent years.
With veteran comedic actor Billy Crystal making a return to the hosting duties that he’s helmed eight times before, 2003 being the last he served as host, audiences can expect plenty of laughs. It’s great to see Crystal making a return after what were, in my opinion, rather lackluster hosting performances since his last outing, excluding Hugh Jackman’s which included one of the funniest opening acts I’ve ever seen at the Awards.
The Oscars have always been a controversial awards show as it is not the general audiences who vote for the nominees but the specific people from different branches within the Academy that have the say. So for example: cinematographers, who are members of the Academy, nominate the films they believe represent the best in cinematography out of the films released in the previous calendar year. Then all the members of the Academy are sent ballots with the nominees from each category and vote for the eventual winners.
This has sparked a lot of debate among moviegoers as they often feel their favorite films are snubbed by the Academy for the coveted award of Best Picture. The most recent example being “The Dark Knight,” which rose to the spot of third highest grossing film of all time only to receive nominations and eventual wins for Best Achievement in Sound Editing and Best Performance By an Actor In a Supporting Role won by the late Heath Ledger. Many people thought that it deserved at least a nomination for Best Picture but the Academy seemed to think otherwise.
This years Awards will be very interesting as films such as “The Artist,” a black and white silent film, and “Hugo,” an extraordinary adventure film from visionary director Martin Scorsese, have been nominated for Best Picture. Both are beautifully constructed films that rely on very different artistic representations — “The Artist” with its lack of color, and “Hugo” with its 3-D technology, to tell their stories.
With all the possible nominations from the 24 categories, I’m sure many people have different thoughts about which films should win in each category. Here are my predictions [in bold] of who will win in each one:
Best Picture
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“The Help”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“Moneyball”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Actor In a Leading Role
George Clooney – “The Descendants”
Demian Bichir – “A Better Life”
Jean Dujardin – “The Artist”
Gary Oldman – “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt – “Moneyball”
Actress In a Leading Role
Viola Davis – “The Help”
Glenn Close – “Albert Nobbs”
Rooney Mara – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep – “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams – “My Week With Marilyn”
Actor In a Supporting Role
Jonah Hill – “Moneyball”
Kenneth Branagh – “My Week With Marilyn”
Nick Nolte – “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer – “Beginners”
Man von Sydow – “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Octavia Spencer – “The Help”
Berenice Bejo – “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain – “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy – “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer – “Albert Nobbs”
Animated Feature Film
“Rango”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
Cinematography
“Hugo”
“The Artist”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”
Art Direction
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse”
“The Artist”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
Costume Design
“Anonymous”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.”
Directing
Martin Scorsese – “Hugo”
Michel Hazanavicius – “The Artist”
Alexander Payne – “The Descendants”
Woody Allen – “Midnight in Paris”
Terrence Malick – “The Tree of Life”
Documentary Feature
“Hell and Back Again”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Undefeated”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
“Pina”
Documentary Short
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
“God is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
Film Editing
“Hugo”
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Moneyball”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Foreign Language Film
Poland, “In Darkness”
Iran, “A Seperation”
Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar”
Belgium, “Bullhead”
Israel, “Footnote”
Makeup
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“Albert Nobbs”
“The Iron Lady”
Music (Original Score)
“War Horse” – John Williams
“Hugo” – Howard Shore
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” – Alberto Iglesias
“The Artist” – Ludovic Bource
“The Adventures of Tintin” – John Williams
Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from “THE MUPPETS”
“Real in Rio” from “RIO”
Short Film (Animated)
“Dimanche/Sunday”
“La Luna”
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
“A Morning Stroll”
“Wild Life”
Short Film (Live Aciton)
“Time Freak”
“Raju”
“Pentecost”
“The Shore”
“Tuba Atlantic”
Sound Editing
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“Hugo”
“War Horse”
“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Sound Mixing
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“Hugo”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Moneyball”
“War Horse”
Visual Effects
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“Real Steel”
“Hugo”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“Moneyball”
“Hugo”
“The Ides of March”
“The Descendants”
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist”
“Bridesmaids”
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”
“A Separation”
Information compiled from oscar.go.com/nominees.
The show begins at 7 p.m. Eastern standard time and 4 p.m. Pacific standard time. Be sure to tweet @The_BG_News #Oscars and let us know your predictions for the big show.
