It's time for the Oscars again this weekend. Who are your favorites?
Best Motion Picture of the Year
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Frost/Nixon
- Milk
- The Reader
- Slumdog Millionaire
MY PREDICTIONS: I think Slumdog Millionaire will take home the major awards, and that we could be looking at a new all time Oscar loser in Ben Button. The other three movies are the critically acclaimed, but overlooked by audience standard choices.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
- Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
- Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
- Sean Penn, Milk
- Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
MY PREDICTIONS: Rourke and Penn are the only ones with any chance. The other three are only there to fill up the spaces. Rourke will take this one too.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
- Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
- Angelina Jolie, Changeling
- Melissa Leo, Frozen River
- Meryl Streep, Doubt
- Kate Winslet, The Reader
MY PREDICTIONS: Once again, it's down to two. Streep and Winslet are miles ahead of the others, and both are long overdue in winning. Winslet will take it, as she's never won it, despite being one of the greatest actresses of this generation.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
- Josh Brolin, Milk
- Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
- Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
- Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
MY PREDICTIONS: Heath Ledger, of course. You can't fight a dead guy. If Heath was alive, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Shannon would have had a chance, but that's not how history wanted it.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
- Amy Adams, Doubt
- Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Viola Davis, Doubt
- Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
MY PREDICTIONS: This is a whole lot closer, with good chances for both Viola Davis and Marisa Tomei, but I think Penelope Cruz will take the little guy home.
Best Achievement in Directing
- Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
- Stephen Daldry, The Reader
- David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
- Gus van Sant, Milk
MY PREDICTIONS: Danny Boyle, with a tiny bit of competition from Gus van Sant. No, I think Slumdog Millionaire will take this one too.
The rest of the nominations can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2009/oscars
and here's my predictions of how it goes:
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Wall-E
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Achievement in Editing: The Dark Knight
Best Achievement in Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Achievement in Costume Design: Australia
Best Achievement in Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: Wall-E, "Down to Earth"
Best Achievement in Sound: The Dark Knight
Best Achievement in Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: The Dark Knight
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Wall-E
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: The Class (France)
The only one of the real big oscar pictures I've seen this year is Slumdog Millionare, but it's easily one of the best movies I've seen new.
I'm rooting against Sean Penn until he takes a role that isn't sanctimonious.
Streep and Winslet maybe be miles ahead in the oscar race. But Hathaway's performance is definately on par. Im not even a fan of Hathaway and I can say without a doubt, it was an extremly strong performance. Slumdog will probably take best picture and director, but I would count out Van Sant on the directing award,: I think they'll give MILK something and directing could be it. Penn and Rourke are very close; however, I think its clear that penn had the better performance. Viola Davis and Penelope Cruz are battling out the Best Sup Actress award, but I'll give Viola the edge becasue I think she had a standout performance in a movie filled with them. Ledger will win Sup actor, but I feel that Brolin deserved to win, Ive always felt heath as more of a lead performance. Shannon and Hoffman were terrific as well.
actually, being dead doesn't automatically mean an oscar. i think there has only been one posthumous oscar and that was for the movie network in the 70s.
but it doesn't matter cause heath still would've won because his performance was absolutely fantastic
I pretty much agree on all the comments, though Langella is a stronger 3rd in Actor than the other 2, and as mentioned previously Hathaway is certainly a dark horse for Actress (she tied with Streep for the SAG award I believe).
I agree with all of Rune's initial predictions in the six major categories. I wrestled (ha ha) with Rourke vs. Penn, but in the end I think the voters will figure that Penn a) already has one and b) will have plenty of opportunities to win another, while for Rourke, this may be his only chance.
I disagree on some of the other choices. I think Original Screenplay will go to MILK, because the Academy will want to give it something (especially if Penn doesn't win). I also think SLUMDOG will end up winning in every category it's nominated in (including "Jai Ho" for Song) except for Sound Editing (that'll be THE DARK KNIGHT's -other- Oscar).
If the Academy had gone the route of all the other award organizations and given Winslet two acting nominations, there would be much less suspense: she'd have been a lock for Supporting Actress for THE READER, which would have cleared the way for Streep to win Best Actress and take her third Oscar. But they nominated Winslet's READER performance for Actress instead, throwing the Supporting race wide open and creating a genuine down-to-the-wire scenario in the lead category. Prevailing sentiment has been with Winslet, but there's a significant backlash growing against the perceived moral equivocations of THE READER, coupled with the affection that everyone has for Streep, that could cost Winslet the award. I still think she's got the edge, though.
I think Jai Ho and that other Slumdog song will battle against each other, and they'll both lose.
And I have to say that these are only my predictions, not necessarily my personal meanings. I haven't seen all these films, sadly.
Rune, I think your predictions are sound.
BillAdama, have you seen Milk? I think it's about the least sanctimonious thing Sean Penn has done in a long time; in fact, I think a lot of the reason he's gotten so much acclaim is that for a change, he's NOT playing a brooding martyr...
I still imagine Rourke will take Best Actor, though.
was a surprise nomineee (as was Winslet's nod in the Best Actress category for her role, rather than Supporting Actress). Its Metacritic average is rather low compared to the other nominees. But, its a Holocaust period piece, and we know how much the Adademy loves those.
Would have loved for The Dark Knight to be one of the nominated films, but ah well.
And what a snub for The Boss in the Song category.
The Dark Knight and Iron Man were both robbed.
It's not the same this year without both Ebert or Reoper giving us their picks. We've done the whole indie movie with a big heart that got an "unexpected" push at the box office because of all the buzz it was generating. It's not the same if it gets released late in the year just so it can purposly get enough hype and become a "for your consideration" flick. I'll take Dark Night over Slumdog anyday.
