Wednesday 18 February 2015

Oscars 2015: My Predictions



It's that time of year again! Awards season culminates this weekend with the Academy Awards, Hollywood's night of nights. 

Boyhood and Birdman are the front-runners, but The Grand Budapest Hotel, Still Alice, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash and The Imitation Game are likely to go away with something in the bag too. So, this can only mean one thing - a frenetic session of wildly stabbing in the dark at who'll win what!

Seriously, I do this every year and never seem to get anything right.

Anyway, highlighted in orange is my prediction for who will win a particular category; those highlighted in purple are who I'd personally like to see win in an ideal world (if applicable). I've also put some comments on who and why below some of the categories. I haven't covered every category because I'm not expert on everything and, let's be honest, who gives a crap about something like Best Makeup and Hairstyling?!

Anyway, let's roll up our sleeves and dive right in...

Best Picture


Does it annoy anyone else
that the grass in this poster is just a
pattern that repeats itself?
American Sniper (my review)
Boyhood
Birdman (my review)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (my review)
The Imitation Game (my review)
Selma
The Theory of Everything (my review)
Whiplash (my review)

Boyhood has maintained momentum throughout awards season thus far - hard to imagine something upsetting the order at the final hurdle, even if I would love to see Grand Budapest or Birdman do exactly that. If anything was going to steal a win in this category, it'd be Birdman.

Best Actor


Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
Steve Carrell (Foxcatcher)

Keaton should win for his role in Birdman but Redmayne (who took home the Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG awards) will most likely beat him to it. Fair enough, his performance was easily the best part about The Theory of Everything.


Best Actress


Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Julianne Moore is the front-runner for this category - so far she's racked up wins at the Golden Globes, SAG's and the BAFTA's. The natural next step is her first Oscar win from five career nominations. That being said, I'd love to see Rosamund win - her performance in Gone Girl was on another level. 


Best Supporting Actor 


Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
Edward Norton (Birdman)
JK Simmons (Whiplash)
Robert Duvall (The Judge) 
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

JK Simmons isn't a big name actor like the rest of the nominees in this category, but he's the favourite to win for his role in Whiplash regardless. He's done pretty well up to this point, I can't see anyone else beating him.


Best Supporting Actress


Emma Stone (Birdman)
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Meryl Streep (Into The Woods)
Laura Dern (Wild)
Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Patricia Arquette will almost definitely win for Boyhood (y'know, because Streep can't win every year), but my pick would be Keira Knightley. She was ace in The Imitation Game.


Best Director


Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman)
Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Linklater will win even though Inarritu's direction was much more ambitious and inventive. 


Best Original Screenplay


Foxcatcher (Dan Futterman, E. Max Frye)
Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone,...)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

Birdman won the Globe but I'd love to see Nightcrawler win the only award it's up for.


Best Adapted Screenplay


Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
American Sniper (Jason Hall)
The Imitation Game (Graham Moore)
The Theory of Everything (Anthony McCarten)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)

I honestly have no idea with this one - Whiplash seems like a good enough bet.


Best Animated Feature


The Tale of Princess Kaguya
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Boxtrolls
Big Hero 6
Song of the Sea

How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6 seem like the only main contenders in this category - the former will probably win because the first film lost out to Toy Story 3.


Best Visual Effects


Interstellar
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Guardians of the Galaxy

It'd be cool to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes win something for the amazing VFX work on Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell, but it's hard to deny that Interstellar deserves to win this one.


Best Cinematography 


Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr. Turner
Unbroken


Best Film Editing


American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash


Best Score


Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game)
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)
Gary Yershon (Mr. Turner)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory Of Everything)

Alexandre Desplat is nominated twice in the same category and I'd like to see his work for The Imitation Game get the recognition it deserves.


Best Original Song


'Everything Is Awesome' from The Lego Movie
'Glory' from Selma
'Grateful' from Beyond the Lights
'I'm Not Going to Miss You' from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
'Lost Stars' from Begin Again

'Glory' will win because Selma didn't get nominated for anything else except Best Picture. 'Everything Is Awesome' should win because The Lego Movie didn't get nominated for anything else, period.  But then the Academy would never be that cool to award a film about Lego an Oscar.

10 comments:

  1. You seem to have a handle on this, but you're right, this is going to be a lot of baited breath, considering that a lot of categories have two or three really strong contenders.

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    1. Thanks mate! :) It's pretty cool that Best Picture is fairly open, even if some of the acting ones aren't. I've got my fingers crossed for Birdman! :)

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  2. I think you've hit the nail on the head here! I would love nothing more than to see Everything Is Awesome get an Oscar, it would make up for The Lego Movie's snub!
    - Allie

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    1. Thanks Allie! The way I see it, The LEGO Movie has to win for SOMETHING - I mean, c'mon, it was so much more than just a toy ad.

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  3. This is going to be a very interesting Oscars for sure. Some categories are easy to predict, but most could actually go a few different ways.

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    1. Yep, it'll be interesting watching the updates roll in on Twitter when I'm at work on Monday haha. Maybe I'll get to watch some highlights on YouTube on my lunch break ;)

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  4. All my energy Oscar night will go to root for Keaton!

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    1. Fingers crossed! It'd be great for Keaton is complete his comeback with a win :)

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  5. I'm so with you on Rosamund Pike. I'd love to see JK Simmons win, as well. He's awesome every time out.

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    Replies
    1. I know right? As if she's an outsider for Gone Girl, her performance was incredible. Seeing as I've now actually seen Whiplash, I can definitely say that JK deserves to win. He was like a fierce tornado in that film!

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