The Oscar season is almost up in full swing. The Academy awards this year return to be hosted by Billy Crystal after an 8 year gap .Watch the promotional campaign down here featuring Megan Fox.
As the year closes, all the biggies have been released, the frontrunners and dark horses identified. The films with expectations sometimes disappoint and unknown films delight and sparkle out of the blue. This year there are 9 films up for the biggest prize of Best Picture. Hugo leads the nominations but The Artist is the film with the momentum and with a chance of a sweep. Sweeps make the awards boring . As it is, its difficult to predict, but nonetheless, those tagged as should win are my picks to win, would win are the most likely to win and could win are the slight underdogs and dark horses for the statuette.
Best Picture
Hugo
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Midnight in
Moneyball
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Would win -The Artist
Could win- The Descendants
Best Director
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Martin Scorcese – Hugo
Woody Allen - Midnight in
Terence Mallick - The Tree of Life
This is a category in which Michel Hazanavicius’ best work is against not the best works of the other four. And trends indicate his best is good enough for the win.
Would win - Michel Hazanavicius
Best Leading Actor
Demián Bichir- A Better Life
George Clooney -The Descendants
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Okay this looks tight. Demián Bichir was really good as a Mexican immigrant single father in A Better Life but a win here looks far fetched. And Gary Oldman didn’t win at BAFTA so he also is an outsider. Pick your lead from the rest. It’s still tight.
Would win Jean Dujardin
Could win George Clooney
Should win Brad Pitt
Best Leading Actress
Viola Davis – The Help
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Wiliams – My Week with Marilyn
Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
Would win Viola Davis
Could win Meryl Streep
Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Octavia Spencer – The Help
Bérnicé Bejo- The Artist
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer- Albert Nobbs
Should Win Octavia Spencer
Could win Jessica Chastain, Bérnicé Bejo
Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer- Beginners
Max Von Syndow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Would Win Christopher Plummer
Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen - Midnight in
JC Chandor - Margin Call
Asghar Farhadi - A Separation
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumulo – Bridesmaids
Would win - Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Should win - Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay
George Clooney, Beau Willimon, Grant Hesloy - The Ides of March
Alexander Payne, Jim Rash- The Descendents
John Logan - Hugo
Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian, Stan Chervin - Moneyball
Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
All 5 films are worthy and the best are more or less even here. Moneyball though has a slight edge.
Should win - Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian, Stan Chervin - Moneyball
Best Foreign Language Film
Bullhead (
Footnote (
A Separation (
Monsieur Lazhar (
In Darkness (
A Separation with a nomination for Original screenplay looks the front-runner for this.
But a surprise might just occur, although unlikely.
Best Animation Film
A Cat in
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango
One thing is certain, regular winners Pixar studios won’t win anything with no nominations this year. My pick is Rango, set in a milieu that is not squeaky clean, with an inspired Johnny Depp voicing the grotesque chameleon.
Should win Rango
The Academy Awards will be held at Kodak Theatre,
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