Oscar favourites

After the BAFTA’s last Sunday, in less than a fortnight’s time are the Oscars. The 6000 strong Oscar Academy is impossible to influence but they take strange decisions in what we call snubs. Some people are Academy favourites like Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep and Daniel Day- Lewis while some like Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp and Christopher Nolan not exactly so. Winning an Academy award involves a lot of factors- some win after being nominated repeatedly like Martin Scorcese in 06’ for The Departed, Jeff Bridges and Kate Winslet in 09’ with their fifth and sixth nominations respectively. The Academy sometimes gives the Oscar for the body of work done and not one single film. And sometimes they have major apprehensions in giving award to a young and most popular film.

Everybody has their favourite film of the year and not everyone’s favourite film bags an Oscar. Last year I had written that James Cameron should get the Directors Oscar but Katheryn Bigelow won becoming the first woman director to do so ,leaving Cameron as good as been sucker punched.

This time around I have taken calls on more categories. According to my consideration, these are contenders that I have slotted as- should win, could win and would win. Should win are the front runners and favourites. Could wins are the close competition and dark horses. Would win means that I believe that, them winning is almost a certainty.

I have picked The Social Network to win the best film, despite the indications being that the Academy won’t choose a film that is about Facebook and that they love the Royals and kings (The Queen ,Elizabeth et al)

But say what you want, The Social Network was the most entertaining film of the year, behind maybe Toy story 3, which will win best animated film. Inception was unquestionably the most intelligent film of the year, possibly the decade and Christopher Nolan not getting a Best Director nomination is not just a snub but theft. Personally, The King’s Speech though win it might, doesn’t make my top 3 films of the year. The best Actor Oscar’ fate is sealed in the name of Colin Firth who deserves all the praise unlike last year when he was nominated and overpraised for ‘A Single Man’. Likewise, Natalie Portman should win for Black Swan.

Looking forward to the main event to be hosted by the talented James Franco and lovely Anne Hathaway.

Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Should win The Social Network

Could win The King’s Speech

Must win but won’t Inception (if it does, it would be the most popular win of the night)

Best Director

David O. Russell – The Fighter
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David Fincher – The Social Network
Joel And Ethan Coen – True Grit
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

Should win David Fincher

Could win Tom Hooper

Best Actress
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole

Should win Natalie Portman

Could win Jennifer Lawrence

Best Actor
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King's Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

Should win Colin Firth

Would win Colin Firth

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Should win Mellisa Leo

Could win Jacki Weaver

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right

Should win Christian Bale

Would win Christian Bale

Best Original Screenplay
Another Year - Mike Leigh
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler

Should win Inception - Christopher Nolan

Could win The King's Speech - David Seidler

As much as The King’s Speech is a very good screenplay, Inception is literally three levels deeper and almost a decade of mind churning and labour on screen .This is not asking for sympathy, it’s just asking to be judged on merit. It was built from a germ of an idea, and what an idea it is! So, in a perfect world, Inception should win hands down.

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
True Grit - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Should win The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Would win The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

With dialogues sharp enough to cut ribbons and polished scenes one after another, this is one category which has been sealed quite a few awards before the actual ceremony at Kodak Theatre.

Best Animated Film
Toy Story 3
The Illusionist
How To Train Your Dragon

Each film is good. I will explain in simple maths.

Toy Story 3> How To Train Your Dragon> The Illusionist

Should win Toy Story 3

Would win Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Film
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dog Tooth (Greece)
In A Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

Haven’t seen all, so can’t say as yet.

Best Score
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech – Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The King's Speech nomination is strange; there is just one simple but elegant tune throughout the film whereas AR Rahman gave such justice to James Franco’s emotions in 127 hours. Inception’s score by Hans Zimmer is loud but noteworthy. Difficult to take a call on this one. All odds at 1/5.

Should win The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Could win All of the rest 4 can .

Best Cinematography
Black Swan – Matthew Libatique
Inception – Wally Pfister
The King's Speech – Danny Cohen
The Social Network – Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit – Roger Deakins

Should win Inception – Wally Pfister

Could win Black Swan – Matthew Libatique, The Social Network – Jeff Cronenweth

Best Editing
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

Should win The Social Network

Could win 127 hours,The King’s Speech

The film that should have won is not here – Inception. Such a complex story would have collapsed if the editing was even a notch below excellent.

So there you go. I do not think any film will sweep the ceremony.Now for the wait until the next Monday morning and see who wins what !

127 hours

If anybody pitches you an idea about a film in which the main guy is trapped under a rock in a desolate Utah canyon, and amputates his own arm to get himself freed, what would you say ?Some of the obvious questions would be

Isn’t this documentary material?

Where is the action in the action movie if the guy can’t move?

How are you going to shoot once he is trapped?

The camera would be still after that?

Where is the suspense if the end is known?

Danny Boyle’s follow up to his academy award winning film is something that many would be sceptical about. He could have used this chance to make any film he wanted .Yet he chose to tell mountain climber Aron Ralston’s gut – wrenching story.

127 Hours escapes claustrophobic tendencies as Boyle uses, flashbacks, reveries, hallucinations and premonitions to bring motion in 'an action movie with a guy who can't move'. He brings latitude to a subject very restricted in breadth and shoots without being sentimental about the situation.

And that is why,in one line as famed film critic Roger Ebert put it, '127 Hours is an exercise in conquering the unfilmable.'

Many of us would have thought and done the same thing, but then failed half way only to be discovered dead a week later and becoming a part of a small story on a local news channel. Aron infact did manage to cut his arm off and, lived to tell the tale and deserves to be immortalised on screen. James Franco has not missed one beat in playing Aron Ralston right down to saying ‘oops’. Notice his quivering voice when he says the rock has been waiting for him for years ever since it came down on earth probably as a meteorite or when he interviews himself as he records on the handycam.

He is reckless, arrogantly self confident and charming but in the end realises that although given his steely resolve, we all need a little help ,human touch and interaction.

Sometimes you make a mistake and are allowed to dwell about it for a long time, in solace and then things become clearer, choices begin to present themselves. Something similar happens here to Aron. Surviving the elements of nature for over 5 days he finally cuts himself off the rock, climbs the cliff wall and hikes over 8 miles until he is finally rescued. That whole sequence is elevated by the simply brilliant ‘Festival’ track by AR Rahman. When it gets over you will be happy walking out of the theatre, both arms still present but never sad that Aron Ralston has only one.

Boyle’s films are always stylish, whether style follows function or the function dictates style is open to discussion. Every Danny Boyle film has entertained at some level from Trainspotting to 28 Days Later to Sunshine to The Beach.

I am a fan of Boyle’s extreme aerial zoom-out of camera, which he uses often to showcase the immensity of the situation. It can be the wilderness of Canyons in 127 hours, the expanse and kitsch of the slums in Slumdog Millionaire or the beauty of the forbidden beach in The Beach .Cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak, establish the vastness of the Blue John canyon, Utah and the very specific details of Ralston’s crevice trap, like a sip of water,or his gradual exhaustion and dehyrdation. The filming is energetic and kinetic.

After its film festival premieres, it has got the Oscar buzz, but I am not quite sure it would win more than 1, if any .However 127 hours is among Boyle’s best films yet. Must watch!