I’ve already
identified who should win the Oscars for Best Picture and for all the acting categories; now, let’s take a stab at who’ll actually win this Sunday. Here are
predictions for the 87th Oscars…
BEST PICTURE
American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance) CORRECT
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory Of Everything
Whiplash
In recent
years, there have been those when the Oscar winner for Best Picture was almost
a done deal, when there was only a second option that could upset the most
obvious winner. Avatar was the second
when The Hurt Locker won. The Social Network was the second when The King’s Speech won. The Descendants was the second when The Artist won. Argo could have lost out
to Lincoln, and 12 Years A Slave to Gravity. This year, however, the odds of
Boyhood or Birdman winning are almost 50-50. Boyhood won the Golden Globe for Best Picture – drama, while Birdman
won the SAG ensemble and the Producers Guild Of America Award (PGAs) for Best
Picture. In the last 17 years, more PGA winners have gone on to win Best
Picture Oscars than have the Golden Globe Best Picture winners or the SAG
ensemble winners. This year, the PGA named Birdman
Best Picture. Additionally, the Directors Guild Of America Awards (DGAs) for
directing have been more in-sync with the Oscar Best Picture winners than even
the PGAs. This year, the DGA went to Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman.
It’s
not unusual for the Academy to award unconventional and novel films as their
Best Picture, like 2008’s Slumdog
Millionaire, or 2011’s The Artist,
so it wouldn’t be so far off for one to think that they’ll actually give it to Boyhood this year. However, Birdman is just as novel as Boyhood is,
especially considering the kind of films that generally win Best Picture—such
as No Country For Old Men, The King’s Speech, 12 Years A Slave. Therefore, this year, despite Boyhood’s novelty and experimental
charm, I think it’ll be Birdman
taking home the big prize, considering the track record that the Academy has vis-à-vis
the big prizes of the other awards.
Alejandro G Iñárritu, Birdman
or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) CORRECT
Richard Linklater,
Boyhood
Bennett
Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson,
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten
Tyldum, The Imitation Game
There’s a
good chance that Boyhood might win
for directing while it loses Best Picture, to Birdman. It could also be the other way around, with Alejandro
González Iñárritu winning for directing while Boyhood wins Best Picture. However, majority of Best Picture
winners also win the Oscar for directing, and I think Birdman will fall into that majority this year. The perfectly
executed screenplay of Birdman and
that he could help Keaton, Stone and Norton earn nominations are going to earn
him this Oscar.
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Marion
Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Felicity
Jones, The Theory Of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still
Alice CORRECT
Rosamund
Pike, Gone Girl
Reese
Witherspoon, Wild
The
performances by these lead actresses are all good—relatively quiet, controlled,
perfectly restrained—but Julianne Moore takes that restraint further back for
those blank moments of hers in Still
Alice, and the effective outcome of her overall performance is bound to be
recognized.
Steve Carell,
Foxcatcher
Bradley
Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict
Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael
Keaton, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue
of Ignorance)
Eddie Redmayne, The
Theory Of Everything CORRECT
Cumberbatch,
Keaton or Redmayne—it could be any of these guys. However even though this
year, the result isn’t as much of a ‘done deal’ as was the case with Daniel
Day-Lewis for Lincoln or Matthew McConaughey
for Dallas Buyers Club, I think the
Academy will reward what I think was the best performance of the year, across
all acting categories—Eddie Redmayne’s.
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood CORRECT
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira
Knightley, The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep,
Into The Woods
Emma Stone, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance)
Patricia
Arquette will win it for the consistency she’s shown over the 12 years of
playing the character. Although I personally think Knightley should win.
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Robert
Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward
Norton, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue
of Ignorance)
Mark Ruffalo,
Foxcatcher
JK Simmons, Whiplash CORRECT
There’s no
competition for, and no doubt about Simmons winning this year.
WRITING – ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance),
written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr
& Armando Bo
Boyhood, written by Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher,
written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel, screenplay by Wes
Anderson; story by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler, written by Dan Gilroy
Screenplay
awards are often like consolation prizes to exemplary films that everyone knows
won’t win Best Picture. It could go on to win Best Picture too, but this year,
with the odds not entirely in any one film’s favor, I think the consolation
prize will come into play for those that won’t win the big prize. This,
however, I think will go to The Grand
Budapest Hotel, for its dynamic and engaging narrative and character
constructs.
American Sniper, written by Jason Hall
The Imitation Game, written by Graham
Moore CORRECT
Inherent Vice, written for the screen by
Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything, screenplay by Anthony
McCarten
Whiplash, written by Damien Chazelle
The Imitation Game is winning this one, since
it won’t be winning Best Picture, even though it probably should.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance) CORRECT
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr Turner
Unbroken
Birdman! Cinematography was the MO of the
narrative, taking it forward, quite literally even, and executing what was so
effective that it might have gone unnoticed and instead, simply absorbed
subconsciously, making for viewing pleasure.
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash
The snappy
editing in the climax of Whiplash,
and actually consistently throughout the film makes me hope that it wins this
award. Boyhood’s editing does tie up
pieces shot over 12 years into one 150-minute film, for that Boyhood could come close, but I don’t
think it will. American Sniper is the
one to beat for battle scene edits that were precisely on the mark.
SOUND EDITING
American Sniper CORRECT
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five
Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken
The sound
awards could both go to American Sniper
or Interstellar; however, I think
this year, I think they’ll be split. American
Sniper will take out this one.
SOUND MIXING
American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance)
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash CORRECT
When music is
key, the Academy hears the sound, and that’s why I think Whiplash will be this year’s winner for achievement in sound
mixing.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar CORRECT
X-Men: Days of Future Past
For
everything Christopher Nolan’s twisted futuristic drama will lose out on, this
one’s pretty much locked for Interstellar.
It may not have become this year’s Gravity,
by turning into a frontrunner for a Best Picture nomination, but in visual
effects, there’s no doubt of its win.
The Grand Budapest Hotel CORRECT
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into The Woods
Mr Turner
Interstellar could be this year’s Avatar—winning production design for
mostly computer-generated imagery. However, I think the Academy will go with
the vastly imaginative and resplendent art direction of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr Turner
This one’s Mr Turner’s, for the Academy’s love for
everything old and European in visual appeal and historical flair.
MAKE-UP AND HAIRSTYLING
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel CORRECT
Guardians Of The Galaxy
This is where
all the major character transformations have been rewarded for their
excellence. Traditionally, it should go to Foxcatcher
for making Steve Carell unrecognizable, but then even Tilda Swinton looks like
a different human being in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and there’s a lot more of
that in Budapest than in Foxcatcher.
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Alexandre Desplat CORRECT
The Imitation Game, Alexandre Desplat
Interstellar, Hans Zimmer
Mr Turner, Gary Yershon
The Theory of Everything, Jóhann Jóhannsson
Jóhann
Jóhannsson won the Golden Globe, and the Academy could go traditional, but I
suspect that they’ll award the quirky brilliance of The Grand Budapest Hotel’s vibrant score by Alexandre Desplat.
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG
“Everything
Is Awesome” from The Lego Movie
“Glory” from Selma CORRECT
“Grateful”
from Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me
“Lost Stars” from Begin Again
The song won
the Golden Globe, it’s popular, it’s the voice of a film that can’t be
recognized in any other category, so “Glory” it will be.
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
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