Oscar time fast approaches!

[hippie_chick]

As I try to do each year, I pop in here with the nominees and my picks for the wins.

This year's awards is on Sunday February 26 at 7 pm ET.



Best Picture:

The Artist
Hugo
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

My pick: Of these I did pretty poorly viewing... I've only seen Midnight In Paris, The Help, and The Artist. I really enjoyed Midnight in Paris and The Artist and I want to see The Descendants as well as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The rest to be honest don't really grab me. As far as what will win, I'm thinking The Artist.

Actor In A Leading Role

Demián Bichir - A Better Life
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

My pick: I'll go with Jean Dujardin. I have a feeling that The Artist is going to be this years Oscar "it" film. However I haven't seen Moneyball so I can't say what I think about Brad, and lots of people think he has this, so I don't know.

Actress In A Leading Role

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn

My pick: Queen Meryl, baby. I haven't seen The Iron Lady yet, but what I have seen of it she nails it as usual. I just adore her. I like Michelle a whole lot, too, so we'll see here. Viola was great in The Help, too. This is tough. Not crazy about Rooney... I think Noomi Rapace is superior in that role, but meh. And I still think Tilda Swinton should be in here for We Need To Talk About Kevin. Were she in there that would change things entirely for me.

Actor In A Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Max Von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

My pick: I'm going to put it in for Christopher Plummer. But from what I'm seeing, Max Von Sydow could upset this. And may I say it's just strange to see Jonah Hill up there as an Oscar Nominee. Again, though I haven't seen Moneyball so I don't even know. It's just... weird. LOL

Actress In A Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help

My pick: I always think that if two actresses are up for the same award in the same film as Jessica and Octavia are, they cancel each other out. But both were great. And do comedy roles often win any major acting awards (Melissa)? I'll have to put in my bet here for Bérénice Bejo in The Artist.

Animated Feature Film

A Cat In Paris
Chico and Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Rango

My pick: Rango. Because, well, JOHNNY DEPP. Really surprised Tintin isn't here.

Cinematography

The Artist
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

My pick: I have no idea. I'm just going to go with Hugo, but I think it might even go to The Artist.

Director

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Woody Allen - Midnight In Paris
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

My pick: I want to see Woody get this one.

A word about the nominated songs!

I can't get over that there are only TWO SONGS nominated for Best Original Song? What is THAT? I just think that the music branch of the Academy makes it WAY TOO DIFFICULT to even get a nomination in this category any more. Ridiculous, totally.

As for the two nominated songs, we have "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppet Movie" and "Real In Rio" from "Rio". By the way you probably won't even be seeing either one of them performed on the telecast. Of the two I think that "Real In Rio" might get this one, I think it's cute and fun.

Why isn't "Masterpiece" by Madonna in there? I mean hello, GOLDEN GLOBE! Or her competition at the Globes, Elton John and Lady Gaga's "Hello Hello" from "Gnomeo and Juliet"? Jónsi had a gorgeous entire SOUNDTRACK for "We Bought A Zoo"! Mary J. Blige's song in "The Help"? Come on Academy there were more to choose from than just two, and two from children's movies at that!

Jónsi - Gathering Stories (from "We Bought A Zoo")

"I Like Dreamin' - Kenny Nolan 1977" (Watch on YouTube)

Madonna - Masterpiece (From W.E.)

Mary J. Blige - The Living Proof (From "The Help")

"Michael Martin Murphey - Wildfire" (Watch on YouTube)

As far as Best Original Score, I always love me some John Williams (War Horse), but I think The Artist will get that one, because well, it's a silent film and RELIED on a great score, right?

Uggie the dog thanks you for your time.


Anyway, there you have it. We'll see you at the Academy Awards!

P.S.
YAY! Billy Crystal is BACK!!!

Comments

[prettyh.livejournal.com]

I'm going to make my "pitch" (hardy har) here for you to see "Moneyball." I'm not a huge Brad fan, I HATE Jonah Hill, I know NOTHING about the Oakland A's...and yet my father persuaded me. And it was SO GOOD. You don't have to give a damn about baseball or anything of the sort to really enjoy it. And Philip Seymour Hoffman was so amazing. See it if you can, seriously.

I'm thoroughly horrified that Rooney "Spoiled Bitch" Mara got nominated for ripping off Noomi Rapace and yet Tilda Swinton got the shaft. That's whacked. Having said that, I saw "The Iron Lady" and would have no problem with Meryl winning, because she was the only good thing about the film (it's too bad - the movie was too messy to make much sense of history), and when I say "good" I mean "OMG GOOOOOOD!"

And what's up with the total ignorance of/for Ryan Gosling?? He carried "The Ides Of March" and kicked serious ass in "Drive," but yet again he gets nothing?? Why does the Academy not love Ryan??? EVERYONE LOVES RYAN.

The fact that Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross got passed over for their "Dragon" score? WTF. The opening sequence to that movie rivals only "Se7en" in its jaw-dropping amazingness, and the music is a big key to that. No idea why the Academy thought "Social Network" deserved it but this didn't. Baffling.

I've seen "My Week With Marilyn" and thought Michelle Williams did an incredible job, as did Kenneth Branagh - I actually forgot sometimes that they weren't their characters! But I'd be surprised if either won, sadly.

I'll be seeing "The Artist," "The Descendants," "Tree of Life," "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "The Help" before Oscar Day, and I'm going to try to track down "Beginners" and "Albert Nobbs," too. No interest at all in "Hugo," and I find a lot of what I've heard about "Extremely Loud" (the backwards flipbook of Falling Man?!?! Ew!!!) really distasteful (plus I don't like Tom Hanks - I know, I know, I'm an alien! I do love Max von Sydow, though...), and "War Horse" is just so incredibly emotionally manipulative that I'd never get through a film version of it. (It's on stage in Toronto right now, so I know the story well & it's...just...no.)

And yes, I think Uggie should get all the awards in honour of his retirement, and YAY BILLY CRYSTAL! :D

[hippie-chick.livejournal.com]

Yeah I kinda do want to see Moneyball now. I've been told it's good, and it's starting to intrigue me. I think I have to queue it up to watch before the awards. And yes! I almost forgot about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy! I need to see that too before the awards. So yeah, on my next day off (Monday) I may just spend the day watching movies instead of doing laundry. *snicker*.

And re: Trent / Atticus, I know! I like this soundtrack even that much better than Social Network, and I LOVE that soundtrack! So yeah. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the opening sequence, Karen O. singing "Immigrant Song"... it's awesome. But yeah, they got this last year, so feh... the Academy won't do it again this year. Boooooo. :(

And I'm really pissed that Tilda isn't in there. I saw "We Need To Talk About Kevin", streamed it online, and OMG! She's always amazing to me though.

And yes, yes, another glaring omission is Ryan Gosling!!

I loved The Artist. I thought it utterly delightful. I think you'll enjoy it, so yes YES see it!

I know, I've been on the fence about Extremely Loud... but I want to see it still, mainly for Max and yes, Tom (haha it's okay if you don't like him xx)but yeah. Poo on War Horse... not interested in that one either.

UGGIE FTW! I ♥ him. :)