Gay Christmas/Gay Superbowl Predictions

When I think back on 2011's year in film I would define it as the year of good, not great films and great performances in mediocre movies. For these reasons I must confess I was very bored by this year's Oscar race. I rarely blogged about this year in film and didn't even get around to seeing all nominated Best Pictures (but with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close being nominated, can you blame me?)

That being said the Oscars and I have had a very loving relationship for the past 19 years and I could never turn my back on them. Ever! Although it will be tough to ever forgive them for giving Sandra "The Blind Side" Bullock an Oscar two years ago.

I look forward to tonight's ceremony with baited breath. I don't really care who people are wearing or their chosen Oscar date. But I do care about who wins as my party trick is knowing all Best Picture, Actor, & Actress winners ever and this does came in handy if you want to make a good impression/prove that you are borderline autistic at a party.

Without further ado these are my predictions for the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Best Picture - The Artist
Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Best Actor - Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Best Actress - Viola Davis - The Help
Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer - The Help

Best Original Screenplay - Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rush - The Descendants

Best Animated Feature - Rango

Best Foreign Language Film - A Separation

Best Documentary - Hell and Back Again

Official Oscar Predictions

2011 is perhaps the most uninteresting Oscar race I've ever witnessed in my 18 years of obsessive Oscar following. That being said I'm still unbelievably excited for tomorrow's nominations. No matter what happens in life, Oscar nomination morning is my Christmas morning. I go to sleep with tons of anticipation, wake up early and always eagerly anticipate the gift's that Santa has left under the tree - Oscar wise that is.

So here goes. Here are my official nominations for the 84th Annual Oscar Nominations:


Best Picture
Hugo
The Artist
The Help
Moneyball
Midnight in Paris
The Descendants
Tree of Life


Best Director
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
David Fincher - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese - Hugo


Best Actor
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Michael Shannon - Take Shelter


Best Actress
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn


Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners


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


Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi - A Separation
Michel Hazanivicius - The Artist
Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig - Bridesmaids
Will Reiser - 50/50


Best Adapted Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian - Moneyball
Tate Taylor - The Help
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - The Descendants
John Logan - Hugo
Steven Zaillian - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, yes it is because it's Oscar season! I love seeing the critic top ten lists being unveiled day after day and the precursor awards that essentially shape who we will see come the January 24th nomination morning.

NBoR and BFCA announced last week and SAG and Golden Globes announced this week. It's amazing to see what is really a contender and what is dead in the water at this point.

Here are my current Oscar predictions:

Best Picture

War Horse
The Artist
The Help
The Descendants
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
Drive
Tree of Life
The Ides of March

Best Director

Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Stephen Spielberg - War Horse
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender - Shame
George Clooney - The Descendants
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar

Best Actress

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Tilda Swinton - We Need To Talk About Kevin
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn


Best Supporting Actor

Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Nick Nolte - Warrior

Best Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTee - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

Is it Oscar season all ready?

First Official Oscar Predictions of 2011:


Best Picture
Hugo
The Artist
The Descendants
War Horse
Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud
Moneyball
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Tree of Life
Drive


Best Director
Stephen Spielberg - War Horse
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Michael Hazanavicius - The Artist
Terrence Malick - Tree of Life
Alexander Payne - The Descendants


Best Actor
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Woody Harrelsen - Rampart


Best Actress
Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn


Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks - Drive
John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Jim Broadbent - The Iron Lady
Corey Stall - Midnight in Paris


Best Supporting Actress
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs

Final no holds barred Oscar Predictions 2011.

Best picture: The King’s Speech

Best director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Best actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best supporting actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter


Best supporting actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Adapted screenplay: The Social Network

Original screenplay: The King’s Speech



Best animated feature: Toy Story 3

Best art direction: The King’s Speech



Best cinematography: True Grit

Best costume design: Alice in Wonderland

Best documentary feature: Inside Job



Best foreign language film of the year: Incendies

Best film editing: The Social Network

Best documentary short subject: Strangers No More

Best makeup: The Wolfman

Best original score: The Social Network

Best original song “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3”

Best animated short film: The Gruffalo

Best live action short film: God of Love



Best sound editing: Inception

Best sound mixing: Inception

Best visual effects: Inception

Final Oscar Predictions 2010.

I love Oscar morning. It's better than Xmas morning. I have stayed home from school/work every year since 1995 and waited with baited breath for the nominations. I love hearing the announcement of surprise nominees (2003's Keisha Castle Hughes for Best Actress, The Blind Side for Best Picture in 2009 and 2008's Best Actress, and not Supporting, nomination of Kate Winslet for The Reader) and the big snubs (2008's The Dark Knight snub for Best Picture and Director, Sideway's Paul Giamatti in 2004 for Best Actor and Mulholland Drive's Naomi Watts for Best Actress in 2001).

There are always surprises and always snubs. 2009's lineup was fairly predictable, while 2008 was full of pleasant and not so pleasant surprises. Where will this year fall? We are only 12 hours away.

Here are my final official predictions:

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

(alt. Winter's Bone)

Best Director
Christopher Nolan - Inception
David Fincher - The Social Network
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
David O. Russell - The Fighter

(alt. The Coen Brothers - True Grit)

Best Actor
James Franco - 127 Hours
Jeff Bridges - True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
Robert Duvall - Get Low

(alt. Mark Wahlberg - The Fighter)

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

(alt. Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit)

Best Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield - The Social Network
Christian Bale - The Fighter
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right

(alt. John Hawkes - Winter's Bone)

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

(alt. Mila Kunis - Black Swan)

Best Original Screenplay

The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
Inception
The King's Speech
Black Swan

(alt. Blue Valentine)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winter's Bone
Toy Story 3
The Social Network
Winter's Bone
True Grit

(alt. The Town)

Go for broke prediction: Hailee Steinfeld takes a spot in Best Actress knocking out Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis gets her spot in Supporting Actress.

Happy Oscar nom morn everybody.

Golden Globe Reactions.

The Golden Globes were handed out on Sunday night and things suddenly became a lot more clear in this year's Oscar race. I will do my best in this blog to make sense of what we learned from Sunday awards.

First let me address the TV award winners. I was all over the place in my TV predictions. But I have learned this: if you are an actor in a new show or simply a new show that has a sufficient amount of buzz, you will win a Golden Globe. The Globes love anything that's new (see this year's big wins for Boardwalk Empire, Steve Buscemi, Katey Segal, & Laura Linney). They always have and I should never believe they would actually reward the truly deserving Elisabeth Moss, 4 seasons deep into Mad Men.
While was thrilled for Chris Colfer's win and I love the fact that he is becoming the standout star of Glee, I will not believe that Glee is the best comedy on TV. 30 Rock and Modern Family are in a different Universe. But I guess it's simply the newest buzz-worthiest comedy on TV. I have almost no faith in the Globe TV awards because new doesn't mean best. Rant over.

Now let's move onto the Oscar race. (I did do very well in my Globe film predictions by the wya, 12 out of 14 correct). Let's talk through each category post Golden Globes.
Best Picture: Critics and Oscar bloggers were saying that The King's Speech still had what it took to win Best Picture if it won at the Globes, however now I think it's safe to say things are a done deal. The Social Network will win Best Picture. It has won everything on the map.
Best Director: David Fincher will win Best Director. Also a done deal. He's well respected and he did great work with The Social Network. I'd be inclined to vote for Christopher Nolan though.
Best Actor: Colin Firth wins Best Actor Drama and cements himself as the front runner over James Franco. It was nice to see Paul Giamatti win for Barney's Version. Being Canadian and loving his love letter speech to my homeland, made me very happy to see this happen. However, Giamatti is a very very long shot to get into the top 5 actor race come Oscar.
Best Actress: I don't think we are any clearer in terms of a clear cut victor in this race, Bening wins in Comedy and Portman wins in Drama. However I did notice an unbelievable amount of support for Portman when her name was announced among the nominees for Best Actress drama. Her speech was absolutely charming and lovely and she looked radiant. I know it sounds trite to say she was charming in her speech and looked pretty, but in terms of the Oscar race these things actually matter. I think Portman is still in the lead. I think people want her to win this Oscar. I think Black Swan has more support overall than The Kids Are All Right (Aronofsky will be among the nominees for director while Lisa Cholodenko will not be). I think the Oscar is Portman's. I would be shocked if Bening won at this point.
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale wins the Globe and will win the Oscar. Geoffrey Rush, Bale's toughest competition, won't be able to trip him up. Plus support for The King's Speech will undoubtedly be thrown in Firth's direction.
Best Supporting Actress: This is the race with the largest question mark in front of it. This year it seems to suffer from the fact that no one really deserves the award. There is a Mo'Nique type performance in the category. It seems to be a category of performances that other years usually fill out a Best Supporting Actress category. Melissa Leo wins the Globe. She also won The Critics choice award but was not even nominated for The BAFTA. Some bloggers have said Helena Bonham Carter could win, but it isn't really a winning performance just nice, solid work. Amy Adams is great in The Fighter, but it's not the role one wins an Oscar for. Hailee Steinfeld (who strangely was not nominated for a Globe) could actually win this category, that is if she's not nominated for Best Actress come Oscar time. If I were to bet right now, I would bet on Melissa Leo. If she wins the SAG, she's pretty much guaranteed an Oscar and it looks like the cards are falling that way.

Oscar noms are less than a week away. It's Oscar fans Xmas morning on Tuesday. Most categories are pretty sewn up in terms of 3 or 4 nominees. But I expect some surprises. Time to get excited!