Here are my predictions:
Best
picture
12
Years a Slave
American
Hustle
Captain
Phillips
Dallas
Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The
Wolf of Wall Street
I
believe that this is mainly a two horse race between 12 Years a Slave
and Gravity, with American Hustle as an outside possibility.
I
did not feel that 12 Years a Slave resonated with me a great deal,
whereas Gravity blew me away and was by far my favorite film of last
year. I think that the weighting is likely with 12 Years a Slave and
Gravity, but I’m going to go with my gut and say that Gravity will
win.
Best
director
Alfonso
Cuarón - Gravity
Steve
McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
Alexander
Payne - Nebraska
David
O. Russell - American Hustle
Martin
Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street
I
can’t see anyone over
Alfonso Cuarón taking this one home.
Best
lead actor
Christian
Bale - American Hustle
Bruce
Dern - Nebraska
Chiwetel
Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Matthew
McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
Leonardo
DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
I
would love to see this go to Leonardo DiCaprio, who I thought was
brilliant in The Wolf of Wall Street, but believe that this is likely
between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew McConaughey.
I
wasn’t really sold by Chiwetel
Ejiofor’s performance in 12 Years a Slave (which is one of the
reasons that the film didn’t win me over), as such I’m saying
Matthew McConaughey.
Best
lead actress
Amy
Adams - American Hustle
Cate
Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Judi
Dench - Philomena
Meryl
Streep - August: Osage County
Sandra
Bullock – Gravity
My
choice would be Sandra Bullock, but the favorite is currently Cate
Blanchett (and I can’t comment because I haven’t seen Blue
Jasmine). Everyone on this list with the exception of Amy Adams has
won an Oscar
in the past and as such, she may stand a chance due to this (and her
great performance in American Hustle.
I
think that any other year this would be Cate
Blanchett, but her hopes may have been tarred by the current
controversy associated with Woody Allen and as such I’m going with
Amy
Adams.
Best
performance by an actor in a supporting role
Barkhad
Abdi - Captain Phillips
Bradley
Cooper - American Hustle
Michael
Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
Jonah
Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared
Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
Although
I haven’t seen the film, based on the part that has been played by
him (and also based on the other nominees), I going with Jared Leto
for this one.
Best
performance by an actress in a supporting role
Sally
Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
Jennifer
Lawrence - American Hustle
Lupita
Nyong’o - 12 Years a Slave
Julia
Roberts - August: Osage County
June
Squibb – Nebraska
I
would really like this to go to Jennifer
Lawrence and in any other year it probably would, but seeing as she
won best actress last year I’m think that this is unlikely. As such
I believe that Lupita Nyong’o will win this.
Best
animated feature film of the year
The
Croods
Despicable
Me 2
Ernest
& Celestine
Frozen
The
Wind Rises
I’d
be surprised if it were anything else.
Achievement
in cinematography
The
Grandmaster - Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity
- Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside
Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska
- Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners
- Roger A. Deakins
Gravity
again – It was a remarkable achievement i cinematography.
Achievement
in costume design
American
Hustle - Michael Wilkinson
The
Grandmaster - William Chang Suk Ping
The
Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin
The
Invisible Woman - Michael O’Connor
12
Years a Slave - Patricia Norris
A
tough call between American
Hustle and The Great Gatsby, but in view of the fact that The Great
Gatsby isn’t up for Best Picture (and also because I selfishly
loved the outfits on both Jenifer Lawrence and Amy Adams), I’m
going with American Hustle.
Best
documentary feature
The
Act of Killing
Cutie
and the Boxer
Dirty
Wars
The
Square
20
Feet from Stardom
No
prediction made – I don’t know enough about each film to comment.
Best
documentary short subject
CaveDigger
Facing
Fear
Karama
Has No Walls
The
Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison
Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
No
prediction made – I don’t know enough about each film to comment.
Achievement
in film editing
American
Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
Captain
Phillips - Christopher Rouse
Dallas
Buyers Club - John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Gravity
- Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
12
Years a Slave - Joe Walker
Gravity
- Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
Best
foreign language film of the year
The
Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium
The
Great Beauty, Italy
The
Hunt, Denmark
The
Missing Picture, Cambodia
Omar,
Palestine
No
prediction made – I don’t know enough about each film to comment.
Achievement
in makeup and hairstyling
Dallas
Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Jackass
Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty
The
Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Achievement
in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
The
Book Thief - John Williams
Gravity
- Steven Price
Her
- William Butler and Owen Pallett
Philomena
- Alexandre Desplat
Saving
Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman
Not
too sure about this one, but I’m hoping that this will share the
Gravity love.
Achievement
in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
Happy
from Despicable Me 2
Let
It Go from Frozen
The
Moon Song from “Her
Ordinary
Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
A
great song... I’d be disappointed if this didn’t win.
Achievement
in production design
American
Hustle - Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration:
Heather Loeffler
Gravity
- Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin
and Joanne Woollard
The
Great Gatsby - Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration:
Beverley Dunn
Her
- Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
12
Years a Slave - Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration:
Alice Baker
Best
animated short film
Feral
Get
a Horse!
Mr.
Hublot
Possessions
Room
on the Broom
I’ll
probably be wrong on this one, but I have to put down Room on the
Broom.
Best
live action short film
Aquel
No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
Avant
Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)
Helium
Pitääkö
Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The
Voorman Problem
No
prediction made – I don’t know enough about each film to comment.
Achievement
in sound editing
All
Is Lost - Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain
Phillips - Oliver Tarney
Gravity
- Glenn Freemantle
The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge
Lone
Survivor - Wylie Stateman
The
sound awards are always hard to judge, but I’m going with Gravity.
Achievement
in sound mixing
Captain
Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris
Munro
Gravity
- Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges,
Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside
Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone
Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
The
sound awards are always hard to judge, but I’m going with Gravity.
Achievement
in visual effects
Gravity
- Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug -Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David
Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron
Man 3 - Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The
Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John
Frazier
Star
Trek Into Darkness - Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and
Burt Dalton
Best
adapted screenplay
Before
Midnight - written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain
Phillips - screenplay by Billy Ray
Philomena
- screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12
Years a Slave - screenplay by John Ridley
The
Wolf of Wall Street - screenplay by Terence Winter
Best
original screenplay
American
Hustle - Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue
Jasmine - Written by Woody Allen
Dallas
Buyers Club - Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her
- Written by Spike Jonze
Nebraska
- Written by Bob Nelson
This is a tough one to call. Spike Jonze has one in the past, but Her certainly is original (if you ignore Electric Dreams), Dallas Buyers Club also has a lot of momentum. Ultimately, I believe that voters will want this to go to David O. Russell for American Hustle.
Overall,
I’m slightly concerned that my judgement may have been slightly
biased by my love of Gravity (especially since for the current
Oscar’s favourite I have only predicted 2 awards), but I guess that
we will see come Oscar night (in about 2 ½ weeks).
As
always, I will post the results, together with how I have done on
this blog.
