By Nathan Gordon | ng312310@ohiou.edu | @GordonRises
The biggest night for movies is now just days away with this years Academy Awards coming Sunday, February 24th. I’m looking forward to this years award show, not just because one of my favorite people in the entertainment business is hosting (it’s Seth MacFarlane, for those still guessing), but also because there are a lot of tight races in this year’s categories. All the uncertainty got me wanting to come up with my own predictions. So below I decided to share my predictions on a handful of the categories. Who knows, I might turn out to be psychic (or the complete opposite).
Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Prediction: I personally would love to see Django Unchained, my second favorite movie from the past year, walk away with the victory but I highly doubt this controversial film will win. So I’ll try to make an educated guess and say Argo will take home the award for Best Picture. Argo has been dominating this awards season, so it looks like this film has the best chance for victory. I won’t be upset if it does win since it was a fairly good movie.
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
Prediction: I personally would like to see Bradley Cooper take the award home for his dramatic and comedic performance in Silver Linings Playbook. I do believe his actual chances of winning are decent, but I believe Daniel Day-Lewis will ultimately win. That choice would be fine with me, because now every time I think of Abraham Lincoln -which is not something I do several times throughout my day- I picture Day-Lewis. And I haven’t even seen Lincoln. I guess that means he must have done something right.
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Prediction: I believe this award is Jennifer Lawrence’s. I know that Jessica Chastain and Emmanuella Riva are her biggest competition, but I think she still gets her first Academy Award this year. Lawrence’s performance in Silver Linings Playbook showed she can really act, all while making us laugh and I don’t know about anyone else, but I was completely entertained.
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Prediction: I definitely believe this award should go to Leonardo DiCaprio for his villainous performance in Django Unchained…wait…oh yeah that’s right, he wasn’t nominated. I could go on a rant on how much of an outrage that is, but I’ll control myself. For those actually nominated, I think this award should go to DiCaprio’s Django Unchained costar Christoph Waltz. Django Unchained was filled with great performances and I think someone from that film should get recognized for it.
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Prediction: I think this award should go Anne Hathaway. To me, she has continuously showed that she is a major talent in the movie industry and I think it’s her time to get an Oscar to speak to that.
Best Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
Prediction: I might be the least qualified person to speak on this category since I haven’t seen any of these movies. But I have heard nothing but good things from Wreck-It Ralph and I hear that it is a frontrunner for in the category so I guess I’d say I bet against the Pixar film Brave. I will add that betting against Pixar hasn’t been a smart thing in the past.
Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Behn Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Prediction: I think the race for Best Director will be a good one. I don’t think anyone of the nominees have a clear lead over the others. My favorite film out of all the nominees is Silver Linings Playbook so I going to have to side with David O. Russell. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steven Spielberg walked away with the trophy though.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
David Magee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Chris Terrio, Argo
Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Prediction: I would love to see David O. Russell walk away with another victory, but I believe that Chris Terrio will win for Argo. I’m sensing domination by Argo in all of its non-acting categories.
Best Original Screenplay
Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
John Gatins, Flight
Michel Haneke, Amour
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Prediction: I really hope and believe that Quentin Tarantino walks away with the victory. The original idea he came up with for Django Unchained was incredibly put together. I just believe Django Unchained should win wherever it has a slight chance to because it definitely deserves it.
