Oscars 2011 Predictions/Hopes

[Tyler Smith]

With The Social Network coming up, awards season is officially kicking off. I was wondering if anybody had any specific predictions or preferences regarding what may or may not be nominated this year.
So far, my biggest hope is that Bill Murray is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his fantastic work in Get Low. The film is only so-so, and I was frustrated that they only gave Duvall a handful of solid scenes, but Bill Murray really hits it out of the park. As far as Oscar politics go, his lack of nomination for Rushmore and his loss for Lost in Translation would, I hope, confirm his nomination this year.

[drewcardi]

I've been going through the blu-ray for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and my appreciation for the film grows with every viewing.

As much as I feel that the film won't get nominated, I think it deserves nominations in the sound categories, visual effects, and editing. I also feel it should be nominated for adapted screenplay and cinematography (Bill Pope FTW), but those are even further long-shots.

Any thoughts?

[drewcardi]

Also, meant to add, the film's music should be recognized too, probably not in the score category, but the Original Song category. I'd say Metric's "Black Sheep" would be the one, but I'm not sure if it qualifies as I don't think its original to the movie. Any of Beck's Sex Bob-Omb songs would do, though.

[johnnyunusual]

I could easily see Scott Pilgrim getting a nod for best editing. As a fan of the comic, I think the first half was better than the comic, and the second half was inferior to the comic (though still very good, it just feels like they are skimming the exes at that point) and a large part of what makes the first half (and a film as a whole) is a great mix of editing and directing that allows scenes to flow seamlessly into each other. Early on, it's hard to tell where one scene ends and another begins (in a good way).

I'm not good at predicting, and while there's no film I saw that year that floored me, I hope that Shutter Island gets a little nod. I lot of people didn't care for this movie, but I thought that this was a really enjoyable little genre picture with some very impressive scenes. Social Network was really good, but I kind of want to see Toy Story 3 get best picture. It's not quite as good as Up or Wall-E, but it's still a damn fine film and in this... somewhat so-so year, I think there's actually potential for this one. Hey has any of the Pixar shorts won an award yet? This year's (Night and Day) feels like one of those Merry Melodies cartoons where the animators decide to do something more than the usual characters and make something unique and fun, and this film was a perfect mix of traditional and CG animation. I'm even sort of excited for Cars 2 (Cars is the only one of the Pixar films I haven't seen).

[Dr Handsome]

I too am hoping to see some technical nods for Scott Pilgrim even if it does deserve much more credit than that. Inception will more than likely sweep those categories (and I won't necessarily disagree when it does) but Pilgrim deserves at least a few of those nominations.

The song "We Are Sex Bob-Omb" which plays over the opening credits is worthy of (but will never get) a nomination. Beck did a great job of putting together the sort of garage rock that's enjoyable to listen to and has the natural sloppiness you'd expect from the kids in the movie.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that Ricky Gervais won't be gettin' on stage to tell any cutting jokes.

[johnnyunusual]

The Oscar Nominations:

Best Picture:

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

Best Director:

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter

Best Actor:

Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours

Best Actress:

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

Best Supporting Actor:

Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes,Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

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

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, True Grit
Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone

Best Original Screenplay:

Mike Leigh, Another Year
Keith Dorrington, Eric Johnson, Scott Silver, and Paul Tamasy, The Fighter
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler, The King's Speech

Best Foreign Language Film:

Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In A Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Hors La Loi (Outside The Law) (Algeria)

Best Documentary:

Exit Through The Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Best Animated Feature:

How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Cinematography:

Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Wally Pfister, Inception
Danny Cohen, The King's Speech
Jeff Cronenweth, The Social Network
Roger Deakins, True Grit

Best Editing:

Jon Harris, 127 Hours
Andrew Weisblum, Black Swan
Pamela Martin, The Fighter
Tariq Anwar, The King's Speech
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter, The Social Network

Best Art Direction:

Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara, Alice In Wonderland
Stuart Craig and Stephenie McMillan, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, and Doug Mowat, Inception
Eve Stewart and Judy Farr, The King's Speech
Jess Gonchor and Nancy Haigh, True Grit

Best Costume Design:

Colleen Atwood, Alice In Wonderland
Antonella Cannarozzi, I Am Love
Jenny Beavan, The King's Speech
Sandy Powell, The Tempest
Mary Zophres, True Grit

Best Makeup:

Adrien Morot, Barney's Version
Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, and Yolanda Toussieng, The Way Back
Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, The Wolfman

Best Original Score:

A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours
John Powell, How To Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer, Inception
Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network

Best Original Song:

"If I Rise" from 127 Hours, by A.R. Rahman, Dido, and Rollo Armstrong
"Coming Home" from Country Strong, by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges, and Hillary Lindsey
"I See The Light" from Tangled, by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3, by Randy Newman

Best Sound Design:

Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick, Inception
Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, and John Midgley, The King's Speech
Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin, Salt
Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten, The Social Network
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland, True Grit

Best Sound Editing:

Richard King, Inception
Tom Myers and Michael Silvers, Toy Story 3
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague, Tron Legacy
Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey, True Grit
Mark P. Stoeckinger, Unstoppable

Best Visual Effects:

Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas, and Sean Phillips, Alice In Wonderland
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz, and Nicolas Aithadi, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephen Trojanski, and Joe Farrell, Hereafter
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb, Inception
Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Jed Wright, and Daniel Sudick, Iron Man 2

Best Animated Short:

Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let's Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, Carnet De Voyage (Madagascar, A Journey Diary)

Best Live Action Short:

The Confession
The Crush
God Of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Documentary Short:

Killing In The Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors Of Qiugang

[jamesc]

My pick for Best Picture is Winter's Bone. For one thing, I think that this year's nominees may split some ballots (I can see Inception and The Social Network appealing to the same type of voters), but more importantly I was completely and totally blown away by the performances gotten out of all of those first-time actors & actresses - I eat that stuff up, and I bet the voters do too. I actually just watched it again over the weekend on Movies On Demand on cable with my wife (who'd missed it the first time around) and she was even more impressed than I was!

By the way, not only does Movies On Demand on Cable have tons of nominees available to rent from the comfort of your home, but right now you can even enter to win a 3D HDTV just for picking out the nominated titles you've seen in their "Which Ones Have You Seen?" app! Visit Movies On Demand on Cable's Facebook page to find out which titles you can catch up on from the comfort of your couch and to enter the sweepstakes:

www.facebook.com/moviesondemand

I'm working with Movies On Demand, so if anyone has any questions, just ask!

[vulpix]

I thought I'd post m my predictions before the awards show tonight. The only thing I'm sure of is that I will be wrong in many of these categories.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role - Christian Bale
Performance by an actress in a supporting role - Melissa Leo
Adapted screenplay - Aaron Sorkin
Original screenplay - The King's Speech
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) - The Social Network
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) - 127 Hours
Best animated feature film - Toy Story 3
Art Direction - The King's Speech
Achievement in cinematography - True Grit
Achievement in costume design - Alice in Wonderland
Achievement in makeup - The Wolfman
Achievement in sound editing - Inception
Achievement in sound mixing - Inception
Achievement in visual effects - Inception
Best documentary feature - Inside Job
Best documentary short subject - Strangers No More
Achievement in film editing - The Social Network
Best foreign language film - In a Better World
Best animated short film - Day & Night
Best Live Action Short Film - Wish 143
Achievement in directing - David Fincher
Performance by an actress in a leading role - Natalie Portman
Performance by an actor in a leading role - Colin Firth
Best motion picture - The King's Speech

[vulpix]

Well, that's 18 out of 24. It could be worse, but so much for outguessing Ebert.

[Dr Handsome]

I only got 13 so, yeah...

I'm going to throw a list of winners in a new thread and come back and discuss, dissect, etc. a bit later.