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| Oldest and Youngest Best Actress Nominees in Oscar History |
Hurray for the shorter voting period. It produced many surprises,
worthy nominees and less reliance on precursors. I am
happier than I usually am on nomination morning. While I was sad to see some of
my favorites (Hawkes, Cotillard, Perks of Being a Wallflower) miss out, so many
favorites made it.
I was very happy that AMPAS embraced Amour, Beasts of theSouthern Wild and particularly both Emmanuelle Riva and Quvenzhane Wallis. Look
at them, this season still can become a real treat. Helen Hunt was nominated
for a fantastic performance, so was Naomi Watts. And can I admit that I was
very happy to see both Helen Mirren and Tom Hooper miss out? Mediocre work did
not just coast through.
Not all was roses. Just look at the mostly aggravating
Supporting Actor category. Waltz over Jackson from Django? Arkin for a fun but unremarkable
performance? De Niro for shedding a measly tear after decades of coasting?
Color me not impressed.
Let’s dig into the top 8 categories and see how I did with my predictions:
Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern
Wild
Django unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Very happy that Amour made
it here as the first foreign language film in this category since Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon a decade ago. This is a pretty good list, not a dud in here.
Now if Amour can continue surprising and actually manage to win. I know, I know
but one can dream.
My Predictions : I
predicted 8 but got all 8 correct plus Amour which I had as an alternate so I
think 9/9.
Best Director
Michael Haneke -
Amour
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
Ben Zeitlin - Beasts of
the Southern Wild
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
David O. Russell - Silver
Linings Playbook
The most surprising
category with Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow missing out. I think there was an
abdundance of deserving directors this year and not an intentional snub. Even
the controversial Zero Dark Thirty got 5 nominations overall so I'm thinking
Bigelow just missed out.
My Predictions : As with
most everyone only got 3/5. But I'm happy to have predicted Russell despite DGA
snub and to be surprised by Haneke and Zeitlin, directors of two movies that I
loved.
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper - Silver
Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Hugh Jackman - Les
Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix - The
Master
Denzel Washington - Flight
Very sad to see Hawkes
miss out when he gave such a beautiful and funny performance. Phoenix's
thespian Olympics, look at me acting won voters' hearts. I admire but do not love
any of these performances. Where are the French guys; Jean Louis Trintingnant,
Matthias Schoenaerts and Denis Levant? And is AMPAS really going to give DDL a
3rd Oscar so soon after making Meryl wait almost 30 years. I guess so but I
don't like it.
My Predictions : 4/5
Phoenix replaced Hawkes.
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"
I just love these 5
nominees. Yep Cotillard would’ve been great but she has one and her snub got
us the delight that is Riva and Wallis together. And while the 8 noms that
Silver Linings got implies that Lawrence is way ahead, I think we got ourselves
a real competition here.
My Predictions : 4/5 So
happy to be wrong about Riva.
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
I already dissed this
category. But happy to see Jones, he had the most personal and emotional arc in
Lincoln. And Hoffman was unusually subtle and as good as ever. All 5 are
previous winners so all bets are off.
My Predictions : 4/5 I had
Di Caprio instead of Waltz.
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway- Les
Misérables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Jacki Weaver- Silver
Linings Playbook
When I saw Silver Linings
Playbook, I left loving Weaver and wishing she had more to do. Apparently it
didn’t matter and she is in. Hathaway is way ahead but 6 weeks is a long time and people might tire of her specially if her acceptance speeches are as grating and high faluting as her interviews so far.
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Argo - Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern
Wild - Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi - David
Magee
Lincoln - Tony
Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook
- David O. Russell
Very respectable list. I
am in the minority that didn’t mind the framing subplot of Life of Pi that many
blamed on Magee. Still I had hoped Perks of Being a Wallflower would’ve made it
here.
My Predictions : 4/5, went
with my heart for Perks.
Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
Amour - Michael
Haneke
Django Unchained
- Quentin Tarantino
Flight - John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom
- Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty - Mark
Boal
Another good list. Wll
Haneke surprise or will Tarantino or Boal win their 2nd Oscar in
this category?
My Predictions : 4/5. It’s
a pattern. Had The Master instead of Flight.
Finally I really liked the nominations presentation. I was
not very happy that they chose Emma Stone and not a recent winner/nominee as
per tradition but she was funny and complemented Seth McFarlane well. I also
liked doing away with the alphabetical order, that kept it flowing and
surprising. While the Hitler joke was a dud Seth was charmingly off kilter and
awkward which could work to his advantage at the big show.Hopefully he tested the material
he wanted to and now knows what worked and what didn’t.
Are you happy with the nominations? What was your
favorite nomination? Let me know in the comments or on twitter @ME_Says.
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