Predictions for Academy awards 2014

I shouldn't be posting this blog 2 hours prior to the award ceremony but what the heck. I don't want to miss the predictions which I've been doing for the last 6 years. This year saw some great movies, some unique stories, some amazing performances and some unbelievable cinematography. Let's take the nomination one by one.  

Best Picture
·         American Hustle: Great ensemble cast and great performances with all the leading characters getting nominations in their respective categories. A well written movie and great production design to recreate America of Eighties. The movie lags behind in creating the impact that other contenders have created.
·         Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass’s adept direction along with gritty portrayal of Captain Philips by Tom Hanks gives the amazing drama which has its premises on Sea-Piracy and Somalian Pirates. Well deserved nomination.
·         Dallas Buyers Club: A powerhouse performance by Matthew McConaughey defines this movie. Superb performances by supporting cast. Jared Lato is a revelation in the movie. Jennifer Garner doesn’t have much sceen time but her understated portrayal of sympathetic doctor symbolic to what the viewer’s feel about Ron Woodroof. Great Direction and editing. Overall a good contender to the top prize.
·         Gravity: Commercially most successful movie among the nominees and perhaps that’s only reason that might pull this brilliant movie from winning the top prize. A super tight screenplay, stunning visuals, perfect editing and superb direction. Add Sandra Bullock’s performance and you’ve got the biggest contender to win Best Picture.
·         Her : Great story, superb acting by Joaquin Phoenix, great visual effects, nice background score. A love story from future. Hurried climax leaves viewer unsatiated. Nomination is enough.

·         Nebraska: A wonderful screenplay coupled with brilliant acting by Bruce Dern & June Squib along with an amazing cinematography makes it my favorite movie from the nominee list. Superb direction by Alexander Payne yet again. His movies have a distinctive American flavor. I’d love this movie to win the top prize but it’s lagging behind other nominees.
·         Philomena:  A serious subject treated with humor and sensibility. Good performance by Steve Coogan and Judi Dench. Nomination is good enough.
·         12 Years a Slave: Strongest contender to the top prize. Superb adaptation. Great direction. Great Acting by the cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor is brilliant. I’d have liked better editing though.  A neck to neck fight between this movie and Gravity.
·         The Wolf of Wall Street:  Another best picture nomination to a Martin Scorsese movie. Not sure if this movie is better than his other nominations over the years. Nomination is enough.

This year’s top award is a two horse race between Gravity and 12 years a slave. 

Top 3 out of the nominations are Nebraska,12 years a slave, Gravity.
My Prediction: 12 Years a Slave

Best Direction

David O Russel’s the weakest contender in this category. Alexander Payne’s got a much deserved nomination for Nebraska. Martin Scorsese’s treatment of The Wolf of Wall Street is very atypical to his other directorial ventures. It’s funny yet intriguing. Vulgar yet aesthetic. But in this category main fight is between Alfonso Cuaron and Steve McQueen for the golden trophy. My money is on Alfonso Cuaron for super tight and crisp space-science fiction drama Gravity.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Bruce Dern’s is amazing, convincing and real in Nebraska. Christian Bale has shown his range yet again in American Hustle. Chiwetel is restrained and methodical in 12 years a Slave. Leonardo Di Caprio is intense, funny and evil as Jerdon Belfort in The wolf of Wall Street. But this year is year of recognition to McConaissance. Matthew McConaughey’s indomitable, indefatigable portrayal’s Ron Woodroof is way ahead of other nominees. Almost certain to win the trophy. Matthew McConaughey.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

A tougher fight in best actress category. Judi Dench is adorable and earthy in Philomena. Meryl Streep has got yet another nomination. What a legend. Amazing performance in August: Osage County. Sandra Bullock is fantastic in Gravity. Amy Adams has packed another punch in American Hustle. But, Cate Blanchett steals the show in Blue Jasmine. Her performance of a dazed, disillusioned, fallen from grace, once ultra rich wife of a Millionare is perhaps year’s best acting performance. A complex character was portrayed with subtlety and panache. She never lets the intensity of her character dip and gets better as the movie progresses. A performance where you might not remember the movie but her performance. She is almost certain to win the trophy. Cate Blanchett all the way. 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Supporting Roles categories are always tough to predict as all the performances are amazing. Barkhad Abdi is brilliant as Somali Pirate in Captain Phillips. Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of over enthusiastic FBI officer is well done. Michael Fassbender is intense. But two performances are above these nominations. Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street and Jared Lato in Dallas Buyers Club. In my view, Jared Lato pips Jonah Hill by a small margin.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Another set of brilliant performances. Lupita Nyongo in 12 years a slave is great. June Squib in Nebraska is hilarious. Julia Roberts is amazing as always. Two performance which are frontrunners in my opinion are Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine and Jennifer Lawarence. Sally Hawkins should be given the Oscar just for the reason that she hold her character and acted brilliantly despite a towering performance by Cate Blanchett. But, it’s Jennifer Lawrence is portrayal of complex, unpredictable and  moody housewife which inches above all. I didn’t like her winning Best Actress trophy last year but Academy shouldn’t correct the course now. Jennifer Lawrence deserves to win the Best supporting Actress this year and I hope they let her win.

Best Animated Feature

Despicable Me 2 shouldn’t feature in this list. Monster University would’ve been a better choice. Croods is a good watch. I haven’t seen Ernest & Celestine and Hayao Miyakazi’s The Wind Rises but I can safely say that Frozen is frontrunner to the trophy and should easily get it.

Best Cinematography

A good year for this category. All the nomination are great and have unique styles. While The Grandmaster and Inside Llewyn Davis has brilliant play of light, close-ups and low-light cinematography. Nebraska is wonderfully shot in monochrome by Phedon Papamichael. Each frame of landcape in the movie can be taken as a good example of landscape photography. Emmanauel Lubezki had done stunning cinematography for The tree of life without any CGI effect but CGI effect laden Hugo won the top prize. Ironically, this year he might pip all other nominees with CGI laden Gravity.

Best Foreign Language Film

The Broken Circle Breakdown is refreshing take on a clichéd subject. Superb acting by the lead. Great editing and direction. Great music too. Similar traits with Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. Superb acting by Mads Mikkelson. The Hunt has all ingredient to be an academy award winning foreign movie but it lags behind in terms of buzz which is around The great beauty. Academy’s nostalgia with Fredrico Fellini and infatuation with intellectual aestheticism makes The great beauty the movie to beat in this category. I’ve not watched Omar and The missing picture but overall, I’m betting my money on The Great Beauty to win the award.

Best 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)

Best Documentary Feature

I’ve watched only The act of Killing in this list. The act of killing is chilling to the bone. It horrifies you.

•   Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher)
•   The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen)
•   Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley, Jeremy Scahill)
•   The Square (Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer)
•   20 Feet from Stardom (Nominees to be determined)

Best Film Editing

• American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten)
• Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse)
• Dallas Buyers Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa)
• Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger)
• 12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty)
• The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny)

Best Original Score

• The Book Thief (John Williams)
• Gravity (Steven Price)
• Her (William Butler, Owen Pallett)
• Philomena (Alexandre Desplat)
• Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)

Best Original Song

• Happy - Despicable Me 2
• Let It Go - Frozen
• The Moon Song - Her
• Ordinary Love - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Best Production Design

• American Hustle (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)
• Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woollard)
• The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)
• Her (K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena)
• 12 Years a Slave (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker)

Best Sound Editing

• All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker, Richard Hymns)
• Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney)
• Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Burge, Chris Ward)
• Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman)

Best Sound Mixing

• Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro)
• Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland)
• Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow)

Best Visual Effects

• Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds)
• Iron Man 3 (Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick)
• The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)
• Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)
• Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope)
• 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)

Best Original Screenplay

• American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell)
• Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
• Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack)
• Her (Spike Jonze)
• Nebraska (Bob Nelson)

In another hour or two, the ceremony will start. Let's see how many predictions came true this year.