It's Oscar weekend, my favorite holiday of the year! And for once, my favorite movie of the year (Mad Max: Fury Road) is nominated in a bunch of categories, including Best Picture. Mad Max may, in fact, be my favorite movie of the past five years or so. Perhaps the past decade. It is amazing on all levels and if I had my way, it would win all the Oscars including Best Picture and a write-in Best Actress for Charlize Theron.
But there's a big gap between what I want to win and what I think will win. Here are my best guesses as to how the hardware will be distributed:
Best Picture: The Revenant
Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Actress: Brie Larson
Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander
Best Original Screenplay: Spotlight
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short
Best Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Cinematography: The Revenant
Best Score: The Hateful Eight
Best Song: "Til It Happens to You" from The Hunting Ground
Best Art Direction: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Costumes: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Makeup: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Visual Effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Sound: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Sound Effects Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Animated Feature: Inside Out
Best Documentary Feature: Amy
You'll notice that while I'm picking The Revenant for Best Picture, I'm picking Mad Max to take home the most Oscars. Mad Max was, objectively, the best looking, best sounding movie of the year. I'll be thrilled if it wins more, but I predict it will take at least six Oscars.
There was a lot of buzz for Spotlight and The Big Short in the Best Picture race, but I think The Revenant will take it in the end and the others will take the screenplay awards. Also, it looks like Inarritu is poised to become the third person in Oscar history to win back to back directing Oscars. The lead acting categories are locks and Vikander is a strong favorite for Supporting Actress, but Stallone is in a tough race. His win (for a role he's played in seven movies) could be seen as a defacto lifetime achievement award, but many may feel that that's a lifetime of bad action movies and cast their votes elsewhere.
The category I'm most anticipating is Best Score, where the legendary Ennio Morricone is poised to win his first competitive Oscar in a lifetime of creating memorable music. This will be the best-deserved Oscar of the night and I'll be very bitter if he doesn't receive a standing ovation. In other music news, I predict that Lady Gaga will be halfway to an EGOT by the end of the ceremony.
As usual, I don't pick the short films and this year I'm not comfortable taking a guess in the Foreign Language category. I will take a shot at Animated Feature (Pixar is usually a safe bet) and Documentary Feature.
The Oscars are on Sunday night on ABC with Chris Rock hosting - it should be a good time. I'll post the winners and my correct picks.
Showing posts with label Best Screenplay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best Screenplay. Show all posts
Friday, February 26, 2016
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Screenplay Awards
The Best Adapted Screenplay nominees are 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter's Bone.
Can someone explain to me how Toy Story 3 is an adapted screenplay?
But really, the standout is Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network. It's really the best part of that film and it's the aspect that people are talking about most. The plot zips along like a thriller, it has up-to-the-minute relevance, and the dialogue pops like fireworks. True Grit might upset here, but the logical choice is the Facebook movie.
The Best Original Screenplay nominees are Another Year, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, and The King's Speech.
Inception might be the most discussed and hashed-over screenplay of the year, but Oscar voters tend to favor compelling, small-scale, character-driven films, so I'm going with The Kids Are All Right. It probably won't win in any other category, but it's best shot is for its screenplay.
Can someone explain to me how Toy Story 3 is an adapted screenplay?
But really, the standout is Aaron Sorkin's script for The Social Network. It's really the best part of that film and it's the aspect that people are talking about most. The plot zips along like a thriller, it has up-to-the-minute relevance, and the dialogue pops like fireworks. True Grit might upset here, but the logical choice is the Facebook movie.
The Best Original Screenplay nominees are Another Year, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, and The King's Speech.
Inception might be the most discussed and hashed-over screenplay of the year, but Oscar voters tend to favor compelling, small-scale, character-driven films, so I'm going with The Kids Are All Right. It probably won't win in any other category, but it's best shot is for its screenplay.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Screenplay Awards
Best Score was a tough pick, but this one might be even more difficult.
The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are District 9, An Education, In The Loop, Precious, and Up In the Air. Normally, we look for Best Picture nominees, because Picture, Director, and Screenplay often go to the same film, but four of these five (all but In The Loop) are Best Picture contenders. Being a dark allegorical science fiction film, I don't think District 9 has a strong chance. The best contender, in my opinion, is Up In The Air, for its emphasis on character, great dialogue, and sweet-and-sour tone. An Education might upset, and there's a chance that Precious could rally support, but I think Up In the Air is just the sort of movie that wins here.
For Original Screenplay, we have The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man, and Up. Here we have three Best Picture nominees in the mix. The Hurt Locker is a great action film but is very episodic and The Messenger and A Serious Man are more subdued. My first instinct tells me that Up is the standout in this category. It has the most original screenplay in at least a decade with each bizarre and unlikely story element building up to a genuinely moving end. Up is, however an animated film, which historically fare poorly in the writing categories. That said, I'm going to pick Inglourious Basterds for the win. It has a brilliant screenplay boiling over with Tarantino's unique style of dialogue, but because most of it is in French, German, and Italian with English subtitles, audiences are compelled to pay more attention to the words and appreciate the language and subtlety of the script.
The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are District 9, An Education, In The Loop, Precious, and Up In the Air. Normally, we look for Best Picture nominees, because Picture, Director, and Screenplay often go to the same film, but four of these five (all but In The Loop) are Best Picture contenders. Being a dark allegorical science fiction film, I don't think District 9 has a strong chance. The best contender, in my opinion, is Up In The Air, for its emphasis on character, great dialogue, and sweet-and-sour tone. An Education might upset, and there's a chance that Precious could rally support, but I think Up In the Air is just the sort of movie that wins here.
For Original Screenplay, we have The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man, and Up. Here we have three Best Picture nominees in the mix. The Hurt Locker is a great action film but is very episodic and The Messenger and A Serious Man are more subdued. My first instinct tells me that Up is the standout in this category. It has the most original screenplay in at least a decade with each bizarre and unlikely story element building up to a genuinely moving end. Up is, however an animated film, which historically fare poorly in the writing categories. That said, I'm going to pick Inglourious Basterds for the win. It has a brilliant screenplay boiling over with Tarantino's unique style of dialogue, but because most of it is in French, German, and Italian with English subtitles, audiences are compelled to pay more attention to the words and appreciate the language and subtlety of the script.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Writing Awards
There are three things to look out for in the writing categories: Best Picture nominees (there's always at least one), actors who write (like Matt Damon or Emma Thompson), and the compelling story of a struggling writer who makes a big break (Diablo Cody and Quentin Tarantino come to mind). While there is no shortage of Best Picture nominees in the writing categories and there are compelling stories of struggle, we don't see any actors in the writing categories this year. It's a shame. That always makes things a little more interesting.
the Adapted Screenplay category gives us Best Picture nominees Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. Filling out the category is Doubt. For this particular award, the adaptation itself must be taken into account. Doubt and Frost/Nixon are based on stage plays and it's often a challenge to move a story from the enclosure of a proscenium into the broad canvas of film. Benjamin Button is a three-plus-hour movie spun from a short story, and the other two are based on novels. I'm going to pick Slumdog Millionaire for the win. More than any other, it uses the source material as a jumping-off point and becomes something purely cinematic. While Doubt and Frost/Nixon retain much of the staginess of their origins, Slumdog Millionaire feels like it was originally intended for the screen.
There's only one Best Picture nominee among the Original Screenplays and I'm picking it to win. Milk comes with a great story: after decades of attempts and false starts, Hollywood wasn't able to make a dramatized bio of the gay-rights activist until a young Mormon came to town and showed them how to do it. It should handily beat Frozen River, In Bruges, and the largely-improvised Happy-Go-Lucky. Its only impediment might be WALL-E, but I'm confident that Milk will prevail.
the Adapted Screenplay category gives us Best Picture nominees Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. Filling out the category is Doubt. For this particular award, the adaptation itself must be taken into account. Doubt and Frost/Nixon are based on stage plays and it's often a challenge to move a story from the enclosure of a proscenium into the broad canvas of film. Benjamin Button is a three-plus-hour movie spun from a short story, and the other two are based on novels. I'm going to pick Slumdog Millionaire for the win. More than any other, it uses the source material as a jumping-off point and becomes something purely cinematic. While Doubt and Frost/Nixon retain much of the staginess of their origins, Slumdog Millionaire feels like it was originally intended for the screen.
There's only one Best Picture nominee among the Original Screenplays and I'm picking it to win. Milk comes with a great story: after decades of attempts and false starts, Hollywood wasn't able to make a dramatized bio of the gay-rights activist until a young Mormon came to town and showed them how to do it. It should handily beat Frozen River, In Bruges, and the largely-improvised Happy-Go-Lucky. Its only impediment might be WALL-E, but I'm confident that Milk will prevail.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Writing Awards
Let's start with the Original Screenplay award. First up is Lars and the Real Girl, a film that was panned by critics and ignored by audiences. Ratatouille was the opposite - praised by critics and a huge commercial success, but it's animation, and is still looked down upon by many as a "kids' movie." Moving on, The Savages splits the difference - it's a movie that earned raves from critics and, due to minimal advertising and a limited run, was ignored by audiences. There are two films this year that are also up for Best Picture, which augments their odds of winning. Michael Clayton is up for more awards, but Juno is this year's "quirky arty," and this is the category where the "quirky arty" gets its recognition. Michael Clayton's characters are sharply written, but Juno's overall charm and immensely quotable dialogue should push screenwriter Diablo Cody up on stage.
The Adapted Screenplay category is a trickier prospect, with the other three Best Picture nominees showing, alongside two other strong contenders. The others in question are Away From Her (written by actress/director Sarah Polley) and The Diving Bell And the Butterfly. Diving Bell is in French, which I think might be a turnoff in the screenplay category, but the Academy loves to give writing awards to actors, so Polley's chances are elevated. Atonement and No Country For Old Men are both adapted from prestegious books and, of the two, I'd give No Country the edge. As I stated in an earlier post, the Cohen brothers' main strength is their dialogue. Finally, we have the loosest adaptation of the five - There Will Be Blood isn't as much based on Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" as it is inspired by it. Still, There Will Be Blood is the front-runner for Best Picture, and its writing really is excellent on all counts, making it my pick for Adapted Screenply.
The Adapted Screenplay category is a trickier prospect, with the other three Best Picture nominees showing, alongside two other strong contenders. The others in question are Away From Her (written by actress/director Sarah Polley) and The Diving Bell And the Butterfly. Diving Bell is in French, which I think might be a turnoff in the screenplay category, but the Academy loves to give writing awards to actors, so Polley's chances are elevated. Atonement and No Country For Old Men are both adapted from prestegious books and, of the two, I'd give No Country the edge. As I stated in an earlier post, the Cohen brothers' main strength is their dialogue. Finally, we have the loosest adaptation of the five - There Will Be Blood isn't as much based on Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" as it is inspired by it. Still, There Will Be Blood is the front-runner for Best Picture, and its writing really is excellent on all counts, making it my pick for Adapted Screenply.
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