Thursday, December 15, 2011

Awards Season




It's that time of year again. The weather's getting cooler. People are all abuzz, getting up early in the morning to see if they've gotten what they wanted. Yes, it's movie awards season. It's both my second favorite and my least favorite time of the year. As a film lover, I've learned that awards, in general, mean next to nothing. But it's still fun to predict them. Every year around this time, guilds, awards groups and critics groups gather around to celebrate the year in film by handing out awards. All of it in anticipation for the biggest movie award of them all: The Oscars. Sometimes, there's a very clear front-runner. Other times, there's not. Thankfully, this year is the latter which makes for a crazy and surprising awards season. The Golden Globe nominations have just been announced so I'd like to take this opportunity to give a rundown on the front-runners and dark horses for the Oscar.

BEST PICTURE

Sure Bets: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo.
Very Likely:  The Help, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, War Horse.
Dark Horses: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Tree of Life.

The rules for Best Picture has changed this year. The rules are way too complicated to explain but there could be anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees this year. There could 6, there could be 8. This is due to a new way of counting ballots.

BEST DIRECTOR

Sure Bets: Michael Hazanavicius, Alexander Payne, Martin Scorsese.
Very Likely: Steven Spielberg.
Fighting For the Last Spot: Woody Allen, Bennett Miller, Terrence Malick.
Dark Horses: George Clooney, Stephen Daldry, Tate Taylor.

BEST ACTOR

Sure Bets: George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Brad Pitt.
Fighting for the Last Spots: Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman.
Dark Horses: Demian Bechir, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, Thomas Horn.

BEST ACTRESS

Sure Bets: Viola Davis, Meryl Streep.
Very Likely: Michelle Williams.
Fighting for the Last Spots: Glenn Close, Tilda Swinton, Charlize Theron.
Dark Horses: Felicity Jones, Rooney Mara, Elizabeth Olsen.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sure Bets: Christopher Plummer
Very Likely: Kenneth Branagh, Albert Brooks.
Fighting for the Last Spots: Jonah Hill, Ben Kingsley, Nick Nolte, Patton Oswalt, Max Von Sydow.
Dark Horses: Armie Hammer, Ezra Miller, Viggo Mortensen, Brad Pitt.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sure Bets: Berenice Bejo, Octavia Spencer.
Very Likely: Jessica Chastain, Shaleine Woodley.
Fighting for the Last Spots: Melissa McCarthy, Janet McTeer, Vanessa Redgrave.
Dark Horses: Sandra Bullock, Marion Cotillard, Anjelica Huston.

9 comments:

Bart said...

haha the last award show i watched was for country music, and it was good due to all the live music. what do these actors offer :P

Bersercules said...

I wish I could vote on who should get the awards!

Mark said...

I don't know about Harry Potter having no chance, being the last movie, and supposedly doing pretty good, I think it has a good shot.

The Angry Lurker said...

Thanks for the heads up, need to look some of these up.....

Anonymous said...

Wish I could vote, too.

Anonymous said...

Nice!

MRanthrope said...

I felt a bit underwhelmed this year, 2010 had so many great films I guess I should remember every year won't be as insanely awesome as that.

Adam said...

I always like their pick for best picture. The King's Speech was an amazing film.

Outcast said...

I feel like you're pretty accurate with your predictions in all honesty, the Oscars had a really snobby attitude towards some commercial films despite how good they could be if that makes sense. Great predictions anyway.