by James Madden.
Every year there comes a time where I follow a set of vicious, cuthroat and very expensive campaigns that show the power and influence of a particular group of individuals, if nothing else. No, this is not a political election that I follow, but the “For Your Consideration” Oscar campaigns. In all honesty, I don’t actually really look at the advertisements that the studios put out in the months leading up to the Hollywood award season. But that withstanding, I pay quite particular attention to the buzz, reviews and blogs that are centered around “Hollywood’s night of nights”. This strange little hobby does indeed sometimes border on obsession, but I gleefully take delight in this interest, and hence an annual event was born: “The Predicting of the Oscars”.
Usually people find an interest in predicting who will win the Oscar. Me myself? Well, I find the notion of who will get nomination more fascinating. And so, I’ve decided that I will put forth my views on how I will think will be in the running for an Oscar. Now I originally thought about writing my predictions for the nominees in one post, but then realised that this would be quite the lengthy read. So for now, I pose a weekly feature on two categories, instead of swarming and boring your minds too quickly! However, this week I’ll start with the mega Best Picture race only, because it is going to be so overcrowded with 5 additional nominees this year, bringing a total of 10 contenders to the podium.
Of course I know that these are fairly early predictions, but luckily, we have enough results from the big precursors (such as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations that came out about a week or so ago). So, this week, let’s look at this years potential nominees for Best Picture.
BEST PICTURE
- Nine
- Invictus
- Up!
- The Hurt Locker
- Precious: Based on the Novel Push! by Sapphire
- Up in the Air
- A Serious Man
- An Education
- Avatar
- Inglourious Basterds
Now the trouble I always find is that I haven’t seen all of the films, so instead of giving totally accurate personal views, I’m also running off the word of mouth buzz, as well as the forementioned precursor influence. Out of the 10 on the list above I’ve seen only half of the films, which will soon be amnended.
Firstly, I’m not too sure of whether to include The Lovely Bones in here. Part of me is saying yes, and part of me is saying no, and its the latter of which I’m sticking with at the moment. However, I shall see it tomorrow, so I can fully judge then.
I can see Avatar having the titanic power (hehe…) to be a nominee. It’s epic, cost a lot, has James Cameron at the helm, an accomplished cast, score from James Horner and new technology to boot. It’s down side? There was one, but it’s slipping from my mind. So let’s just see.
Indie darlings such as The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, Up in the Air and Precious should propel forward. I can also see the big Hollywood films of Nine, Up! and Inglourious Basterds, as well as the Clint Eastwood directed, Nelson Mandela biopic.
So stay with us next week, as we look at Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.
