So here comes the second edition of Jamie’s Oscar predictions, and this week we’re focusing on the Best Director and Best Supporting Actor race.
I’m going to go ahead and say it now. I think Kathryn Bigelow has the highest chance of winning gold for the Best Director Oscar this year, and this would be one big history making event. One that’s Halle Berry big.
In the 81 years of the Academy Awards, only three females have even been nominated for Best Director. Lina Wertmuller was first nominated in 1977 for her film Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano, and Sofia Coppola in 2003 for Lost in Translation (first American director too, with Campion being a New Zealand native, and Wertmuller being of Italian descent.)
I’m chosing Bigelow simply because I don’t think I’ve seen a more finely directed film this year. Not only is the film The Hurt Locker perfectly directed, but features such jaw dropping moments for cinephiles the world around. If you’ve seen the film, then you should know what I’m talking about. And if not, then you need to see it now!
But all up I see this years nominees to be:
- Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker
- James Cameron Avatar
- Lee Daniels Precious: Based on the novel Push! by Sapphire.
- Jason Reitman Up in the Air
- Quentin Tarantino Inglourious Basterds
Cameron has directed probably the biggest film in the last 10 years (and is coincidentally Bigelow’s ex husband!), Daniels and Reitman have directed Indie blockbusters and in the case of Daniels, a hugely popular and critically acclaimed thought piece. And then there’s Tarantino….I’m leaving Rob Marshall as a dark horse that could take the place of Cameron or Tarantino.
Now as for the race of Best Supporting Actor, I see the nominees as:
- Woody Harrelson The Messenger
- Alfred Molina An Education
- Christopher Plummer The Last Station
- Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
- Christopher Waltz Inglourious Basterds
Harrelson has been gaining attention with this film for a shorter amount of time than the rest of the nominess, but I still see Stanley Tucci as having the best performance in The Lovely Bones. He performance was chilling, scary and just really, really creepy! Waltz, Plummer and Molina are also very likely candidates for the nomination, and I predict we will all here these men’s names being read on the morning of February the 2nd, 2010.
