My Oscar Predictions

Hey everyone, as you should all know, the Academy Awards are only a week and a day away. I haven't seen all of these movies, but I have researched and read enough about them that I believe I can make an informed guess as to what will win. We'll see if I'm right! The predicted winners are highlighted in bold.

(Also, I'd just like to point out here that in the Oscar poll in my theater job a couple of years ago, I came in second place by only one point. I still concede that Mickey Rourke should have won. I'd be $110 richer)

My mind is subject to change before the final awards. Just so you know. 


Best Motion Picture of the Year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network (The King's Speech is also a very real contender here, but the Academy knows its the obvious choice, and The Social Network is more relevant to our day.)
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film (Animated)
Day & Night; Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let's Pollute Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) Bastien Dubois

Best Short Film (Live Action)
The Confession Tanel Toom
The Crush Michael Creagh
God of Love Luke Matheny
Na Wewe Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Achievement in Cinematography
Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Inception (Wally Pfister)
The King's Speech (Danny Cohen)
The Social Network (Jeff Cronenweth)
True Grit (Roger Deakins)

Achievement in Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (Colleen Atwood)
I Am Love (Antonella Cannarozzi)
The King's Speech (Jenny Beaven)
The Tempest (Sandy Powell)
True Grit (Mary Zophres)

Achievement in Directing
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best Documentary Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop, Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures) (still angry Waiting for Superman didn't get a nod)
Gasland Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
Inside Job Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
Restrepo Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
Waste Land Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)

Achievement in Makeup
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman


Achievement in Film Editing
Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum)
The Fighter (Pamela Martin)
The King's Speech (Tariq Anwar)
127 Hours (Jon Harris)
The Social Network (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Hors la Loi (Algeria)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King's Speech (Alexandre Desplat) (I want HTTYD to win though)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)


Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
"Coming Home" from Country Strong Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from Tangled Music and Lyric by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from 127 Hours Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3 Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Achievement in Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Achievement in Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours (Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle)
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)
True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini)

Original Screenplay
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
The Fighter (Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colich, Eric Johnson, Scott Silverand Paul Tamasy)
Inception (Christopher Nolan) (although it'll probably be The King's Speech... I just want some love for Inception, and this category is the most likely one it'll win outside of the tech categories)
The Kids are All Right (Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko)
The King's Speech (David Seidler)

I feel super out of it today... it's a good thing work is really slow (all the basketball games are finally sold out!) or I wouldn't be able to handle it today I think. Not sure why I'm so tired... maybe because I stayed up watching the first season of Parks and Recreation instead of going to sleep...

Anyway, today at the Bradley meeting we learned about how to utilize our blogs and other social media websites to showcase our talents and the things we are interested in. I think I've been doing a decent job of that so far... I've only just started out in the major so I don't have much to show for it quite yet, but I think you can all tell that I'm interested in entertainment media :) Ah it would just be so cool to do PR for an entertainment company... I'm just saying :)

I'm going to work on highlighting things that pertain to my future career more in the future. But for now... here are some gems by that ultimate time-waster - stumbleupon.com. Enjoy.


List of films considered the worst
If Best Picture Movie Posters Told the Truth
Mature People Truths
Ridiculous Celebrity Look-Alikes

And this lovely gem :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Despite being single, I still do like this holiday. It gives me an excuse to eat chocolate and watch cheesy chick flicks, so why not? Although I have to say, even though I don't mind being single and love being independent and all, why can't I meet a guy who feels the same way as MIKA?

Ah well... Maybe some day. But as for now, here is a list of the people I do love:

• my family
• my wonderful friends
• myself - can't love others without loving yourself :)
• Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

Basically, I love all you guys. You're awesome. Be my Valentine?

Bill Murray and the Groundhog

According to good ol' Punxsutawney Phil, spring has officially begun. Which is great, except that it was TWO DEGREES outside today. That's right, TWO. I may never feel my ears again.

However, it wouldn't be a complete Groundhog Day without mentioning the movie of the same name. It's tradition that I watch Groundhog Day every February 2nd. I love this film so much. Bill Murray has that dry sense of humor that I love, and the scenarios are just hysterical. The theme of the movie is also really powerful, and each time I watch it reminds me that I need to live each day to the fullest, by serving others around me.

"What did you do today, Phil?" "Oh nothing, just same old, same old."