Oscar Predictions 2010 - The Envelope Please: Who Will Win, Who Deserves to Win, Who Was Snubbed
Although Avatar and The Hurt Locker landed 9 Academy Award nominations
each, I foresee the former and director James Cameron enjoying a clean
sweep. Breaking all box-office records, Avatar is a juggernaut that nobody
will be able to stop on Oscar night. This means that The Hurt Locker, which
was directed by Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, might very well be shut
out entirely, unless the Academy decides to split their votes between the
two in the Best Director and Best Picture categories.
The most hotly-contested of the major categories is Best Actress, where
the least deserving, Sandra Bullock, is the sentimental favorite. However, I
anticipate that perennial-nominee Meryl Streep (16) will prevail in the most
difficult contest to handicap. That's not the case for the other three
acting categories where nominees Jeff Bridges, Christoph waltz and Mo'Nique
may as well be making room on the their mantels for a new trophy.
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, co-hosted by Alec Baldwin, are set to be
broadcast on Sunday, March 7th from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Without further adieu, allow me to predict the winner in each category. I
also indicate which among the nominees, in my humble opinion, is actually
the most deserving. And because so many great movies and performances are
invariably overlooked, I also recognize several among the snubbed which were
certainly worthy of Oscar consideration.
Click here to
compare the actual winners with Kam's picks
Best Picture
-
Will Win:
Avatar
While some say Avatar is only a slight favorite over The Hurt Locker, common
sense says a flick which made over billion dollars is a shoo-in.
- Deserves to Win: Precious
- Overlooked: Taken, Drag Me to Hell and My Sister's
Keeper.
Best Director
- Will Win: James Cameron (Avatar)
Since this category is ordinary coupled with Best Picture, that makes James
Cameron this critic's, although the oddsmakers have installed his ex,
Kathryn Bigelow as a slight favorite for The Hurt Locker.
- Deserves to Win: Lee Daniels (Precious)
- Overlooked: Pierre Morel (Taken), My Sister's Keeper
(Nick Cassavetes) and Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell)
Best Actor
- Will Win: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
This is an easy category to handicap, even though it's not Bridges' best
performance, because the Academy is inclined to reward never-recognized
actors late in their career for their body of work.
- Deserves to Win: Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
- Overlooked: Liam Neeson (Taken) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
(500 Days of Summer)
Best Actress
Meryl Streep
It's great that Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) got all the early accolades,
but Academy-darling Streep's delightful impersonation of Julia Child is apt
to prove irresistible when it comes time to cast ballots.
Deserves to Win: Gabby Sidibe
(Precious) will be ignored because she's a
newcomer, despite being absolutely mesmerizing in her acting debut.
Overlooked: Tilda Swinton (Julia), Charlotte Gainsbourg
(Antichrist) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Two Lovers) and Zoeey Deschanel (500 Days
of Summer)
Best Supporting Actor
- Will Win: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Not much competition here for Waltz's nonpareil performance, other than
Woody Harrleson (The Messenger) who will run a distant second.
- Deserves to Win: Christoph Waltz
- Overlooked: Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker)
Best Supporting Actress
- Will Win: Mo'Nique (Precious)
I said, "Just give Mo'Nique the Oscar!" the same day I saw Precious back in
October, and nothing I've seen since has made me regret making that
premature call.
- Deserves to Win: Mo'Nique (Precious)
- Overlooked: Cameon Diaz (My Sister's Keeper) and Famke
Janssen (Taken).
Predictions in Secondary Categories
- Original Screenplay:
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
- Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in
the Air)
- Animated Feature: Up
- Art Direction: Avatar
- Cinematography: Avatar
- Costume Design: Nine
- Documentary Feature: The Cove
- Film Editing: Avatar
- Makeup:
Star Trek
- Original Score: Avatar
- Original Song: Crazy Heart ("The Weary Kid")
- Sound Editing: Avatar
- Sound Mixing: Avatar
- Visual Effects: Avatar
Note: I only passed on four categories: Foreign Language Film
(which I have an abysmal history f handicapping) and the three short
categories: Live-Action, Animated and Documentary.
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COMPLETE LIST OF ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS
- Motion Picture: The Hurt Locker
- Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
- Actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
- Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious
Basterds)
- Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious)
- Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
- Foreign Film: El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
- Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)
- Original Screenplay: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
- Original Score: Michael Giacchino (Up)
- Original Song: The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy
Heart) by Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett.
- Animated Feature Film: Up
- Documentary Feature: The Cove
- Art Direction: Avatar
- Cinematography: Avatar
- Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker
- Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker
- Costume: The Young Victoria
- Makeup: Star Trek
- Visual Effects: Avatar
- Film Editing: The Hurt Locker
- Documentary Short Film: Music by Prudence
- Animated Short Film: Logorama
- Live Action Short Film: The New Tenants
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Related Links
2010 NAACP Image Awards - Precious Dominates Image Awards via Virtual Sweep
of Film Categories
http://aalbc.com/reviews/2010_naacp_image_awards.html
