The 89th Academy Awards are going down next Sunday night, so here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards. I likely have seen very few of these movies, so I will mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth rather than personal experience.
Best Original Screenplay
Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou, The Lobster
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By The Sea
Mike Mills, 20th Century Women
I haven’t seen any of these films yet, but I do know that there is nothing Hollywood likes more than a love letter to Hollywood, which is pretty much what I’ve been led to believe La La Land is.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Eric Heisserer, Arrival
August Wilson, Fences
Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures
Luke Davies, Lion
Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight
Another category where I have not seen any of the nominated work. I’m guessing, based on very little, that Moonlight will win this one.
Best Animated Feature
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life As A Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Zootopia
I’ve only heard of two of these, neither of which I can see taking home an Oscar. So, I’m going out on a ledge here and going with The Red Turtle.
Best Cinematography
Bradford Young, Arrival
Linus Sandgren, La La Land
Greig Fraser, Lion
James Laxton, Moonlight
Rodrigo Prieto, Silence
Well, again I’ve seen none of these, so I will once again go with La La Land, though Arrival may be a strong contender.
Best Costume Design
Joanna Johnston, Allied
Colleen Atwood, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
Consolata Boyle, Florence Foster Jenkins
Madeline Fontaine, Jackie
Mary Zophres, La La Land
Another category where I’m at a loss, so I’ll stick with my theme so far and go with Mary Zophres for her work on La La Land.
Best Documentary Feature
Fire At Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
O.J.: Made In America
13th
I’m not really familiar with any of these, aside from the OJ one which was really a television miniseries, so this is just a stab in the dark.
Best Documentary Short Subject
Extremis
4.1 Miles
Joe’s Violin
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets
This is a total guess for a category that I know nothing about.
Achievement in Film Editing
Joe Walker, Arrival
John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge
Jake Roberts, Hell or High Water
Tom Cross, La La Land
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon, Moonlight
Film editing seems like an award that a science fiction epic should win, so I’m going with Joe Walker.
Best Foreign Language Film
Land of Mine, Denmark
A Man Called Ove, Sweden
The Salesman, Iran
Tanna, Australia
Toni Erdmann, Germany
A group of films that I have never, and will never, see, so I’m picking one at random.
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Love Larson and Eva von Bahr, A Man Called Ove
Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo, Star Trek Beyond
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Nelson, Suicide Squad
The first category where I’ve seen not one, but two of the nominated films. I don’t want to live in a world where either Star Trek Beyond or Suicide Squad wins an Oscar, so that leaves me with one choice.
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Jackie, Mica Levi
La La Land, Justin Hurwitz
Lion, Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
Moonlight, Nicholas Britell
Passengers, Thomas Newman
Back to guessing for this one, so I’m going again with La La Land.
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Audition (The Fools Who Dream) from La La Land, Music by Justin Hurwitz, Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Can’t Stop the Feeling! from Trolls, Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Karl Johan Schuster (Shellback)
City of Stars from La La Land, Music by Justin Hurwitz, Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
The Empty Chair from Jim: The James Foley Story, Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
How Far I’ll Go from Moana, Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
I haven’t heard any of these, but my guess is the 2 nominees from La La Land split the vote and Lin-Manuel Miranda moves one step closer to his EGOT.
Achievement in Production Design
Arrival, Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Hail, Caesar!, Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
La La Land, Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Passengers, Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
I’m going with Arrival, for no particular reason.
Best Animated Short Film
Blind Vaysha, Theodore Ushev
Borrowed Time, Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Robert Valley and Cara Speller
Pearl, Patrick Osborne
Piper, Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Best Live Action Short Film
Ennemis intérieurs, Sélim Azzazi
La Femme et le TGV, Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
Silent Nights, Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
Sing, Kristóf Deák and Anna Udvardy
Timecode, Juanjo Giménez
These picks are based on nothing but pure alchemy.
Achievement in Sound Editing
Arrival, Sylvain Bellemare
Deepwater Horizon, Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli
Hacksaw Ridge, Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
La La Land, Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
Sully, Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Having seen none of these, I’m again putting my money on La La Land.
Achievement in Sound Mixing
Arrival, Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye
Hacksaw Ridge, Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, and Peter Grace
La La Land, Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, and Steve A. Morrow
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio, and Stuart Wilson
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Mac Ruth
Ishall select the one nominated film that I have seen.
Achievement in Visual Effects
Deepwater Horizon, Craig Hammeck, Jason Snell, Jason Billington, and Burt Dalton
Doctor Strange, Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli, and Paul Corbould
The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Dan Lemmon
Kubo and the Two Strings, Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean, and Brad Schiff
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, and Neil Corbould
Having seen two of these films, I’m going with the more surprising one for the win.