Tag / Andy Nelson

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The Nominees Are…

It’s nearly time to play the music and to light the lights.  The 97th Academy Awards are going down next Sunday night, and my woeful predictions are back.  I don’t know that I’ve heard of many of these movies let alone seen them, so, with less basis in fact than most years, here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards.

Best Original Screenplay

Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Moritz Binder and Tim Fehlbaum; co-written by Alex David, September 5
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

I’ve heard of a whopping two of these films, so I’m going to flip a coin and end up with The Substance.

Best Adapted Screenplay

James Mangold and Jay Cocks, A Complete Unknown
Peter Straughan, Conclave
Jacques Audiard in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius, and Nicolas Livecchi, Emilia Pérez
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Screenplay by Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley; story by Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley, Clarence Maclin, and John “Divine G” Whitfield, Sing Sing

This is a complete guest, as I’ve seen only one of these films.

Best Animated Feature

Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

Once again, I’ll take a shot in the dark.

Best Cinematography

Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
Paul Guilhaume, Emilia Pérez
Ed Lachman, Maria
Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu

Sand seems like the way to go for this award.

Best Costume Design

Arianne Phillips, A Complete Unknown
Lisy Christl, Conclave
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman, Gladiator II
Linda Muir, Nosferatu
Paul Tazewell, Wicked

This seems like as good a place as any for Wicked to get on the board.

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by admin

And The Nominees Are

side_oscarThe 95th Academy Awards are going down Sunday night and, after a year break, my woeful predictions are back.  I don’t know that I’ve heard of many of these movies let alone seen them, so, with less basis in fact than most years, here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards.

Best Original Screenplay

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kusher, The Fablemans
Todd Field, Tár
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

I’ve seen none of these films, but Everything Everywhere All at Once seems to be the hot property, so I’m going to go with that.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Kazuo Ishiguro, Living
Screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick
Sarah Polley, Women Talking

Who doesn’t love a good war movie?

Best Animated Feature

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio 
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red

My best guess, having seen none of these fine films, is that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio wins the day.

Best Cinematography

James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
Darius Khondji, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Mandy Walker, Elvis
Roger Deakins, Empire of Light
Florian Hoffmeister, Tár

Seems like I’m going all in with the war movie.

Best Costume Design

Mary Zophres, Babylon
Ruth Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Catherine Martin, Elvis
Shirley Kurata, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Jenny Beavan, Mrs. Hamm Goes to Paris

Well, I’ve seen one of these films, so let’s go with that one.

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by admin

Predicting Those Non-Acting Oscars

side_oscarThe 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.

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by admin

Predicting The Non-Acting Oscars

side_oscarThe 88th Academy Awards are scheduled for 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.

Best Original Screenplay

Matt Chapman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen, Bridge Of Spies
Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Peter Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, and Ronnie del Carmen, Inside Out
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight
Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge, and Alan Wenkus, Straight Outta Compton

I haven’t seen any of these films yet, but if I had to guess, which I guess I do, I’m going to say that, partially thanks to the outrage over the relative whiteness of the acting nominees, Straight Outta Compton will take home the prize.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Adam McKay and Charles Randolph, The Big Short
Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
Phyllis Nagy, Carol
Drew Goddard, The Martian
Emma Donoghue, Room

Another category where I have not seen any of the nominated work. I’m guessing, based on very little, that The Big Short will win this one.

Best Animated Feature

Anomalisa
Boy & The World
Inside Out
Shaun The Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There

No clue here either, but Inside Out was the only one I had heard of.

Best Cinematography

Ed Lachman, Carol
Robert Richardson, The Hateful Eight
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
Roger A. Deakins, Sicario

Well, I’ve almost seen one of these, since I have Mad Max home from Netflix.  My guess is that Emmanuel Lubezki takes home the Oscar for capturing the rape of Leonardo DiCaprio by a bear.

Best Costume Design

Sandy Powell, Carol
Sandy Powell, Cinderella
Paco Delgado, The Danish Girl
Jenny Beavan, Mad Max: Fury Road
Jacqueline West, The Revenant

The odds do seem to be in Sandy Powell’s favor, but I’m guessing Paco Delgado brings home the prize for The Danish Girl.

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by jim

People Who Will Get Played Off Before Their Speech Ends

With the Academy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here’s my 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.

Best Original Screenplay

Amour, Michael Hanake

Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino

Flight, John Gatins

Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

I haven’t seen any of these films.  Personally, I would like to see Quentin Tarantino win, but I don’t see that as a possibility given the n-word backlash he saw after the movie came out.  Zero Dark Thirty has the upper hand, I think.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Argo, Chris Terrio

Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,

Life of Pi, David Magee

Lincoln, Tony Kushner

Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Silver Linings Playbook and Argo are the two films here that I really want to see, with Lincoln coming in a distant third.  I’m not sure if SLP will do as well in the “big” categories as people are expecting, but I think it will pick up some hardware here.

Best Animated Feature

Brave

Frankenweenie

ParaNorman

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Wreck-It Ralph

Again, I haven’t seen any of these and I’m likely not going to.  That said, Wreck-It Ralph looks to be the most fun out of these entries.  Not to imply at all the Academy puts any consideration to fun.

Best Cinematography

Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey

Django Unchained, Robert Richardson

Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda

Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski

Skyfall, Roger Deakins

My feeling is that this comes down to either Django Unchained or Skyfall, and I think James Bond loses this battle.

Best Costume Design

Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran

Les Misérables, Paco Delgado

Lincoln, Joanna Johnston

Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka

Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

I’ve actually seen 2 of these films.   My thought is that it will come down to Lincoln or Les Misérables, and who doesn’t like a musical?

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by jim

And The Oscar Goes To

Tonight is the 84th annual Academy Awards.  Here are my predictions:

Best Motion Picture of the Year

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Of the nominated films, Moneyball is the only one I’ve seen.  I think The Artist takes home the award.  It is definitely the type of film the Academy likes to reward.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendants
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Again, Brad Pitt’s performance in Moneyball is the only one I’ve seen.  Clooney seems to have some momentum on his side.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

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