My Oscar Predictions

I reserve the right to change my choices right up until the show, but I doubt I will

Best Picture: The King's Speech
Best Director: David Fincher The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth The King's Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo The Fighter
Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: Social Network
Art Direction: The King's Speech
Cinematography: True Grit
Costume: King's Speech
Editing: The Social Network
Makeup: The Wolfman
Original Score: King's Speech
Original Song: If I rise 127 Hours
Sound Editing: Inception
Sound Mixing: Inception
Visual Effects: Inception
Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Foreign language: In a better world
Documentary: Inside job
Doc Short: Strangers No more
Animated short: Madagascar, a journey diary
Live action short: God of Love

Enjoy the show if you are watching!

All of my choices for the best iin film for 2010

Here I will note who I would choose as the winner.


Now for the bigger categories I list in alphabetical order my top 5.
Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
Never Let Me Go
Rabbit Hole-My ChoiceThe Social Network
Toy Story 3

Best Original Screenplay
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Inception-My ChoiceThe Kids are Alright
The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter The King's Speech
Marion Cotilliard Inception
Barbara Hershey Black Swan-My ChoiceLesley Manville Another Year
Jackie Weaver Animal Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale The Fighter
Andrew Garfield The Social network
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo the Kid's are Alright- My choiceGeoffrey Rush the King's Speech

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky Black Swan
Danny Boyle 127  Hours
David Fincher The Social Network
John Cameron Mitchell Rabbit Hole
Christopher Nolan Inception- My choice
Best Lead Actor
Aaron Eckhart Rabbit hole
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
Colin Firth The King's Speech
James Franco 127 Hours-My choiceRyan Gosling Blue Valentine

Best Lead Actress
Annette Bening The Kids Are Alright
Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
Julianne Moore The Kids Are Alright
Natalie Portman Black Swan
Michelle Williams Blue Valentine-My choice
-And finally I rank my top 10 films. My ten favorite films of 2010 were
10.Never let Me Go
9.The Social Network
8. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

7. Toy Story 3

6. The Kids Are Alright

5. Black Swan

4. The King's Speech

3. 127 Hours
2. Rabbit Hole
and my favorite film of 2010 was

1. Inception

Here were my other choices:

Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best DocumentaryJoan Rivers; A Piece of Work
Best Original Score: The Social network
Best Original Song from a film: I've got a dream from Tangled
Best Foreign Film: Undertow from Peru
Best Sound in a Film: Inception
Best Costumes: The King's Speech
Best Editing: Inception
Best Visual Effects: Inception
Best Cinematography: True Grit
Best Art Direction: Inception

Tomorrow: My final Oscar predictions!

My choices for the Best in Film of 2010

I hav seen a lot of 2010's films, but I haven't seen them all. i have missed some foreign films and documentaries, but here are my thoughts for the best of the year. First a list of films that I have already chosen the "best".

Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3
Best DocumentaryJoan Rivers; A Piece of Work
Best Original Score: The Social network
Best Original Song from a film: I've got a dream from Tangled
Best Foreign Film: Undertow from Peru
Best Sound in a Film: Inception
Best Costumes: The King's Speech
Best Editing: Inception
Best Visual Effects: Inception
Best Cinematography: True Grit
Best Art Direction: Inception

Now for the bigger categories I list in alphabetical order my top 5.
Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
Never Let Me Go
Rabbit Hole
The Social Network
Toy Story 3

Best Original Screenplay
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Inception
The Kids are Alright
The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter The King's Speech
Marion Cotilliard Inception
Barbara Hershey Black Swan
Lesley Manville Another Year
Jackie Weaver Animal Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale The Fighter
Andrew Garfield The Social network
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo the Kid's are Alright
Geoffrey Rush the King's Speech

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky Black Swan
Danny Boyle 127  Hours
David Fincher The Social Network
John Cameron Mitchell Rabbot Hole
Christopher Nolan Inception

Best Lead Actor
Aaron Eckhart Rabbit hole
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
Colin Firth The King's Speech
James Franco 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling Blue Valentine

Best Lead Actress
Annette Bening The Kids Are Alright
Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
Julianne Moore The Kids Are Alright
Natalie Portman Black Swan
Michelle Williams Blue Valentune

And finally in alphabetical order. My ten favorite films of 2010 were
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
The Kids Are Alright
The Kings Speech
Never let Me Go
Rabbit Hole
The Social Network
Toy Story 3

In my next blog. My choices for the top 8 categories and my final Oscar predictions

Ranking the Top eight Oscar categories

 Now that I have seen all of the major Oscar nominees I will be doing some posting before the Oscars. Tonight I rank the top eight categories with some commentary. Then I will write about who I would have chosen and then finally I will make my final oscar predictions.

I will start with best Picture
10. Winter's Bone
 9. The Fighter
8. True Grit
7. The Social network
6. Toy Story 3
5. the Kids are Alright
4. Black Swan
3. The King's speech
2. 127 Hours
 1. Inception
This is a bit of a change from the last time I did this, but I think this is overall a good list of nominees especially compared to last year. Seven of these have a good chance to be in my own top 10.

Best Director
5. David O Russell The Fighter
4. The Coen brothers True Grit
3/ Tom Hooper the King's Speech
2. Darren Aronofsky Black Swan
1. David Fincher The Social Network

The Social Network was a pretty great film, but it left me a bit cold. That being said, it is a very well directed film. It is a shame Christopher Nolan isn't a nominee.

Best Actor
5. Javier Bardem Biutiful
4. Jeff bridges True Grit
3. Colin Firth The King's Speech
2. Jesse Eisenberg The social network
1. James Franco 127 Hours

The top three are very strong performances the 4th and 5th spots were fine, but felt like they should have gone to better performances.

Best Actress
5. Jennifer lawrence Winter's bone
4. Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
3. Annette Bening The Kid's are alright
2. Natalie Portman Black Swan
1. Michelle Williams Blue Valentine

This is a very strong category. I can't even begrudge Jennifer Lawrence because she was easily the best thing about Winter's bone. Michelle Williams was the one nomination that made me cheer. But ask me tomorrow and I could easily re rank the top three. And even thought I am not sure she gave the best performance I am kind of cheering for Annette Bening.

Best Supporting Actor
5. John Hawkes Winter's bone
4. Jeremy Renner the Town
3. Christian Bale The fighter
2. Geoffrey Rush The King's Speech
1. Mark Ruffalo The Kid's are Alright

A very strong top 4, and if you ask me again tomorrow I could flip that whole top 3. It is too bad someone from The Social network couldn't claim that fifth spot.

Best Supporting Actress
5. Melissa Leo The Fighter
4. Hailee Steinfeld True Grit
3. Amy Adams The Fighter
2. Helena Bonham Carter King's Speech
1. Jackie Weaver Animal Kingdom

This is a very weak line up and while there weren't tons of great choices. Most of these would not make my own top 5. And hailee Steinfeld shouldn't even be here since she is the lead in True Grit.

Best Adapted Screenplay
5. Winter's Bone
4. True Grit
3. Toy Story 3
2, The Social network
1. 127 Hours
This was a strong year in adapted screenplays. I wish the bottom two slots had gone to other movies

Best Original Screenplay
5. The Fighter
4. Another Year
3. The King's Speech
2. The Kids are Alright
1. Inception

The Top 4 is a strong group. I could easily change my top 3!

That's it. Next I will let you know my favorites for 2010!

The Oscar Shorts

For the second year in a row I saw the short films nominated for an Oscar (minus the doc shorts). They are usually the categories a lot of people go to have a snack during, but it makes it more enjoyable to me to watch the Oscars when I have seen almost everything including the shorts.

So here are my  brief  thoughts on the nominees and my current predictions as to which one will win.

The animated shorts first.

The Lost Thing- Something feels a little off. The story is minimal and not too interesting. It does have a nice message though about finding your own place as an individual. There is also a moment in the film that looks like a giant Salvador Dali painting, but that part isn't long enough. 3 out of 5 stars

Day and Night- This played before Toy Story 3 and most of the time I like the Pixar shorts, but this time not so much. I appreciate its theme of tolerating those who are different, and I can appreciate the work that went into it. But it is pretty dull and seems very slow for a short that is only 6 minutes. 2.5 out of 5 stars

Let's Pollute- A snarky short with a political theme may seem like something Oscar voters eats up. It is funny and sometimes clever, but its environmental theme feels a little over hammered. Usually subtle is better. 3.5 out of 5 star

The Gruffalo- This is the only short with a full story and it has the voice of Oscar Nominee Helena Bonham Carter. But even the story seems pretty slight and sing songy like the children's book that it came from. The animation is just good as well. But it has the mostly fully developed story going for it and this could be the winner 3.5 out of 5.

Madagascar- Thankfully this has nothing to do with the Ben Stiller animated film. This is easily the best animated of the 5 shorts with all of its colors, drawings and layers of animation. But it is essentially  a travelogue about Madagascar with no plot to speak of. 3.5 out of 5.

My prediction: There are three that I think are out of it. But it is a hard choice between the gruffalo and madagascar.Iit is the battle between story and art. I think in this case art wins by a hair. I think the winner will be Madagascar.

Live Action Shorts
The Confession- This was the best made technically of the bunch, but the story of accidental murder in childhood feels like something off of the Young Adult shelves at the library that you come back to as an adult and say, "When does something like that ever happen?" Sometimes this category goes to the nominee that feels the most important. This isn't it. 3 out of 5

The Crush- There is something very sweet about this short, but also very sinister and creepy. It doesn't quite pull off of the tone of the two clashing feelings. 3 out of 5

God of Love- This is definitely the slightest of the nominees, but it is also the funniest of the bunch. It definitely has a young Woody Allen feel to it as its filmmaker and star is a nebbish unattractive guy that is unlucky at love. The academy loves Woody Allen, and I think they will love this. It is also a student film and a student winning an Oscar would make a great story. 3.5 out of 5

Na Wewe- One of two shorts in the categories that deals with "important" themes. This one being  violence in Africa. The only problem is that it doesn't really go deep enough and feels kind of empty, but if Oscars want to feel important and well versed in international news, they will go for this 3 out of 5

Wish 143- The other "important" short is about a teenager with cancer. That would probably be enough if it was a big tear jerker. But it is mostly comic because it is about the teen asking a make a wish like foundation to fulfill his wish of losing his virginity. It is funny and has heart, but doesn't feel important enough. 3.5 out of 5 stars

My prediction for the win: Its the important Goliath against the very funny David. I think this time david wins because it makes a better story. I think the winner will be God of Love, but Na wewe could easily steal it.