(Just so you know, the Oscar website has a countdown, I’m not crazy/mathematically proficient enough to do that on my own.)
So Oscar/Independent Spirit Awards weekend is upon us! I encourage you all to watch the Spirit Awards on Friday night if you can, because they are way more entertaining than the Oscars. (And JOHNNY WEIR will be there!) The winners are allowed to speak for however long they want, and they aren’t censored. I believe I have posted this before, but it is worth revisiting, if only to convince you that magic can happen at the Spirits:
They’re also worth a watch because sometimes an independent feature gets wide release the following year and garners some mainstream awards attention. One such film? Oscar Best Picture favorite The Hurt Locker. Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively (and lost to Mickey Rourke and James Franco, respectively). But who really knows if this year’s Spirits and next year’s Oscars will have any overlap.
Keep reading if you care to know what I think will win on Sunday, on what I hope will win.
Note: bold = want to win, italics = probable win. In some categories I have no preference, either because I haven’t seen any of the nominated movies (shorts, etc.) or because I have no idea what the category even means (Art Direction???).
Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds [because if it can't be The Hurt Locker, it should be this for sure]
Precious Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire [definite winner of most unnecessarily irritating title]
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Best Actress
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie and Julia
I was really torn on this one. I like Sandra Bullock, but I haven’t seen The Blind Side so I can’t really judge. I did think that both Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe were really great, but I found Carey Mulligan to be a bit more subtle.
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious
Animated Feature Film
Coraline [really weird but very cool-looking]
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up
Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria
Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [HARRY 4-EVA!!!]
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria [royalty + period piece = Oscar costume gold]
Directing
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds [because can you imagine how hard it is to direct a movie that good when you've done THAT much coke?]
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home
Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Bruce Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin [I haven't seen it, but it's about a freaking bunny! Awww!]
Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) [title literally translates "The Frightened Boob"]
A Prophet (France)
The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Germany) [the trailer for this movie is really irritating, because it makes it seem as if the movie is about absolutely nothing]
Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria
Music (Original Score)
Avatar – James Horner [he composed the music for Titanic... LOVE]
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker – Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
Up – Michael Giacchino
Music (Original Song)
“Almost There” – The Princess and the Frog
“Down in New Orleans” – The Princess and the Frog (Disney’s first black princess gets to reign over a city, not a principality. Diversity fail, Disney.)
“Loin de Paname” – Paris 36 [?]
“Take It All” – Nine
“The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” – Crazy Heart
Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death
Live Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up
Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Shitty Movie
Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
Adapted Screenplay
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air
Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up
Finally, if you’d like an easy way to make your own ballot and tabulate your accuracy, you can create your own on the New York Times website, and if you log in during the show it tracks how many you get correct. It’s like a game!
