It’s tough to imagine we’re almost at the end of another awards season, and yet here we are less than a week away from Hollywood’s biggest night: the 88th Academy Awards. First broadcast in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, The Academy Awards are the highest honors in the film industry, setting the standard for all awards ceremonies that followed, including the Grammy Awards for the recording industry, the Tony Awards for the theatre and the Emmy Awards for television. Since then, it’s been every actor’s dream to hold an Academy Award of Merit, or more commonly known as an Oscar.
Considering how hot and cold this award season has been, we’ll wager that the #OscarsSoWhite controversy won’t be the only thing people will be tweeting about come this Sunday night. Either way, we know with comedian Chris Rock hosting it, the show won’t be anything short of entertaining.
Here are just some of our predictions and speculations for the big shebang.
Best Actor/Actress
Nominees for Best Actor: Bryan Cranston (Trumbo); Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl); Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs); Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant); Matt Damon (The Martian)
Nominees for Best Actress: Brie Larson (Room); Cate Blanchett (Carol); Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn); Jennifer Lawrence (Joy); Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
We’re not even going to waste too much time on this, as we hope the Academy voters didn’t either. Since the Oscars is usually very predictable, it’s a pretty intelligent guess that Larson and DiCaprio will walk away holding a shiny bald man. The only foreseeable hiccup – we’re excluding Lawrence and Blanchett taking Best Actress because neither needs another one – is that a group of voters known for their fickle ways may choose once again to snub DiCaprio and give it to someone like Damon. If that happens, there may be riots from sea to shining sea. DiCaprio’s performance was spellbinding. It would be no surprise to see this added to the list seen here of the very best performances by some of the greatest actors in history.
Best Supporting Actor/Actress
Nominees for Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight); Sylvester Stallone (Creed); Tom Hardy (The Revenant); Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies); Christian Bale (The Big Short)
Nominees for Best Supporting Actress: Rachel McAdams (Spotlight); Rooney Mara (Carol); Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight); Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs); Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
The supporting actor categories are two of the hardest-to-predict groups imaginable at this stage. At the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, two completely different people won each award. While the Academy has shown Bale love before, also for a supporting role, Stallone made his great awards show return with the Globe for his role as Rocky Balboa in Creed. Normally the Oscars leans toward talent that’s either earned or been nominated for many Oscars already, and Stallone has certainly put in his time on the big screen. Of course, a wild card like Hardy, who has been underrepresented and snubbed to the point of disgrace, could pop out of the woodwork. As for the actresses, we’re rooting for Vikander for two reasons: one, Winslet has an Oscar; and two, Vikander basically carried The Danish Girl, making it a bit of a disgrace that she hasn’t been nominated for best actress awards for her role.
Best Director
Nominees: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road); Adam McKay (The Big Short); Lenny Abrahamson (Room); Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant); Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)
This is often a wild card category. Sometimes the same director who won the Globe will win, and sometimes two different people are awarded. What is a true indicator are the results of the Directors Guild Awards, which Alejandro González Iñárritu, last years Oscar winning director for Birdman, won big at with the award for Outstanding Directing. Iñárritu won the award in 2015 for his work on Birdman and he’s already won it again this year for his work on The Revenant. Only two directors in history have won the Oscar for Best Director twice, and Iñárritu could very well follow in their footsteps: that is, if George Miller doesn’t run over him with his critically and commercially successful Mad Max.
Best Original/Adapted Screenplay
Nominees for Best Original Screenplay: Bridge of Spies; Spotlight; Ex Machina; Inside Out; Straight Outta Compton
Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay: The Martian; The Big Short; Room; Carol; Brooklyn
It’s awards like these that Spotlight and The Big Short were made for, and they certainly deserve them after getting a bit snubbed at the bigger award shows. Besides winning Best Ensemble Cast at the SAG Awards, Spotlight has been sweeping up the competition in critics awards, making it no stretch of the imagination that it could win for Best Original Screenplay, although it’s not guaranteed. Similarly The Big Short should be the best pick here, turning a book about the housing market crash into a genuinely funny and intriguing film, which was hard work. But it’s relatively up for grabs, as the Globes screenplay winner, Steve Jobs, was conveniently left out of the Oscars race.
Best Original Song/Score
Nominees for Best Original Song: “Simple Song #3”; “Writing’s On the Wall”; “Til It Happens to You”; “Manta Ray”; “Earned It”
Nominees for Best Score: Bridge of Spies; Sicario; Star Wars: The Force Awakens; The Hateful Eight; Carol
Ennio Morricone has been nominated for a grand total of six Academy Awards for best score, including his current nomination for his work on The Hateful Eight, which he won the Globe for last month. For a score that perfectly embodies the very atmosphere and tone of the tense aspects of the film, telling its own story through haunting melodies, we can’t think of a better winner for Best Score. Although, John Williams being nominated for Star Wars gives us fuzzy feelings. But we’re not feeling the same way toward a two-peat for Sam Smith’s Bond-theme, Writing’s On the Wall. Instead, we hope Lady Gaga and songwriter Diane Warren take home the Oscar for their song about campus rape, “Til It Happens to You.”
Best Animated Feature Film
Nominees: Shaun the Sheep Movie; Anomalisa; Inside Out; Boy & the World; When Marnie Was There
Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa has been widely praised for it’s ability to ask larger questions about the human condition, including how someone who is somewhat isolated may perceive love, pain and solitude. And there’s no doubt it would have won big any other year. But let’s get real, if this really is like any other year at the Oscars, Inside Out will continue to sweep up the competition like Frozen before it.
Best Picture
Nominees: Bridge of Spies; Mad Max: Fury Road; The Big Short; Spotlight; The Revenant; The Martian; Room; Brooklyn
There are two ways the Academy leans when it comes to this coin-flip category. Either they go the way of the Producers Guild or the Screen Actors Guild. One leads them into The Big Short territory while the other to the journalism drama, Spotlight, so it’s really tough to choose between the two. Lucky for us, we may not have to if thy decide to go the more adventurous route and swim in uncharted waters: either Mad Max or The Revenant, both films that have begun to revolutionize how we make films. They’re not the conventional choices, especially not statistically speaking, although we fully expect the action remake to sweep the editing, sound mixing and special effects categories. But the Oscar for Best Picture has almost always been the biggest surprise of the year, and there’s no reason why this year should be any different.
Follow Sara Snoddy on Twitter at @Sara_Snoddy.
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