2013 Oscars Catch-All

Officially time to open this thread, even if I'm one of the few who cares. I'm disappointed every year, but my favorite part is the speculation and seeing the movies, of course. I feel like getting a jump on this because I saw 7 movies this weekend. I had a 5 day weekend and I used it to see Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Pitch Perfect, The Other Dream Team, Looper and the Minecraft movie for good measure. Lots of movies were watched. Looper might be my favorite of the bunch, but Les Miserables slayed me. I thought about mentioning it in the "Tears of Manliness" thread, but people were talking about serious stuff there so I decided to start this thread early instead. I would love to hear from other film fans what they thought about some of these movies. I feel like I've seen a good chunk of what will likely get nominated.

Why do the Oscars matter? They don't. The show is almost always unwatchable and way too self-important. But I love movies and like the BCS, which also leaves most people unhappy about the process of picking winners, at least the Oscars prompts us to debate and talk about film and for that I keep tuned in. What's at the top of your list currently? What should I see with my coming 4 day weekend?

My best picture nominees:

Life of Pi (Winner)
Argo
End of Watch
The Sessions
Beasts of the Southern Wild

My main interest will be to see if Dark Knight Rises, like the Return of the King has an Oscar sweep more or less to award the entire trilogy. I do not anticipate Christian Bale winning for Best Actor, given he won for Best Support for The Fighter. But I think Nolan is a top contender for best director, or best writer. Can Tom Hardy win for Best Support? I think it is a shoe in for best score.

Brave wins best cartoon because Pixar, no crap.

I am rooting for Hunger Games for best Visual effects, but I suspect Avengers has that one locked in.

I have yet to see Lincoln, but I suspect it will get a lot of Oscar Buzz.

I have no interest watching the Oscars at all this year, especially with the genuinely talentless Seth MacFarlane involved.

There are still a lot of films I haven't seen yet, especially ones that are in theatres now, but if I had to make a list of films that really impressed me so far this year and would be personal top ten contenders they would include the following:

The Master: Paul Thomas Anderson tries to be Kubrick and shockingly he succeeds. No film has stayed with me like this one has. It's certainly the best of the year.

The Grey: A traditional story of people surviving against impossible odds, but dares to wonder if maybe they would have been better off giving up instead.

Magic Mike: Storyline is predictable right until the end, but it's told so well you don't really care. And Matthew McConaughey is so good at being sleazy. Boy does the idea of Soderbergh retiring depress the hell out of me.

Life of Pi: A tale that is equally heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time, with the most impressive visuals of the year by far.

Bernie: Jack Black proves he can actually be subtle if you ask him to. Kind of darkly comic in how it gets you in the same mind as the smalltown folk, wishing Bernie the best even though you know you shouldn't be.

Amour: On the surface, probably the most subtle and soft film Haneke has ever made. Deep down, it's still just as disturbing, though, questioning the entire nature of mortality and whether or not true love actually exists.

Prometheus: The best sci-fi film I've seen since Children of Men. It's a frustrating film with no answers, and that is the point.

Looper: I went in assuming it was going to be a pulpy, trashy time travel movie and got something far more poignant about wishing you could reverse the bad decisions you make.

Holy Motors: At times a surrealist spectacle/nightmare while also questioning the future of an actor's role in our new age of motion capture and green screens. Endlessly captivating in a way only film can be.

ParaNorman: The best animated film of the year, and a clever one for confronting the subject of bullying the way it does. I'm also really pleased at this current crop of stop-motion animation we've been getting.

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Tries to teeter on the line between stark realism and over-indulgent fantasy and stays perfectly balanced the entire way through.

Killer Joe: Just like Bug, William Friedkin shows he understands psychological horror better than much more modern filmmakers could ever hope.

Moonrise Kingdom: Magic in a bottle. It's as if Wes Anderson sensed people were tiring of his schtick, and decided that instead of backing off he would push harder than ever before.

The Queen of Versailles: If this was a fictional film, you would instantly accuse it of being Liberal Hollywood making unrealistic caricatures of American excess. But since it's a documentary, it hits you hard in the gut.

I might give it a watch myself, though I haven't been able to get out to the movies as much as I'd like.

Normally I'd agree with Pixar getting the default "best animated film", but a lot of people seemed to really lash out at it. Though truth told, personal preference is for Wreck-It Ralph, and not just because it is about video games. However, I have a feeling the old farts of the Academy won't appreciate it so much due to that very same aspect of it.

I never miss The Oscars, so I've seen (more than) my fair share of bad productions. God Bless Anne Hathaway for doing her best to save it while working with a zombie aka James Franco last year.

Lincoln will get two, maybe three, acting nominations:

Daniel Day Lewis (Best Actor)
Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor)
Sally Field (Best Supporting Actress)- This is the one I'm least sure about, but the Academyloves her.

Also, I'm expecting Best Director for Spielberg and Best Picture nods.

Haven't seen Les Misérables yet. Hoping I'll get the time this week.

trichy wrote:

My best picture nominees:

Life of Pi (Winner)
Argo
End of Watch
The Sessions
Beasts of the Southern Wild

That final movie has no business on the list with the other four, man!

Also, I don't think any of these lists is complete without Moonrise Kingdom.

Also, maaaaan I didn't like The Master.

The Secret World of Arriety deserves some kind of nod in the animation categories. I don't follow the Oscars close enough... does it matter where they film came out, and when? This came out in 2010 in Japan, but last February here.

Yeah. The Master is terrible. I would be a very happy guy if they ignored it. It's just not a great movie. It's not entertaining and it doesn't say anything.

Blind_Evil wrote:

The Secret World of Arriety deserves some kind of nod in the animation categories. I don't follow the Oscars close enough... does it matter where they film came out, and when? This came out in 2010 in Japan, but last February here.

I saw that this year and thought it was beautiful. It's actually the movie that got me looking into Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni, etc.

Also, my top 10 right now would look like this in no particular order yet.

- Django Unchained
- Les Miserables
- Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Looper
- Pitch Perfect
- Silver Linings Playbook
- Dark Knight Rises
- Argo
- The Impossible
- The Secret World of Arrietty

Haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty, obviously and I need to see Moonrise Kingdom and Rust and Bone.

I'll also be annoyed if Promised Land gets any nominations. Seeing as how it's an anti-fracking movie paid for in part by oil companies.

The nominations will be announced Thursday AM.

Last year there were what, 10 nominees for Best Picture? The idea was to give the selections more of a "populist" feel.

Of course, a B&W, Silent, Hollywood self-love fest won. So much for the opinion of the masses.

This only reminds me of how few big movies I got to see because my friend never felt like seeing "Oscar bait". That "Oscar bait" being stuff like Argo or Lincoln.

I guess I can see his point, but I mean, geez. What about Argo doesn't look entertaining from the trailers?

Here are my predictions for Oscar Nominations, staying away from writing, music, and technical categories:

Best Picture

Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Argo
Life of Pi
Dark Knight Rises
Les Misérables
The Sessions
Amour
Silver Linings Playbook
The Master(?)

Best Director

Katherine Bigelow
Steven Spielberg
Ben Affleck
Ang Lee
Tom Hooper(?)
Christopher Nolan*

Best Actor

Daniel Day Lewis
Ben Affleck
Hugh Jackman
John Hawkes
Joaquin Phoenix(?)

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain
Helen Hunt
Helen Mirren
Jennifer Lawrence
Naomi Watts(?)

Best Supporting Actor

Tommy Lee Jones
Russell Crowe
Christoph Waltz
William H. Macy
Phillip Seymour Hoffman(?)

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Field
Anne Hathaway
Maggie Smith
Amy Adams
Jacki Weaver(?)

The picks with a (?) beside them are the ones I'm least sure of.

Christopher Nolan has an * by his name because I think he should be on this list, but he's gonna get snubbed.

I haven't seen all of my predictions yet, but I will before the awards are handed out (depending on availability and actually getting nominated). Sometimes, especially in a small town, you have to wait for the movie to come to you.

Here's the full list. Predictions for winners, anyone? I bolded mine. Not who I hope will win, but who I think will win.

Best picture
•"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
•"Silver Linings Playbook"
•"Zero Dark Thirty"
•"Lincoln"
•"Les Misérables"
•"Life of Pi"
•"Amour"
•"Django Unchained"
•"Argo"

Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
•Denzel Washington, "Flight"
•Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"
•Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
•Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Actress
•Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"
•Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
•Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
•Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Supporting actor
Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"
•Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"
•Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
•Alan Arkin, "Argo"
•Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

Supporting actress
•Sally Field, "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
•Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"
•Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
•Amy Adams, "The Master"

Director
•David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"
•Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"
•Michael Haneke, "Amour"
•Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Animated feature
•"Frankenweenie"
•"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"
•"Wreck-It Ralph"
•"Brave"
•"ParaNorman"

Foreign language film
•"Amour," Austria
•"No," Chile
•"War Witch," Canada
•"A Royal Affair," Denmark
•"Kon-Tiki," Norway

Adapted screenplay
•"Beasts of the Southern Wild," Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
•"Argo," Chris Terrio
•"Lincoln," Tony Kushner
•"Silver Linings Playbook," David O. Russell
•"Life of Pi," David Magee

Original screenplay
•"Flight," John Gatins
•"Zero Dark Thirty," Mark Boal
•"Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino
•"Amour," Michael Haneke
•"Moonrise Kingdom," Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

Original song
•“Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice," music and lyricsby J. Ralph
•“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted," music by Walter Murphy and lyric by Seth MacFarlane
•“Pi's Lullaby” from “Life of Pi," music by Mychael Danna and lyric by Bombay Jayashri
•“Skyfall” from “Skyfall," music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
•“Suddenly” from “Les Misérables," music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Original score
•Dario Marianelli, “Anna Karenina"
•Alexandre Desplat, “Argo"
•Mychael Danna, “Life of Pi,"
•John Williams, “Lincoln”
•Thomas Newman, “Skyfall”

Visual effects
•“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
•“Life of Pi”
•“Marvel's The Avengers”
•“Prometheus”
•“Snow White and the Huntsman”

Makeup and hairstyling
•“Hitchcock”
•“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
•“Les Misérables”

Cinematography
•Seamus McGarvey, “Anna Karenina”
•Robert Richardson, “Django Unchained”
•Claudio Miranda, “Life of Pi”
•Janusz Kaminski, “Lincoln”
•Roger Deakins, “Skyfall”

Costume design
•Jacqueline Durran, “Anna Karenina”
•Paco Delgado, “Les Misérables”
•Joanna Johnston, “Lincoln”
•Eiko Ishioka, “Mirror Mirror”
•Colleen Atwood, “Snow White and the Huntsman”

Documentary
•“5 Broken Cameras”
•“The Gatekeepers”
•“How to Survive a Plague”
•“The Invisible War”
•“Searching for Sugar Man”

Film editing
•William Goldenberg, "Argo"
•Tim Squyres, "Life of Pi"
•Michael Kahn, "Lincoln"
•Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, "Silver Linings Playbook"
•Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg, "Zero Dark Thirty"

The Oscar nominees always have a lot of things I hate. So many nominations for The Master, which I thought was really a bad movie. No nominations for Looper or some of the smaller indies like Perks of Being a Wallflower. But the really egregious category is best song. John Legend wrote a great song for Django Unchained and got nothing.

Also, Samuel L Jackson's performance in Django Unchained was amazing. I don't see how that's less deserving than Robert De Niro turning in another Robert De Niro standard performance.

Wow, from that entire list, I saw Skyfall and Brave, plus most of the ones up for visual effects. This just points out how completely I ignore everything in the theaters these days.

Kinda sad from a former film major.

Zero Dark Thirty and Amour are so Indie that it's impossible to see them unless you live in New York or LA. So the other part of that is probably the fact that they ignored major popular films again.

They don't even have Cloud Atlas in Best Costume.

I didn't get to see the movie since it seemed to be pulled out of theaters for daring to be...different? But I was expecting it to at least have that nomination.

That's a damn shame.

I don't get the love for "Life of Pi". It was a whole mess of mediocrity. It was trying to be a provocative adventure into the spiritual but left no answers or questions. I mean you have to come up big when you start off with "I'm going to tell you a story that will make you believe in God."

I also don't see how "Zero Dark Thirty" can win original screenplay since it is based on real events.

DSGamer wrote:

No nominations for Looper or some of the smaller indies like Perks of Being a Wallflower

While good movies they werent close to the ones already being suggested as nominations.

ranalin wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

No nominations for Looper or some of the smaller indies like Perks of Being a Wallflower

While good movies they werent close to the ones already being suggested as nominations.

I disagree. I saw Life of Pi and it was very "meh" for me.

Also the lack of Cloud Atlas is kind of strange to me. I really liked that movie.

Cloud Atlas's weird controversy involving race means the Oscars probably wants to avoid dealing with it.

[size=10]The fact that the film was hot garbage probably didn't help either.[/size]

I've heard mixed feelings on whether the film was crap or not, but it looks like it should have been up there for visuals or costume at the very least.

Plus, it approached the realm of genre film, and that sort of thing is pretty much guaranteed to be snubbed by the academy unless enough people Female Doggo and yell (see: Return of the King).

fangblackbone wrote:

I also don't see how "Zero Dark Thirty" can win original screenplay since it is based on real events.

Best Original Screenplay Ocsars are given to works written specifically for the film being made. They aren't based on or taken from an existing work.

Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars are given to works based on existing works, usually books, magazine articles, or plays.

Although ZDT is factual, it didn't exist until it was created for the screen.

'Lincoln' is based on a (great) biography titled 'Team of Rivals' while 'Argo' is based on an article that appeared in Wired magazine.

kuddles wrote:

Cloud Atlas's weird controversy involving race means the Oscars probably wants to avoid dealing with it.

[size=10]The fact that the film was hot garbage probably didn't help either.[/size]

There's also the issue with 3 directors for this one. They had to fight to get that to be allowed. Not a surprise it's not been nominated.

Just saw "Rust and Bone". That's in my top 5. The Oscars befuddle me.

My votes for each category, because my predictions are always wrong. Rated on a binary scale, ! for "utmost certainty", ? for "I don't have a damn clue".

Best picture (!)
"Life of Pi"

Actor (!)
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"

Actress (?)
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Supporting actor (!)
Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Supporting actress (!)
Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"

Director (!)
Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Animated feature (?)
"ParaNorman"

Foreign language film (?)
"A Royal Affair," Denmark - Only one on the list I've seen.

Adapted screenplay (?)
"Life of Pi," David Magee

Original screenplay (!)
"Zero Dark Thirty," Mark Boal

Original song (?)
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from “Ted," music by Walter Murphy and lyric by Seth MacFarlane - Because Norah Jones. Because.

Original score (?)
Thomas Newman, “Skyfall”

Visual effects (?)
“Prometheus”

Makeup and hairstyling (!)
“Les Misérables”

Cinematography (!)
Claudio Miranda, “Life of Pi” - Because it would be a crime if he didn't win.

Costume design (?)
Joanna Johnston, “Lincoln”

Documentary (?)
“Searching for Sugar Man” - Because I like the title. “How to Survive a Plague” is a really close second.

Film editing (!)
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg, "Zero Dark Thirty"

So I cheated, that's just how I roll.

Sadly, I realize I've only seen mainstream movies this year and none of the art house favorites. Man that's very unusual for me. Probably has something to do with having a 3-year-old.

I've only managed to see three of the Best Picture nominees (Lincoln, Pi, & Django) so far. I try catch most of them before the show but, where I live, some of them have a very short run. Some never make it at all.

I plan to watch ZDT, BotSW, and at least one more before Feb 24.

Chaz wrote:

Wow, from that entire list, I saw Skyfall and Brave, plus most of the ones up for visual effects. This just points out how completely I ignore everything in the theaters these days.

Kinda sad from a former film major.

I was just looking at that list and thinking much the same thing - I saw Brave and Prometheus (on bluray) and I can't think of any other major film I saw last year at all, save for a handful of "straight to video" horror rentals from itunes. I couldn't even be arsed to go see The Hobbit.

Just walked out of Zero Dark Thirty.

Holy crap that movie was god-damned incredible.

Words can't express.