The award season comes to an end on Sunday night when the Academy of Motion Picture & Science presents the 81st Academy Awards, where the famous faces of the film industry comes out and to find out who will become the new recipients of the little golden man known as Oscar. This year, “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane will be hosting the Oscar. Hopefully, MacFarlane’s edgy humor should inject some much-needed life into a telecast that can sometimes boring and lifeless. For the first time in some year, there are a couple of major categories that have yet to be predetermined winners due to the variety of award shows that lead up to the Oscars. In the next few days, I will be giving you what my thought and predictions on every category that there is.
Best Original Score
“Skyfall”
It was tough to find out that the scores for “The Master” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild” were snubbed in this category since those compositions for the film were nomination-worthy. With that said, all of the current nominees for Best Original Score deserve to be nominated for the work they put forth on these film and it makes this category a tight race. While John Williams (“Lincoln”) and Dario Marianelli (“Anna Karenina”) have already garnered Oscars for their work, there is also multiple Oscar-nominated composers Thomas Newman (“Skyfall”) and Alexandre Desplat (“Argo”) who are looking to finally win their first Oscar. However, it looks first-time nominee Mychael Danna might also be scoring an Oscar for his fantastic work on “Life of Pi.”
Who Will/Should Win: “Life of Pi”
Who Could Win: “Lincoln”
Best Original Song
“Before My Time” – “Chasing Ice”
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” – “Ted”
“Pi’s Lullaby” – “Life of Pi”
“Skyfall” – “Skyfall”
“Suddenly” – “Les Miserables”
While “Skyfall” couldn’t score any major Oscar nominations like Best Picture or in any of the supporting acting categories, at least it will win the Oscar for Adele’s Bond theme. This will mark the first time that a Bond movie will win the Oscar in this category after songs other Bond themes like Wings’ “Live and Let Die” and Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” from “The Spy Who Loved Me” lost in the category. While the theme is one of the best Bond themes, it is also helps that the Academy Awards are celebrating Bond’s 50th anniversary with a big tribute.
Who Will/Should Win: “Skyfall” – “Skyfall”
Who Could Win: No one else
Best Animated Short Film
“Adam and Dog”
“Fresh Guacamole”
“Head Over Heels”
“Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare’”
“Paperman”
This year’s nominees are an interesting bunch as they range from the weird (“Fresh Guacamole”) to heartwarming (“Head Over Heels”) to just plain funny (“The Longest Daycare”). However, this race will come between two shorts: “Adam and Dog” and “Paperman.” “Adam and Dog” is an amazing short about the first relationship between canine and man. This was made by Disney character animator Minkyu Lee, who made this short via the money he saved while working for Disney. “Paperman” is a splendid blend of 2D and CG animation about a young businessman who uses paper planes to get the attention of a girl he only met once on the way to work. It looks like “Paperman” is destined to win the Oscar since it has won at the Annie, but I would not have a problem “Adam and Dog” win the Oscar instead.
Who Will/Should Win: “Paperman”
Who Could Win: “Adam and Dog”
Best Documentary Short Film
“Innocente”
“King’s Point”
“Mondays at Racine”
“Open Heart”
“Redemption”
This group of nominees deals with dark and depressing subjects from homelessness (“Redemption”) to aging (“King’s Point”). With this category being wildly unpredictable, I would say the two standouts are “Innocente” and “Mondays at Racine.” The former is about a homeless immigrant who wants to be an artist and the latter focuses on women with cancer who meet at a beauty salon in Long Island. Any of these two short films could win, but the edge would have to go with “Mondays at Racine” as it is an emotional film that certainly packs a wallop.
Who Will/Should Win: “Mondays at Racine”
Who Could Win: “Innocente”
Best Live-Action Short Film
“Asad”
“Buzkashi Boys”
“Curfew”
“Death of a Shadow”
“Henry”
Except for one live-action short, the majority of the nominees come from different countries like France and Somalia. Among the nominees is an interesting and unique short in the form of “Death of a Shadow” starring Matthias Schoenaerts (“Bullhead” and “Rust and Bone”) as a dead WWI soldier who must collect 10,000 shadows in order to return to the land of the living. While “Death of a Shadow” could win in this category, it might look like the only English-speaking entry in the category “Curfew” could take home the Oscar for its tale of a man who is asked by his estranged sister to look after his nine-year-old nephew for a few hours.
Who Will/Should Win: “Curfew”
Who Could Win: “Death of a Shadow”
Comments