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 Adapted Screenplay
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
If you would have asked me a couple of week ago who would win in this category, I would have bet the farm on Tony Kushner’s eloquent screenplay for “Lincoln.” However, it looks Chris Terrio’s script for “Argo” will get the Oscar after recently winning the USC Scripter and WGA Award with the WGA often going one for one with the Oscars. Don’t count out David O’ Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” screenplay as it does have the potential to steal the Oscar away from “Argo.”
Who Will Win: “Argo”
Who Could Win: “Silver Linings Playbook”
Who Should Win: “Lincoln”
Best Original Screenplay
“Amour”
“Flight”
“Moonrise Kingdom”
“Zero Dark Thirty”
Even though Quentin Tarantino wasn’t nominated for the WGA (which left Mark Boal’s “Zero Dark Thirty” screenplay to win), it still has a strong lead over the other nominees as his screenplay for “Django Unchained” won the Golden Globe and BAFTA in the screenplay category. While Boal still might have a chance to get a surprise win, but the fact that Boal won an Oscar a few years ago for “The Hurt Locker” and that there is controversy surrounding the accuracy of information given to Boal hurts it chances. There is also another possibility that Michael Haneke might pull the upset win over Tarantino and Boal for “Amour” even though the film will likely win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language (the Oscar will technically go to Austria).
Who Will/Should Win: “Django Unchained”
Who Could Win: “Zero Dark Thirty”
Best Animated Feature
“Brave”
“Frankenweenie”
“Paranorman”
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits”
“Wreck-It Ralph”
It’s all about Disney this year as there are three movies in this category as “Brave,” “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Frankenweenie” are all vying for the Oscar. History might repeat itself as it seems like an animated Tim Burton film will lose again. With “Frankenweenie” out, this race comes down between Pixar’s Scottish tale “Brave” and the video game-inspired “Wreck-It Ralph” as the former won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA while the latter won the PGA and the Annie. I believe the Pixar brand and its history (winning six times in this category) will give “Brave” a slight edge.
Who Will Win: “Brave”
Who Could Win: “Wreck-It Ralph”
Who Should Win: “Frankenweenie”
Best Foreign Language Feature
“Amour”
“Kon-Tiki”
“No”
“A Royal Affair”
“War Witch”
If you are betting and if you are looking for an easy category to bet on, then put all your money on “Amour” winning the Best Foreign Language Oscar. There is no hesitation in my pick as this movie received a ton of attention from the Academy with the film scoring 5 nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director.
Who Will/Should Win: “Amour”
Who Could Win: No one else
Best Documentary Feature
“5 Broken Cameras”
“The Gatekeepers”
“How to Survive a Plague”
“The Invisible War”
“Searching for Sugar Man”
Malik Bendjelloul’s “Searching for Sugar Man” have already won all the major awards including PGA, WGA and DGA so there is no question that it the frontrunner and potential winner in this category. The Academy could off script by awarding the Oscar to an “important” documentary like David France’s “How to Survive a Plague” or Kirby Dick’s “The Invisible War.”
Who Will Win: “Searching for Sugar Man”
Who Could Win: “How to Survive a Plague”
Who Should Win: “The Invisible War”
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