And the Oscar® goes to…
Its Oscar® time, the biggest time of the year for movies. Its that time when moviegoers as well as moviemakers, and all those in between, focuses on movies. The 85th Academy Awards show on Sunday 24 February 13, 2013 on ABC-TV, is set for a hopeful all time high for viewership with the hope of surpassing last years numbers of 39.9 million viewers.
Along with the awards are the predictions on winners. From the Las Vegas parley odds to those who watch at home with tally sheets in hand, the predictions and projections are part of the ‘buzz’ that make the awards so special. Here are my thoughts on who I think ‘will win’, and who I think ‘should win’.
‘Best Picture’ has the odds on favorite director/star Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’, which provides insight into a historical event that was prominent in the news in 1980, and has received various awards from both the critics and craft awards alike, and ‘Argo’ is my choice for the winner.
‘Best Director’ becomes the wild card this year with Ben Affleck not receiving an Oscar® nomination but his film has nominations in seven other categories. I’m thinking Steven Spielberg will win for ‘Lincoln’, which is an extraordinary undertaking on a historical figure in American history. My choice is co-writer/director Behn Zeitlin for ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ and a very moving story of a father preparing his very young daughter for life after his untimely passing.
‘Best Actor’ has Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln as the favorite, fresh from a Screen Actors Guild award as the frontrunner while my personal choice is Denzel Washington for a very moving portrayal of a character with extraordinary talent as a commercial airline pilot that saves the lives of many of his passengers when his plane goes down and comes full circle as he faces the reality of his alcoholism before an FAA investigation.
‘Best Actress’ has Jennifer Lawrence as the front-runner and fresh from a Screen Actors Guild win for her work in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ while my choice is Emmanuelle Riva as a senior sliding into dementia in ‘Amour’ which is also a contender in the Best Foreign Language category from Austria. A close 2nd is Naomi Watts with a stunning performance as the mother in ‘The Impossible’ trying to save her family after a tsunami hits a vacation resort where she is vacationing with her family.
‘Best Supporting Actor’ has Tommy Lee Jones as the odds-on favorite and fresh off a Screen Actors Guild award for his role in ‘Lincoln’ while my choice is Christoph Waltz as the calculating unsung hero in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’. He also won the Best Supporting Actor in the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) for the role.
‘Best Supporting Actress’ has Anne Hathaway who won the Screen Actors Guild award and the BAFTA award as the favorite, and Anne Hathaway is my choice for best supporting actress for her ‘riches to rags’ role in ‘Les Misérables’, a truly remarkable performance of acting, singing, and physical transformation including a shaved head as her character slides into poverty.
So, there you have it, my choices for the 85th Academy Awards and, the year of 2012 had a wide range of movies covering a multitude of genres. If you missed any of the nominated movies, you have the chance to see many of them via ‘Movies on Demand’. Visit http://www.indiewire.com/mod-awards-2013 for the list.
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