OSCAR Nominations (2008)

The 2008 OSCAR nominations have now been released, and I'm again going to make some fearless predictions. As I recall, I did much better last year than I did in 2006.

Thankfully, there were at least a few sensible nominations--especially when it comes to giving Juno recognition. That film was awesome!

Anyway, here are my predictions and my comments on who will win and who should win.

Best actor: I haven't yet seen any of the films with nominations, though I do want to see Sweeney Todd. (Do any of the locals reading this want to go with me?) I'll predict that Johnny Depp will win just because he's awesome.

Best supporting actor: I haven't seen any of these films yet, so I'll pull a prediction of Philip Seymour Hoffman (for his performance in Charlie Wilson's War) out of my ass. OK, this is an education guess. By the way, did you know that it's now written into the U.S. constitution that Seymour Hoffman is required to appear in one out of every five indie films that are released in the U.S.? (FYI: I adjusted the joke because I can't remember who the other guy was, and I couldn't think of another canonical person in the time I wanted to spend on this.)

Best actress: Ellen Page should win this for her performance in Juno. Hands down. Not that I'm biased when it comes to this film or anything... Anyway, I think that she should win, and I'll go ahead and predict that she would win.

Best supporting actress: Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There will and should win because she was (by far!) the best Bob Dylan in the whole damned film. (By the way, I'll post a review of this film at some point. RIP, Heath Ledger.)

Best animated film: Ratatouille will and should win. I wanted to see Persepolis, but I think it made it into indie theatres after I fled the country. Maybe it will come out in the UK at some point?

Best art direction: I'm going to guess Sweeney Todd on this one.

Best cinematography: I'll guess No Country For Old Men here. By the way, I have heard some people who love this film and others who hate it. Opinions on this film appear to be pretty polarized, so I'm curious if any of you have any thoughts on this. (I haven't seen it and I'm trying to decide if I should.) Is what's-his-face who the Coen brothers always off in this film?

Costume design: I'll guess Elizabeth: The Golden Age on this one, but I don't have an opinion.

Best directing: I'll guess No Country for Old Men on this one. (Hey, Juno got nominated here as well, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to say it's the directing that stood out. How can a movie-watcher judge something like that?)

Best documentary feature: Sicko is the one that will win, but the movie that should win (The King of Kong) wasn't even nominated. It's a fucking crime!

Best short documentary: I have no idea. And when I have no idea, I simply pull something out of my ass. So let's say that Sari's Mother will win. I should check my "predictions" from 2006 and 2007 to see if I did comparably well with the stuff I pulled out of my butt versus the opinions that I actually had.

Film Editing: I'm not sure. Let's just say No Country For Old Men.

Foreign Language Film: Hmmm... I saw a lot more of these in 2006 (including 4 in a row at the end of the year) than 2007. Let's pull The Counterfeiters out of my ass.

Makeup: Hey, look--Norbit actually got nominated for an OSCAR! How in Hell did that happen? It can't win, though, because that's the 6th sign of the apocalypse and we haven't yet seen any of the first 5 signs and I simply they won't occur fast enough for this to work out. Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End seems a safe bet here.

Music (score): Why don't they have a category for best soundtrack? Because then Juno could have been nominated for that! Let's say Atonement is going to win this. Hmmm... I feel like I am pulling more things out of my butt this year than I did last year. I guess my favorite films correlated a bit more poorly this year with the ones the Academy considers hip?

Music (song): Wow, those days when a song from a Disney film won this category every year seem forever ago now, don't they? Three songs came from the same film (just like in The Lion King), so it's probably a pretty safe bet that one of those will win (not to mention the fact that these folks got lots of victories in this category for their work on Disney films). So let's say "That's How You Know" from Enchanted because I think the Academy likes mushy love songs and (based on the title) I strongly suspect this is one of those.

Best picture: Juno will and should win. (Well, I am actually tempted to predict that No Country For Old Men will win, but I'm still going with Juno out of loyalty.)

Best animated short film: Let's pull Meme Les Pigeons Vont Au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go To Heaven) out of my ass because I like the title. By the way, roosters go to Hell (the goats need company).

Best live-action short film: Let's see--yet another category where I haven't seen anything. Let's try Il Supplente (The Substitute).

Sound Editing: The Transformers will and should win. Booyah!

Sound Mixing: The Transformers will and should win. Booyah! (I love copy and paste.)

Visual Effects: The Transformers will and should win. Booyah! (I love copy and paste.) They're more than meets the eye, and the sequel might even have Shockwave and Soundwave in it. (This better happen.)

Writing (adapted screenplay): Let's predict Atonement (though No Country For Old Men is another tempting one).

Writing (original screenplay): The winner here is Juno hands down. This film probably has the best writing of any movie I've seen in years. And I think the Academy will agree with me on this one. By the way, I am also heartened that Ratatouille got nominated. It's very pleasing to see an animated film considered in this category.


I wasn't particularly up for Shenanigans tonight (we had our weekly formal dinner in Somerville tonight), though I did get a chance to hang out a bit with my friends. Also, there was a mini-concert (with the sister of a Somervillian singing some classical and Jazz music, including "Moondance"---which briefly made me think of the Ath, except this was a live performance, which was sweet). After that, I spent a bit of time with my friends and headed back to my apartment to play Zelda. (I'm not sure if they went pub crawling or not, but I wasn't up for hanging out with even a moderately large group tonight. There were just one or two specific people to whom I wanted to talk/shoot the breeze a bit before I went back home.)