The 2014 Oscars

[Southern Kross]

I know I can't be the only one around here that's excited! It's been a great year for film and surprisingly competitive awards season. Hopefully the Oscar ceremony itself will live up to expectations.

Discuss your predictions, your favourites, the fashion, the host, the cringe-worthy red carpet questions, how freakin' irritating Giuliana Rancic is, reactions, and other general thoughts.

Here's my predictions (I'm thinking there's going to be some upsets):

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave (alt. Gravity)
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity (alt. Steve McQueen)
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street (alt. Matthew McConaughey)
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (alt. Amy Adams)
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club (alt. Barkhad Abdi)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle (alt. Lupita Nyong'o)
Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle (alt. Her)
Best Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years a Slave (alt. Philomena)
Best Animated Feature: Frozen (alt. The Wind Rises)
Best Foreign Film: The Great Beauty (alt. The Hunt)
Best Documentary: 20 Feet From Stardom (alt. The Act of Killing)
Best Production Design: The Great Gatsby (alt. 12 Years a Slave)
Best Cinematography: Gravity (alt. Prisoners)
Best Editing: Captain Phillips (alt. Gravity)
Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby (alt American Hustle)
Best Makeup and Hair: Dallas Buyers Club (alt. Bad Grandpa)
Best Score: Gravity (alt. Her)
Best Song: Let it Go, Frozen (alt. Ordinay Love, Mandela)
Best Sound Editing: Gravity (alt. All is Lost)
Best Sound Mixing: Gravity (alt. Captain Phillips)
Best Visual Effects: Gravity (alt. The Hobbit)
Best Animated Short: Get a Horse (alt. Feral)
Best Doc. Short: The Lady in Number 6 (alt. Facing Fear)
Best Live action short: The Voorman Problem (alt. Helium)

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I agree with the vast majority of your picks. My exceptions would be:

Best Actor: McConaughey is a mortal lock.
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o is a mortal lock.
Best Production Design: Gravity
Best Editing: I have Gravity, but Captain Phillips is probably just as likely.

 

[jacktorry]

Loved Leonardo DiCaprio acting in The Wolf of Wall Street and agree with Gravity has good visuals

 

[Stephano]

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

I think we won't see any surprises here.

 

[The Ü™]

Gravity will win Best VFX, even though The Lone Ranger had the best of the lot and therefore deserves it.

 

[Totenkindly]

What's hilarious is that the trans community sees Leto's portrayal as shit and misrepresentational. But here, he's gonna get a major award for it because men portraying females in movies are seen as amazing somehow. So I need to see this movie just so I can decide for myself whether it's just the activists getting rowled up or whether it's really just a mess of a role.

I thought Hillary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry" years back was excellent.

 

[kquirk]

My main hope is for 12 Years a Slave to beat Gravity (because Her doesn't have a chance.)

In an ideal situation, I'd also get Michael Fassbender for Supporting, Before Midnight for Adapted Screenplay, and Her for Original Screenplay.

In a dream scenario, Blue is the Warmest Color would be nominated for Foreign and Best Picture.

Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos would both be nominated for acting.

Joaquin Phoenix would be nominated for and win Best Actor.

Stories We Tell would be nominated in Doc and Picture.

They would revamp the music categories and include an award for Best Use of Music in a Film.

And I would have seen Inside Llewyn Davis...

I've actually ranked all the movies I saw here:
http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65141&page=2&p=2243380#post2243380

 

[kquirk]

I would also like to have a nice chat with the producers and figure out how to shorten the ceremony and stop bullying winners off the stage after five seconds. Hint: no shitty musical acts.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I can't take the oscars seriously.

 

[kquirk]

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave (alt. Gravity)

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave

I hope you guys are right but a lot of "experts" are making me nervous. It is nice that for the first time in ages we don't know 100% what's going to win Picture going in.

 

[kquirk]

I can't take the oscars seriously.

They shouldn't be taken seriously. They can be fun though...until you forget not to take them seriously.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Fair enough.

 

[The Ü™]

I hope you guys are right but a lot of "experts" are making me nervous. It is nice that for the first time in ages we don't know 100% what's going to win Picture going in.

The most politically correct movie will win Best Picture. 12 Years a Slave. I just needed to look at the title to see that it was a preachy message movie. And it also had Grace Jones the flight attendant in Non-Stop (good movie, btw).

And am I the only one who thought Gravity was kinda stupid?

 

[Totenkindly]

And am I the only one who thought Gravity was kinda stupid?

I like it, but the reality is that the dialogue is pretty minimal and I think its achievement is art design / special effects -- I think that aspect was stunning in terms of how it's all fabricated but feels very real.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

Gravity will win Best VFX, even though The Lone Ranger had the best of the lot and therefore deserves it.

Dude, I know you're very knowledgeable on the subject, so I must ask: WTF?

What's hilarious is that the trans community sees Leto's portrayal as shit and misrepresentational. But here, he's gonna get a major award for it because men portraying females in movies are seen as amazing somehow. So I need to see this movie just so I can decide for myself whether it's just the activists getting rowled up or whether it's really just a mess of a role.

I think (you can correct me if I'm wrong) most of the LGBT community is more upset with the content of his Golden Globes speech (which implied that he had a problematic view of his character) than his actual performance. I didn't find the performance to be misrepresentational, but neither did I find it exceptional. I think the praise for it comes mostly from a mindset that wants to reward straight dudes for the "courage" to play trans. I think it's the same mindset that rewarded Heath Ledger for his thoroughly unremarkable performance in Brokeback Mountain. I'm curious what you'll think of the performance when you see it.

The most politically correct movie will win Best Picture. 12 Years a Slave. I just needed to look at the title to see that it was a preachy message movie. And it also had Grace Jones the flight attendant in Non-Stop (good movie, btw).

And am I the only one who thought Gravity was kinda stupid?

12 Years a Slave is the favorite, but I really think Gravity has a very good chance to spoil. Last year the Academy gave it to the popcorn movie (Argo) instead of the more message-y movies, plus 12 Years was anointed as a slam dunk so early in the process that I think some voters were over it by the voting period.

And you're not the only one who didn't like Gravity, but I'm really surprised that you thought it was stupid. Unlike a lot of uptight people, you've never needed a movie to "mean" something to enjoy it, and that's the only criticism I can see people having of it.

 

[The Ü™]

^Dude, you have any idea how many of the fx in TLR were completely CG environments? That's how good they were. I couldn't even tell. I had to do research to see. In fact the only criticism I have in regards to the film's CGI were the jackrabbits and scorpions. And that train sequence was the most epic, well-done action setpiece (accomplished with both models and CGI) i've seen in a while.

And one thing you'll likely agree with me on is Pacific Rim getting snubbed in the category. I would've chosen it over either The Hobbit or Iron Man 3. Although even with Pacific Rim's wonderful work, I thought Transformers trilogy did it better because I could actually tell what was going on in those movies. PR had the same problem as Emmerich's Godzilla. Too many rain and night shots, probably to hide poorly rendered CGI. I suppose that sorta hurt its chances.

 

[The Ü™]

I'm confused. Did Jared Leto win for Best Supporting Actor or Best Supporting Actress?

 

[The Ü™]

Harrison Ford needs to stop drinquing.

And I think I liked Pain and Gain better than The Wolf of Wall Street. Dwayne Johnson deserved an Oscar nom for that one...so did Michael Bay.

 

[The Ü™]

And was Jeanpaul Isaacs actually Sarah Silverman with a goatee?

 

[Southern Kross]

I agree with the vast majority of your picks. My exceptions would be:

Best Actor: McConaughey is a mortal lock.
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o is a mortal lock.
Best Production Design: Gravity
Best Editing: I have Gravity, but Captain Phillips is probably just as likely.

Oh, I agree with your picks. I was just deliberately throwing curve balls for fun.

What's hilarious is that the trans community sees Leto's portrayal as shit and misrepresentational. But here, he's gonna get a major award for it because men portraying females in movies are seen as amazing somehow. So I need to see this movie just so I can decide for myself whether it's just the activists getting rowled up or whether it's really just a mess of a role.

I thought Hillary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry" years back was excellent.

It's the "burden of representation". If there were more transgender characters on film, each one could just be their own person and not need to tick all the boxes.

And one thing you'll likely agree with me on is Pacific Rim getting snubbed in the category.

I know, they were robbed.

But all this is besides the fact because Gravity's CGI was mind-blowing.