Oscar Nominations and Predictions 2016

Its that time of year again, the Oscars are around the corner, and whats more fun then making some guesses? I think privately a few of my friends and I will be making some bets, but publicly, I'll give you my guesses for free.

Best motion picture of the year:

“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight”

Comments: A lot of great films nominated this year, I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that The Force Awakens, and The Hateful Eight weren't nominated, since I thought they were fantastic, but I was really happy to see Mad Max was nominated. This is the first year that I've actually watched all of the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars, so I feel like I can actually make an educated decision on which are my favourites. 

Who I think will win: The Revenant
Who I want to win: Room(However, its so hard to pick a favourite, I really really enjoyed almost all of them)

Performance by an actor in a leading role:Bryan Cranston in “Trumbo”
Matt Damon in “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender in “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”

Comments: There isn't one performance that really stands out as an obvious winner, but I think that Leonardo DiCaprio definitely deserves it this time around. I mean, he eats a bunch of raw meat and then hides in a dead horse to survive. Give the man an Oscar! I do think however, that Jacob Tremblay was robbed of a nomination. He was so beyond incredible and perfect and genuine in her performance, I can't believe he didn't get nominated.

Who I think will win: Leo
Who I want to win: Leo

Performance by an actress in a leading role:Cate Blanchett in “Carol”
Brie Larson in “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling in “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn”

Comments: I've only seen Room and Brooklyn from these options, so its really hard to say.

Who I think will win: Jennifer Lawrence
Who I want to win: Brie Larson

Performance by an actor in a supporting role:Christian Bale in “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy in “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone in “Creed”

Comments: Tom Hardy was pretty great, as was Mark Ruffalo. Christian Bale was good, but I'm sort of surprised he was even nominated. The only one I haven't seen was Creed, and since he won the Golden Globe there's probably a pretty decent chance for him. I don't see an obvious choice here at all so I think its up for grabs for anyone. I honestly have heard basically no oscar buzz for any of them, and the Oscars aren't known for following the Globes decisions so its really hard to guess.

Who I think will win: Mark Ruffalo
Who I think should win: Tom Hardy

Performance by an actress in a supporting role:Jennifer Jason Leigh in “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara in “Carol”
Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl”
Kate Winslet in “Steve Jobs”

Comments: I haven't seen Carol or The Danish Girl, so I can't say for sure. Kate, Rachel, and Jennifer were all pretty good so I think its fair game for pretty much any of them.

Who I think will win: Rachel McAdams
Who I want to win: I really don't even know. I haven't seen Carol, but I love Rooney Mara so I'm going to vote for her.

Achievement in directing:“The Big Short” Adam McKay
“Mad Max: Fury Road” George Miller
“The Revenant” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
“Room” Lenny Abrahamson
“Spotlight” Tom McCarthy

Comments: All of these films are so great in so many different ways. The Big Short was really unique in its directing style, but it really worked. It can be really difficult to make an interesting movie about the banking industry, and taking the risk of completely leaving the story and breaking the fourth wall was a huge risk, but it totally paid off. On the other hand, Room was a truly beautiful film that was so beyond powerful. The Revenant was incredibly difficult to shoot, and there were so many things about it that were great, but I don't know if its worth best director. Mad Max was also daring and unique and really fantastic, Spotlight left me wishing there was something extra, for a film about child abuse, it was nowhere near as emotional as I felt it should have been. 

Who I think will win: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Who I want to win: Lenny Abrahamson

Adapted screenplay:“The Big Short” Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
“Brooklyn” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“Carol” Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy
“The Martian” Screenplay by Drew Goddard
“Room” Screenplay by Emma Donoghue

Comments: 

Original screenplay:“Bridge of Spies” Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
“Ex Machina” Written by Alex Garland
“Inside Out” Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
“Spotlight” Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
“Straight Outta Compton” Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Comments: Well, I'm pretty shocked that The Hateful Eight didn't at least receive a writing nomination. Its a pretty tough choice, but Ex Machina was pretty fantastic, as was Straight Outta Compton. The others were good as well, but I really think those would top my list.Who I think will win: Spotlight
Who I want to win: Straight Outta Compton or Ex Machina

Best animated feature film of the year:“Anomalisa” Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
“Boy and the World” Alê Abreu
“Inside Out” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
“Shaun the Sheep Movie” Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
“When Marnie Was There” Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

 Comments: I've only seen "Inside Out" so I'm pretty unprepared to make a guess. I've heard amazing things about Anomalisa but the others I've heard not much about.Who I think will win: Inside Out
Who I want to win: Inside Out

Best documentary feature:“Amy” Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
“Cartel Land” Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
“The Look of Silence” Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
“What Happened, Miss Simone?” Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Comments: I have only seen the Amy Winehouse and Nina Simone ones, but I love documentaries so I'm very excited to check the rest of these out! I wasn't a huge fan of the way "Amy" was told, its a bit difficult to pay attention sometimes when you're hearing interviews but seeing other pictures. I could've coped with that a few times but more then half the movie was that format at that definitely made me lose focus more then a few times. I didn't know anything about Nina Simone before this documentary and it was extremely informative and interesting.

Who I think will win: Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
Who I want to win: What Happened, Miss Simone?

Best foreign language film of the year:“Embrace of the Serpent” Colombia
“Mustang” France
“Son of Saul” Hungary
“Theeb” Jordan
“A War” Denmark

Comments: I know absolutely nothing about any of these so I really don't want to make any guesses

Achievement in cinematography:“Carol” Ed Lachman
“The Hateful Eight” Robert Richardson
“Mad Max: Fury Road” John Seale
“The Revenant” Emmanuel Lubezki
“Sicario” Roger Deakins

Comments: Now, I haven't seen Carol, or Sicario, so its hard to say, especially since Sicario has Roger Deakins. I think that Quentin Tarantino will probably lose his mind if this doesn't win after all of the effort they put into getting the camera to film his movie, but there are a lot of strong contenders. The Revenant had absolutely incredible cinematography and some of the shots were really breathtaking, I'll be pretty surprised and disappointed if it doesn't win.

Who I think will win: The Revenant
Who I want to win: The Revenant

Achievement in costume design:“Carol” Sandy Powell
“Cinderella” Sandy Powell
“The Danish Girl” Paco Delgado
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Jenny Beavan
“The Revenant” Jacqueline West

Comments: A lot of years it is very obvious to me who I think should win this category, but I have no clue about costumes, so I really don't want to make a prediction on this one.

Best documentary short subject:“Body Team 12” David Darg and Bryn Mooser
“Chau, beyond the Lines” Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
“Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah” Adam Benzine
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“Last Day of Freedom” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

Comments: Again, I don't want to make any predictions. I haven't seen any of these so it would be unfair to take a guess.

Achievement in film editing:“The Big Short” Hank Corwin
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Margaret Sixel
“The Revenant” Stephen Mirrione
“Spotlight” Tom McArdle
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey

Comments: Since this is one of the only categories that Star Wars was nominated for, I wouldn't mind seeing them get it, especially since the special effects and animated characters looked so great. But, Mad Max had pretty incredible editing as well.

Who I think will win: Mad Max: Fury Road
Who I want to win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling:
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared” Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
“The Revenant” Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini

Comments: I know nothing at all about makeup and hairstyling, so I really don't think I can make a guess here. I know they did a lot of prosthetics on The Revenant, but they definitely did for Mad Max as well. I'm bowing out of this category as well.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score):“Bridge of Spies” Thomas Newman
“Carol” Carter Burwell
“The Hateful Eight” Ennio Morricone
“Sicario” Jóhann Jóhannsson
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” John Williams

Comments: Star Wars has one of the most iconic scores of all time, so I think it would make sense. Other then that none of them really stood out to me so I can't really say.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song):“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
Music by J. Ralph and Lyric by Antony Hegarty
“Simple Song #3” from “Youth”
Music and Lyric by David Lang
“Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
“Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre”
Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Comments: I don't think I've heard most of these but "Til It Happens To You" is so powerful and important, I think it would make a good winner, however "Writings On The Wall" was pretty great too.

Who I think will win: Writings on the Wall
Who I want to win: Til It Happens To You

Achievement in production design:“Bridge of Spies” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
“The Danish Girl” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Michael Standish
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
“The Martian” Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Celia Bobak
“The Revenant” Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Hamish Purdy

Who I think will win: Mad Max: Fury Road
Who I want to win: Mad Max: Fury Road

Achievement in visual effects:“Ex Machina” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
“The Martian” Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
“The Revenant” Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Comments: A lot of great options here, Ex Machina was really fantastic and the effects look great, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens had the best visual effects of the series by far.

Who I think will win: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Who I want to win: Star Wars: The Force Awakens