My Oscar Picks
Fresh off yesterday’s five movie marathon at AMC Theatres’ Best Picture Showcase and four movies the previous Saturday, here are my Oscar picks for this year’s Academy Awards.
- Best Picture – Gravity
- Actor – Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
- Actress – Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
- Supporting Actor – Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
- Supporting Actress – Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
- Director – Alfonso Cuaró, Gravity
- Original Screenplay – Spike Jonze, Her
- Adapted Screenplay – John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave
- Film Editing – Gravity
- Cinematography – Gravity
- Production Design – The Great Gatsby *
- Animated Feature – Frozen
- Animated Short Film – Get a Horse
- Documentary Feature – The Act of Killing *
- Documentary Short – The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life *
- Live Action Short Film – Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me) *
- Foreign Language Film – The Hunt (Denmark) *
- Costume Design – American Hustle
- Makeup and Hairstyling – Dallas Buyers Club
- Visual Effects – Gravity
- Sound Mixing – Gravity
- Sound Editing – Gravity
- Original Score – Gravity
- Original Song – “Let It Go,” music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Frozen
I’ve marked by WAGs *(wild ass guesses) with an asterisk. If I haven’t watched any of the films in a category, I’ve either guessed or went with Entertainment Weekly’s pick.
I always struggle on selecting who I think will win as compared to who I think should win. This year, I probably leaned more towards who I think should win with many of my picks. Of everything I watched this year, Gravity is still the one that I keep coming back to as the movie that completely blew me away. It looks amazing, sounds incredible, and takes the viewer on a white-knuckle roller coaster ride for survival that leaves you breathless at the end of the film. I know that it has a number of inaccuracies, but I’m OK with that. It is a movie after all, not a documentary. Plus, I don’t think there’s any movie better suited to viewing in 3D. Simply amazing.
I expect big things from Frozen this year as well. Probably Disney’s best animated work in years, and a soundtrack that is on a regular loop on all my audio devices. Hang around me long enough and you’ll catch me either humming or singing Let It Go and the rest of its amazing songs.