Best Picture:

No Country For Old Men - Prediction
Juno
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Michael Clayton

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Wes Anderson Does It Again…

Occasionally there are incidents that occur that make us take a step back, reevaluate our existence, and rethink our bonds with others. Something within us is stirred and we feel a need for change. Take Francis Whitman in the film “The Darjeeling Limited.” He invites his brothers Jack and Peter on a spiritual journey through India in the hopes of reconnecting and reevaluating their relationship with one another, Brotherly love is the kind of love that is not always evident but manages to surface during the hardest of times, or so we have been led to believe, those of us who wouldn’t know from first hand experience. Francis (Owen Wilson)  is the controlling one who knows how everything and everyone ticks or at least how they should and we later find out exactly where he gets this at times annoying but in the end essential quality from. He is recovering from a motorcycle accident that has left him in bandages that could have taken his life. Talk about a wake up call.
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It is no secret that “The Golden Age” is a royal tragedy.

It has been nine years since we saw the utterly unforgettable “Elizabeth” come out of nowhere and watch the always-brilliant Cate Blanchett break out as one of the finest actresses of our time. In this, the oddly timed and probably unnecessary sequel, an integral piece of history is reduced to a gorgeous melodrama that might as well have been pure fiction. The time line is remodelled to suit the needs of no one in particular, historical inaccuracies are about as common as the lavishly designed costumes, and the Queen, then aged 52, is reduced to a shaky caricature of an untouched woman less than half her age who seems to be more interested with the goings on, or lack thereof, between her legs than her royal duties.
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Contemporary Film:

Blades of Glory
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
Juno
Into The Wild
Ocean’s Thirteen

Period Film:

Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie En Rose
Sweeney Todd
3:10 To Yuma

Fantasy Film:

Enchanted
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
300

If I were to chose the final five for Oscar glory, the nominees would look a little something like this:

1. Atonement
2. Elizabeth: The Golden Age
3. Sweeney Todd
4. Assassination of Jesse James
5. Hairspray

 *The final two choices go against the nominees, but this Guild is not known for 5/5 match-ups, so I predict the Academy might go for the final two on the prediction list….

I prefer last year’s poster, but it is pretty cool I guess. I cannot believe the Oscars are almost here, and the nominees are announced in less than a week - time is flying!

Best Film:
American Gangster
Atonement
The Lives of Others
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best British Film:
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
Control
Eastern Promises
This Is England

Best Director:
Joe Wright - Atonement
Paul Greengrass - The Bourne Ultimatum
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck  -The Lives of Others
Joel Coen/Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Original Screenplay:
American Gangster
Juno
The Lives of Others
Michael Clayton
This Is England

Adapted Screenplay:
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Kite Runner
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Film Not in the English Language:
*Nominations announced on Friday 4 January

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Lives of Others
The Kite Runner
Lust, Caution
La Vie En Rose

Animated Film:
Ratatouille
Shrek the Third
The Simpsons Movie

Leading Actor:
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy - Atonement
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises
Ulrich Muhe - The Lives of Others

Leading Actress:
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Keira Knightley - Atonement
Ellen Page - Juno

Supporting Actor:
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Paul Dano - There Will Be Blood
Tommy Lee Jones - No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson’s War
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett - I’m Not There
Kelly McDonald - No Country for Old Men
Samantha Morton - Control
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Music:
American Gangster
Atonement
The Kite Runner
There Will Be Blood
La Vie En Rose

Cinematography:
American Gangster - Harris Savides
Atonement - Seamus McGarvey
The Bourne Ultimatum - Oliver Wood
No Country For Old Men - Roger Deakins
There Will Be Blood - Robert Elswit

Editing:
American Gangster - Pietro Scalia
Atonement - Paul Tothill
The Bourne Ultimatum - Christopher Rouse
Michael Clayton - John Gilroy
No Country For Old Men - Roderick Jaynes

Production Design:
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
There Will Be Blood
La Vie En Rose

Costume Design:
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lust, Caution
Sweeney Todd
La Vie En Rose

Sound:
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
La Vie En Rose

Special Visual Effects:
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Spiderman 3

Makeup and Hair:
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Hairspray
Sweeney Todd
La Vie En Rose

The Orange Rising Star Award:
Voted for by the public, nominees announced on Tuesday 8 January

Shia LaBeouf
Sienna Miller
Ellen Page
Sam Riley
Tang Wei

Christie is now my pick for Best Actress, Atonement is so out for Best Picture and Michael Clayton is in. Also Cate Blanchett is back as my predicted front runner after her Globe win. Oh how important the SAGs will be…..

Go check out all my Oscar Predictions by clicking the Oscar Corridor tab at the top of this page.

What are you predictions, or how do they differ from mine? :)

A very interesting list indeed…

The Counterfeiters
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
Days of Darkness
Beaufort
The Unknown
Mongol
Katyn
12
The Trap

I expected to see Persepolis, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Lust, Caution here, but nope. I was way off. Apparently Lust, Caution was disqualified because of China and Taiwan arguing over it, which is so sad, I mean a good film being withdrawn because of conflict between countries? Is that what is important, who the film belongs to? Come on!

Film:

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Animated Film:

Bee Movie
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

Documentary:

Body Of War
Hear And Now
Pete Seeger: The Power Of Song
Sicko
White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

More including all TV nominees after the cut…

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Forgive me, but I just need to get this all out…. 

The glory of Atonement and Sweeney Todd does not mean they are any safer come Oscar time, just look at Babel and Dreamgirls last year. They both won their respective Best Picture Golden Globes, but Babel did not amount to much when the Oscars were handed out and Dreamgirls did not even get a Best Picture nomination, but the pair did score a combined 15 Nominations. So does that mean Atonement and Sweeney Todd will receive quite a few nominations and a technical win here or there but no major recognition? Perhaps, because the Globes have no influence on their nominations because the Oscar nomination ballots were due yesterday, and their wins could end up causing them to not win big at the Oscars. Atonement may bounce back after its Globe win, or AMPAS might go a different route from the Globes and ignore it, and No Country will get a boost from Atonement’s win. Wouldn’t that be funny!

In the acting categories there weren’t really any surprises. Most of the winners were predicted as locks for the win or alternates and not just by myself.  Daniel Day-Lewis is almost in “lock” status for the Oscar win and so is Javier Bardem. Although Depp got a boost, Day-Lewis’s acclaim is greater than his own. We’ll see.

The actress categories are tougher to predict at the moment. It is probably now a Christie vs. Cotillard race for the Best Actress Oscar, but Page could still manage to slip in, and I wouldn’t count her out just yet. Cate Blanchett and Amy Ryan are both such close calls, so I am not sure who to pick, but I think it is safe to say that it is between the two of them for Best Supporting Actress. I underestimated Blanchett because of Amy Ryan’s success with all the precursors and was too quick to assume Ryan would be a safe bet.

I still believe Juno will win Original Screenplay and No Country for old Men will win Adapted. I stand strong here!

Julian Schnabel’s win for Best Director is cause to assume that that the HFPA love honouring foreign films, filmmakers and stars over their American competition, that could be why Atonement and Marion Cotillard had such strong support, but it is obviously not the only reason they won, they were all good contenders this season.

Ratatouille is a lock for the animated win and has been since the season began. It is perhaps the only lock that everyone is predicting without a second thought.

The Oscars need to hurry up now, this year’s Globes has left a bitter taste in my mouth and I need a little AMPAS to wash it away. Hey, at least we still have the Guilds to look forward to as well…..

 What are your thoughts/new predictions after the Golden Globes? :)