Oscar Predictions, 2010.

So, Oscars tonight. I’m not actually staying up to watch tonight (for the first time since I was 13), purely because I have to be up at half seven tomorrow, and because, due to Inglourious Basterds and Up not having a donkey’s chance of winning Best Picture, and I am just beyond apathetic to the zomg Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker showdown! So yes, I’m giving it a miss this year. Still, here are my predictions!

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker  (Piece of tat.)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
I’d personally pick Firth. Freeman is my favourite actor of the five but I haven’t seen Invictus, whereas I have seen Colin Firth, and was greatly impressed by him.

(if it were up to me though, this man would win. And he wasn't even friggin' nominated. Guh.)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
I am not happy that Sandra will win this. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s totally charming (loved her in Miss Congeniality), but Carey Mulligan was much better and Gabby Sidibe was much, much better. There just wasn’t anything out-of-the-ordinary to Bullock’s work,

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
YAY!!! :D As terrifyingly convincing Stanley Tucci was in The Lovely Bones, there was one movie villain in 2009 who was acted even better than him, and that would be Christoph Waltz. Epic, epic performance, and I’m delighted that he’s garnished the attention that he has, because my lord, he was amazing!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
And rightly so. I’m beyond pissed that neither of the Inglourious Basterdesses Melanie Laurent or Diane Kruger, as well as Marion Cotillard (for either Nine or Public Enemies) were nominated, but thankfully, Mo’Nique will be awarded for an absolutely chilling performance.


Best Achievement in Directing
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Agggggh, the freakin’ irony. The one movie where I loved Tarantino’s direction, he won’t win for. Agh. And I've always been pro-female directors, yet the first one that's going to win, and it is going to be so, so undeserved. What a sad state of affairs.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Either Up or Inglourious Basterds deserve this. The Hurt Locker really, really doesn’t.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)
Although I prefer the snappy, swear-a-minute work in In the Loop, I was surprisingly taken with Up in the Air’s cynical-yet-sweet screenplay, so I can live with it winning.

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
I don’t even know.

Best Achievement in Editing
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski, Chris Innis)
It baffles me somewhat what Precious is doing in this category, as I thought it extremely sloppily edited. Oh well.

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair)
Noticing a pattern yet?

Best Achievement in Costume Design
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)
Finally! A category that neither Avatar nor The Hurt Locker was nominated for! Phew!

Best Achievement in Makeup
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow)
SYLAR.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Up (Michael Giacchino)
Up has totally rocked the pre-cursors (BAFTA, Golden Globe), and deserves to win for the mixture of sweet/sour and major/minor in “Married Life” alone.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman ("Almost There")

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson)
Personally, I think Inglourious Basterds deserves to win for that ick-inducing finger-in-the-wound squelch, but what do I know.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andy Jones)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Up (Pete Docter)
Finally! A rightful win.

I love this film. <3 Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009)(Germany)
It’s definitely between The White Ribbon and The Prophet. A total toss-up, but I feel A Prophet might be just a bit too adult for the academy choices.

Best Documentary, Features
The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens)

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Królik po berlinsku (2009): Bartosz Konopka, Anna Wydra

Best Short Film, Animated
Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (2008) (TV): Nick Park

Best Short Film, Live Action
Miracle Fish (2009): Luke Doolan, Drew Bailey



As you can probably tell, I’m dead excited about tonight. NOT.

BAFTAs, 2010.

Ever since I've started this movie blog, it's been a tradition for me to write a full report of the BAFTAs, (2009's, 2008's, 2007's and  2006's), but I honestly don't have much to say about tonight's show. Jonathan Ross was efficient if not excellent as a presenter and some of the guests caught my eye with their stunning outfits/looks - Anna Kendrick had a beautiful dress (and her Jimmy Choos! I want) and Matthew Goode looked so damn bungable even if he did pile on the hair gel way too much. The worst acceptance speech was easily Kristen Stewart's; I couldn't tell if she had diarrhea or a stinkbomb in her mouth, but she looked so uncomfortable and her pseudo-modesty simply pissed me off further. Bitch looked anaemic. I genuinely shouted with glee when I saw Christoph Waltz, beard and all, and Saoirse Ronan carried herself well too. The most entertaining acceptance speech fell when the translator for the director of A Prophet was blatantly bananawasted. Har. Bonnie Wright in Prada made me almost chunder the chocolate cake I'd consumed earlier today out; get the f_ck out, bitch, you have no talent and are only famous for shagging someone off Twilight; come back when you've had some acting lessons. That said, I liked the double Brit winning duo of Carey and Colin for Actress and Actor respectively. Mulligan should have kept her hair brunette though. I noted Colin Firth get a celebratory back pat from Stanley Tucci; apparently they're mates; I find this absolutely precious! Also, though I usually switch off by the time we get to that "BAFTA Fellowship" bollocks, this time I was genuinely fixated and thought Vanessa Redgrave's speech was very moving. Gabby Sidibe smiling throughout was rather heartwarming; you can tell she's a healthy, happy girl. Um, not much else to say really; I did squee pretty hard at the start of the show when I saw Anne-Marie Duff, Gabby Sidibe, Saoirse Ronan, Matthew Goode, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and various other celebrities I like arrive on the red carpet. As much as I love Romola Garai, her multi-coloured "dress" was not a good idea. Vera Farmiga, on the other hand, looked downright gorgeous, whilst Robert Pattinson looked like he really needed a shave. But it was definitely one of the lesser BAFTAs; classy rather than heart-stopping. As ever, they proved to be nowt much but a dry-run for the Oscars. Except in London tonight, it wasn't even dry.

I don't know why, but I seem to have a fair bit of apathy towards the awards season this year. It doesn't make sense as I love Inglourious Basterds as much as I loved Slumdog Millionaire last year. But all this hoo-ha over Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker (the former of which I haven't seen, but if Titanic was anything to go by, oh dear, and the latter I saw last week and left me nodding off at the parts when I wasn't downright irritated) is actually boring my bollocks off. Of course, there's excitement to be had in predicting the acting categories, some of which are wonderful - even though I loathed Precious, even I can tell that the performances in them were stellar. And Christoph blimmin' Waltz; legend! But I dunno. George Clooney, James Cameron, Katherine Bigalow, Lee Daniels and various others are all people I'd probably bung on a dartboard, and hence, the prospect of seeing even more of them makes me want to curl in a ball and diaf.

My BAFTA predictions.

It’s the BAFTAs tonight!! I have chocolate cake to eat with my buddies Luke and Anna whilst we watch the ceremony, bitch about the clothes and whine about bad calls. Yay!

Here are my predictions:
Best Film Not in the English Language: Das weisse Band

I found Coco before Chanel, Let the Right One In and Broken Embraces all very disappointing. Of course, that doesn’t mean BAFTA will, but I also feel they’re not “BAFTA” type movies. I reckon it’ll be between The White Ribbon, which was very well received over here, and The Prophet, which won the London Film Critic’s Award for Best Film.

Best Film: Avatar

I still haven’t seen Avatar. My housemates tell me it’s very good and all, but I dunno, it looks a bit too… blue for me. Then again, I do support Chelsea, so, maybe. Having seen The Hurt Locker this week I genuinely do not understand all the fuss over it, and having seen Precious the week before and witnessed a how to guide of how not to direct a film, I really am baffled at this lol of a category. At least An Education was good.

Best Leading Actor: A Single Man - Colin Firth
Quite hard to predict this category. Colin Firth was sublime in A Single Man, and I really enjoyed Jeff Bridges’ performance as well. Serkis is well liked by BAFTAs so it could well go to him. I’m praying to god that Clooney doesn’t get it. Ugh.

Best Leading Actress Nominees: An Education - Carey Mulligan
It could go to anyone, but I feel the homegrown element will be in Mulligan’s favour.

Best Supporting Actor: Inglourious Basterds - Christoph Waltz

This is actually a surprisingly good category. McKay, Tucci and Waltz were all great. But Waltz was so unbelievably, amazingly badass!

Best Supporting Actress: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Mo'Nique
I reckon the fact that Up in the Air has two actresses nominated and Nowhere Boy has two actress nominated will split the votes for respective movies. Plus Mo’Nique was amazing. So disappointed that my Goddess Melanie wasn't nominated. Ack.

Best Director: Inglourious Basterds  - Quentin Tarantino
I dunno, serious wishful thinking here. I think I know it’ll go to Cameron or Bigalow. But I really want QT to get it.

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Nowhere Boy - Sam Taylor Wood
Best Screenplay – Original: Inglourious Basterds
Less wishful thinking here; BAFTAs are a little more out there with their screenplay awards, and Inglourious Basterds’ multi-layered babel revenge tale could well find itself ticking the panel’s boxes.

Best Screenplay – Adapted: In the Loop
I reckon it’s between In the Loop and An Education. In the Loop was just so creative with its swearing; love it.

Best Cinematography: Avatar
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Best Sound: Star Trek
Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
Best Special Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Music: Avatar
Short Film: Mixtape
Best Short Animation: The Gruffalo
Best Animated Film: Up
Best Production Design: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Best Make Up & Hair: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Outstanding British Film: In the Loop

I would be over the moon if my #2 film of 2009, Fish Tank, won this category. But I think In the Loop will probably get it.
Rising Star Award: Nicholas Hoult (ugh)

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

It’s a clear case of quantity over quality this week; I watched a fair few movies, but most of them were unbearably, unforgivably, pants.

The Grudge III (Toby Wilkins, 2009)

Poorly acted and scripted, and about as terrifying as doing my laundry without any fabric softener. Then again, the only reason I watched it was because it has Beau Mirchoff (he plays Wisteria Lane hottie Danny Bolen in Desperate Housewives) and he was criminally underused.

Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009)

A sweet enough idea but the film sadly turns out to be a little drab. I found all the hoo-ha over Streep’s performance nonsensical as she did nothing but sport a crappy accent (she did much better work in It’s Complicated). Amy Adams was at her charming best and I found her half of the film semi-engaging, particularly when she gets her blog up and running.

Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)

The only film I saw this week that I would deem excellent. Gene Tierney plays the eponymous female who, at the beginning of the film, is being presumed dead. As the film develops, a very tangled web of jealousy, love and possession are uncovered. The cast are collectively brilliant, in particular Tierney and Dana Andrews.

Furthermore, the scene in which Laura returns to her house is one of the most finely orchestrated I’ve scene; the camera seems to widen to allow the full shot of the detective sleeping there, and the sound, which features a brief second of nothing but a clock ticking, captures the suspense perfectly. Great movie.

WGA Winners.

Hmm, my predictions were 50% correct. Up in the Air did win Adapted Screenplay, but Original Screenplay went to The Hurt Locker (blah)