Oh boy, Awards Season. The votes are being cast, envelopes are being sealed, and "I didn't think I'd win but I prepared a speech just in case" speeches are being written.
Oscar nominations were announced earlier this week, shortly after the Golden Globes were broadcast on January 16th. This is the second year of having 10 Best Picture nominees instead of 5, and yet again we have two hosts. I haven't seen all the nominated films this year. It's not a great year for the squeamish (between 127 Hours, Black Swan, and The Fighter, three films I still can't decide about seeing or skipping). In total, I've seen 6 of the Best Picture nominees -- and I may try to raise that number a little higher before the big night. Here's a quick rundown of who/what I'm rooting for, who I think will win a few major categories, etc...
- For best Picture, it would make me insanely happy to see Inception or even Toy Story 3 win, but I know that there's just about a snowball's chance in hell of that happening, so instead I'm being practical and rooting for The King's Speech. The Social Network got a lot of awards at the Globes, and, though it was good, I didn't think it was THAT good. I thought The King's Speech was heartwarming, funny, and interesting (historically-speaking, I learned something). It has masterful performances (I'm also rooting for it in the Actor, Collin Firth and Supporting Actor, Geoffrey Rush). I'm starting to think that I may need to see both of these films again before the big night. Additionally, for best Animated Picture, I think it's pretty much a given that Toy Story 3 will win (and I think it completely deserves it).
- For the Actress category, I'm guessing it will go to either Annette Bening or Natalie Portman, and I'd be happy to see either of them win. It seems like Bening deserves it after a long career (she has been nominated four times, but hasn't won, I believe -- kind of like Jeff Bridges last year) -- and she was quite good in The Kids Are All Right. On the flip side, though I haven't seen Black Swan, I have liked Natalie Portman for a long time, and it sounds like an incredible role for her to take on. For Supporting Actress, it'd be cool to see someone as young and talented as Hailee Steinfeld win, but she probably won't.
- For Directing, I was incredibly frustrated to see that Christopher Nolan was snubbed, wasn't even nominated. I really look up to him as a Director and so without him in the category, I don't have anyone that I'm really rooting for. For many of the creative and technical awards, I'll be rooting for Inception. That film had such incredible Visual Effects (most of them were actually done in real life -- without CGI!) and everything from the Cinematography to the Soundtrack to the film's Sound Editing was mindblowing. One further note about soundtrack -- Hans Zimmer is one of my favorite composers of all time, so it boggles my mind that he's only won an Oscar once, for The Lion King. I really hope he wins. Above all, though, I really hope Inception gets an award for Writing (Original) as it was SUCH a creative, unique, interesting screenplay. The only exception to my Inception rule is Art Direction, as I pretty much HAVE to root for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 in that category. As the HP franchise is wrapping up, I really hope it starts winning more awards (ala Lord of the Rings).
Will you be watching the Oscars? What are you rooting for? What were you surprised to see on or off the nominations list? How do you think James Franco and Anne Hathaway will be as hosts? If you've read this post and have any opinions, I'd love to hear about them in a comment.
Update! Turns out I've decided I want to do more than just talk about the few films I've seen... I want to see them all! I'm making it my goal to have seen all 10 Best Picture Nominees, plus all of the films nominated for any of the Acting categories by Oscar night. Can I do it? We'll see!
Of course, I'll be watching the Oscars! Though I don't exactly have any movies I'm particularly rooting for. It's sort of embarrassing but I've actually only seen Inception from the best picture nominees. I just hope Social Network doesn't take that many awards as it did with the Golden Globes, even though I haven't seen it yet either, but it was sort of boring when it collected all those awards XD
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