We are so close to Oscar season really starting in earnest. Venice and Telluride begin this week and Toronto is only a week and a half away, followed by New York Film Festival. So that meant it was time to give the Oscar Predictions the old update. Given that there has been so much movement with category changes and pictures entering the race, it was harder to update these Oscar predictions than I thought it would be but here goes nothing.
Moving Up
-American Hustle, yet again. I’m just getting a vibe that it could really hit the Academy sweet spot and
-Saving Mr Banks by virtue of the fact that Disney is gonna push this film hard and Oscar loves films about the film industry.
-The Butler. The movie is high quality and engages your brain, and it’s making a decent amount of money. I think it could very well find itself with a couple of nominations.
-Foxcatcher FINALLY got a release date and managed to find it’s way into the noms for Lead Actor, Supproting Actor, and Cinematography. I’m not gonna go for Picture, Director or Editing till I see a trailer.
Moving Down
-The Counselor finally gets moved down and out in the case of director. It’s gonna need to be a big hit
-Bruce Dern, who by being campaigned lead is going to be battling it out with Redford and I don’t see him winning that fight.
-Fruitvale Station is barely holding on in my top 10 and is in danger of dropping out of the picture lineup. It doesn’t have the heat that I thought it would.
Miscellaneous
-The tech categories are all over the place. This summer blockbuster season was ROUGH and so it’s been super hard to try and predict which films will make the sound categories especially. Could something like Rush or Monuments Men make a bigger play there than wee think? Will The Hobbit: Another Meaningless Journey with a Super Long Title Desolation of Smaug come on strong?
-Jared Leto sure did steal that Dallas Buyer’s Club trailer didn’t he? Were it not for the bigger names in play and the fact I don’t think we’ll see the film in Best Picture I’d throw him in the Supporting Actor Line Up.
-All. Of. The. Possible. Category. Fraud. Meryl going supporting? Carell and Dern going lead? Adams going lead? This could be the season of the flip flop and that’s not a good thing for predictions or the actors.
It’ time, after eighteen years, an nomination actress in a leading role for Emma Thompson. Saving Mr Banks and the character of P. L. Travers are just opportunity. I predict these nominations for Saving Mr Banks: best picture, best actress (Thompson), best actor in a supporting role (Hanks), original screenplay, art direction, costume design and original score.Strong contender in original score, possibility for Hanks and original screenplay.