April’s Foolish Oscar Predictions

Happy April Fools Day! Because today is a day for foolishness, what better day to do some way too early Oscar Predictions! The Oscars are one of the biggest crap shoots in terms of predicting, especially this early out so all of these Oscar predictions are in alphabetical order with the winner in bold.

Last year when I did this, I managed to predict 4 of the 9 Best Picture nominees and ended up predicting 21/24 on the final night of the Oscars.

So what are we in store for this year? Well if my search for films while doing this, we’re in for a throwback year. By throwback I mean there are several big period pieces (at least 4 of which are centered around WWII), big musicals, some interesting sounding thrillers, with some modern day block busters thrown in. From the outside looking in, the film year looks really eclectic but the awards season, much like last year, will come down to a few films. Unbroken and Fury look to be the biggest contenders and should make for an interesting narrative. Both are WWII epics with each being brought to the screen by one half of Brangelina (Brad stars in Fury, Angelina Jolie directed Unbroken). This feels like 1998 in a way, and if you remember that year, the “lighter” film with the broad actor support ended up winning. Could Into the Woods, Kill the Messenger, or Foxcatcher fill that void? And what of Nolan’s Interstellar, sure to be a hit in the tech branches, will it be the first scifi film to take Best Picture?

The acting races this year look to be all over the place this year, which is what tends to happen this far out. Surprisingly this is the first year we haven’t had someone who was “overdue” in every damn category. Which is why it looks easy to call Adams in Best Actress this far out. The other categories though? I just went for an interesting mix that does not take into account whether something is category fraud or not.

Anyways, this is way too much rambling for some predictions that probably won’t pan out. Enjoy them below!

Best Picture
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
Fury
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Kill the Messenger
Trash
Unbroken

Best Director
Stephen Daldry, Trash
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Angelina Jolie, Unbroken
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Christopher Nolan, Interstellar

Best Actor
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Brad Pitt, Fury
Jeremy Renner, Kill the Messenger
Christoph Waltz, Big Eyes

Best Actress
Amy Adams, Big Eyes
Jessica Chastain, Miss Julie
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Hilary Swank, The Homesman
Michelle Williams, Suite française

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Anna Kendrick, Into the Woods
Rosemund Pike, Gone Girl
Hailee Steinfeld, The Homesman
Kristen Scott Thomas, Suite française

Best Supporting Actor
James Corden, Into the Woods
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
James Franco, True Story
Takamasa Ishihara, Unbroken
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

Best Original Screenplay
Big Eyes
Boyhood
Fury
Foxcatcher
Interstellar

Best Adapted Screenplay
Gone Girl
Inherent Vice
Kill the Messenger
Suite française
Unbroken

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

Film Editing
Boyhood
Fury
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Unbroken

Production Design
Fury
Into the Woods
Interstellar
Maleficent
Unbroken

Cinematography
Foxcatcher
Fury
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Unbroken

Costume Design
Exodus: Gods and Kings
Into the Woods
Jersey Boys
Maleficent
Suite française

Makeup and Hairstyling
Foxcatcher
Jupiter Ascending
Unbroken

Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
The Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar

Sound Editing
Fury
Godzilla
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Unbroken

Sound Mixing
Fury
Godzilla
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Unbroken

Original Score
Big Eyes
Fury
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Unbroken