As I've said before, I thought 2013 was an exceptional year for flicks. Most years, I'm really pissed off by some of the Oscar nominees, but, this year, I liked almost all of them. The performances were particularly strong.
Actor in a Leading Role
Everyone in this category deserved their nominations, but Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips and Idris Elba for Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom did as well. For a great example of range, see Out of the Furnace and compare/contrast Christian Bale's performance there and in American Hustle. While I have not seen 12 Years a Slave, I think probably Ejiofor most deserves the Oscar, but I would not be upset to see McConaughey win for Dallas Buyers Club, as his performance was awonderful.
- Christian Bale in American Hustle
- Bruce Dern in Nebraska
- Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
- Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave (should win)
- Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (will win)
Actor in a Supporting Role
Barkhad Abdi was impressive in his first movie role in Captain Phillips, and Bradley Cooper continues to deliver well-nuanced roles. But Jared Leto came from out of left field in Dallas Buyers Club and he was great.
- Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
- Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
- Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave
- Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street
- Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (should win, will win)
Actress in a Leading Role
Amy Adams gave a wonderfully ferocious performance in American Hustle and does deserve the Oscar the most. Cate Blanchett gave a very good performance in Blue Jasmine, but it was just too clearly based on Vivien Leigh in Streetcar Named Desire. While people tend to ignore Sandra Bullock in Gravity, I found her performance in Gravity was as engaging the second time as it was the first.
- Amy Adams in American Hustle (should win)
- Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (will win)
- Sandra Bullock in Gravity
- Judi Dench in Philomena
- Meryl Streep in August: Osage County
Actress in a Supporting Role
I loved June Squibb's raucous performance in Nebraska. While I liked Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle, she just won last year and June Squibb is going to be 85 this year and has been in the business for decades.
- Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine
- Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
- Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave (will win)
- Julia Roberts in August: Osage County
- June Squibb in Nebraska (should win)
Animated Feature Film
Frozen as better than I expected, and, like Brave had really amazing design. However, I'd rather see The Wind Rises as Miyazaki never got the kind of acknowledgement from Hollywood that he deserves.
- The Croods Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson
- Despicable Me 2 Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri
- Ernest & Celestine Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
- Frozen Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho (will win)
- The Wind Rises Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki (should win)
Cinematography
- The Grandmaster Philippe Le Sourd
- Gravity Emmanuel Lubezki (should win, will win)
- Inside Llewyn Davis Bruno Delbonnel
- Nebraska Phedon Papamichael
- Prisoners Roger A. Deakins
Costume Design
- American Hustle Michael Wilkinson (will win)
- The Grandmaster William Chang Suk Ping
- The Great Gatsby Catherine Martin
- The Invisible Woman Michael O’Connor (should win)
- 12 Years a Slave Patricia Norris
Directing
I think Directing/Picture will be a split this year between Cuaron and 12 Years a Slave. It's possible that it might split the other way, but that's less likely.
- American Hustle David O. Russell
- Gravity Alfonso Cuarón (should win, will win)
- Nebraska Alexander Payne
- 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen
- The Wolf of Wall Street Martin Scorsese
Documentary Feature
- The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
- Cutie and the Boxer Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
- Dirty Wars Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
- The Square Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
- 20 Feet from Stardom Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers (should win, will win)
Documentary Short Subject
- "CaveDigger” Jeffrey Karoff
- "Facing Fear” Jason Cohen
- "Karama Has No Walls” Sara Ishaq
- "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed (should win, will win)
- "Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” Edgar Barens
Film Editing
- American Hustle Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten (should win, will win)
- Captain Phillips Christopher Rouse
- Dallas Buyers Club John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
- Gravity Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
- 12 Years a Slave Joe Walker
Foreign Language Film
- The Broken Circle Breakdown Belgium
- The Great Beauty Italy (should win, will win)
- The Hunt Denmark
- The Missing Picture Cambodia
- Omar Palestine
Makeup and Hairstyling
- Dallas Buyers Club Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews (should win, will win)
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Stephen Prouty
- The Lone Ranger Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
Music (Original Score)
The Gravity score is quite different...except from The World's End, another science fictional movie score, also by Steven Price.
- The Book Thief John Williams
- Gravity Steven Price (should win, will win)
- Her William Butler and Owen Pallett
- Philomena Alexandre Desplat
- Saving Mr. Banks Thomas Newman
Music (Original Song)
Yes, "Let It Go" is very singable and it's been everywhere during the last few months. But I'd rather see "Ordinary Love," a somewhat more meaningful song than a teen pep anthem take the statue.
- "Happy” from Despicable Me 2 Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
- “Let It Go” from Frozen Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (will win)/li>
- “The Moon Song” from Her Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze/li>
- “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson (should win)
Best Picture
I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave, but I believe the people who keep saying it's great and I will watch it once it hits cable for a reasonable price. I'm actually glad I didn't see Dallas Buyers Club in the theater because that, too was more intense than I imagined. I think 12 Years a Slave will get the Oscar, and in a year with so many high quality movies, that's saying quite a lot.
- American Hustle Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
- Captain Phillips Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, Producers
- Dallas Buyers Club Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter, Producers
- Gravity Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman, Producers
- Her Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay, Producers
- Nebraska Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, Producers
- Philomena Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward, Producers
- 12 Years a Slave Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Anthony Katagas, Producers (should win, will win)
- The Wolf of Wall Street Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers
Production Design
I found the production design for The Great Gatsby to be too over-the-top and operatic. I certainly liked the design of Gravity, and American Hustle captured the look and feel of the '70s. But Her was a subtle look into the future, with the constant images of a large city making the characters look ever more isolated.
- American Hustle Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
- Gravity Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
- The Great Gatsby Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
- Her Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena (should win, will win)
- 12 Years a Slave Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker
Short Film (Animated)
At first I predicted one of the other films, and then remembered the "Get a Horse" was the extremely clever short that played before Frozen. It was truly a unique, meta cartoon.
- “Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
- “Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim (should win, will win)
- “Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
- “Possessions” Shuhei Morita
- “Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer
Short Film (Live Action)
- “Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
- “Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
- “Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson (should win, will win)
- “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
- “The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li
Sound Editing
- All Is Lost Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
- Captain Phillips Oliver Tarney
- Gravity Glenn Freemantle (should win, will win)
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Brent Burge and Chris Ward
- Lone Survivor Wylie Stateman
Sound Mixing
- Captain Phillips Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
- Gravity Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro (should win, will win)
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
- Inside Llewyn Davis Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
- Lone Survivor Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow
Visual Effects
- Gravity Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
- Iron Man 3 Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
- The Lone Ranger Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
- Star Trek Into Darkness Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton
These three awards are as close to a lock as any awards could be, particularly this one. The Visual Effects for gravity were truly amazing.
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
- Before Midnight Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
- Captain Phillips Screenplay by Billy Ray
- Philomena Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
- 12 Years a Slave Screenplay by John Ridley (should win, will win)
- The Wolf of Wall Street Screenplay by Terence Winter
Writing (Original Screenplay)
This may be the hardest category of them all. All of these movies had intelligent scripts. I really walked out of American Hustle wishing I could write the next script for David O. Russell. But while American Hustle was a great, in your face script (as was Dallas Buyers Club), Her (and Nebraska) were both extremely quiet.
- American Hustle Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell (should win, will win)
- Blue Jasmine Written by Woody Allen
- Dallas Buyers Club Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
- Her Written by Spike Jonze
- Nebraska Written by Bob Nelson
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