Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Short Films

This week's schedule:
Monday - Art & Design, Music
Tuesday - Technical Achievements
Wednesday - Short Films, Special Feature Films
Thursday - Writing & Directing, Acting
Friday - Best Picture

Films I haven't seen are marked accordingly.

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Nominees: Asad, Buzkashi Boys, Curfew, Death of a Shadow (Dood Van Een Schaduw), Henry

Who Will Win: Curfew
Who Should Win: Death of a Shadow (Dood Van Een Schaduw)

The short films are probably the hardest to predict out of all twenty-four categories. Access can be limited and weighing the public consensus is near impossible. I am fortunate to live in a major city, so every year I get to go to a theater and watch the short film programs in one fell swoop. This year's Live Action shorts weren't the strongest group in recent memory. Death of a Shadow was far and away my personal favorite, starring the excellent Matthias Schoenaerts in a tense, heavily stylized sci-fi thriller. Asad was another standout, but it appears that Curfew is rising to the top of the heap in the eyes of Oscar prognosticators. Many of these films are available through iTunes, thanks to the kind people at Shorts International, and I encourage you all to check them out for yourself.

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Nominees: Adam and Dog, Fresh Guacamole, Head over Heels, Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare", Paperman

Who Will Win: Paperman
Who Should Win: Paperman

Disney's aggressively adorable Paperman must be the heavy favorite here. While none of the other nominees are weak by any stretch of the imagination, the style, story and technical innovations of Paperman are very hard to ignore. In field that feels full of highly accomplished student films, Paperman's overt professionalism and polish makes it stand out. Unlike the other short films, many of these nominees can be easily found with a bit of YouTube hunting. Go! Watch!

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Nominees: Inocente (have not seen), Kings Point (have not seen), Mondays at Racine (have not seen), Open Heart (have not seen), Redemption (have not seen)

Who Will Win: Open Heart
Who Should Win: ?????

So... yeah. I haven't seen a single film nominated in this category. I try very hard each year to see everything up for an Oscar, but the Short Docs got away from me this time around. As such, I'm left with only a handful of unreliable reviews and betting websites for guidance. Thankfully, all of my sources seem to be coalescing around Open Heart, so I'll be putting my money there barring some new developments. Is there some great work hiding here, in plain sight? I have no idea.

Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Technical Achievements

This week's schedule:
Monday - Art & Design, Music
Tuesday - Technical Achievements
Wednesday - Short Films, Special Feature Films
Thursday - Writing & Directing, Acting
Friday - Best Picture

Films I haven't seen are marked accordingly. 

FILM EDITING

Nominees: Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

Who Will Win: Argo
Who Should Win: Zero Dark Thirty

Let's not beat around the bush here: I believe Argo will win Best Picture. However, it faces a challenging and potentially historic road to get there, given its lack of a Best Director nomination. One thing that will help it on its way to victory will be picking up key awards, like Best Editing. Although it often gets lost in the shuffle of "those damn technical awards," Editing is closely linked to Best Picture wins, which makes sense when you sit down and think about it. The Academy has surprised us in this category before, but Argo seems like a very safe bet for now. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Nominees: Anna Karenina, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Who Will Win: Life of Pi
Who Should Win: Skyfall

Please, for the love of all that is holy and sacred, can be please give Roger Deakins an award? The veteran cinematographer (nominated here for Skyfall) now has ten frickin' nominations without ever winning an Oscar. He's worked on some of my favorite films of all time, most notable The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, along with most of the Coen brothers' movies. Maybe, just maybe, he can beat out the established favorite, Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi. It would make me so very happy. 

VISUAL EFFECTS

Nominees: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, Marvel's The Avengers, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman

Who Will Win: Life of Pi
Who Should Win: Life of Pi

Have you seen Life of Pi? Have you seen that CGI tiger? It's actually amazing and I totally understand why it will win this category. It's refreshing to see a film that uses visual effects in such an understated and naturalistic way, rather than going for something wildly stylized or aggressively otherworldly. There are plenty of worthy candidates in this field, but Life of Pi and its massively fake tiger should chow down on the other nominees.

SOUND EDITING

Nominees: Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty

Who Will Win: Skyfall
Who Should Win: Skyfall

Without an aggressive technical juggernaut like last year's Hugo, it appears that the technical awards are going to more spread out than in years past. Hopefully, this will include Skyfall snagging a much-deserved award for Sound Editing. Skyfall is a dense, taut film that benefits immensely from its detailed sound work. As with other categories, I'd be perfectly happy seeing Zero Dark Thirty win some awards, just on principle, but Skyfall is both more likely and more deserving.

SOUND MIXING

Nominees: Argo, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Who Will Win: Les Misérables
Who Should Win: Skyfall

Okay, fine, I understand. Live singing, yadda yadda yadda. I guess that warrants some level of recognition. I happen to think that Les Mis' sound mixing wasn't always completely successful, but I do have to tip my (almost entirely irrelevant) cap to the ambition and scope of what Tom Hooper & Co. were trying to accomplish. Again, I think the sound work on Skyfall outpaces everything else in the category, but we do not live in a fair world. Perhaps if Tom Hooper zooms in incredibly close on my face and positions me slightly to the right of the frame while I sing, you'll understand my internal emotional state better. 

Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Music

This week's schedule:
Monday - Art & Design, Music
Tuesday - Technical Achievements
Wednesday - Short Films, Special Feature Films
Thursday - Writing & Directing, Acting
Friday - Best Picture

Films I haven't seen are marked accordingly. 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Nominees: Anna Karenina, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Who Will Win: Life of Pi
Who Should Win: Skyfall

A more complicated category than one might assume. Life of Pi, Lincoln and Skyfall have all won awards in various places, but no real consensus has emerged. Alexandre Desplat is only represented here by Argo, but his body of work this year has been phenomenal, highlighted by the sadly missing Zero Dark Thirty score. Lincoln is represented by John Williams, the venerable titan of film composing, but will his understated score be enough? Any of these composers could win, although Life of Pi's Mychael Danna is slowly beginning to pull ahead of the pack on betting sites. The IFMCA Awards on February 21st should shine more light on the subject.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

Nominees: "Before My Time" - Chasing Ice (have not seen), "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" - Ted, "Pi's Lullaby" - Life of Pi, "Skyfall" - Skyfall, "Suddenly" - Les Misérables

Who Will Win: "Skyfall" 
Who Should Win: "Skyfall"

Not even close. Adele's powerhouse theme for the new Bond film is leagues ahead of the rest of these tepid nominees. Original Song is always a bizarre category and we all just want to know how the songs are going to get worked into the award show. Will this be a year with dance numbers? An emotive medley? Or will they just play the songs for thirty seconds and move on, like last year? The suspense is killing me, folks! 

Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Art & Design

Simon's Oscar Blog is back for its third year! As usual, I'll be spending the week breaking down every category in anticipation of the big show this Sunday. We've got a bit of a weird year of nominations on our hands, but I'm doing my best to make sense of it all. Be sure to watch the awards on Sunday to see if I was right.

This week's schedule:
Monday - Art & Design, Music
Tuesday - Technical Achievements
Wednesday - Short Films, Special Feature Films
Thursday - Writing & Directing, Acting
Friday - Best Picture

Films I haven't seen are marked accordingly.

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Nominees: Anna Karenina, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln

Who Will Win: Anna Karenina
Who Should Win: Anna Karenina

We kick things off with Production Design, the Award Formerly Known as "Art Direction." There are three real nominees here: Anna Karenina, Les Misérables and Lincoln. Les Mis may be the safest bet, what with all the costumes and the grime and so forth, but I'm picking Anna Karenina as a slight dark horse winner here. If you haven't seen this movie yet, I urge you to track it down, simply for the design elements. The film as a whole doesn't always cohere, but, my god, the beauty and images they get on screen are jaw-dropping. I'm going to avoid cynicism and guess that the Academy will agree with me here.

COSTUME DESIGN
Nominees: Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, Lincoln, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman

Who Will Win: Anna Karenina
Who Should Win: Anna Karenina

We see many of the same faces here in Costume Design, along with dueling Snow White adaptations. This should be a much clearer Anna Karenina victory, with Keira Knightley's stunning red dress leading the charge. A begrudging nod should also be given to Mirror Mirror, which functions solely as a vehicle for excellent costuming. Finally, the makers of Snow White and the Huntsman get to say they made an Oscar-nominated film. Isn't that adorable?

MAKEUP & HAIR

Nominees: Hitchcock, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables

Who Will Win: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Who Should Win: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

A lightweight category, full of dwarves, Frenchmen and flabby, old men.  No amount of dirt slathered over Hugh Jackman should prevent The Hobbit from winning this one. As for Hitchcock, the Academy is likely too terrified of Anthony Hopkins' quivering jowls to give him the award. I'd have loved to see Looper nominated (and even win) here, but oh well. Time to head into the ol' time machine and change that mistake...

Simon's Oscar Preview 2013: Personal Favorites

We're only a couple weeks away from the Academy Awards! Starting next Monday, I'll be doing my usual breakdown for each category. However, to tide any potential readers over until that point, here's my personal list of favorites from 2012's films. I've seen nearly 80 films released in the last year, giving me a sizable pool to choose from. I would have liked to have seen The Loneliest Planet before posting this list, but we're still working on that one. Anyway, without further ado, Simon's Movie Awards for 2012:

BEST PICTURE

Zero Dark Thirty

• Django Unchained
• Holy Motors
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom

DIRECTOR

Leos Carax – Holy Motors

• Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master
• Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
• Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty
• Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained

ACTOR

Denis Levant – “Mr. Oscar” in Holy Motors

• Daniel Day-Lewis – “Abraham Lincoln” in Lincoln
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Joe Simmons” in Looper
• Joaquin Phoenix – “Freddie Quell” in The Master
• Jean-Louis Trintignant – “Georges Laurent” in Amour

ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain – “Maya” in Zero Dark Thirty

• Jennifer Lawrence – “Tiffany Maxwell” in Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva – “Anne Laurent” in Amour
• Quvenzhané Wallis – “Hushpuppy” in Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Rachel Weisz – “Hester Collyer” in The Deep Blue Sea

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Javier Bardem – “Raoul Silva” in Skyfall

• Leonardo DiCaprio – “Calvin Candie” in Django Unchained
• Philip Seymour Hoffman – “Lancaster Dodd” in The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones – “Thaddeus Stevens” in Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz – “Dr. King Schultz” in Django Unchained

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams – “Peggy Dodd” in The Master

• Judi Dench – “M” in Skyfall
• Ann Dowd – “Sandra” in Compliance
• Anne Hathaway – “Fantine” in Les Misérables
• Brit Marling – “Maggie” in Sound of My Voice

SCREENPLAY

Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty

• Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master
• Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
• Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon – The Cabin in the Woods
• Rian Johnson – Looper