RT’s Oscar Picks
We present our best guesses for all the Academy Awards categories!
Every year, we at Rotten Tomatoes sit in a room and try to pick who’s going to win what at the Academy Awards. And every year, when Monday rolls around, we’re frustrated, stunned, hurt — we run the whole gamut of emotions, but one thing is clear: we didn’t have any idea who would win. So why do we continue to apply scientific theories to our predictions, knowing that the whole process is a futile as guessing who will win the NFC East next year? Because we must. Without further ado, we present the RT editors’ picks for the 84th Academy Awards. Take this list with a grain — nay, a shaker — of salt.
Best Motion Picture of the Year: The Artist
There’s been a certain inevitability about The Artist; it’s taken top honors at the Golden Globe, the BAFTAs, and the Directors Guild of America Awards. It’s a celebration of the movies (which the Academy can certainly appreciate) that’s likeable but not lightweight. In other words, it has just enough gravitas that voters can feel comfortable choosing it over Hugo (another delightful homage to old movies that might lose simply because Martin Scorsese got his long overdue Best Picture/Director statues in 2007) and The Descendants (which just doesn’t feel like it has the momentum). We think The Artist is going to win big Sunday night, and we haven’t seen many signs that would dissuade us from what’s become a majority opinion.
Best Achievement in Directing: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
It’s rare that the director of the Best Picture winner doesn’t take this one as well. Plus, if you win the Directors Guild of America award, you’re practically a mortal lock for the Oscar. Even though Hazanavicius is up against some big names, we think he’s got this one.
Best Performance by an Actor in Leading Role: George Clooney, The Descendants
The Academy loves George Clooney. The Academy also loves it when people deglamorize themselves. Thus, we’re giving the Descendants star the nod over Jean Dujardin in what amounts to a two man race.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Viola Davis, The Help
Just about everyone commended The Help‘s ensemble acting, but even then, Viola Davis was singled out for praise. She was nominated once before (for Doubt, in 2008), and we think she’s taking home the hardware this time.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
This category is tough, because it features two elderly legends who’ve never won an Oscar: Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow. The Academy has snubbed these guys many times before (Von Sydow deserved to win for The Seventh Seal, Plummer for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). Since Plummer already won the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, and like, every critic organization’s award, we think he’ll get the nod here.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer, The Help
We think this one’s pretty much a gimmie — Spencer won the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards in this category. And like Davis, she stood out in The Help, which is no small praise considering the actresses in that movie.
Best Animated Feature Film: Rango
With no Pixar flicks in the running this year, this category is wide open. We think Rango will take it, because it’s fun and funny, and because it’s loaded with movie references. (We could see the widely-praised but little-seen Chico & Rita sneaking in here, but we’re sticking with the lizard.)
Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
It won both the Golden Globe and the Writers Guild of America award in this category, so that’s a good sign. Plus, it’s another opportunity to give some love to the Woodman’s prodigious, prestigious output — even if Allen’s recent films have varied in quality, he’s still capable of making really good movies at an advanced age, which is something that the Academy members certainly admire.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash, The Descendants
Alexander Payne is a screenplay adaptin’ maniac. He already won an Oscar for Sideways, and it seems safe to say he’ll get his second one here.
Best Documentary Feature: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Remember when Lord of the Rings: Return of the King swept the Oscars partly because it was awesome but partly because the Academy wanted to give props to the whole series? This is the documentary version of that scenario. It also doesn’t hurt that the Paradise Lost movies help spring three innocent people from the joint.
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
This one seems like a lock, since audiences and critics love it, and because it was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay. It also provides the Academy with a chance to spread some international goodwill at a time when the world community is rattling its sabers at Iran.
Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Hugo
Of all the movies with multiple nominations, we think Hugo is likely to be the most frustrated in its quest for hardware. But Scorsese’s tribute to cinephilia can’t be denied here; in fact, Hugo probably deserves the Oscar just for recreating Georges Melies’ A Trip to the Moon.
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Even if you didn’t get it, you gotta admit it looked amazing.
Best Costume Design: Michael O’Connor, Jane Eyre
Yeah, we know that the Academy is made up of older people. However, none of them were alive in the 1840s (the time period in which Jane Eyre is set) so they really don’t know what the clothes looked like back then. We’re guessing they’ll take one look at Mia Wasikowska’s paisley-on-grey getup and say to themselves, “Yeah, that’s probably about right.”
Best Make Up: Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, and Lisa Tomblin, Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows, Part 2
Here’s where the Academy’s all like, “Yeah, sorry about not nominating you for more stuff… here’s an Oscar.” Oh, and the makeup is really good in this movie, as with all of them.
Best Music (Original Score): Ludovic Bource, The Artist
We were way off last year — we picked this when we should have gone with the guy who used to sing exclusively about domesticated hogs. This year, we’re going with The Artist, for one simple reason: nobody talks in that movie, so we’re betting that Oscar voters are paying closer attention than usual to the score.
Best Music (Original Song): Bret McKenzie — “Man or Muppet”, The Muppets
Seriously, Academy? Just two choices here? You might want to tweak the rules next year — or do away with this category altogether. We’re going with the song from The Muppets because a) it’s a good song, and b) we’ve got a 50/50 chance here anyway.
Best Film Editing: Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
We’ll say it again: when nobody’s yapping their gums, it’s easier to pay attention to the other stuff.
Best Sound Editing: Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Peter J. Devlin, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
If they handed out an award for the most sound, this one would win in a walk. Still, give credit where it’s due: even if the Autobots and Decepticons are made of metal, it takes some ingenuity to come up with what they’d sound like when they’re fighting, transforming, and doing household tasks.
Best Sound Mixing: Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, and Stuart Wilson, War Horse
What movie combines the rustling echo of a rural farm with the earsplitting thud or World War I trench warfare — all punctuated by the gallop and whinny of a trusty, loyal steed? That’s right — War Horse.
Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
When your de facto star is a guy in a CGI gorilla suit (or a chimp suit, as the case may be) your visual effects better be good. Luckily, they were. Remember that scene when all those primates busted out of the monkey house to launch an attack on San Fransisco? That was awesome.
Best Live Action Short: The Shore
We know what you’re thinking — “How could they pick The Shore over Tuba Atlantic?” Well, before flaming us in the comments, just hear us out. Everyone knows Tuba Atlantic has a variety of elements that Oscar voters are likely to enjoy — it’s a deadpan comedy as well as a tear-jerking tale of a last minute family reunion, with a heavy dollop of Scandinavian quirkiness. That being said, The Shore has plenty going for it as well — it’s directed by Oscar winner Terry George and stars Ciaran Hinds in a typically low-key performance. Like Tuba Atlantic, it’s a tale of familial regret, but its slightly more naturalistic tone and a few big laughs should bag The Shore the Oscar. (Of course, there are plenty out there that think Time Freak will win. We can’t say we agree, but it’s just one more reminder why we love to endlessly debate the Oscars.)
Best Documentary Short: Saving Face
Tough to call this category sight unseen, so we’re picking Saving Fave, which is about a plastic surgeon who works to restore the faces of women who’ve been disfigured in acid attacks. It’s the first ever Oscar-nominated Pakistani film, and director Daniel Junge was nominated in this category in 2009, so our money’s on Saving Face.
Best Animated Short: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
We don’t pretend to have any special insight into this category, but we’re going to go with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, a whimsical mixed-media film from former Pixar and Disney wiz William Joyce.
For our full Oscar coverage on the day, including live tweets, chat and updated images from the event, go to RT’s Awards Tour page
