Skip to main content

Who is Going to Win an Oscar?

Gone are the days when you could gather around your Oscar pool sheet and truly wonder who was going to win the major categories, jolted by a win for Marlee Matlin or shocked by "Shakespeare in Love" beating "Saving Private Ryan."


These days, awards season is followed almost as closely as the latest Instagram from the "Star Wars" set, leaving little room for the unexpected.

Between handicapping sites, wins from various guilds and simple Oscar chatter, predictions harden fairly quickly into conventional wisdom.

Still, it's not as if the envelopes have already been opened. Here's what to expect at Sunday night's show.

Best picture: For much of awards season, "Spotlight" was leading the best picture race. The film, about a group of investigative reporters looking into sexual abuse by Catholic priests, won best film honors from the broadcast film critics, the American Film Institute and the SAG Awards, among others.

But in recent weeks, "The Revenant," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a vengeful trapper left for dead in the 1820s frontier, has come on strong. It won the Golden Globe for best drama, the BAFTA for best film and the Directors Guild honor. "The Revenant" was also nominated for pack-leading 12 Oscars, often a good indicator of best picture strength.

Still, don't count out such nominees as "The Big Short," about financial wizards who take advantage of the 2008 market meltdown, or "Room," which may be helped by a best picture voting system that gives everyone's second choice an edge. Assuming "Room" is everyone's second choice. 


 

Best director: Usually, picture and director are in lockstep, so "Revenant's" win at the DGA helps its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. If Iñárritu, who won for "Birdman" last year, wins again, he'll be the just the third director to win consecutive best director trophies -- and the first in 65 years, since Joseph L. Mankiewicz did it for 1949's "A Letter to Three Wives" and 1950's "All About Eve."

However, "Mad Max: Fury Road's" George Miller has earned strong support from critics' organizations, and if enough Oscar voters have been impressed by his handling of the film's wild bikers and gleeful action sequences, he could sneak in.

Best actor: There's really no question here: If the winner isn't Leonardo DiCaprio, it will be the biggest shocker since Roberto Benigni won for "Life Is Beautiful" in 1999. Not only has DiCaprio never won -- despite his performances in such films as "The Aviator" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" -- he ate a bison liver for his role. The academy loves that kind of commitment.

If it's not DiCaprio? Well, it could be anyone. But probably the best bet is Matt Damon, who put on a one-man show as a stranded astronaut in "The Martian."

Best actress: What started out as a competitive category, featuring the likes of two-time winner Cate Blanchett ("Carol") and the popular Jennifer Lawrence ("Joy"), has turned into Brie Larson's to lose. The 26-year-old star of "Room" has won everything in sight for her performance as a kidnapped mother protecting her young son, and the Oscars -- which love anointing up-and-coming actresses -- should be no different.

Larson's main competition comes from the equally youthful "Brooklyn" star Saoirse Ronan, 21, who's been here before: She was nominated eight years ago for "Atonement."

Best supporting actor: The standing ovation "Creed's" Sylvester Stallone received at the Golden Globes means his colleagues like him, they really like him, and he'll probably also waltz away with an Oscar for playing Rocky Balboa, 39 years after his best actor nomination for the same role. Any other year, this award would probably go to Mark Rylance, who gives a quietly powerful performance as a Russian agent in "Bridge of Spies."

Best supporting actress: Of the acting categories, this is the most unsettled, but oddsmakers are leaning toward "The Danish Girl's" Alicia Vikander. The Swedish actress came on strong in 2015, appearing in four major films.

Right behind her are Kate Winslet ("Jobs") and Rooney Mara ("Carol"), both of whom could easily take the prize.

Will the conventional wisdom be correct? Tune in Sunday to find out.

 Source : CNN
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian army Claims the Second Rescue of Chibok Girl

A second schoolgirl that was seized in the Nigerian town of Chibok has been found, the army says. But a spokesman for the Chibok girls' parents has cast doubt on the claims, saying that the girl's name is not on the families' list of those missing. An army spokesman said Serah Luka was among a group of 97 women and children rescued by troops in the north-east. Islamist militant group Boko Haram has abducted thousands of other girls in recent years, rights groups estimate. This comes two days after the rescue of the first Chibok girl, Amina Ali Nkeki. The army has previously given misleading statements about the rescue of the Chibok girls - in its initial statement after Ms Nkeki was found, it used a wrong name. In all, 218 girls remain missing after their abduction by the Boko Haram Islamist group from Chibok secondary school in north-eastern Nigeria in 2014. Ms Nkeki told a Chibok community leader that six of the kidnapped girls had died, but...
Post a Comment
Read more

Obama administration Issues Transgender Access to School Bathrooms

The issue of directing public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity is being discussed by the Obama administration on Friday. A joint letter from the Departments of Education and Justice will go out to schools on Friday with guidelines to ensure that "transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school environment," the Obama administration said on Thursday. The announcement comes amid heated debate over transgender rights in schools and public life, which includes a legal standoff between the administration and North Carolina over its controversial House Bill 2. The guidance goes beyond the bathroom issue, touching upon privacy rights, education records and sex-segregated athletics, all but guaranteeing transgender students the right to identify in school as they choose. "There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Will Ferrell and His Bird Collectian As "The Birds are for God"

An acclaimed actor and comedic genius like Will Ferrell is incredibly pleased to spend some valued time with his incredibly expensive bird collection, according to his good friend Adam McKay. McKay, who has directed Ferrell in films like "Anchorman" and "Step Brothers," told HuffPost Live on Monday that Ferrell's home is brimming with birds of all kinds, and Ferrell himself is a bit of a bird whisperer. "He has giant cages on his property filled with different tropical birds, and these are the kind of birds that will bite you, that you have to be careful with, but when it's him, they just fly right to his arm," McKay said. "Often times if you're at his house ... he has, like, a cockatiel on his shoulder for long stretches." An affinity for birds isn't exactly surprising, but what will shock you is the enormous monetary value of Ferrell's flock. "He had to have his bird collection insured, and I think it's wor...
Post a Comment
Read more