Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Oscar Predictions - Part II

And on with PART II...



Best Documentary

Burma VJ

The Cove

Food Inc.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg
 and the Pentagon Papers

Which Way Home

A heavily stacked category, but I’m going with The Cove, a clandestine examination of annual Japanese slaughter of dolphins and the efforts that former Flipper-trainer Ric O’Barry has taken to expose the practice.

Best Documentary - Short Feature

China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

The Lost Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner

The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

Music by Prudence

Rabbit a la Berlin


A tough category again, especially since I haven’t seen any of these, and know little about them, but I’m going to go with China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.

Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

My gut is with Basterds again, if for no other reason than the dread-filled build-up of the cabin scene at the beginning of the film. It would be nice to see The Hurt Locker or District 9 on the podium as well.

Best Foreign Film

Ajami, Israel

El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Argentina

The Milk Of Sorrow, Peru

Un Prophete, France

The White Ribbon, Germany


Some dark and heavy subject matter in the foreign films category this year. I’m leaning towards The White Ribbon, but I think it’s a pretty tight race.

Best Makeup

Il Divo

Star Trek

The Young Victoria


Star Trek by a hair, although this category often favours period makeup over creature prosthetics, so…

Best Original Score

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Sherlock Holmes

Up!


Michael Ginacchino for Up! Zimmer had some fun with Sherlock Holmes and Fantastic Mr. Fox is playful, but Up! Has it all for the win.

Best Original Song

"Almost There", The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman

"Down in New Orleans", The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman

"Loin de Paname", Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas

"Take it All", Nine, Maury Weston

"The Weary Kind", Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham & T-Bone Burnett


"The Weary Kind". Not sure why I like it for the win, but that’s my call.

Best Animated Short Film

French Roast

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

The Lady and the Reaper

Logorama

A Matter of Loaf and Death


A Matter of Loaf and Death, created by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, UK (my former stomping grounds). For those of you unaware, it’s a Wallace and Gromit short, which is always a good thing.

Best Live Action Short Film

The Door

Instead of Abracadabra

Kavi

Miracle Fish

The New Tenants


I don’t see The Lake on this list… Weird. Again, I never know with this category, but I’m going to go with Kavi.

Best Sound Editing

Avatar

Inglourious Basterds

The Hurt Locker

Star Trek

Up!


It will probably be Avatar, although there isn’t a bad pick in the bunch. The Hurt Locker or Star Trek could pull an upset, but this one is Avatar.

Best Sound Mixing

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Star Trek

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen


Just to shake things up, I’ll go with The Hurt Locker on this one. Go ahead, tell me I’m hedging my bets, but that’s my call.

Best Visual Effects

Avatar

District 9

Star Trek


Avatar. Loved the work done in District 9, but Cameron spent 10 years getting this one right and really did create a whole new world.

Make sure you come back on March 8 for my recap. I’m shooting for an A+ this year…

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