With the Oscars only a couple of days away, here are my official picks for the awards. A lot of them may be similar to my 2014 Naties Movie Awards, but to ensure that I don’t completely rely on them, I will be saying who I think will win, should win, the dark horse, and is missing for each award. I will not do every single award (sorry I haven’t seen all of those foreign films or documentaries), but I will make sure to cover all of the bigger ones. I have seen just about every big movie from 2014, however, and would consider myself pretty qualified to hand out the awards.
Best Picture
Who Will Win: Boyhood
Who Should Win: Birdman
The Dark Horse: American Sniper
Who’s Missing: Nightcrawler
While there has been a big public push for American Sniper to win the award, I am not 100% convinced that the Academy agrees. Based on the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, we will most likely see Richard Linklater’s 12-year masterpiece walk home with the big trophy. While there is nothing wrong with Boyhood winning, I do believe that Birdman should win. Although I was not a fan of the movie at all, The Grand Budapest Hotel is also in the running to sneak up and steal the award.
Best Actor
Who Will Win: Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Who Should Win: Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
The Dark Horse: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Who’s Missing: Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
The Best Actor award could be one of the most competitive awards of the year. While I wholeheartedly believe that Gyllenhaal should win the award and am stunned that he wasn’t nominated, I think that Cooper gave the best acting job of those nominated. When referring to characters in a movie, I usually just mention the actor’s name; however, Cooper did such a great job that I referred to him as Chris Kyle when discussing the movie. He did an amazing job of making us forget that it wasn’t actually Kyle on the screen. The Academy has hinted that they are pulling for Keaton. Although he did do a pretty great job, I just don’t feel that he was the best actor of 2014. Watch out for Redmayne, though. After he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, he could ride the momentum to an Oscar win.
Best Actress
Who Will Win: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Who Should Win: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
The Dark Horse: Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Who’s Missing: Amy Adams (Big Eyes)
While I admit that I have not seen Still Alice, I have read an extensive number reviews on the movie and Moore’s performance. After winning both the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award, Moore is definitely the favorite to walk home with the hardware. She should watch out for Jones. There has been talk of Jones just missing out on both of the previous awards and she could cause havoc for Moore by stealing the Oscar. Pike should not be discounted either after her brilliant performance in Gone Girl. Adams may have won two straight Golden Globes, but she will not be walking away with an Oscar this year, despite her powerful performance in Big Eyes.
Best Director
Who Will Win: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Who Should Win: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
The Dark Horse: Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Who’s Missing: Christopher Nolan (Interstellar)
I don’t care what you thought of Boyhood; Linklater deserves the Oscar after dedicating the last 12 years of his life to the movie. While I am sure that the Academy will recognize that and give him the award, there seems to be some strange love for The Grand Budapest Hotel (I still don’t get it), so if Anderson’s name is called instead of Linklater’s, I wouldn’t be totally surprised. I am still kind of shocked that Nolan has never been nominated for an Oscar. He is like the DiCaprio of directors. While some people may not hold Interstellar in the same light as some of these other movies, which they should but that’s a post for a different day, Nolan has created multiple blockbusters that should have earned him at least a nomination.
Best Supporting Actor
Who Will Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Who Should Win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
The Dark Horse: Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
Who’s Missing: Nobody
The Academy actually nailed this one pretty well on the head. While I would be absolutely stunned if anybody but Simmons walked away with the award, Ruffalo, Edward Norton (Birdman), and Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) all gave solid performances in their respective movies. If Simmons doesn’t win, watch for Ruffalo to sneak in for his role in Foxcatcher.
Best Supporting Actress
Who Will Win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Who Should Win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
The Dark Horse: Emma Stone (Birdman)
Who’s Missing: Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)
Arquette was the winner of my 2014 Natie Award for Best Female Performance and is definitely the front runner for the Oscar. She did an amazing job along side Ellar Coltrane and Hawke. That being said, watch out for Stone and Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) who both gave stellar performances in 2014 as well. I never saw A Most Violent Year but remember hearing an uproar when Laura Dern (Wild) was given a nomination over Chastain. It was a pretty solid year for her, she also did a pretty great job in Interstellar, and it’s a shame that Chastain won’t get recognition for it with an Oscar.
Best Animated Feature
Who Will Win: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Who Should Win: Big Hero 6
The Dark Horse: The Box Trolls
Who’s Missing: The Lego Movie
Personally, I am not a big fan of animation movies. When I saw The Lego Movie, however, I instantly thought, “well that is definitely going to win an Oscar.” In my opinion, The Lego Movie is the biggest snub of the 2015 Oscars. Everything about this movie was awesome. While I know it will be a pretty intense race between How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Big Hero 6 (just became the third highest grossing Disney animation of all-time and is about to surpass Frozen), The Box Trolls does stand an outside chance.
Best Original Score
Who Will Win: Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Who Should Win: Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)
The Dark Horse: Johann Johannson (The Theory of Everything)
Who’s Missing: Justin Hurwitz (Whiplash)
Once again, I have a sinking feeling that this crazy love for The Grand Budapest Hotel will show its ugly head by bringing home the award for Best Original Score. I feel like Zimmer’s brilliant score for Interstellar is leaps and bounds better, but Johannson already won the Golden Globe for the category. While it is nice to see someone like Johannson win the Globe, I honestly don’t remember the score of The Theory of Everything being that memorable. It was definitely nothing compared to Interstellar‘s. Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised by a win for Zimmer, but I am not holding out for it. Plus, how does a movie about music not get nominated for Best Original Score? I though Hurwitz did a pretty outstanding job with Whiplash.
Best Visual Effects
Who Will Win: Interstellar
Who Should Win: Interstellar
The Dark Horse: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Who’s Missing: Birdman
Interstellar blew audiences away with its visual effects and never used one green screen in the entire production. Through Nolan’s want to make sure the entire movie appeared authentic, scientists actually discovered what a black hole should look like, completely changing how they thought it would appear. The movie is a visual masterpiece but could be rivaled by the motion capture of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Lord of the Rings) has been doing motion capture for a long time, but it was moved one step further in Apes. The majority of the cast worked as gorillas and spent weeks studying their movements so they could copy them. Birdman appeared as if the movie had been shot all at once and definitely deserved recognition for its technical work, but at the end of the day, the award is Interstellar‘s to lose.
Be sure to tune in at 8:30 PM this Sunday to watch the Oscars. For those of you who won’t be able to watch it, I will be live tweeting it, so following me on Twitter @DiscavageSavage and keep up with the awards from there. Will I be right or completely blow it? Your guess is as good as mine.
CinemaStickler 