Best Director Nominees:
Who Will Win: Steven Spielberg - Lincoln Before these surprising nominees were announced, Affleck or Bigelow and Lincoln seemed like a believable Director-Picture split. Now, I don't see how Spielberg could lose in this lot. The most surprising of all nominees, young Zeitlin has no chance at all, but should feel honored to have been recognized for his first feature film. Lee might have a shot, but he's already won. Foreign films have historically been limited in their Oscars, so Haneke seems unlikely. Russell's film is beloved, but remember that the Academy is comprised primarily of actors. Actors who are sure to have taken Lily Tomlin's side in those infamous I Heart Huckabees set fight videos that went viral years ago. Who Should Win: Ang Lee or David O. Russell of the nominees; Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow or Quentin Tarantino of the snubbed Lee and Russell made better films with less talent at their disposal. Meanwhile, the fine docudramas of Affleck and Bigelow make their omissions among the most dubious in a long time. Affleck is the first Directors Guild Award winner not nominated for the corresponding Oscar since Apollo 13's Ron Howard and will be the first to win the DGA but not the Oscar since Chicago's Rob Marshall. Who'd have thunk that the Golden Globes would have a far more interesting field of nominees in this category?! DVDizzy.com Readers' Choice: Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Best Lead Actress Nominees:
Who Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Who Should Win: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook True, at 22 years old and with an incredibly bright future, Lawrence is one of the actresses here most likely to return. But, while Sunday may be Riva's 86th birthday and that makes for a nifty story (not to mention Oscar history), this year belongs to Lawrence. I think this award kind of takes Hunger Games into account, but Lawrence deserves it for Silver Linings alone. I would be happy with Chastain winning too, but at this point that would be a surprise, given the way her film's stock has perceived to be dropping since the short-lived torture controversy. I'm glad that Wallis was nominated. DVDizzy.com Readers' Choice: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Best Lead Actor Nominees:
Who Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Who Should Win: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master As expected, Daniel Day-Lewis gives great Lincoln. His inevitable third Oscar win in six nominations is astonishing considering his selectivity but at the same time, well-deserved due to his considerable craft. Still, while we've seen Day-Lewis transform and immerse himself in a compelling period drama before, we haven't seen anything quite like Joaquin Phoenix's frighteningly committed performance. Phoenix could have won for Walk the Line and probably won't be back anytime soon. Plus, it'd be a shame for a cinematic achievement like The Master not to win any Oscars. But this one has already been decided and Phoenix's nomination, doubted at times, is acknowledgement in itself. DVDizzy.com Readers' Choice: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Picture Nominees:
Les Misιrables, produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, and Cameron Mackintosh Life of Pi, produced by Gil Netter, Ang Lee, and David Womark Lincoln, produced by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy Silver Linings Playbook, produced by Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen, and Jonathan Gordon Zero Dark Thirty, produced by Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, and Megan Ellison What Will Win: Lincoln or Argo I know that Lincoln hasn't won many or even any of the recent awards used to prognosticate the Oscar's top prize. But it is such a safe, standard mold and the nominations were all aligned in its favor that I won't be convinced of its loss until a different winner is announced. Though the nominations threw everybody off, myself included, this is one of the more unpredictable Best Picture races I've ever seen. The above two are considered the frontrunners, but I could even see Silver Linings Playbook and maybe even Life of Pi winning at this point. The recent indicators point to Argo, but it will have to defy history to win. What Should Win: Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook, or Argo I'd be happiest with the above three and okay with Life of Pi or Django Unchained winning. Beasts will not win, and it may not even be a better film than Lincoln, but it'd at least be a novel choice and not such conventional awards bait. Speaking of which, Les Mis doesn't deserve it. And I still haven't seen Amour. DVDizzy.com Readers' Choice: Argo What Should Have Been Nominated: The Dark Knight Rises Four of the year's best-reviewed films were also its four highest grossing ones: The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hunger Games, and Skyfall. While Skyfall got plenty of recognition in the minor categories, the other three have a grand total of one Oscar nomination (The Avengers for Visual Effects). Though I don't hate any of this year's contenders, it is a little troubling just how often the Academy and the public are out of touch. To me, The Dark Knight Rises is the best of the year's crowd-pleasers and deserves to have been recognized with this nomination that its even more esteemed predecessor failed to get. Wasn't that the very point of the category's expansion? 2012 has been a strong year for film, but I'd have been okay replacing most of these with Nolan's trilogy-ender or even The Hunger Games, for that matter. Or just give one of them the tenth spot that seems destined to go unused. Great blockbusters (and even merely okay ones, like The Towering Inferno) were regularly represented in the 1970s when there were just five nominees. But this is the second year in a row where worthy films were snubbed seemingly only for being "too mainstream" for the hipster Academy. |
