It’s that time once again! The predicting of the winners for this year’s Academy Awards!! While it’s never an easy endeavor, or one with any actual scientific knowledge or knowledge in general on my part, it’s still fun to take part in. I’m not sure why or when that happened, but for the last few years I’ve decided to deliberately take the time and select who I hope wins.
In the past I’ve been wrong and sometimes I’ve been drastically wrong because of a lot of surprises. What can you do? If you’re truly a betting person, hopefully the wager’s not that high. If you’re me, of which I’m certain there are several people like this, you’ll just be hoping the number you get correct is higher than it was the previous year.
This year, like with most years, the winners are just too tough to settle on. While it does seem like some are shoe ins for the win, any other nominee could easily come in and win. Making this even harder, is the fact that I’d be okay with any of the others winning. Yes, I’d be sad a bit, but I’d get over it and then I’d be excited because I’d have a new reason to watch the winning film.
So, let’s turn to this year’s Oscar nominees. It was tough to choose and easy (somewhat) because so many of them I haven’t seen due to not enough access. It happens every year and now that I think about it, it might explain why so many people annoyingly dismiss the majority of the categories. My approach was largely based on the films I saw. I saw so few of this year’s nominees (I know, bad me) and so, I could only go with what I’d seen.
Somehow it just seemed the right thing to do. So, while it looks like I’m biased and only for “La La Land”, that’s partially correct. I loved the film, but it was the only one other than “Hell or High Water” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” that I’ve seen. The irony of my doing this now is that I rented three of this year’s nominees for tonight and this weekend, whichever comes first. Hopefully I don’t end up being blown away in ways that would mean I need to come back and revise this. This is exactly why I hate having choices.
That being said, what are your picks for the 2017 Academy Awards?! Who do you really want to see win versus who do you think stands the likeliest chance of winning? Can you beat my score? Will I do far better than last year or the previous years? I hope so. After the ceremony I’ll even search for my old scores and see if I’m just getting worse at this. I hope not.
Don’t forget the “2017 Academy Awards”, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, are on Feb. 26, 2017 on ABC!!
Best Picture
“La La Land”
Best Director
Damien Chazelle – “La La Land”
Best Actress
Emma Stone – “La La Land”
Best Actor
Casey Affleck – “Manchester by the Sea”
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis – “Fences”
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali – “Moonlight”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Barry Jenkins (Screenplay) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Story) – “Moonlight”
Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Lonergan – “Manchester by the Sea”
Best Cinematography
Linus Sandgren – “La La Land”
Best Costume Design
Mary Zophres – “La La Land”
Best Film Editing
Tom Cross – “La La Land”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo – “Star Trek Beyond”
Best Production Design
David Wasco (Production Design) and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (Set Decorator) – “La La Land”
Best Original Score
Justin Hurwitz – “La La Land”
Best Original Song
Justin Hurwitz (Music), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Lyrics) – “La La Land”
Best Sound Editing
Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright – “Hacksaw Ridge”
Best Sound Mixing
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steven Morrow – “La La Land”
Best Visual Effects
John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal T. Hickel and Neil Corbould – “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
Best Animated Feature
“Zootopia”
Best Documentary Feature
“O.J.: Made in America”
Best Foreign Language Film
“The Salesman”
Best Animated Short
“Piper”
Best Documentary Short
“Joe’s Violin”
Best Live Action Short
“Ennemis Interieurs”
...Everything in Between 