And the Oscar Goes To….
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Our Muchness Guide Academy Award Nomination blog post! The 92nd Academy Awards will take place on Sunday February 9th and this year I’ll be keeping a close eye on all the categories and the fashion because who doesn’t love some of the fabulous gowns that are brought out for these events (Sidenote: It has absolutely nothing to do with seeing some of Hollywood’s finest men in well tailored tuxes. It has everything to do with that. I joke, I joke). So to make things interesting, I’ve decided to do some research, watch as many of the nominated movies as I can and then make some predictions based on personal opinion, critical reviews, and Golden Globe wins for four prominent categories and let’s see how accurate I can be. Of course, I may be very wrong or change an opinion or two before the 9th of February but this is just for the hell of it. Seeing all these movies will be nigh on impossible but, hey, at least I’ll have seen some of the movies that Hollywood deems the cream of the crop. The red carpet awaits, lets go!
Best Actor
And the Nominees are:
Jonathon Pryce – The Two Popes
Adam Driver – Marriage Story
Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Prediction: – Joaquin Phoenix
As much as I adore Adam Driver, and believe me I do, I don’t see him or anyone else in this category beating out Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Joker. Phoenix has already won a Golden Globe for his performance and the reviews praising Phoenix’s performance were everywhere! He brought a whole new level of crazy and depth to the Clown Prince of Crime. And I see you, Leo, in there with the nod and I have to admit DiCaprio could surprise everyone. This category has some big contenders and it’ll be interesting to see who walks home with that award (still kind of want Adam to win though).
Best Actress
Charlize Theron – Bombshell
Renée Zellweger – Judy
Cynthia Erivo – Harriet
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan – Little Women
Prediction: – Renée Zellweger
Yes, I know Saoirse Ronan is Irish but I just don’t see her winning this category. She has huge competition and some people have stated that her performance in Little Women wasn’t her best. Personally, I would love to see Scarlett win as I love her in practically every movie she’s appeared in (we don’t talk about Eight Legged Freaks, okay? The Spiders were the problem. Nope). But these women have to compete with the Critics Choice and Golden Globe winner of the season, Renée Zellweger and that will be no easy task because Zellweger killed it in Judy.
Best Picture
1917 – Dir. Sam Mendes
Ford v Ferrari – Dir. James Mangold
Joker – Dir. Todd Phillips
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood – Dir. Quinten Tarantino
Parasite – Dir. Bong Joon-ho
The Irishman – Dir. Martin Scorsese
Little Women – Dir. Greta Gerwig
Jojo Rabbit – Dir. Taika Waititi
Marriage Story – Dir. Noah Baumbach
Prediction: – 1917
Personally, I love Taika Waititi as a director, actor and Korg so I would absolutely love to see him bring home an Oscar but the level of competition in this category is fierce. I love the story behind Ford v. Ferrari because I’m a bit of a petrol head so watching high power cars and great acting retell Carroll Shelby’s journey to LeMans ‘66 sounds like an amazing film to me. Overall, I think 1917 probably has the best chance of winning (it did win a Golden Globe after all) though I don’t think you should count out Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Tarantino’s name is tagged onto so many cult movies that claiming that Oscar wouldn’t be a surprise.
Best Director
Quentin Tarantino
Todd Phillips
Bong Joon-ho
Martin Scorsese
Sam Mendes
Prediction – Sam Mendes
He tied with Bong Joon-ho for the director’s prize at the Critics’ Choice Awards and won a Golden Globe and I can see him walking away with this one too. Scorsese started the award season strong but it seems like his competitors have surpassed “The Irishman” director lately. Simply put, I think the two strongest contenders are Mendes and Tarantino but I want Mendes to edge out Tarantino for this one. Personally, I think Phillips doesn’t really seem to be in contention for this one because the Academy never really takes a liking to comic book movies in the major categories but will happily hand them awards for technical aspects and design but I will be pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
I chose only four categories (otherwise I’d be writing and watching movies for a straight month) and there are so many more hotly contested categories to keep an eye on. So get on your finest (night)gown, grab some popcorn and get ready for the Oscars to take centre stage.
Our Muchness Guide 