The announcement of the Academy Award nominations is now less than a day away. Tomorrow, January 24th, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tom Sherak will be joined by 2010’s Best Actress nominee for Winter’s Bone Jennifer Lawrence to unveil the nominees at 5:30 a.m. PST (or 8:30 a.m. EST).
The Oscars’ category for Best Picture this year will have an undetermined quantity of nominees untill they are announced on Tuesday morning. All the info we Oscar analysts were provided with is there will be no less than five nominees and no more than ten. I have no clue how to predict the amount of Best Picture nominees so I went with predicting ten as usual. The only difference is that in order to do this, it seemed I had to judge certain films by their pre-awards buzz so that I may say which film would be the sixth nominee if the final number is six, which would be the seventh, and so forth. I also predicted Best Animated Feature like this but only because I could not find an officially proclaimed amount for this year’s category, and in the past there have usually been either three or five contenders.
As I do every year, each list of my predictions will be followed by one potential nominee I may miss (listed under WiLd CaRd) and also by one potential nominee that I would personally like to see nominated (listed under FYC – as in “for your consideration”). After my finalized predictions of the top awards, I am adding two new segments: one for the seemingly unquestionable nominees for technical Oscars, and one for any “FYCs” I may have for technical Oscars.
After votes are tallied from a total of 5,783 Academy members, the 84th Academy Awards ceremony – hosted by Billy Crystal – will be shown by ABC on February 26th, 2012.
Without further ado, here are my official predictions for the 2011 list of Oscar nominees.
BEST PICTURE:
The Artist
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
(6) War Horse
(7) The Tree of Life
(8) Moneyball
(9) Bridesmaids
(10) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
WiLd CaRd:
Melancholia
FYC:
My Week With Marilyn
BEST ACTOR:
Demian Bichir – A Better Life
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
WiLd CaRd:
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
FYC:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – 50/50
BEST ACTRESS:
Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis – The Help
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn
WiLd CaRd:
Rooney Mara – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
FYC:
Kristen Wiig – Bridesmaids
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks – Drive
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
WiLd CaRd:
Nick Nolte – Warrior
FYC:
Stellan Skarsgaard – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer – The Help
WiLd CaRd:
Shailene Woodley – The Descendants
FYC:
Anjelica Huston – 50/50
BEST DIRECTION:
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
Steven Spielberg – War Horse
WiLd CaRd:
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
FYC:
Bennett Miller – Moneyball
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
The Descendants – Nat Fixon, Alexander Payne, Jim Rash
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Eric Roth
The Help – Tate Taylor
Hugo – John Logan
Moneyball – Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian
WiLd CaRd:
War Horse – Richard Curtis, Lee Hall
FYC:
My Week With Marilyn – Adrian Hodges
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
50/50 – Will Reiser
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids – Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
The Tree of Life – Terrence Malick
WiLd CaRd:
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
FYC:
Win Win – Tom McCarthy
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
The Adventures of Tintin
Cars 2
Rango
(4) Arthur Christmas
(5) Puss in Boots
WiLd CaRd:
Kung Fu Panda 2
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Bill Cunningham New York
Hell and Back Again
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Project Nim
We Were Here
WiLd CaRd:
Pina
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Pina (Germany)
A Separation (Iran)
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
WiLd CaRd:
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
NOMINEE CERTAINTIES:
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Tree of Life
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Artist
BEST EDITING: War Horse
BEST MAKEUP: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: The Artist
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Pictures in My Head” – The Muppets
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Tree of Life
OTHER “FYCs”:
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rubber
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
BEST EDITING: Moneyball
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Man or Muppet” – The Muppets
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: X-Men: First Class
If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my picks for Best & Worst Films of 2011 (So Far) – right here on “MCT” @ GTTM…