We are at the home stretch for the 85th Academy Awards and the studios are in an all out race to campaign for as many of the coveted trophies as possible. Moviegoers seemed overall pleased with this year's list of Best Picture nominees as the Academy strives to improve its image as an organization connected to regular movie fans. So who will bring home gold on Sunday night? The Best Actor, Actress and Picture nominees are an eclectic bunch and for the first time in years there is no clear cut winner for Best Picture. Here are my predictions for the 2013 Academy Award winners:
Best Supporting Actor
This is certainly the most difficult category to predict since all the performances, which include Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Master), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and Alan Arkin (Argo), have been critically lauded and all the competing actors have enjoyed equal acclaim at other award events. While Tommy Lee Jone's wig in Lincoln did distract me quite a bit, bordering on comedy, his performance was tour de force, especially in key dramatic scenes with Daniel Day Lewis. Jones has been nominated three times, but despite his veteran actor status, has only won once for "The Fugitive". This could be the year that the Academy once again honors an actor most of us respect as one of Hollywood's best. However, there is no denying the unique presence that Christoph Waltz brings to the unnerving scenes in "Djando Unchained". Waltz was a winner for 2009's "Inglorious Bastards" and has already won a Golden Globe for "Djando". Watlz performance is undoubtedly the best supporting work of 2012 and it is most likely that he will become a two time Oscar winner on Sunday.
Who should win: Tommy Lee Jones
Who will win: Christoph Waltz
Best Supporting Actress
Unlike the Best Supporting Actor category, there is little doubt who will be honored here. 2012 was the year of Anne Hathaway. Her performance as the prostitute, Fantine in the musical "Les Miserables" was the most incredible thing seen on the silver screen in years! Not only did Hathaway lose an enormous amount of weight to play the abused and torn prostitute, she also sang the torch ballad "I Dreamed A Dream" live during filming rather than lip-sync to a previously recorded track which was the established standard. The key scene in which she sings after coins are tossed at her for her "services" is awe-inspiring. Hathaway's raw vocals resulted in not a dry eye at most showings of Les Miserables and the fact that she was singing live, while crying and hitting those sky-scraper notes is an Olympic sized feat! Despite powerhouse competitor Sally Field for Lincoln, and Oscar nominee darling Amy Adams (Master), there is little doubt Anne Hathaway will not win her first Oscar on Sunday night.
Who should win: Anne Hathaway
Who will win: Anne Hathaway
Best Actor
Like the Best Supporting Actress race, the Best Actor category has a clear cut winner. The competition is intense with fan favorite Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Joaquin Phoenix (Master) and Denzil Washington (Flight). Indeed, no one expects Daniel Day Lewis to walk home empty handed on Sunday night; his complete and total transformation into the Abraham Lincoln we have collectedly imagined is without a doubt one of the best portrayals of a historical figure in the history of cinema. While I was thoroughly impressed by Day Lewis, I could not help but be in awe of Hugh Jackman's demanding role in Les Miserables. Jackman is dynamic as he transforms from hardened criminal to doting father while performing some of the most powerful ballads from the famed Broadway musical. Jackman's vocal performance alone deserves an Oscar, as he was required to sing all of his lines from the libretto. Especially in the final half hour, Jackman's singing voice reigns supreme with genuine emotion and amazing range. However, despite his amazing vocal stamina and powerful performance, Oscar judges have never allowed a poignant historical portrayal like Daniel Day Lewis to go unrewarded.
Who will win: Daniel Day Lewis
Who should win: Hugh Jackman
Best Actress
This category provides the widest range of performances of the year including 9-year old Quvenzhané Wallis for " The Beast of the Southern Wilds" and 85-year old Emmanuelle Riva for "Amour". It is fantastic to see such variety in the Best Actress Category but despite receiving almost unanimous praise for their performances, very few will attempt to predict this year's winner since no performance truly captured notoriety the way Meryl Streep's "Iron Lady" did last year. In fact, critics were predicting her the winner since the Iron Lady Trailer premiered. With no Streep as competition, it's really a show down between the reigning Queen of Hollywood, Jessica Chastain and Naiomi Watts' stunning dramatic turn in the disaster film "The Impossible". My money is definitely on Chastain for her gritty performance as a CIA Agent on a decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden in the military thriller, "Zero Dark Thirty". Is it just me or is Chastain in every other movie these days. She has certainly become the Cate Blanchett of the current era, appearing as a clueless housewife in "The Help" (for which she was nominated), Brad Pitt's devoted wife in "The Tree of Life" and a victim of a haunting in the Box office hit horror, "Mama"; now Chastain has even taken her already prolific career to Broadway, starring in "The Heiress". The Academy loves to reward actresses as dynamic as Chastain, who many are already calling the next Meryl Streep. However, can they ignore how audiences have reacted to the tear-inducing performance of Naomi Watts in "The Impossible". This is Watts best performance in years since her stunning debut in "Mulholland Drive", and few can deny the power of her performance as a mother struggling desperately to save her family after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Can Watts' heartbreaking desperation beat Chastain's domineering CIA agent? Unlikely.
Who should win: Naomi Watts
Who will win: Jessica Chastain
Best Music (Song and Score)
In the 90's it was easy to predict the Oscar winner for Best Song since Disney consistently collected gold for classic animated films like "The Lion King" and "Aladdin". In later years, powerhouse love ballads like "My Heart will go on" dominated the category. However, recently the winners have been quite a varied bunch as the Academy has awarded everyone from Eminem to The Muppets. The front runner is clearly the masterful "Skyfall" from the newest James Bond film, written and performed by British phenomenon Adele. The Academy will find it hard to ignore the fast popularity of the ballad which has a sound that is obviously written in homage to previous James Bond anthems like "Gold Finger" by Shirley Bassey. Despite previous modern James Bond themes receiving the cold shoulder from the Academy, including Madonna's "Die Another Day", judges adore nostalgia and will certainly not miss the opportunity to give Adele her first Oscar.
Who should win: Adele
Who will win: Adele
The score category has always been one of controversy as previous winners have revealed the gap between the Academy and regular moviegoers. Recent winners have been minimalistic soundtracks as opposed to popular scores such as "The Dark Knight". This year, veteran composer John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., Jurassic Park) has received his 48th nomination and this could be the year that Williams takes home his sixth Academy Award for his breathtaking score for "Lincoln"; however a new trend in this category has been awarding scores with an exotic sound including A.R Raman's "Slum Dog Millionaire". In fact the Academy has fallen so in love with Raman that he received a second nomination for his "127 Hours" soundtrack. Previous foreign sounding scores that have dominated include "Frida". If this trend continues, Michael Danna's "The Life of Pi" will definitely win Best Score with its lush, melodic Indian-flavored music. However, one cannot deny that John Williams, despite being 81, has been on a winning streak critically with last year's "War Horse" and now "Lincoln" being given full masterpiece status by critics and soundtrack fans. Indeed, Williams' poignant, Wagnerian score deserves recognition but can it defeat the sitar and orchestral combinations in "Life of Pi"?
Who should win: John Williams
Who will win: Michael Danna
Best Picture
This coveted prize continues to be the most sought after accolade for any film maker and this year both critics and fans were pleased with the Academy's selections for the best of 2012. The range is huge and includes the relevant, politically themed films such as "Zero, Dark, Thirty" and "Argo", historical dramas "Lincoln" and "Django Unchained", emotional tearjerkers "Les Miserables", "Amour" and "Silver Linings Playbook", as well as visually stunning masterpieces "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "The Life of Pi". Indeed the Academy has proven that it is still relevant in today's modern world of cinema as most of the nominees, especially Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, are Boxoffice hits and popular crowd pleasers. The winner should be certainly clear to any avid Oscar fan by now; "Argo", the tale of a hostage rescue mission built on a fake film created to smuggle the hostages to safety disguised as actors is a tour de force film, directed by Ben Affleck and the Acamedy has never failed to award real-life historical drama such as "Argo". The fact that the Academy was universally panned for failing to nominate Affleck for Best Director puts further pressure on the judges to grant the film the main prize, especially since the Actor/Director has picked up every other Best Director prize for his work on "Argo" including a Golden Globe and BAFTA (the British version of the Oscars). Hence, there is little doubt that "Argo" will be crowned the winner on Sunday. It's only other formidable competition is Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln", which despite being one of the best acted films in years, does not have the tense, thrilling impact of "Argo". I would have preferred "Les Miserables" being honored, perhaps because I am partial to musicals or the idea that having to act and sing live is one of the most awesome accomplishments any actor can undertake. Despite not having the gripping storyline of Argo, Les Miserables is a true cinematic wonder with its jaw-dropping cinematography, masterful music direction and fantastic costume design and sets, all supporting awe-inspiring performances by Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway. Indeed, if not for the huge competition from "Argo", Oscar judges would have little choice but to name Les Miserables Best Picture. However, make no mistake, "Argo" is the Meryl Streep of this year's Best Picture Oscar race!
Who should win: Les Miserables
Who will win: Argo
Written by Timothy Austin
