Pre- Oscars Suspicions

The award season is well and truly in the swing of things so I thought I'd take a look at the upcoming 83rd Academy Awards taking place on February 27 and discuss..

I haven't seen all of the films up for nomination so this isn't going to be a completely encompassing look at what I think might happen, but I shall try!

First of all I thought I would look at what IMDb visitors are voting for as their favourites. Right now, if the Oscars were handed out based on these results (eek), this is how the scene would look:

Best film: 'Inception'

Best actor: Colin Firth ('The King's Speech')

Best actress: Natalie Portman ('Black Swan')

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale ('The Fighter')

Best adapted screenplay: 'The Social Network'

Best original screenplay: 'Inception'

Best foreign language film: 'Biutiful'

Best animated feature: 'Toy Story 3'

Best Director: David Fincher ('The Social Network')

I'm literally just using these polls as one way of looking at how people think the Oscars might go this year. I can't remember how accurate IMDb polls have been in previous years, which may be useful, but anyway.. I would be very happy to see Christian Bale win best supporting actor and for 'Toy Story 3' to win best animated feature. Bale's performance in 'The Fighter' was one of these best I've seen in the last year and 'Toy Story 3' brought a tear to most audience member's eyes in the summer. I also feel that Natalie Portman deserves this level of recognition for her role in 'Black Swan' and whilst I thought that there were other brilliant performances this year (a favourite being Michelle Williams' in 'Blue Valentine', which is currently bottom of the poll), Portman really did stand out and hold her own in that film.

As for these others.. hmm. After spending several months eagerly anticipating the combination of Leonardo DiCaprio (whose better film was 'Shutter Island' this year, in my opinion), Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and funky-looking special fx I was left completely underwhelmed, so I'd be shocked if the film won Best Original Screenplay and Best Film. I had medium expectations of 'The Social Network' (it would be cool to see a film about facebook... but how interesting could a film with this subject matter be?), which I would say were fulfilled, but not to the extent that it would win Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. David Fincher in an excellent director but I think i preferred David O Russell for 'The Fighter' for that award.

Unfortunately I've still not managed to see 'The King's Speech', but have heard wonderful things from everybody about it. Honestly, the subject matter doesn't interest, but I'm sure I'll see it in the next two years, and even possibly regret not seeing it sooner. Probably not though. I do feel like Colin Firth has a good chance of winning best actor for it.

I can't really comment further on the above as there is a gap in my viewing experience so we'll brush over the foreign language section (next year I want some Almodovar in there).

In conclusion- it looks like 'The Social Network' and 'Inception' are big fan favourites but I feel that other films, including rival nominee 'The Fighter' were far superior this year. We will just have to wait and see.

Finally, I'll include my grumbles about this year's nominations. I'll keep it down to two though. 1) No 'Shutter Island' 2) No Ryan Gosling.

Now, I understand that 'Shutter Island''s release date (February 2010) put in an awkward position to be nominated in either year. It was too late for 2010 and now it seems like aaaages ago that it was released when it comes around to 2011. Still, this makes me unhappy. May be it wasn't Scorsese's best work, may be Leo wasn't completely in his prime, but it at least deserves a nomination- especially when films like 'The Social Network' (yawn) and 'Inception' (REALLY?) are nominated. I loved everything about that movie and honestly it's a travesty that my love for it alone doesn't garner it a nomination. Sigh. Marty, I've got your back.

As for Ryan Gosling, he carried that film. One of his best performances. Up there with 'Half Nelson'. He is very attractive. I digress. Poor Ryan though. First an interview comes out with him saying that he got fat for his role in 'The Lovely Bones' and then got fired and then he's not nominated for an Oscar for his performance in 'Blue Valentine' (btw can I add a 2. b) to this section and say: WHERE THE HELL IS 'BLUE VALENTINE' FOR BEST FILM?). In all honestly, I thought Gosling gave a better performance than Williams did in the film (yes I did say she was one of my favourite female performances this year.. but he was still better) and may be it's just because there is less competition in the female category that she got a nomination and he didn't. Oh well. At the end of the day he can rest assured that he's very good-looking and who needs an Oscar anyway?

Before I rattle off in to a foul-mouthed rant I will cut off now. I'll do a post-Oscars post (post, post, post) at the end of February to see how accurate these polls were (in some cases, I hope not very).