(Here's a reprint of my 86th Oscars article that came out today, February 22, 2014, on The Philippine Star. The online link can be found here: http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2014/02/23/1293390/its-oscars-time)
In Summary: I am a big fan of "Gravity". Of Cate Blanchett's performance in "Blue Jasmine. Of the Palestine film "Omar". And of the Disney juggernaut "Frozen" and Idina Menzel's "Let It Go"!
The full article:
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| Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Wolf of Wall Street") |
MANILA, Philippines - Movie buffs, rejoice! The games of the winter Olympics are over. It’s time for the Oscars!
The 86th Annual Academy Awards will be telecast live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on March 2 (Monday morning, March 3 in Manila), delayed by a week this year to make room for the Olympics.
That delay only added to the excitement and allowed the competing movies and actors an extra week to campaign for the biggest prizes in movies. It should have also allowed many people the opportunity to watch all the nominated movies and have better chances at predicting the winners — or perhaps not. Predicting the winners is always tricky and the Academy always pulls a surprise or two every now and then.
The Philippine STAR offers you this guide to help you in several key categories including the very competitive races for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress.
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) versus Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave).
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| Cuaron directing George Clooney and Sandra Bullock |
Of the 10 nominations received by the Warner Bros.’ space opera Gravity, this category is its biggest chance at landing a major win. Alfonso has won every major award this season, including the Directors Guild of America and the BAFTA awards, and he is likely to continue the streak on Oscar night. His major competitor is Brit director Steve who has his share of supporters for his powerful slavery saga 12 Years a Slave that is also a strong contender for the Best Picture prize. Other nominees are Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street), Alexander Payne (Nebraska) and David O. Russell (American Hustle).
Winner: Alfonso Cuaron.
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| Matthew McConaughey ("Dallas Buyers Club") |
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) versus Leonardo Di Caprio (The Wolf of Wall Street).
In December, when this writer had a roundtable interview with Matthew and fellow actor Woody Harrelson, Woody summed up the case for his good friend: “He’s finally getting the respect he’s always deserved. I think he’s a phenomenal actor and he’s proven how much he can commit to a role and obviously with Ron Woodruff, I think there’s no actor alive who could have played that better.” Matthew has successfully reinvented himself after almost becoming an industry joke. His biggest competitor is Leo who wowed many critics for his manic and uncompromising performance in The Wolf of Wall Street but the megastar will sadly have to wait another year. Other nominees are Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Bruce Dern (Nebraska) and Christian Bale (American Hustle).
Winner: Matthew McConaughey.
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett versus the Woody Allen backlash.
Cate has practically swept all the acting awards this season for a performance that this writer considers as the finest performance by any actor since Meryl Streep’s turn in The Iron Lady and she will win on Sunday despite the highly-publicized sex abuse claims of Mia Farrow against Woody Allen who directed Cate in Blue Jasmine. Actresses nominated with Cate are Amy Adams (American Hustle), Sandra Bullock (Gravity), Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) and Judi Dench (Philomena).
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| Jared Leto ("Dallas Buyers Club") |
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto versus Oscar surprise.
Jared, the occasional actor, has not made a movie in six years and he triumphantly returns to acting with a compelling turn as Rayon, the AIDS-afflicted transgender in Dallas Buyers Club. Like Cate, Jared virtually swept all the major awards this season in his category and there’s no reason to doubt that he will not continue that streak at the Oscars — unless the Academy would consider pulling a surprise in this category. Other nominees are Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave).
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| Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave") |
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) versus Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle).
This is one category where there is no clear frontrunner. Lupita won the Screen Actors Guild and Broadcast Film Critics awards for her heartbreaking role of a suffering slave in 12 Years a Slave, while Jennifer won the BAFTA last week for her equally masterful performance as the feisty housewife of a con artist in David O. Russell’s American Hustle. Jennifer won Best Actress last year for another Russell film, Silver Linings Playbook, and that could work against her. Plus, Lupita has been wowing everyone with her heartfelt acceptance speeches, too! Other nominated actresses are Julia Roberts (August: Osage County), June Squibb (Nebraska) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine).
Winner: Lupita Nyong’o. And it will be a nice 31st birthday present for her.
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Steve McQueen directing Chiwetel Ejiofor
in "12 Years a Slave" |
Best Picture: Gravity versus 12 Years a Slave.
This one is still up for grabs. There are strong cases to make why either film should win the biggest prize of the year in movies. Gravity is highly acclaimed for its technical wizardry and moviemaking spectacle while 12 Years a Slave is being passionately hailed for its unrelenting depiction of the evils of slavery in America. The race is so tight that the Producers Guild of America, an accurate predictor of the Oscars, couldn’t decide on which movie was better and declare a rare tie for Best Picture! This is one rare case where a tie could also happen at the Oscars. But we have to predict a winner, right?
Winner: Gravity. Because it is my favorite movie of the year! Period.
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| Jennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle") |
The seven other nominated films for Best Picture are American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Philomena, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, Her and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Other predictions: Frozen, Disney’s biggest hit in years, will win two Oscars (Best Animated Film and Best Original Song) as this writer predicted back in November.
Best Foreign Language Film winner will be The Great Beauty from Italy but if I were voting, Omar, the valiant and heartbreaking film from Palestine, would be my choice. Other films in contention are The Hunt (Denmark), The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium) and The Missing Picture from Cambodia.
Tie breakers: Gravity will sweep with seven Oscars or eight if it wins Best Picture. Dallas Buyers Club will win three. 12 Years a Slave will win two.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres returns as host. Artists slated to perform are Idina Menzel (who will perform Let It Go, the ubiquitous hit from Frozen,) U2, Pharrell, Karen O and Bette Midler. Kim Novak, the iconic star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, will make a rare appearance during the show.
See you at the Oscars.
xxx
Raymond De Asis Lo
