Welcome to my attempt at joining The Psychic Friends Network®. The 82nd
Annual Academy Awards will be televised Sunday, March 7th on ABC and
I, as I typically do, will try to look deep into my crystal balls in an effort
to forecast the winners. This will be an interesting year for the Oscarsâ. Gone is
all the pretense of former Academy Awardsâ broadcasts. Out of Africa?
Best Picture of 1985? Really? I mean, I love you Meryl, but could you pull the
tranquilizer dart out of my neck? The English Patient? Best Picture of
1996? Really? I watched it and felt compelled to cut myself to feel alive? This
year, the Academy, trying to steal some of the spectacle back from the Red
Carpet outside, chose to name ten Best Picture nominees instead of the
traditional five. The move was genius. Because, as you will see, some of
nominees for Best Picture of 2009 were also some of the biggest blockbusters of
the year. But who deserves to win? Any student of Academy Awardâ history
knows that the person/film who deserves the trophy isn’t always the one wins
it. I mean, Jesus! Halle Berry and Mira Sorvino have won Oscarsâ! I smell dangling chads!
BEST
PICTURE
Avatar
The
Blind Side
District
9
An
Education
The
Hurt Locker
Inglourious
Basterds
Precious:
Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire
A
Serious Man
Up
Up in
the Air
Five of the movies listed (A Serious Man, District 9, Precious, The
Hurt Locker, and An Education – January 2010 issue – ed.) actually
hold down positions in my annual Top Ten list. But only one has a chance of
actually winning the Oscarâ. If any
film has the power to stop the box office battering ram that is Avatar, it
is The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping study of an American
soldier with an insatiable need to tempt and cheat death. Avatar is on
the precipice of box office history, though I honestly have no clue what all
the fuss is about. While I appreciate James Cameron’s vivid imagination and his
gift of the special-effects gab, I personally think the Na’vi look like
gigantic Smurfs. But, what the hell do I know? Avatar is shattering box
office records and is poised to win the big prize. That is unless history of
another kind is made. No woman has ever won an Oscarâ for Best
Director. But Kathryn Bigelow, who ironically is James Cameron’s ex-wife, could
do it. If she does, she just may put the “hurt” on Avatar for Best
Picture!
BEST
ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE
Jeff
Bridges – Crazy Heart
George
Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin
Firth – A Single Man
Morgan
Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy
Renner – The Hurt Locker
Jeff Bridges has been nominated for four Oscarsâ. He’s been nominated in the Supporting Actor
category three of the four times (for The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and
Lightfoot, and The Contender). In 1984, he was nominated as Best
Actor for his role in Starman. After a nearly 40-year wait, he’s finally
going to take home the top prize. For his role as fallen country music singer
“Bad Blake” in Crazy Heart, Bridges has taken home nearly every acting
trophy around. On March 7th, he’s going to claim the only one he’s
been missing.
BEST
ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE
Sandra
Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen
Mirren – The Last Station
Carey
Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey
Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Meryl
Streep – Julie & Julia
Though I realize it’s probably rude and insensitive to refer to Sandra
Bullock and Meryl Streep in thoroughbred racing terms, the Best Actress
category truly is a two-horse race. But, as we head down the final stretch, I
think Sandra Bullock is the favorite among odds makers and the photo finish
will show she wins by a nose! Bullock has been the unlikely darling of this
awards season. She came out of nowhere really (did you see All About Steve?)
to claim a Golden Globeâ and the
Screen Actors Guild Awardâ and gave
impeccable acceptance speeches at both events. And the Academy likes good
acceptance speeches. It really, really likes them! Hollywood sweetheart Julia
Roberts won her Oscarâ for
playing the ballsy, sassy and brassy Erin Brockovich. It’s only fitting that
Sandra Bullock, whose career, like Julia’s, has been a series of hits and
misses, is going to claim her first trophy for playing the similarly ballsy,
sassy and brassy Leigh Anne Tuohy.
BEST
SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE
Matt
Damon – Invictus
Woody
Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher
Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley
Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph
Waltz – Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has been gathering steam
as we approach the Oscarsâ. In fact,
it won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen
Actors Guild Awardsâ (their
equivalent to Best Picture). I personally don’t get it. Tarantino has made much
better films, likely the widely overlooked Kill Bill series. But for me,
Inglourious Basterds had one saving grace and that was Colonel Hans
Landa, the most glorious bastard of them all. As Hans, actor Christoph Waltz
chewed up the scenery and his enemies and painted, like a genius, the
portrait-perfect rendering of evil. Having won the Golden Globeâ and the
SAGâ, Waltz is
a sure bet to win the Oscarâ. But
don’t expect to understand a damn word he says. I mentioned Sandra Bullock
gives great speeches. Christoph Waltz is the antithesis to that.
BEST
SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE
Penelope
Cruz – Nine
Vera
Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie
Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna
Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique
– Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire
Maggie Gyllenhaal is surely thanking Jeff Bridges for her surprise
nomination (it was believed Julianne Moore would get the final nod in this
category for her work in A Single Man). While accepting his bounty of
trophies, Bridges praised his co-star’s work in Crazy Heart endlessly
and the Academy took notice. But notice is all Gyllenhaal will leave with. This
trophy belongs to Mo’Nique, who, in Precious, gives a heart-breaking
performance as a woman torn between the man she loves and the duties required
of a good mother. Mo’Nique is so unbelievably convincing in this movie she
manages to make a truly despicable woman worthy of our pity. It’s an amazing
performance that will earn this stand-up comic Oscarâ gold!
