Oscar Predictions 2013

Way back before the Guilds, Globes or BAFTAs announced their winners, 2012 was a year where the race for the big Oscar win was wide open. Argo was the early front-runner, Silver Linings Playbook won the audience award at Toronto and crushed it, then came two waves in the form of Life of Pi and Lincoln, each with a passionate support and steady box office might. The late-surge for Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables and Django Unchained surfaced. Zero Dark Thirty became a critics favorite only for the torture controversy to wash it all down. Les Miserables got trashed for the close-ups, Django was deemed "not as good as Inglourious Basterds" which it isn't but it's still Tarantino and still so good.

"Argofuckme, I wuz snubbed.
Plan B: Mope till you win an Oscar"

Moonrise Kingdom seemed on its way to pick up a Best Picture nomination, (which was probably the only thing I was truly looking forward to in terms of Oscar breaking new ground) but when the nominees were announced, it was predictably missing. Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild which seemed like potential threats, ended up being major surprises when they garnered not just nominations for Best Picture but Director, Actress and Screenplay as well. Another big story was the Argo snub. It was nominated for Best Picture and 6 more but no Best Director nomination.

When the nominees were announced Argo was deemed out of the race. Lincoln vs. Life of Pi vs. Silver Linings Playbook - this was the consensus. Little did we know that an Oscar snub would not be Argo's Achilles' Heel but Poseidon's trident. Argo did not just win the Golden Globe, Critics Choice award and the BAFTA for Best Film but cleaned up every guild award that came its way. It seemed like a race that everyone thought was open, never ever was. Just like The Artist last year and The King's Speech before that, the Oscar race had been over long before the ballots were filled. Argo is about to be one of the very few films to win the Oscar for Best Picture without a nomination for Director. The last time that happened was in 1990 when Driving Miss Day (1989) took home the big win. Is that an indicator for quality? Let's not digress.

"Harvey got me nominaaaatteeddd"
"He got me nominated AGAAAAIIINNNN"

Argo is indeed a very good film but better than more than half of those nominees? No way. Then again, I do not vote for the Oscars. The members of the academy do. They showed they don't love Argo enough by not giving it the Best Director nod. They simply love other films more. But can the Argo tide stop? Can Lincoln or Silver Linings Playbook actually surf their way up to the top? I doubt it. One thing I've seen in the past few years is the Academy loves to play it safe. That being said, this is a year which could indeed offer multiple surprises. I was surprised I did well in my predictions last year (17/21 as you can see here: http://bit.ly/W9tBD4) but I know I won't do better this year so I've taken a different road this time. (To avoid looking looking stupid?)

Here are my predictions:


BEST PICTURE
Will win: Argo
Could win: Silver Linings Playbook
Should win: Life of Pi/ Lincoln

BEST DIRECTOR
Will win: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Could win: Michael Haneke/ Steven Spielberg
Should win: Ang Lee

BEST ACTOR
Will and should win: Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Could win (highly improbable): Joaquin Phoenix, The Master/ Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

BEST ACTRESS
Will and should win: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Could win: Emanuelle Riva, Amour

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Will win: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Could win: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained/ Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Should win: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Will win: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Could win: Sally Field, Lincoln
Should win: Amy Adams, The Master

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Will win: Django Unchained
Could win: Amour
Should win: Moonrise Kingdom

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Will win: Argo
Could win: Silver Linings Playbook
Should win: Lincoln (If there is one award Lincoln truly deserves apart from Actor, it is this)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Will win: Brave
Could win: Wreck-It Ralph
Should really really win: Frankenweenie

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Will and should win: Amour
Could win: No

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Will win: Life of Pi
Could win: Skyfall
Should win: This is tricky, Life of Pi is clearly the best but ROGER DEAKINS STILL HAS ZERO OSCARS

BEST FILM EDITING
Will win: Argo
Could win: Silver Linings Playbook
Should win: Life of Pi

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Will win: Anna Karenina
Could win: Les Miserables/ Lincoln
Should win: Mirror Mirror

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Will and should win: Life of Pi
Could win: Anna Karenina/ Les Miserables

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Will and should win: Life of Pi
Could win: The Avengers

BEST SOUND MIXING
Will win: Les Miserables
Could win: Argo
Should win: Life of Pi/ Skyfall

BEST SOUND EDITING
Will win and should: Life of Pi
Could win: Skyfall

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Will and should win: Life of Pi
Could win: Argo

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Will win and should win: Skyfall, Skyfall
Another should win: Pi's Lullaby, Life of Pi

BEST MAKEUP
Will win: Les Miserables
Could win: The Hobbit

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Will win: Searching for Sugarman
Could win: The Gatekeepers

Still winning the most Oscars, bitches!

That means they will spread the wealth and the tally will look something like this:
Life of Pi - 5
Argo - 3
Les Miserables - 3
Lincoln - 2
Silver Linings Playbook - 2
Django, Amour, Skyfall and Anna Karenina - 1
Zero Dark Thirty and Beasts of the Southern Wild shut out






What I want:
Lincoln to take the major awards like Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Screenplay. I love Life of Pi but Lincoln is a film that at least Americans deserve to call Best Picture instead of a Best Hollywood movie. Hell, I don't even mind Silver Linings Playbook winning the major ones.

Will I win? Say AYYYEEEEEE!

What I do see happening:

Amour and/ or Silver Linings Playbook winning more
Life of Pi winning 4 (It could lose Production Design or Score)
Best Director/ Supporting Actor and the Screenplay categories are anybody's guesses
Argo is already the Best Picture winner and could easily win each category it is nominated in if the Academy chickens out.

Here's to a better season next year.

Top 10 Hindi Films of 2012

2012 has been a good year for the Indian movies. Here are is my top 10:

1. Barfi!
2. Gangs of Wasseypur 2
3. Talaash
4. Kahaani
5. English Vinglish
6. Arjun: The Warrior Prince
7. Ferrari Ki Sawaari
8. Vicky Donor
9. Agneepath
10. Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu 

One film to rule them all: EEGA (Since it wasn't a Hindi film, it didn't feature on the top 10)

Honorable mentions: Chittagong,  Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, Paan Singh Tomar and Supermen of Malegaon

I still can’t believe the backlash Barfi! received in the guise of of insipid plagiarism charges. I honestly don’t care. All I remember is the first time I saw this film (or the second or the third), I was under its spell like no other film this year. It made my heart soar. Ranbir’s performance and the music alone lift it out of the cinematic purgatory it seemed to tread. Talaash and Kahaani were top-notch thrillers. I liked the former more just because when I saw the films again I found that Kahaani cheats while Talaash plays. Both do it well, of course. Vidya Balan gave the best female performance of the year, only rivaled by Sridevi in English Vinglish. I don’t remember the last time I came out of a film and felt it was made for my mother. It’s no surprise that many of us shared this thought about English Vinglish. A film any mother would hate would be Gangs of Wasseypur. The first film was bloody good but it was Part 2 that went the distance and was bloodier and better. The revenge was served cold and slow. He told us and took it, all right. A film equally blazing and violent, which also happens to be my only commercial Bollywood selection, is Agneepath. The granddaddy of all masala films, Eega (Makkhi, if you may), showed us why Hindi cinema is constantly looking for refuge in Tollywood’s bosom and why it should stop trying.

I couldn’t find enough reasons to include Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Ishaqzaade on my list but they deserve mentions regardless. Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu was the romantic comedy of the year with an ending, which hits the sweet spot. A heart-wrenching father-son story charmed me in Ferrari Ki Sawaari. Two period films, Chittagong and Paan Singh Tomar, had their pluses and minuses, but also boasted rousing revolutionary hearts. Two comedies that defied clichés were Vicky Donor and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. I’d like to round this up by mentioning an animated film that went largely unseen- Arjun: The Warrior Prince and a documentary- Supermen of Malegaon. Both in their own way, remind us of our golden treasure of stories hiding in plain sight that we have failed to acknowledge over the years. 2012 was most definitely a terrific year for Indian movies.

(First published on Desimartini)

The Avengers Review

THE AVENGERS (2012)

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

If you have Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk and Thor in one film, they better be saving the world. Anything less would be a film made by the wrong people. This brings me to Joss Whedon who is having a great time with the release of Cabin in the Woods (still unseen) and now, The Avengers. (He also has Much Ado About Nothing lined up later in the year). And a great time, he deserves. By making The Avengers, he has given us one of the very best superhero movies of all time. Comparable to the brilliance of Superman (1978) and either one of Nolan's Batman films.

The Artist review

THE ARTIST (2011)

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

When I was in film school even the most devout film fans would fall asleep while watching a black and white film. A silent film? I remember 2 people sitting by the end of a screening of Birth of a Nation (1915). People have not been kind to silent cinema. Forget silent cinema. People have not been kind to pre-70s cinema. Here comes, The Artist. A film that if nothing, at least makes people come out surprised that they sat through a silent film. Lo and behold, not just sat through, even entertained! The fact that The Artist is not just a nostalgic postmodern masterstroke but also a crowd-pleaser, is a feat in itself. Also, there is a dog.

Oscars 2012 - Predictions

This year I'm going to predict the Oscars leaving my heart on the side. My favorite films of the year were Hugo and The Tree of Life. I would actually tie them for Best Picture and hand Malick an Oscar, just because he has never won before. Yes. Michel Hazanavicius will be a Best Director Oscar winner while Terrence Malick would still be Oscar-less. I love The Artist and I have made peace with it winning Best Picture (just like I did with Slumdog Millionaire and Crash), the one Oscar I'm still looking for a pleasant surprise in is Best Director. Scorsese or Malick, please?

Anyway, so here are my predictions:

BEST PICTURE -

The Artist

Alternate: Hugo

Top 20 Films of 2011

2011 was a fantastic year for cinema. On par with 1999, 2001 and 2007. There were numerous films which I will be revisiting many times. This wasn't just a good year, it was a great year. I couldn't pick just 10 this year. There were 20 films that I absolutely loved. Again, I will not be listing the "best" films of the year. I would be listing my "favorites". There is a difference and I like to keep that in mind every year I make these lists. I'm not telling you what you should like, I'm telling you what I liked.


TOP 20 FILMS OF 2011:

1. The Tree of Life & Hugo (tie)
2. The Adventures of Tintin
3. Midnight in Paris
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5. Drive
6. The Descendants
7. The Artist
8. We Need To Talk About Kevin
9. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
10. The Kid with a Bike & Le Havre (tie)

11. Take Shelter
12. A Dangerous Method
13. Shame
14. Super 8
15. War Horse
16. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
17. Source Code
18. A Separation
19. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
20. Young Adult



RUNNERS-UP

50/50
A Better Life
Anonymous
Another Earth
Attack the Block
Beginners
Bridesmaids
A Cat in Paris
Contagion
The Deep Blue Sea
The Guard
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Help
Higher Ground
Horrible Bosses
J. Edgar
Jane Eyre
Kung Fu Panda 2
Like Crazy
Margin Call
Moneyball
The Muppets
Rango
Red State
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Submarine
Terri
Tyrannosaur
We Bought A Zoo
Wuthering Heights
X-Men: First Class

DOCUMENTARIES:
1. George Harrison: Living in the Material World
2. Into The Abyss
3. Senna
4. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
5. Project Nim

The Top Tens

2014

1. Boyhood
2. Interstellar
3. Whiplash
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
6. Ida
7. Gone Girl
8. The Imitation Game
9. Selma
10. Edge of Tomorrow

Runners-up: Wild Tales, The Book of Life, God Help The Girl, The Drop, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Godzilla, The Guest and Into the Woods.


2013

1. Gravity
2. Her
3. 12 Years A Slave
4. The Hunt
5. The Wolf of Wall Street
6. Blue Jasmine
7. Before Midnight
8. Frozen
9. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
10. The Great Gatsby

Runners-up: Pacific Rim, Prisoners, To the Wonder, The Place Beyond the Pines, Rush, Inside Llewyn Davis, Frances Ha, The Wind Rises, Monsters University, The Heat and The Conjuring.

2012

1. Life of Pi
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. Cloud Atlas
4. Lincoln
5. The Avengers/ The Dark Knight Rises
6. Skyfall
7. Silver Linings Playbook
8. Django Unchained
9. Les Misérables
9. Frankenweenie
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Runners-up: Chronicle, Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007, Looper, Rise of the Guardians and Prometheus.


2011

1. The Tree of Life & Hugo (tie)
2. The Adventures of Tintin
3. Midnight in Paris
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5. George Harrison: Living in the Material World
6. Drive
7. The Descendants
8. The Artist
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin
10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Runners-up: A Dangerous Method, Into the Abyss, The Kid with a Bike, Le Havre, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, A Separation, Shame, Source Code, Super 8, Take Shelter and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



2010

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Toy Story 3
4. Black Swan
5. Biutiful
6. True Grit
7. Shutter Island
8. Hereafter
9. Blue Valentine & Certified Copy (tie)
10. Somewhere

Runners-up: 127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, Another Year, Easy A, Enter the Void, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Flipped, The Ghost Writer, How To Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, Inside Job, Kick-Ass, Le Quattro Volte, Monsters, Never Let Me Go, Poetry, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Town and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.


2009

1. Avatar
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. (500) Days of Summer
4. The Men Who Stare At Goats
5. Ponyo & Fantastic Mr. Fox (tie)
6. District 9
7. The White Ribbon
8. Broken Embraces
9. The Secret in their Eyes
10. A Serious Man

Runners-up: 3 Idiots, Antichrist, A Christmas Carol, Bright Star, Brüno, The Cove, Dev D, Drag Me To Hell, Fish Tank, The Hurt Locker, The Informant!, Kaminey, Knowing, Moon, Mother, Paranormal Activity, A Prophet, Star Trek, Two Lovers, Up, Up in the Air and Watchmen.


2008

1. The Dark Knight
2. Wall-E
3. The Fall
4. Let The Right One In
5. Synecdoche, New York
6. Cloverfield
7. The Happening
8. My Blueberry Nights
9. Slumdog Millionaire
10. The Reader

Runners-up: Changeling, Departures, Frost/ Nixon, Frozen River, Gran Torino, Happy Go Lucky, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Milk, Rachel Getting Married, Revolutionary Road and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.


2007

1. No Country For Old Men
2. Across the Universe
3. Zodiac
4. Atonement
5. Ratatouille
6. Sunshine & Youth Without Youth (tie)
7. There Will Be Blood
8. I'm Not There.
9. Eastern Promises
10. [REC]

Runners-up: 4 Weeks 3 Months and 2 Days, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Away From Her, The Bourne Ultimatum, Encounters at the End of the World, Grindhouse: Planet Terror/ Death Proof, Into the Wild, Juno, The Kite Runner,, Lars and the Real Girl, Lust Caution, The Namesake, No Smoking, Once, Paranoid Park, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Transformers.


2006

1. The Fountain
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Children of Men
4. Babel
5. Superman Returns
6. Casino Royale
7. Apocalypto
8. The Host
9. The Prestige
10. The Lives of Others, The Departed & Lady in the Water (tie)

Runners-up: Bubble, Cars, The Descent, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters From Iwo Jima, Marie-Antoinette, Omkara, Perfume, A Prairie Home Companion, Priceless, Scoop and Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby.


2005

1. King Kong
2. Batman Begins
3. Brokeback Mountain
4. Grizzly Man & The New World (tie)
5. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
6. Cache
7. L'Enfant
8. War of the Worlds
9. A History of Violence
10. Crash


Runners-up: The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Broken Flowers, The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, The Corpse Bride, The Constant Gardner, Howl's Moving Castle, Junebug, Kingdom of Heaven, Last Days, Match Point, Munich, Pride and Prejudice, Sin City, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith and Three Times.


2004

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. The Aviator
5. 2046
6. Million Dollar Baby
7. The Polar Express
8. The Passion of the Christ
9. The Village
10. Closer

Runners-up: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Bad Education, Before Sunset, Collateral, House of Flying Daggers, Love Me If You Dare, Mean Girls, Millions, The Sea Inside, Shaun of the Dead, Shrek 2, Sideways, Spider-Man 2, Tropical Malady, Vera Drake and A Very Long Engagement.

2003

1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. Kill Bill Vol. 1
3. The Dreamers
4. Big Fish
5. Lost in Translation
6. Elephant
7. Mystic River
8. Oldboy & Dogville (tie)
9. Spring Summer Fall Winter and.. Spring
10. Love, Actually

Runners-up: 21 Grams, Anything Else, Bad Santa, The Five Obstructions, Intolerable Cruelty, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Memories of Murder, Munnabhai MBBS, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The School of Rock.

2002

1. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3. Minority Report
4. Signs
5. The Pianist
6. Adaptation.
7. The Son
8. City of God
9. Talk to Her
10. Devdas

Runners-up: About Schmidt, Chicago, Far From Heaven, Femme Fatale, Frailty, Gangs of New York, Hero, The Hours, Insomnia, The Man without a Past, May, Punch-Drunk Love and The Ring.

2001

1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
3. Moulin Rouge!
4. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
5. Spirited Away
6. A Beautiful Mind
7. Mulholland Dr
8. Amelie
9. Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India
10. The Royal Tenenbaums

Runners-up: Asoka, Black Hawk Down, The Devil's Backbone, Dil Chahta Hai, Ghost World, Gosford Park, In The Bedroom, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, The Majestic, The Man Who Wasn't There, Monsoon Wedding, Monsters Inc., The Others, Planet of the Apes, Shrek, Waking Life, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Zoolander.