By Timothy Austin
Tomorrow is the 85th Academy Awards, Holly-wood’s most prestigious annual event. Moviegoers appear pleased with this year’s list of nominees as the Aca-demy strives to improve its image as an organisation connected to regular movie fans. So who will bring home the gold? 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 Jones’ wig in Lincoln distracted 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 the Academy once again honours an actor most of us respect as one of Hollywood’s best. However, there is no denying the unique presence Waltz brings to the unnerving scenes in Django. Waltz won in 2009 for Inglorious Basterds and has already won a Golden Globe for Django. It is 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
There is little doubt who will be honoured 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 is the established standard. The key scene in which she sings after coins are tossed at her for her “services” is awe-inspiring. Despite powerhouse competitor Sally Field for Lincoln, and Amy Adams (Master), there is little doubt Anne Hathaway will win her first Oscar on Sunday night. Who should win: Anne Hathaway; Who will win: Anne Hathaway
Best Actor
This category also has a clear cut winner. The competition is intense with fan favourite 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. His 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. All the same, Oscar judges have never allowed a poignant historical portrayal like Day Lewis’s 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 nine-year old Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild and 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva for Amour. It is fantastic to see such variety, but despite almost unanimous praise for their performances, there are few predictions for this year’s winner. It’s really a show down between the reigning Queen of Hollywood, Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts’ 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 was 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 Mama. Chastain has even taken to Broadway, starring in The Heiress. The Academy loves to reward actresses as dynamic as Chastain, but can it 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)
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 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. This year, veteran composer John Williams (Star Wars, ET, Jurassic Park) has received his 48th nomination and this could be the year he takes home his sixth Oscar his breathtaking score for Lincoln. However, a new trend in this category has been awarding scores with an exotic sound. If this trend continues, Mychael Danna’s “The Life of Pi” will definitely win Best Score with its lush, melodic Indian-flavoured music. Williams, despite being 81, has been on a winning streak. 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: Mychael Danna
Best Picture
The range this year is huge: with politically themed films such as Zero Dark Thirty and Argo; historical dramas Lincoln and Django Unchained, tearjerkers Les Miserables, Amour and Silver Linings Playbook, as well as visually stunning masterpieces Beasts of the Southern Wild and The Life of Pi. Most of the nominees, especially Lincoln and Thirty, are box office hits and popular crowd pleasers. The winner should be clear to any avid Oscar fan by now; Argo, the tale of a hostage rescue mission built on a fake film created to smuggle hostages disguised as actors to safety is a tour de force film, directed by Ben Affleck. 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 a BAFTA. There is little doubt then that Argo will be crowned the winner tomorrow. Its 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, 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