by Sumner Strickland | staff writer
The Academy Award nominations were announced last week with a few notable nods and snubs leaving movie connoisseurs questioning who will win.
Best Original Screenplay
Who should win: It’s a toss up between Moonrise Kingdom and Django Unchained. Both are written beautifully and should be recognized for it, but if I had to pick just one it would be Moonrise Kingdom.
Who will win: Moonrise Kingdom, this is the academy’s way of making up for not nominating it for best picture.
Who might steal: It’s another toss up between Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained, but due to the controversial nature of the two it’d be an extremely unlikely that either of the two would win.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Who should win: Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables, her very moving performance, which only lasted no more than twenty minutes, captivated everyone.
Who will win: Amy Adams, now having not yet seen The Master I can’t make an accurate judgment of her performance but from the critical community she’s received very high praise.
Who might steal: Sally Field, believe it or not she gave a very convincing Mary Todd in Lincoln and made the film very enjoyable to watch.
Actor in a Supporting Role
Who should win: Christoph Waltz, it’s pretty hard to imagine Django without him, actually it’s impossible to imagine Django without him because he makes the movie just as much as Leonardo Dicaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Foxx, etc. And he plays a German dentist turned bounty hunter that’s win worthy just in it self.
Who will win: Christoph Waltz, all the reasons explained above.
Who might steal: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I haven’t seen his performance but he has a fighting chance from what has been communicated.
Who got robbed: Leonardo Dicaprio, the rightful winner of this category is snubbed from what I assume are grounds of extreme controversial issues regarding his character.
Actress in a Leading Role
Who should win: Quvenzhane Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild. Having just recently seen this movie I can say with all honesty she’s the one to take it home, it’s truly remarkable the range this six year old has.
Who will win: Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty, from the recent Golden Globe win it wouldn’t seem unlikely that the academy won’t follow in there footsteps and being as young as Quvenzhane is, that’s another reason to go the other way on this one.
Who could steal: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, her performance is surprisingly good as the mentally deranged character she plays goes through a meltdown of emotional problems and bipolar disorder. Having said that it’d be a near miracle if she won, the only thing really holding her back from a real shot is all the Hunger Games hype, and the academy being the way they are would never let her win an award if her life depended on it.
Actor in a Leading Role
Who should win: Daniel Day Lewis for Lincoln, Lewis has proven time and time again, he doesn’t lose…ever. No one even comes close to beating him.
Who will win: Look up.
Who could steal: Not one person.
Directing
Who should win: Ang Lee for Life of Pi, the book itself was deemed impossible to film recently after the book was released but no attention was paid to those statistics. Instead, they did it and did it well enough to get several Oscar nominations.
Who will win: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln, which is completely undeserving no matter how much I’ve enjoyed Spielberg’s work in the past. It’s not an outstanding directing job by any means. In fact the actors did all the work themselves and it shows, so I disagree highly with Spielberg winning.
Who got robbed: Three names notably the first one, Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom who directed one of the greatest ensemble casts of all time and no one was underplayed or overplayed, each were used to there perfect strengths. And of course Quentin Tarantino for Django, when directing such an impressive cast through the horrors of slavery, keeping everyone happy and playing them to such high levels of professional acting. It’s hard to believe that wouldn’t be recognized but it’s the Oscars and one can only accept disappointments at this point.
Best Picture
Who should win: Django Unchained, that’s a personal choice but it’s truly better than al the other nominees but if I’m thinking in terms of who will actually win I’d pick Silver Linings Playbook.
Who will win: Lincoln, Daniel Day Lewis is great, but that’s about it, it is definitely not best picture worthy in the slightest.
Who got robbed: Moonrise Kingdom, the rightful winner of best picture and the greatest movie of the year but of course it’s a popularity contest and moral values not who’s best.
