And the Oscar goes to... Gateway predictions for the 2007 Academy Awards
Well, it's that time of year again where everyone sits down to watch the stars on the red carpet, make last-minute changes to their ballots and wait in anticipation as the presenters open up the sealed envelope and say those magic words: "And the Oscar goes to ...."
Sunday is the 79th Annual Academy Awards. The theme this year is diversity, with an openly gay host and three African-Americans up for prestigious acting awards.
This is also the first year yours truly has actually watched a majority of the films up for the big awards. Because of this I'm pretty excited about this year's ceremony and seeing how my predictions will do. And that's why I'm here, to help handicap this year's winners.
Am I going to be correct with all my choices? No. But I'm sure you'll keep reading anyway. I mean, you've read this far, right? OK then. Let's get started.
Best Original Song: Dreamgirls is nominated three times in this category, and normally that would mean that the votes would be split. However, the other two nominees are songs from Cars and An Inconvenient Truth, so I don't think there will be any problems. I couldn't tell you what song will win, but I'm sure one of them will.
Best Makeup and Art Direction: There is only one film that can compete in either of these categories and that is Pan's Labryinth. The world that Guillermo Del Toro creates in this film is nothing short of fantastic. And, quite frankly, putting films like The Good Shepherd and Click in the same category is insulting.
Best Costume Design: This award always seems to go to a period piece, and of the nominees, that would be Milena Canonero's work in Marie Antoinette. Other films nominated here are Dreamgirls, The Devil Wears Prada, Curse of the Golden Flower and The Queen. The only one I can see challenging Antoinette here would be Curse of the Golden Flower, but not a lot of people even know what the movie is about.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: The nominees are Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Poseidon and Superman Returns. My gut tells me that Dead Man's Chest will win this thing because of its creature designs for the Kraken and the octopus-like Davey Jones, which were fantastic by the way.
Best Supporting Actor and Actress: This one is pretty simple, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson will walk away with the golden statues for their performances in Dreamgirls. The wins will provide Hudson with a firm foothold in Hollywood and also give Eddie Murphy a second chance at redeeming his acting career.
Best Actress and Actor: Helen Mirren, for The Queen, and Forest Whitaker, for The Last King of Scotland, have won every single possible award this year. Not surprisingly, the Oscar will be a well-deserved, feather in each of their caps. Both performances were stellar and outpace their respective competition by a wide, wide margin.Best Director: This year is reminiscent of two years ago when Clint Eastwood won the Best Director Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, besting Martin Scorsese for his work with The Aviator.
Now it's looking like a Scorsese and Eastwood showdown again. Half of the Academy wants to reward Eastwood for his amazing work on both Flags of Our Fathers and Letters for Iwo Jima, and the other half of the Academy wants Scorsese to finally have his Oscar after being snubbed countless times.
Everything points toward this being Scorsese's year. I'm crossing my fingers that he will finally walk away with a little statuette to call his own.
Best Picture: Basically, this category comes down to how much you believe in statistics and tradition. It is almost unheard of that the Best Picture winner isn't directed by the winner of the Best Director award. Now, common sense says that with the most diverse list of nominees in history, the most international film, Babel, is the favorite.
The Departed has Hollywood buzzing like Crash did last year, and if Scorsese does win the Oscar, I think his film could shock a lot of people and, deservedly, win the Oscar as well. If you want a safe pick, go with the likely winner in Babel, but I'm going to take a risk and pick The Departed as my choice for Best Picture of 2006.
Originally published on February 23, 2007
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