Predictions and Predilections: Oscar 2006
A fresh gaggle of Academy Award nominations are set to be announced this Sunday, 29 January 2006, before the ceremony itself takes place on the date not altogether inconspicuously displayed below.
The arrival of both dates is somewhat of a mixed bag for Oscar enthusiasts.
One side of me just wants to bust open a bottle of bubbly and enjoy, but the other is all too aware of the invariable reality that the nomination process and eventual Oscar bestowal will again, for me, be sources of immense personal anguish.
"I'd definitely be going for the bottle of bubbly"
Thanks Jen, but seriously, you clearly have no appreciation of the quite recent and traumatic goings-on at the hands of an undiscerning Academy. What, for example, of this fucking atrocity:
"Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar Winner" is certainly not an abhorrent notion, but it is when it comes at the expense of one of the finest female performances of all-time:
I will never recover.
Meanwhile, speaking of atrocities, this wretched equine derivative has TWO Oscars:
Two Oscars! Meryl fucking Streep only has two Oscars!
And don't even get me started on They Owe Me Watts, whose iconic, astonishing performance pictured below WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED in its year:
But I digress.
And so to some pointless predicting. My picks for the top 6 categories below, in order of likelihood.
Best Picture
Brokeback Mountain
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Crash
Capote
Walk the Line
Best Director
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Bennett Miller, Capote
Steven Spielberg, Munich
David Cronenberg, A History of Violence
Best Actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man
Best Actress
Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Dame Judi Dench, Mrs Henderson Presents
Felicity Huffman, TransAmerica
Charlize Theron, North Country
Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger
Best Supporting Actor
George Clooney, Syriana
Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man
Matt Dillon, Crash
Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
Frank Langella, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Best Supporting Actress
Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Catherine Keener, Capote
Frances McDormand, North Country
Amy Adams, Junebug
That was all very worthwhile, wasn't it.
Enjoy the long weekend.
posted by Scott @ 12:27 PM
6 Comments:
At 10:59 AM, January 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Don't be surprised to see Nadia Petrova as a surprise nomination for Best Actress for her role in the top 6 on the WTA rankings.
At 11:00 AM, January 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
ps i am posting as anonymous as i fear retribution from the Russian mafia over Petrovagate
At 11:18 AM, January 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Perhaps some sort of commentary on the "razzies" would be in order. I thought you would have included in your lists here such classic movies such as the Son of the Mask or Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo.
At 5:11 PM, February 01, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Jolly well done S2BC. The nomination of Keira Knightley's puffy top lip for Pride and Prejudice is a travesty: I would rather see the emaciated Joan Allen tear up the scenery any day. Rusty Crowe is an interesting omission - did his performance at the Australian Country Music Awards have any bearing I wonder -and the absence of David 'Visceral' Cronenberg tediously unsurprising, if that is not a pleonasm. I must ask though, were you not outraged at the failure of Liam Neeson to garner a nod for 'Kinsey' in 2005? Every year the Academy do one thing to tick me off and this year I suspect it will be drop-punting the statuette in PS Hoffperson's general direction rather than our Heath (which is not to say we don't love said Hoffperson but Heath's never going to flex his acting muscle again like he did in Brokeback Mountain).
At 5:23 PM, February 01, 2006,
Scott said…
I heartily agree with all your comments.
Not too surprised by the Neeson omission. The film suffered from a media attack. Far more upset by the Paul Giamatti omission for Sideways.
PSH is a shoo-in. At least it's not as egregious as Hilary's Wank winning last year over at least three superior performances.
Allegedly, Reese is better than everyone this year and is also a shoo-in so perhaps that will offset your suicidal tendencies following PSH's trip to the stage. Hard to beat Allen though.
Nine out of ten times when Crowe throws a telephone at an American workaday citizen the Academy will penalise him. Although to be fair the film was released far too early in the year - Paul Giamatti's nomination for it is simply a "sorry" gesture for last year.
At 1:30 PM, February 02, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Darn tootin' S2BC, the part of my brain that was outraged by the exclusion of Paul Giamatti from the 'Best Actor' category (particularly when Thomas Hayden Church of 'Ned and Stacey' fame was nominated in the best supporting category) must have been destroyed by alcohol. The small collection of cells that remain distantly recall piecing together a string of expletives when 'Frida' got the best art direction nod over 'The Two Towers' way back in the heady days of '02.
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