80th Annual Academy Awards - Predictions

We are currently just under two weeks from the 80th annual Academy Awards. This year the ceremony will be held on Sunday, February 24 and it is when the best of the best in film are honored for their achievements for the movies released during the 2007 calendar year.

For the last two years I have made predictions about who I thought would win, and last I improved my record over the predictions I made for movies from 2006. Last year I predicted 13 categories correctly out of the 21 categories I predicted; for 2005's films I only predicted 10 correctly. Let’s hope this trend continues and I can do even better this year.

Also as I have done in previous years, I will not be predicting the categories for Best Animated Short Film, Best Live Action Short Film, and Best Documentary Short Subject. These are categories that I know absolutely nothing about and can not even harbor a guess as to which films will win.

Here are the nominees for this year’s Oscars with my predictions seen in red.

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Actor
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

Best Foreign Language Film
12 (Russia)
Beaufort (Israel)
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Katyń (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan)

Best Animated Feature
Ratatouille
Persepolis
Surf’s Up

Best Documentary
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Best Art Direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

Best Cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Driving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Film Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Costume Design
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Makeup
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Best Original Score
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard, Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino, Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami, 3:10 to Yuma

Best Original Song
“Falling Slowly” from Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from Enchanted, Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz
“So Close” from Enchanted, Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” from Enchanted, Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from August Rush, Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack & Tevin Thomas

Best Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best Sound Mixing
3:10 to Yuma
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
Transformers

Best Visual Effects
Transformers
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Let the Bidding Begin

This semester I am teaching a course about Sports and the Media. We will spend a couple of days covering one of my favorite topics, the Olympics.

Very recently the International Olympic Committee announced Sochi, Russia as the host city for the 2014 Winter Games. But now they must turn their attention to the bidding process for the 2016 Summer Games. It is a long process, and a final decision will not be reached until October 2, 2009 at the IOC's meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Right now it appears that there are seven cities that are definitely preparing to submit their bids. (Monterrey, Mexico would have made eight, but the Mexican National Olympic Committee rejected their proposal just yesterday.) Today is the final day for these bids to be submitted.

As it stands right now, the cities definitely vying for the 2016 Olympic Games are:

Baku, Azerbaijan

Chicago, USA

Doha, Qatar

Madrid, Spain

Prague, Czech Republic

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Tokyo, Japan

It will be an interesting race to see which city secures the right to host the games. And it’s hard to make the call at this point. All of these locations have advantages and disadvantages, which will become apparent as the process progresses.

One factor that could influence where the Games will be held is where the Games before it were held. Here’s a list of recent and future host cities.

2004 Summer Games – Athens, Greece

2006 Winter Games – Torino, Italy

2008 Summer Games – Beijing, China

2010 Winter Games – Vancouver, Canada

2012 Summer Games – London, England

2014 Winter Games – Sochi, Russia

I believe having the 2012 games in London will have an impact on Madrid and Prague’s bids. And while the U.S. hasn’t held a Games since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, I am not certain that Chicago was the best choice for the U.S. bid.

I believe that, just on face value without knowing much about what their bids look like, the cities with the best chances are Baku, Doha, and Rio de Janeiro. All three are in areas of the world that have never hosted an Olympics before, which the IOC may see as a plus. My money at this point is on Doha. I believe that Qatar is building the infrastructure necessary to host major sporting events such as this one and can be an effective host.

Oscar Predictions

This coming Sunday is the 79th annual Academy Awards. It is when the best of the best in film are honored for their achievements during the previous year.

At this time last year I made predictions about who I thought would win for films released in 2005. Out of the 21 categories I predicted last year, I was correct for 10 of them. Let’s hope I can do better this year.

Also like last year, I will not be predicting the categories for Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short Film, and Best Documentary Short Subject. These are categories that I know nothing about and can not even harbor a guess as to which films will win.

With those notes, here are the nominees with my predictions in red.

Best Picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen






Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93






Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland



Best Actress
Penélope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children



Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed



Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel



Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal





Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen






Best Foreign Film
After the Wedding (Denmark)
Days of Glory/Indigènes (Algeria)
The Lives of Others (Germany)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico)
Water (Canada)




Best Animated Feature Film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House








Best Documentary
Deliver Us from Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country




Best Art Direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The Prestige




Best Cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Prestige




Best Film Editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93




Best Costume Design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen



Best Makeup
Apocalypto
Click
Pan’s Labyrinth






Best Original Score
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen






Best Original Song
“I Need to Wake Up” Music and Lyric by Melissa Etheridge from An Inconvenient Truth
“Listen” Music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler, Lyric by Anne Preven from Dreamgirls
“Love You I Do” Music by Henry Krieger, Lyric by Siedah Garrett from Dreamgirls
“Our Town” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman from Cars
“Patience” Music by Henry Krieger, Lyric by Willie Reale from Dreamgirls



Best Sound Editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest






Best Sound Mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest






Best Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns