Article by Marcus Siu

As it looks right now, “Argo” has become the forerunner for “Best Picture” at this year’s Academy Awards.  The film has taken every single major Best Picture Award, including the Golden Globes, Directors Guild of America, and Producers Guild of America. 

However, it’s director/star, Ben Affleck name was not mentioned when they read the list of nominees for “Best Director” when the Academy Award nominations were announced early last month. 

Showing no bitterness at all, Affleck joked at the Golden Globes that no one felt he was snubbed for an acting nomination on “Argo,” in which he gives one of his finest performances as a CIA agent orchestrating a scheme to disguise the Americans as a Hollywood film crew scouting locations in Iran.

Ben Affleck gets the word that he was snubbed by the Academy at this years Academy Awards for Best Director for “Argo”.

For the Actor categories, Daniel Day-Lewis for “Lincoln” for Best Actor is a no-brainer, as he was the heart and soul of the film directed by Steven Spielberg.  He tranformed light into Tony Kushner’s amazing screenplay that brought all the best character actors in Hollywood into a history in the making ; the passing of the 13th Ammendment into life.  Much of Hollywood’s best character actors showcase themselves, alongside the scene stealing Tommy Lee Jones, who deserves to take the Oscar tonight for Best Supporting Actor. 

For the Actress categories, Jennifer Lawrence has taken every major “Best Actress” award, including SAG, Golden Globes, and just recently, the Spirit Awards.  However, I am predicting that Emmanuelle Riva, the oldest actress to be ever nominated at 85, will surprise everyone and pull an upset.  I feel the Academy wants to honor, the French Film, “Amour” more than just a “Best Foreign Film”, since it had been nominated for six major categories, including Best Picture.  I also feel that the Academy knows that the 22 year old Lawrence has many more chances to win an Oscar, since she has many roles lined up ahead of her then the elderly, Riva. 

Left to Right: Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges and Emmanuelle Riva as Anne
Photo by Darius Khondji, (c) Films du Losange, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Anne Hathaway will be the shoo-in winner for Best Supporting Actress for “Les Miserables” as Fantine. 

Since Affleck wasn’t nominated for Best Director, the Academy will probably give it to Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln”.  David O. Russell would be a close runner up for “Silver Linings Playbook”, but I think the Academy will decide on giving him the Best Original Screenplay award instead.

For Best Animated Film, I chose Pixar’s “Brave”, since it has all the elements of a classic film in the Disney tradition.  It’s a little more conservative than Disney’s “Wreck-it Ralph”, about video game characters coming to life, which took home the “Annie’s”, but may not be as suitable to the Academy’s taste.

Quentin Tarentino should pick up another Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Django Unchained”, no matter what Spike Lee thinks.

Adele will help celebrate James Bond’s 50th birthday bash to win a few Oscars for Agent 007 tonight, as she it will definitely win for the title song from “Skyfall”.  It should take Best Sound Editing, as well.  I am also hoping for it to win Best Cinematography for the great Roger Deakins (“Fargo”, “Shawshank Redemption”, “No Country for Old Men”), who has been nominated ten times without winning one. He is definitely due.

Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” will certainly take the Visual Effects Award.  (Who knew that was a CGI Tiger on the boat?)  It should also take Best Music Score, as well.  If they don’t give the cinematography award to “Skyfall”, then they will give it to “Life of Pi”.

Here’s to you, Ben!

Congratulations to Academy Award Ben Affleck who will most likely win Best Picture for “Argo”. He will be only the fourth director in Oscar history to have not been nominated for a Best Picture winner. The last film to win without a director nomination was in 1989 for “Driving Miss Daisy”.

Picture: Argo

Actor : Daniel Day-Lewis

Actress: Emmanuelle Riva

Supporting Actor:  Tommy Lee Jones

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway

Animated Film: Brave

Cinematography:  Skyfall

Costume: Anna Karenina

Directing: Steven Spielberg

Doc Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

Doc Short: Open Heart

Film Editing: Argo

Foreign Language: Amour

Makeup: Les Miserables

Score: Life of Pi

Song:  Skyfall

Production design: Les Miserables

Short film: Head over heals

Short film: Curfew

Sound Editing: Skyfall

Sound Mixing: Les Miserables

Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Adapted Screenplay:  Silver Linings Playbook

Original Screenplay: Django Unchained