Oscar Predictions Continued

Here are some more predictions

Best Actor in a Leading Role (5 Nominations)
LOCKS

• Morgan Freeman - Invictus
• George Clooney - Up in the Air
• Jeff Bridgets - Crazy Heart

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
• Michael Stuhlbarg - A Serious Man
• Matt Damon - The Informant!
• Colin Firth - A Single Man
• Joseph Gordon Levitt - (500) Days of Summer

LONG SHOT

• Tobey Maguire - Brothers
• Robert Downey Jr. - Sherlock Holmes

Best Actress in a Leading Role (5 Nominations)
LOCKS

• Gabourey Sidibe - Precious Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire
  
• Carrey Mulligan - An Eduation
• Meryl Streep - Julie and Julia

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren - The Last Station
• Emily Blunt - Young Victoria
• Marion Cotillard - Nine

LONG SHOT

• Saoirse Ronan - The Lovely Bones
• Nisreen Faour - Amreeka
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow - Two Lovers

Best Actor in Supporting Role (5 nominations)
LOCKS

• Matt Damon - Invictus
• Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Basterds
• Christopher Plummer - The Last Station

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
• Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
• Alfred Molina - An Education
• Peter Capaldi - In the Loop

LONG SHOT

• Christian McKay - Me & Orson Welles
• Niels Arestrup - Un Prophete
• Peter Sarasgaard - An Education

Best Actress in a Supporting Role (5 Nominations)
LOCKS

• Mo'nique - Precious Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• Anna Kendrick- Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Marion Cotillard- Nine
• Penelope Cruz - Nine
• Diane Kruger - Inglorious Basterds
• Samantha Morton - The Messenger
• Julianne Moore - A Single Man

LONG SHOT

• Natalie Press - Fifty Dead Man Walking
• Mia Wasikowska - That Evening Sun

Best Animated Feature (3 Nominations):
LOCKS

• Up
• The Princess and the Frog

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Coraline
• Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

LONG SHOT

• Monsters vs. Aliens

The Oscar Buzz - Nomination Speculation

Here comes the Award Season, and we are here for speculating Academy Awards nominations for different categories. Lets start straight away-

Best Picture
This year there will be 10 nominations, so I will speculate 15 movies which are in race for Academy Award for Best Picture :-

LOCKS

• Precious - Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• The Hurt Locker
• Up in the Air
• Inglorious Basterds
• A Serious Man

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Invictus
• An Education
• Avatar
• Nine
• (500) Days of Summer
  

LONG SHOT

• Moon
• The Lovely Bones
• District 9
• Star Trek
• A Single Man

Best Director (5 Nods)
Here are the ten probable contenders :-

LOCKS

• Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
• Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarentino - Inglorious Basterds
  

STRONG CONTENDERS

• James Cameron - Avatar
• Clint Eastwood - Invictus
• Lee Daniels - Precious
• Ethan and Joel Coen - A Serious Man
  

LONG SHOT

• J.J. Abrams - Star Trek
• Peter Jackson - The Lovely Bones
• Rob Marshall - Nine

Best Original Screenplay (5 Nods)
Here are the 10 probable movies with good screenplay :-
LOCKS

• Neill Blomkamp and Tarry Tatchell - District 9
• Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
  
• Away We Go - Eggers & Vendela Vida

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber - (500) Days of Summer
• Ethan and Joel Coen - A Serious Man
• Nancy Meyers - Its Complicated
• Bob Peterson and Peter Doctor - Up

LONG SHOT

• Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman - The Messenger
• James Cameron - Avatar
• Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker - Moon

Best Adapted Screenplay (5 Nods)
Here are the 10 probable contenders :-
LOCKS

• Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner- Up in the Air
  
• Anthony Peckham- Invictus
• Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• Scott Z. Burns - The Informant!
  

STRONG CONTENDERS

• Nick Hornby - An Education
• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche -In the Loop
  
• Jonze & Dave Eggers - Where the Wild Things are

LONG SHOT

• Henry Selick- Coraline
• Jane Campion- Bright Star
  
• Roberto Oci and Alex Kurtzman - Star Trek
  

Coming Soon - Best Actor, Best Actress in both leading and supporting roles! Keep Checking!

Coming soon in a new make-over

Well, it has been almost some eight months or so I haven't updated this blog. Anyways, the Current Buzz will get into a new Avatar (not Cameron's movie), very soon!

So keep checking!

Oscars - Very Predictable

Finally the winners of 81st Annual Academy Awards has been announced, and with no surprise, Slumdog Millionaire has won 8 Oscars.

The best part is - my most of the Oscar Predictions have matched, except Sound Mixing (I listed Slumdog in underdog), Best Supporting Actress (I listed Penelope Cruz in 'Should Win'), Best Foriegn Film (I didn't even described Departures of Japan), Best Cinematography (I missed that), Best Make-Up (I was a bit harsh to Curious Case...), Best Sound Editing (again missed) and Visual Effects (I knew Curious will win but anyway...)

Nonetheless, I got 7 out of 14 correct. 50% result is not something spectacular, but I was able to predict the top-5 categories correctly.

BAFTA Awards - Outlook

Finally BAFTA winners are announced. Slumdog triumphs after winning 7 BAFTA's and highly nominated 'Curious Case of Benjamin Button' wins only 3 BAFTAs.
If you tally with my Oscars prediction, Best Film (Slumdog Millionaire), Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Screenplay [Adapted] (Slumdog Millionaire), Best Actress (Kate Winslet - The Reader), Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Animated Film (Wall E), Best Music (A.R. Rahman), Best Film Editing (Slumdog Millionaire) and Best Art Direction (Benjamin Button) have totally matched.

Best Supporting Actress has been awarded to Penelope Cruz, who was in 'Should Win' category won the award.

In total, 9 out of 18 has matched. Although pretty bad, I predicted most of the important ones correctly :)
I am editing some of my Oscars predictions in order to make them more accurate.

Predictions, Suprises and Snubs

Atlast, AMPAS has finally announced the nominations for 81st Academy Awards. What suprised me was the snubbing of several anticipated movies - like The Dark Knight which I think should have been nominated for atleast in Best Original Screenplay categoray, Revolutionary Road, which I expected at least three nods for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) , Best Actress (Kate Winslet) and Best Direction. Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood is totally killed by Academy, and it didn't recieved even a single nod. I also thought WALL-E should have been nominated for Best Picture category but anyway.

So, Here are my predictions -

[Note :- Edited after BAFTA's]

Best Picture

• Will Win - Slumdog Millionaire
• Should Win - Milk
• Also in Race - Frost / Nixon
• Underdogs - Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader

Best Director

• Will Win - Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Should Win - Danny Boyle
• Also in Race - Ron Howard (Frost / Nixon) , Gus Van Sant (Milk)
• Underdogs - David Flincher (Curious Case...) and Stephen Daldry (The Reader)

Best Screenplay (Original)

• Will Win - Milk
• Should Win - Wall - E
• Also in Race - In Bruges, Frozen River
• Underdogs - Happy Go Lucky

Best Screenplay (Adapted)

• Will Win - Slumdog Millionaire
• Should Win - The Reader
• Also in Race - Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt and Frost / Nixon
• Underdogs - None

Best Actor

• Will Win - Sean Penn (Milk)
• Should Win - Frank Langella (Frost/ Nixon)
• Also in Race -Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
• Underdogs - Brad Pitt (Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)

Best Actress

• Will Win - Kate Winslet (The Reader)
• Should Win - Kate Winslet (The Reader)
• Also in Race - Angelina Jolie (Changeling), Meryl Streep (Doubt)
• Underdogs - Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Melissa Leo (Frozen River)

Best Supporting Actor

• Will Win - Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
• Should Win - Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
• Also in Race - Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), Josh Brolin (Milk), Philip Hoffman (Doubt)
• Underdogs - Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)

Best Supporting Actress

• Will Win - Merisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
• Should Win - Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
• Also in Race - Viola Davis (Doubt) , Taraji P. Henson (Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
• Underdogs - Amy Adams (Doubt)

Best Animated Feature

• Will Win - Wall - E
• Should Win - Wall - E
• Also in Race - None
• Underdogs - Bolt, Kung Fu Panda

Best Foreign Language Film

• Will Win - Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
• Should Win - The Class (France)
• Also in Race - All other nominees
• Underdogs - None

Best Original Score

• Will Win - A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Should Win - Alexandre Desplat (Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
• Also in Race - James Newton Howard (Defiance), Danny Elfman (Milk)
• Underdogs - Thomas Newman (Wall E)

Best Cinematography

• Will Win - Claudia Miranda (Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
• Should Win - Claudia Miranda (Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
• Also in Race - The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, Changeling
• Underdogs - The Reader

Best Art Direction

• Will Win - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Should Win - Revolutionary Road
• Also in Race - Changeling, The Dark Knight
• Underdogs - The Dutchess

Best Costume Designing

• Will Win - The Duchess
• Should Win - Revolutionary Road or Australia
  
• Also in Race - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Underdogs - Milk

Best Film Editing

• Will Win - Slumdog Millionaire
• Should Win - Slumdog Millionaire
• Also in Race - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Milk
• Underdogs - Frost / Nixon

Best Make Up

• Will Win - The Dark Knight
• Should Win - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Also in Race - Hell Boy II - The Golden Army
• Underdogs - None
  

Best Sound Editing

• Will Win - Slumdog Millionaire
• Should Win - Wall -E
  
• Also in Race - The Dark Knight, Iron Man
  
• Underdogs - Wanted
  

Best Sound Mixing

• Will Win - Wall E
  
• Should Win - Wanted
• Also in Race - The Dark Knight, Wall E
• Underdogs - Slumdog Millionaire
  

Best Visual Effects

• Will Win - The Dark Knight
• Should Win - Iron Man
• Also in Race - Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Underdogs - None

Best Original Song

• Will Win - Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Should Win - O Saya (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Also in Race - Down to Eath (Wall E)
• Underdogs - None

Awards Count

• Slumdog Millionaire - 6 / 10
• The Dark Knight - 3 / 8
• Milk - 2 / 8
• Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2 / 13
• Wall E - 2/8
  

Hopefully my predictions will match. What do you think?