Monday, January 22, 2007
E.K. Nation's Oscar Nomination Supernova
Man. Have we even seen anything this year? Little Miss Sunshine; okay, there's one. Anything else? Can't think of it, if there is. We'll mention it if we remember as we go...we're planning on finally seeing Borat this afternoon.
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; Jack Nicholson, The Departed; Brad Pitt, Babel; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed. Arkin is hysterical in Sunshine and would deserve a nod here, but out of everyone in this film, we think Paul Dano's mostly-silent performance was superior in a film full of great performances.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Adrianna Barazza, Babel; Cate Blanchett, Notes On A Scandal; Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel. This is the category that typically allows for the most surprises or longshots. Some people were touting Catherine O'Hara from For Your Consideration, but that film was released too long ago and didn't keep any buzz the way Little Miss Sunshine has done. Hence, the nod towards Breslin over O'Hara here.
ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz, Volver; Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal; Helen Mirren, The Queen, Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada; Kate Winslet, Little Children. Prada seems like a weird movie to cull an Oscar nominee from, but it's Streep, so we'll go with that. It's Dench, so we'll go with Dench, and Winslet, because she's Winslet. The winner here, though, appears to be Mirren. And again, we've seen nothing here thus far.
ACTOR: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness; Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. After getting an honorary Oscar a couple years ago, O'Toole is back in the competitive category again in what many are calling one of his best performances yet. We think there's enough buzz to get Gosling and Whitaker in, and despite the Academy's failure to nominate Jim Carrey for anything so far, we think Borat is a big enough sensation to warrant a guess here, unlikely as it may seem to become reality. While not as original or funny a character as Marge Gunderson, Borat is somewhat close.
DIRECTOR: Bill Condon, Dreamgirls; Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine; Stephen Frears, The Queen; Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu, Babel; Martin Scorsese, The Departed. You just never know if Scorsese's gonna finally get his. And yes, at last check, Three 6 Mafia got an Oscar before Scorsese. Maybe this will be rectified somehow this year.
PICTURE: Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. It's our understanding that The Departed is considered a favorite here, but then again, it's a Scorsese picture, which means Oscars are kind of hard to come by. Dreamgirls was an early favorite; not so much now.
This is probably going to be the least successful round of Oscar predictions we've ever offered up here. But that's in keeping with the spirit of our predicting things. We had Denver and Carolina in the Super Bowl. We know nothing.
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; Jack Nicholson, The Departed; Brad Pitt, Babel; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed. Arkin is hysterical in Sunshine and would deserve a nod here, but out of everyone in this film, we think Paul Dano's mostly-silent performance was superior in a film full of great performances.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Adrianna Barazza, Babel; Cate Blanchett, Notes On A Scandal; Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel. This is the category that typically allows for the most surprises or longshots. Some people were touting Catherine O'Hara from For Your Consideration, but that film was released too long ago and didn't keep any buzz the way Little Miss Sunshine has done. Hence, the nod towards Breslin over O'Hara here.
ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz, Volver; Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal; Helen Mirren, The Queen, Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada; Kate Winslet, Little Children. Prada seems like a weird movie to cull an Oscar nominee from, but it's Streep, so we'll go with that. It's Dench, so we'll go with Dench, and Winslet, because she's Winslet. The winner here, though, appears to be Mirren. And again, we've seen nothing here thus far.
ACTOR: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness; Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. After getting an honorary Oscar a couple years ago, O'Toole is back in the competitive category again in what many are calling one of his best performances yet. We think there's enough buzz to get Gosling and Whitaker in, and despite the Academy's failure to nominate Jim Carrey for anything so far, we think Borat is a big enough sensation to warrant a guess here, unlikely as it may seem to become reality. While not as original or funny a character as Marge Gunderson, Borat is somewhat close.
DIRECTOR: Bill Condon, Dreamgirls; Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine; Stephen Frears, The Queen; Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu, Babel; Martin Scorsese, The Departed. You just never know if Scorsese's gonna finally get his. And yes, at last check, Three 6 Mafia got an Oscar before Scorsese. Maybe this will be rectified somehow this year.
PICTURE: Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. It's our understanding that The Departed is considered a favorite here, but then again, it's a Scorsese picture, which means Oscars are kind of hard to come by. Dreamgirls was an early favorite; not so much now.
This is probably going to be the least successful round of Oscar predictions we've ever offered up here. But that's in keeping with the spirit of our predicting things. We had Denver and Carolina in the Super Bowl. We know nothing.
