The 85th Academy Awards- If I Picked The Winners

I enjoy the Oscars. They're fun if you don't take them too seriously. Sometimes it's nice when something you want to win does or an actor finally gets recognition. And naturally being a Hollywood awards show it all tends to be nice and fixed ahead of time by the Academy. But whatever, everything's political and controlled nowadays and there's not much we can do about it.

Except to offer our own opinions.

So I present to you what my personal picks would be for the Oscars this year. I've seen the majority of the main nominees and being a judgmental jerk I've predicted what movies won't win because they're either bad or simply don't have a chance in hell. For example, I haven't seen Flight with Denzel Washington, but my limited knowledge of that movie tells me it probably features a solid performance from him as always, but probably not truly Oscar worthy this time 'round.

I'm gonna skip a couple of the lesser-known awards like for Documentary and the Short Subjects mainly because I have next to no interest in them as films (not to be too disparaging of course).

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that these selections have ANY chance of winning, they're just my personal picks. And I'm only going to include names of people when I think they're significant or important. Also, I'm not gonna give super specific blurbs about any one of them, I'm just making a list. It's that simple.

Best Visual Effects

Life of Pi

Best Film Editing

Argo

Best Costume Design

Snow White & The Huntsman (Colleen Atwood)

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Best Cinematography

Skyfall (Roger Deakins)

Best Production Design

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Best Sound Mixing

Skyfall

Best Sound Editing

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Original Song

Skyfall by Adele

Best Original Score

Life of Pi by Mychael Danna

Best Animated Feature

ParaNorman

Best Writing- Adapted Screenplay

Lincoln (Tony Kushner)

Best Writing- Original Screenplay

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Best Director

Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Best Picture

Django Unchained

From My Tenth Grade Health Teacher...And Still So Very True Of Me

Dear Galen,

I had a lot of fun with you this year. I always like a student who will make fun of their teacher. You are a very mature young man and I appreciate what you had to add to the class. I will miss being able to look over at you and see your eyes rolling, and hearing sarcastic comments from your side of the room. While some teachers might not appreciate this, let's face it, for our class it was perfect.

My Mission Statement...Which Sounds A Lot More Official Than I Intended

The human condition is one of the utmost importance. To understand how other people live their lives from day to day may seem dull in the eyes of those who do not necessarily understand what they are seeing, but if conveyed properly, such observations can expose certain realities of existence, and most importantly, give us a greater sense of meaning.

My intention then, in creating films, is to show just that. Through my own life experiences and by seeing how people, often strangers, behave, I hope to tell stories of real individuals and how seemingly trivial matters they may concern themselves with, at least in a cinematic sense, can actually speak volumes to an audience within a span of a few short minutes or just a couple of hours. I appreciate greatly the nature of relationships, be they romantic or familial, and believe them too to be components of films that are necessary to communicate a given message. To execute these ideas properly and effectively, without ever feeling heavy-handed or melodramatic, is a challenge, but one I am always willing to overcome for the sake of a good and meaningful story.

Best Performances of the Year

So this time of year there's always buzz around different performances by actors and actresses and who might be nominated for a certain award. I'm going to pick rather randomly the performances I was most impressed by. I'm restricting it to movies I've seen this year (yes, I know Anne Hathaway is kind of a shoe-in for Supporting Actress, but I have yet to see Les Miserables, so that's why she's not on here for instance.)

Also I'm well aware there are a variety of actors and actresses who have buzz around them for various reasons, but I don't necessarily care about them or their performances (again this is all personal to me and what I think). That's why there's no Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty or John Hawkes for The Sessions. Neither of those movies are ones I'm that interested in seeing and simply don't seem to be super Oscar-caliber to me. If someone wins something, I'm willing to check the movie out despite my reservations for the performance or the movie (Hello, Iron Lady).

I'm not going to break this down into the usual categories of Best Supporting this or that or Best Actor/Actress, because again I'm being lazy and this list is kind of random anyway.

Finally, I'm not gonna predict nominations for the Oscars, because that game is too difficult to play right now at this stage. I'd rather play at guessing when the names are in for official selection.

Sally Field (Lincoln)

Amy Adams (The Master)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Javier Bardem (Skyfall)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)