For football fans, the Super Bowl may be over but for me, mine hasn’t started yet. This Sunday is the Academy Awards and the only playbook in sight is the one Hollywood is pushing hard for. Will it be Silver Lining’s night or Argo’s? This has been the most unpredictable and surprising race in years featuring a stellar line-up of nominees. AFF is represented well here as our 2012 festival line-up included Silver Linings Playbook, Flight, The Sessions, and short film nominees Asad, Buzkashi Boys, and Head Over Heals. I’ve included my predictions below in all 24 categories. I’ll start off with an analysis of my two favorite categories, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo by Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi by David Magee
Lincoln by Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook
Predicted winner: Argo
Chris Terrio’s tight script never lags and does a phenomenal job of keeping the audience in suspense despite already knowing the outcome. And with tons of smart, funny one-liners, Chris Terrio could be telling the other nominees “Argof*ckyourself” on Sunday. Tony Kushner has enough respectability in the industry to pull off a win but I think Argo will continue its winning streak here.
Best Original Screenplay
Amour by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino
Flight by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty by Mark Boal
Predicted winner: Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino has already won some key awards so far for original screenplay so I’d say he’s the favorite. I’m sure some residual love from Inglorious Basterds and the box office success of Django can’t hurt either. Mark Boal did win the WGA award but Tarantino wasn’t eligible for a nomination and Michael Haneke could surprise here too.
And here is the full list of my predictions:
Best Picture: Argo
Best Director: Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio – Argo
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Production Design: Anna Karenina
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Hair & Makeup: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Editing: Argo
Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Best Sound Editing: Life of Pi
Best Original Score: Life of Pi
Best Original Song: Skyfall
Best Animated Feature: Brave
Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Live Action Short: Curfew
Best Animated Short: Paperman
Best Documentary Short: Open Heart
Check back after the show on Sunday and see how I did!
–Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director
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