89th Academy Awards: Predictions

The time has come once again for the annual Academy Awards, the biggest show in the film awards circuit. The 89^th rendition of this iconic ceremony airs tonight and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. And, overall, I must say that this is one of the most satisfying lists of nominees that I’ve ever seen in the 9 plus years that I’ve been following the buzz of the Oscar season. Admittedly, the main reason why I say this is because this year, we thankfully don’t have to endure another #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Yes, many of you will remember that the past two Oscar ceremonies were hindered by the widespread backlash that spawned from having an all-white group of nominees in the acting categories. Thankfully, that’s not the case this year; seriously, I don’t think the Oscars would’ve survived that controversy had it happened for the third year in a row. So, on that note, it’s time to do what I always do this time of the year; make a post in which I list my picks for this year’s ceremony, from the technical awards like ‘Best Visual Effects’ and ‘Best Score’ to the big ones like ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Actress’, and of course, ‘Best Picture’. Per usual, I must advise that these are not meant to be the ‘be-all, end-all’ picks of who should win. These are just my personal picks and I’m not going to do the common ‘What Will Win/What Should Win’ routine that you tend to see everywhere online, nor am I going to focus on the controversial snubs that get brought up every year. Also, I won’t be covering every Oscar category only because there are some instances where I haven’t seen enough films from a certain category which, for me, is mainly the case for the Documentary, Short Film, and Foreign Film categories. With that said, here are my picks for the 89^th annual Academy Awards.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

*DEEPWATER HORIZON

*DOCTOR STRANGE

*THE JUNGLE BOOK

*KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

*ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

MY PICK: DOCTOR STRANGE

Damn, this is arguably the most impressive lineup of ‘Best Visual Effects’ nominees that I’ve ever seen. They even recognized the art of stop-motion animation with Kubo and the Two Strings. The last time that this ever happened was with The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. But for my pick, I’m going with Doctor Strange… and no, it’s not just because I’m an MCU fan. It’s because I think it has a good chance of winning. The MCU films have always done a great job with their visual effects, but Doctor Strange truly went above and beyond with its effects, which is fitting considering that this film is based around the mystical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This paved the way for some truly gorgeous, and in many cases surreal and highly trippy, visuals and action sequences. Highlights include the scene where Dr. Strange first experiences the powers of the mystic arts and the big fight scene in New York near the end of the film that is very reminiscent of 2010’s Best Visual Effects winner, Inception. As of 2017, no MCU film has ever won an Academy Award. Many of them were nominated in this category in the past, like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, and some even managed to get nominated in other categories. Iron Man got nominations for Sound Mixing/Editing while Guardians of the Galaxy was nominated for makeup/hairstyling. But, sadly, none of these films managed to win one of these awards. So, I’ll admit… I kind of want Doctor Strange to win primarily just to prove that superhero films are worthy of awards like this amidst all that damn ‘fatigue’ talk that refuses to go away. But, if I had to pick a runner-up, I’ll go with The Jungle Book. I’m guessing that this is the other big front-runner this year given all the praise that the film has gotten for its photo-realistic animals and environments.

BEST FILM EDITING

*ARRIVAL

*HACKSAW RIDGE

*HELL OR HIGH WATER

*LA LA LAND

*MOONLIGHT

MY PICK: MOONLIGHT

I’m going to be quick here because I’ll admit that I can’t say much about a film in terms of editing. Simply put, Moonlight had some excellent editing, highlighted by the impressive long take at the beginning of the film. Interesting to note, the film was edited by two people; Nat Sanders handled Chapters 1 and 2 of the film while Joi McMillon edited the final chapter. As for a runner-up pick, I’ll go with Hacksaw Ridge as the editing had a major hand in making the film’s action sequences so impressive.  

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

*ALLIED

*FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

*FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

*JACKIE

*LA LA LAND

MY PICK: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

For Best Costume Design, I’m going with my third favorite film of 2016* (as of the publishing of my ‘Top 12 Films of 2016’ list; I’ve seen some more films since then that would probably cause a few changes to that list), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Like Doctor Strange with ‘Best Visual Effects’, I think that there’s a good chance of Fantastic Beasts possibly coming away with this award (along with maybe even another one that we’ll get to in a little bit). The film is a period piece set in 1920’s New York and, as such, featured some great 1920’s costume design by the legendary Colleen Atwood. Atwood’s already won 3 Oscars in the past for Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Alice in Wonderland so perhaps this Sunday will see her win her fourth. For my runner-up pick, I’m going with, admittedly, the only other film in this list that I’ve seen; La La Land. On that note, I’m well-aware that this nomination has been a bit controversial amongst some people who question why the film got nominated for this category seeing how the costumes in the film are basically just regular clothes for the most part. But, if you ask me, it’s hard to deny how iconic at least one piece of costuming from the film is; the yellow dress that Emma Stone wears during the ‘A Lovely Night’ sequence.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

*A MAN CALLED OVE

*STAR TREK BEYOND

*SUICIDE SQUAD

MY PICK: STAR TREK BEYOND

My favorite film from 2016 gets my pick for ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’, a category which, as usual, only sees three nominees a year compared to the usual 5. And, yes, the generally maligned Suicide Squad managed to get a nomination in this category. But, in its defense, the makeup design in the film was arguably one of its primary highlights… and yes, I’m referring to the film that featured Jared Leto’s eccentric take on the Joker without the slightest bit of irony. But, like I said, my pick goes to Star Trek Beyond. A notable tidbit about the film was that the makeup team created 50 new alien species for the film. And while many of them were no doubt just featured as extras, it’s still quite an impressive feat that also serves as a fitting tie-in with Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary. Plus, this isn’t the first time that a Star Trek film has competed in this category. Back in 2009, the first Kelvin-era Trek film was nominated for this same award… and it won! So, with that in mind, I have the feeling that we’ll be seeing Trek come away with this award again thanks to the excellent work done by the makeup team for Beyond (sadly, Star Trek Into Darkness didn’t get nominated back in 2013). Do I have a runner-up? Eh, I’ll go with Suicide Squad because like I said, at the very least the makeup design was solid, particularly for Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, the latter of whom was done with practical (let me say that again, practical!) makeup effects. Also, it’d be pretty funny if it managed to win despite the critical bashing that it got upon release.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

*ARRIVAL

*LA LA LAND

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

*SILENCE

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

This was a hard category to pick because all these films (disclaimer: I haven’t seen Silence) had some great cinematography. So, with that said, why did I pick La La Land? Well, for one thing, cinematographer Linus Sandgren did a great job in capturing the old-school Hollywood style with his camera work, which of course fit perfectly with the film’s ‘Classic Hollywood’ feel. The film was shot in a style that mirrored the classic widescreen process known as ‘Cinemascope’, though it should be noted that the film wasn’t really shot in the Cinemascope format. The opening credit of ‘Presented in Cinemascope’ is only done as a tribute to the format. Aside from that, the film also had great use of color (e.g. Mia’s yellow dress) and its frequent use of long takes made the musical numbers even more memorable than they already were. For my runner-up pick, I’m going with Arrival, which was shot by Bradford Young (Selma and the upcoming Han Solo film). For that film, Young muted the overall color scheme, something that’s not usually seen in a sci-fi film like this, to create a ‘mundane’ (a term that Young has used to describe the cinematography) and simplistic feel.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

*ARRIVAL

*FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

*HAIL, CAESAR!

*LA LA LAND

*PASSENGERS

MY PICK: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Basically, I’m just going to reiterate the same thing that I said for ‘Best Costume Design’. Being a 1920’s period piece, Fantastic Beasts also had great production design in terms of how it recreated the world of 1920’s New York. But then you can also factor in the fact that this is a film set in the Wizarding World of J.K. Rowling, and her innate ability for worldbuilding is on full display here. For my runner-up pick, I’ll go with Arrival because you can tell that a lot of effort went into creating the film’s aliens as well as other various facets of the film (e.g. the alien ‘language’).

BEST SOUND EDITING/MIXING

MY PICK (FOR BOTH CATEGORIES): LA LA LAND

Because both of these categories tend to cover the same general aspect of filmmaking, I decided that La La Land earned my picks for both categories. After all, this is a musical we’re talking about. Sound design is very much a key aspect of that kind of production. And, of course, the sound design in La La Land was excellent… and that’s all I’m going to say because I know little about sound mixing and editing.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

*AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM) – LA LA LAND

*CAN’T STOP THE FEELING – TROLLS

*CITY OF STARS – LA LA LAND

*THE EMPTY CHAIR – JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY

*HOW FAR I’LL GO – MOANA

MY PICK: AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM) – LA LA LAND

It’d be a genuine shock if La La Land didn’t win this award. Right now, the big front-runner in this category is the song that has become the definitive track from the film’s soundtrack, ‘City of Stars’, first sung by Ryan Gosling and then sung as a duet between him and Emma Stone. But while I do agree that it is a great song… admittedly, it’s not my favorite from the soundtrack. Instead, my favorite song from the film was Stone’s primary solo, ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’, which she sings while at her character’s most successful audition. The song was featured in the second trailer for the film and because of this, it basically became my favorite song from the soundtrack before I even saw the film. And I think the key to it is that, in the context of its appearance in the film, Emma Stone is the only one onscreen during this sequence. It’s just like when Anne Hathaway sang ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ in Les Miserables; the focus is entirely on the lead singer/actress and, thus, fully displays their singing/acting ability. And that’s why it’s my favorite song from the soundtrack; heck, even Damien Chazelle stated that it was his favorite as well. But, if ‘City of Stars’ wins, I’ll be perfectly fine with that. As for the other songs, I really loved ‘How Far I’ll Go’ from Moana, an excellent representation of the film’s title character as developed by musical genius Lin-Manuel Miranda and brilliantly performed by Auli’i Cravalho. I also really enjoyed Justin Timberlake’s ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ from Trolls. Yeah, I know it’s easy to joke about the film that it is featured in and technically this song has been more of a chart-topping hit than an in-film song (I admittedly wouldn’t know how well it fits into Trolls as I haven’t seen the film) but it’s still a good song; it’s catchy and upbeat, which resulted in a highly enjoyable summer hit. And finally, we got ‘The Empty Chair’, performed by Sting for the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story. Anyone notice how, in this category, they always tend to pick one song from a lesser-known film? Anyway, it’s okay…

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

*JACKIE

*LA LA LAND

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

*PASSENGERS

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

Of course, a lot of the buzz surrounding La La Land has come courtesy of its songs, written by the duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. However, equally important to the soundtrack’s success is its score, provided by director Damien Chazelle’s Harvard University roommate Justin Hurwitz, who also did the scores for Chazelle’s previous two films, including Whiplash. Hurwitz provides us with a great array of upbeat and jazzy backing tracks to these great songs, from the grand opening number ‘Another Day of Sun’ to my pick for Best Song, ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’. But there’s also a lot of great non-vocal tracks in the soundtrack as well, from the tune that plays during Mia and Sebastian’s visit to Griffith Observatory (‘Planetarium’) to the 7-minute melody that plays during the film’s amazing ending (‘Epilogue’). And of course, who can forget the film’s classic main motif, ‘Mia and Sebastian’s Theme’. Like with Best Original Song, it’d be a genuine shock if La La Land doesn’t win this category. But, if I had to pick a runner-up, I think I’ll go with Moonlight. That film’s soundtrack was done by Nicholas Britell, who notably served as a producer on both iterations of Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash; the 2013 short and the 2014 feature film. As for his work on Moonlight, there’s a nice melodic feel to it, especially due to the use of pianos and string instruments.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

*KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

*MOANA

*MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI

*THE RED TURTLE

*ZOOTOPIA

MY PICK: ZOOTOPIA

First off, I got to ask… why didn’t Finding Dory get nominated in this category? I mean, I’m guessing it probably wouldn’t have won it anyway considering the other films in the running but the film did do well with critics. It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, for crying out loud! I’m honestly surprised that the film has been getting ignored by quite a few award shows. It didn’t even get a Golden Globe nomination. Ah well… anyway, my pick goes to Disney Animation’s first release of 2016, Zootopia. Their other 2016 effort, Moana, also got a nomination in this category and while I did really love that film, I’ll admit that I prefer Zootopia by just a slight margin. Don’t get me wrong, Moana is great too, particularly in regards to its great representation of Polynesian culture. So, with that in mind, Moana is my runner-up pick. However, I give the edge to Zootopia for the one thing that it did that turned it from an already great Disney animated film into a Disney film that was so good, you’d swear it was something that Walt would’ve made in his day. On the surface, Zootopia seems like a fun buddy cop comedy set within a world fully inhabited by animals. And while the film is most certainly a fun buddy cop story, it’s also a story that addresses themes like racism and prejudice which, suffice it to say, are quite timely themes. And that’s the reason why I think the film has been winning most of the primary ‘animated feature’ awards during this year’s award circuit. Again, that’s not to discredit Moana; it’s quite an impressive feat that both of Disney’s animated films this year were terrific. I also finally got around to seeing Kubo and the Two Strings and, like many others, I really liked it. It had an engaging story, lovable characters, and gorgeous animation. However, considering that this category usually ends up being won by Disney or DreamWorks, I have the feeling it’s not going to win this year.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

*ARRIVAL

*FENCES

*HIDDEN FIGURES

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

MY PICK: MOONLIGHT

For Best Adapted Screenplay, my pick goes to Moonlight. The film is based off a semi-autobiographical play titled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, which was written in 2003 by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. When director Barry Jenkins adapted it to film, he implemented some of his own personal experiences into it as well. This results in a film in which you can genuinely sense how personal the story is for Jenkins and McCraney. For example, both had mothers who struggled with drug addiction and a good chunk of the film takes place in Miami’s Liberty Square apartment complex, where the two used to live growing up. Jenkins also decided to split up the story into three chapters, centering on the main character Chiron when he’s a kid, a teenager, and a young adult. He does a great job of balancing these three chapters out; none of them overshadow the other at any point. In other words, they’re each given the proper amount of time and character development. Thus, that’s why this film gets my pick for Best Adapted Screenplay; it’s got a great emotional core while also being well-balanced. For runner-up, I’ll go with Arrival. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who also wrote 2016’s well-received horror film Lights Out, adapted author Ted Chiang’s 1998 short story Story of Your Life to great success, especially in terms of conveying its layered storytelling and smart handling of its sci-fi elements.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

*HELL OR HIGH WATER

*LA LA LAND

*THE LOBSTER

*MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

*20^TH CENTURY WOMEN

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

Once again, we go back to director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to classic Hollywood. The great thing about Chazelle’s screenplay is that while it is a love story set in the City of Angels, it’s not a completely romanticized affair. Sure, there are some romanticized elements in the film (e.g. all the classic film references) but at its core, there’s a great sense of realism to the story, namely through things not always turning out well for its main characters. Case in point, the ending, which goes against the traditional narrative of the musical genre by not concluding with the straightforward happy ending. Simply put, Chazelle’s screenplay has such a great sublime quality to it, and that’s why it earns my vote. For my runner-up pick, I’ll be going with writer Taylor Sheridan’s Hell or High Water. In this film, Sheridan gave us incredibly layered characters and put them in a conflict that wasn’t black and white. In other words, it was a story in which the characters that would normally be the antagonists of a story of this nature are the protagonists, with the film being set in a gritty locale that was hard-hitting on an emotional level.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

*VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

*NAOMIE HARRIS (MOONLIGHT)

*NICOLE KIDMAN (LION)

*OCTAVIA SPENCER (HIDDEN FIGURES)

*MICHELLE WILLIAMS (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

MY PICK: VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

And now we get into the acting categories. Kicking things off with Best Supporting Actress, my pick goes to my fellow Rhode Island native, Viola Davis, for her emotional turn as Rose Maxson in Fences… though, technically, she’s the main female lead in that film, not ‘supporting’. Ah well, aside from that miscalculation, she did a fantastic job in the film, working well off co-star, and the film’s director, Denzel Washington. Poor Rose is put through a hell of a lot in Fences, particularly once she learns that her husband has been cheating on her, and Davis is dealt with a good chunk of the film’s emotional turmoil. If I had to pick her best scene in the film, it would have to be the one that was featured in the trailer, in which she rebuffs a comment made by her husband about him being stuck in the same place in life for nearly two decades by noting that she’s been right there with him the whole time and that she’s made her own sacrifices in life. For my runner-up pick, it’s a toss-up between Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea and Naomie Harris for Moonlight. Williams, who I can say is one of my favorite actresses working today, was terrific as usual in the role of Randi, the main character’s ex-wife. As for Harris, she very much went against type to great success in the role of the main character’s emotionally abusive and drug-addicted mother, Paula. I also want to highlight the other two nominees in the category, Nicole Kidman and Octavia Spencer, for their great performances in their respective films, in which both portrayed real-life people.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

*MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

*JEFF BRIDGES (HELL OR HIGH WATER)

*LUCAS HEDGES (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*DEV PATEL (LION)

*MICHAEL SHANNON (NOCTURNAL ANIMALS)

MY PICK: MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

For Best Supporting Actor, my pick goes to first-time nominee Mahershala Ali, who plays a crack dealer named Juan in director Barry Jenkins’ emotional drama. It’s also worth noting that Ali is only in one-third of the film, the opening chapter. Once the middle chapter starts up, it’s revealed that Juan has died from undisclosed reasons. And while his screen time may be limited, Ali very much makes the most out of it. There’s a great sublime quality to his performance, as we see him befriend young Chiron and become more of a parental figure to him than his mother Paula ever was. It’s also quite fascinating how his role in the film comes to an end. The first chapter ends with Chiron asking Juan if he’s a drug dealer. Juan admits that he is and once he also reveals that he’d been selling drugs to Chiron’s mother, Chiron leaves his house. The final shot of Ali in the film sees him greatly ashamed of what he’s just admitted to his new friend, a major contrast to the cool, laid-back, and wise persona that he’s conveyed for the past half hour. That final scene alone is the main reason why Ali gets my vote. As for my runner-up pick, I’m going to go with Lucas Hedges, who played Patrick in Manchester by the Sea. The son of the main character’s recently deceased brother, Patrick goes through quite a lot in the film, from an emotional perspective, and Hedges, in a great breakout performance, handles all this material brilliantly.

BEST ACTRESS

*ISABELLE HUPPERT (ELLE)

*RUTH NEGGA (LOVING)

*NATALIE PORTMAN (JACKIE)

*EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

*MERYL STREEP (FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS)

MY PICK: EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

My pick for Best Actress goes to the shining starlet of La La Land, Emma Stone. The film gave Stone a perfect opportunity to showcase a lot of her talents as an actress, from her infectious charisma to her excellent singing ability, as I’ve already noted when I talked about her big solo in the film. It also helps that she has great chemistry with her co-star, Ryan Gosling; it is their third on-screen collaboration, after all. As for my runner-up pick, I’ll admit that I’ve only seen one of the other four films that featured this year’s Best Actress nominees; thus, that runner-up pick goes to Ruth Negga. In the true story that served as the basis for director Jeff Nichols’ Loving, she played Mildred Loving who, along with her husband Richard (Joel Edgerton), was forced to fight for their right to be married when the state of Virginia deemed their marriage as invalid. It’s an emotional story, for sure, and Negga does a phenomenal job in the role of the soft-spoken but kind-hearted Mildred. Like I said, though, I haven’t seen any of the other films in this category. This includes Florence Foster Jenkins, which earned Meryl Streep a record-setting 20^th Oscar nomination (P.S. don’t tell this to Donald Trump, though, if you know what I mean), Jackie, in which Natalie Portman starred as former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and director Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, in which Isabelle Huppert stars as a woman who seeks revenge against the man who raped her. Of these other three, Huppert is notably being regarded as one of the category’s biggest frontrunners, especially after winning a Golden Globe for her performance back in January.

BEST ACTOR

*CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*ANDREW GARFIELD (HACKSAW RIDGE)

*RYAN GOSLING (LA LA LAND)

*VIGGO MORTENSEN (CAPTAIN FANTASTIC)

*DENZEL WASHINGTON (FENCES)

MY PICK: CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

Many will no doubt agree that Casey Affleck has been one of the most underrated actors in the business, which probably has something to do with the fact that he happens to be the brother of 2-time Oscar winner Ben Affleck. However, he has been making a name for himself thanks to terrific performances in films like Gone Baby Gone and his latest effort, Manchester by the Sea. In it, he plays a janitor named Lee who is forced to take on the responsibility of being the guardian for his nephew Patrick when his brother Joe dies. As the film goes on, we see that poor Lee’s been through quite a lot in his life and this results in him being unsure about whether he’s able to properly take care of Patrick. In this highly emotional film, Affleck delivers an excellent and equally emotional performance through and through. On that note, though, I’m aware that there’s been a bit of controversy surrounding his potential win this Sunday due to a pair of sexual harassment lawsuits that he was hit with back in 2010 by two of the crew members who worked on the mockumentary I’m Still Here, which he directed. However, this doesn’t affect my pick at all for one simple reason; those lawsuits have nothing to do with Manchester by the Sea. It’s just like when Bryan Singer was hit with a pair of sexual abuse lawsuits a few weeks prior to the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014; these lawsuits were about incidents that occurred a long time ago so I kind of question why they’re being brought up now (2020 UPDATE: Actually, 2017 me, they do matter... full disclosure, folks, this was written long before the whole Weinstein epidemic hit the industry; needless to say, my views on situations like this are now far different than they were back then). For my runner-up pick, it’s a toss-up between Andrew Garfield, for his arguably career-best performances in Hacksaw Ridge, and Denzel Washington, who took on the double duty of director and lead actor for Fences.

BEST DIRECTOR

*DENIS VILLENEUVE (ARRIVAL)

*MEL GIBSON (HACKSAW RIDGE)

*DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

*KENNETH LONERGAN (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*BARRY JENKINS (MOONLIGHT)

MY PICK: DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

2014’s Whiplash turned Damien Chazelle into one of the most exciting up-and-coming directors in the business. La La Land effectively made him one of the best in the business, even though it was only his third directorial effort to date. With that in mind, just like Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress, I’m backing a fellow Rhode Island native in this category. For runner-up, my pick goes to Barry Jenkins; it seems like this category is a toss-up between him and Chazelle.

BEST PICTURE (RANKINGS)

For the third year in a row, I’ve managed to watch every single Best Picture nominee. Thus, this final section will be a rankings list of this year’s 9 nominees.

9. ARRIVAL

Well, it looks like I’m starting this list off with a controversial pick and by that, I refer to the fact that Arrival is my ‘least favorite’ of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Before you say anything, though, I want to make it clear that I do like this film. It’s a smart sci-fi film that benefits from great direction from Denis Villeneuve and terrific performances from its cast, particularly Amy Adams in the lead role of linguist Louise Banks (P.S. I’m not that upset over her snub in the Best Actress category; as I’ve made it clear in the past, I don’t get worked up over ‘snubs’ anymore). So why is it at the Number 9 spot on this list, you ask? Well, simply put, I guess that I just wasn’t as big on it compared to others. Now, it’s not because I didn’t get what was going on because I did. I mean, sure, I’ll admit that it took me a little while to figure out where they were going with the story but once I did, I found that all the film’s build-up led to a solid conclusion, especially the part in which we learn that the supposed flashbacks of Louise and her deceased daughter Hannah are instead moments from the future and that Jeremy Renner’s character, theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, will become her husband. In the end, though, I’ll admit that I just liked these next 8 films more. Again, that’s not to discredit this film because it is a well-made film in every possible way. Remember, this is all just subjective opinion.

8. LION

Lion tells the true story of Saroo Brierley who, when he was five years old, was sadly separated from his family in India. He ended up getting adopted by the Brierleys, a couple from Australia, and around 25 years later, he begins to search for his original home with the help of the service Google Earth. It’s an emotional story, for sure, and first-time director Garth Davis does an excellent job of capturing that emotional depth on film. Sure, there are a few slow parts here and there but it’s still an engaging and uplifting story about a young man looking to find his way back home. It starts with the harrowing incident in which young Saroo becomes lost in India before transitioning into his adult life living in Australia. And then, after going through Saroo’s long quest to locate his old village (during which he learns that he’d been mispronouncing its name all these years), it all leads to an ending that’s both emotionally cathartic but also sad in a way. Saroo finally reunites with his family but learns that his older brother Guddu, who he was very close with when he was younger, had died on the same night that he ended up getting lost. And, of course, the film also features terrific performances from its main cast; Dev Patel as the grown-up Saroo, Rooney Mara as his girlfriend Lucy, and Nicole Kidman and David Wenham as Saroo’s adoptive parents. In short, Lion is an excellent directorial debut for Garth Davis though I’ll admit that, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to win anything on Sunday.

7. FENCES

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by legendary playwright August Wilson, Fences is a hard-hitting film in terms of its emotional drama. In fact, some parts of this story, about a working African-American man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who struggles to keep his family together, are downright uncomfortable to watch (e.g. the scene where main character Troy Maxson admits to his wife Rose that he’s been having an affair and that his mistress is pregnant). But, it is worth it in the end as Fences is a terrific example of an actors’ showcase, with terrific performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the lead roles. Washington also serves as the film’s director and does a solid job of maintaining the narrative structure and spirit of Wilson’s play, with the screenplay being a direct copy of the original stage-play. Now, on that note, the film does have an undeniable ‘staginess’ quality to it, with almost all of it taking place within the Maxson household and consisting entirely of ‘dialogue’ scenes. And, admittedly, that can get a little tiring after a while, especially considering that this film is over two hours long. But, like I said, it is worth it for the great performances from the cast.

6. HIDDEN FIGURES

It’s safe to say that Hidden Figures is one of the big ‘fan favorites’ of this year’s Best Picture lineup. In other words, in terms of regular moviegoers, it’s been one of the most widely seen. It’s been a solid critical and commercial success ever since it hit theaters nationwide back in January, and it’s easy to see why this is such a big crowd-pleaser. Hidden Figures is the true story of mathematicians Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan and engineer Mary Jackson, who overcame all the racial tension of the 60’s to become some of the unsung heroes of the ‘Space Race’. Most notably, they helped John Glenn become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth. As for the film, it’s a solid crowd-pleaser. I’ll admit that it is a bit traditional in terms of narrative but this is a case where you will find yourself rooting for the film’s three main heroines whenever they manage to advance their careers in some way, from Jackson getting the opportunity to earn a degree in engineering to Johnson becoming a key figure in terms of calculating the trajectory for Glenn’s launch. There is a genuine satisfaction that comes from moments like this and the film also benefits from an excellent ensemble cast, especially leads Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe.

5. HACKSAW RIDGE

In 1995, Mel Gibson won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for his big war epic, Braveheart. This year, he’s nominated in the same categories again for his latest directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge, which served as his triumphant return to the director’s chair after his career was impacted by several public scandals in the early 2000’s. It tells the tale of soldier Desmond Doss, who overcame all the controversy that stemmed from him being a conscientious objector (i.e. not carrying a weapon into battle) to become the unsung hero of a pivotal WWII skirmish. The film admittedly starts off on a rather cheesy note but that all changes once it gets into the action. Through this film, Gibson gives us some of the most epic and intense action sequences that the war film genre has ever seen. And through it all, we follow an endearing main protagonist, played excellently by Andrew Garfield, whose peace-based beliefs are ones that we can all take note from. In short, Hacksaw Ridge is an outstanding war film that re-established Gibson as one of the industry’s premier action directors.

4. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

As many have pointed out, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea is not an easy film to watch. Casey Affleck stars as Lee Chandler, a janitor from Quincy who is forced to take on the responsibility of being the guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) after his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies from a heart attack. And over the course of the film’s hefty 137-minute runtime, Lee struggles to figure out if he’s able to be a proper guardian for Patrick, especially after a traumatizing incident from his past that is revealed to be the reason why he’s become an extremely bitter loner. Obviously, there are quite a lot of heavy-hitting emotional moments in this film but, like Fences, it’s worth sitting through to see some great performances from its cast, especially from Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Hedges. And through it all, Lonergan does a great job in giving the story a great sense of ‘realism’. In other words, there’s absolutely no BS in this well-layered and somber tale of love, loss, and family.

3. MOONLIGHT

It’s safe to say that Moonlight is one of the two primary front-runners for Best Picture this year. And rightfully so as it’s a powerful and emotional film about a young man struggling to find his place in the world. That someone is Chiron, a young African-American man living in a rough Miami neighborhood, and the film focuses in on three distinct points of his life; first when he’s a child (Alex Hibbert), then as a teenager (Ashton Sanders), and finally as an adult (Trevante Rhodes). We see him go through various hardships over the years, including having to deal with his emotionally abusive and drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris) and struggling with his sexuality, particularly through his relationship with his best friend Kevin (played by Jaden Piner as a child, Jharrel Jerome as a teenager, and Andre Holland as an adult). The story is simple but full of emotional depth and Barry Jenkins’ direction is fantastic as are the performances of its main cast. Mahershala Ali is especially sublime in his role as Juan, a drug dealer who befriends young Chiron in the first third of the film and who also only appears in that part of the film. In short, Moonlight may not be my ‘Number 1’ pick this year but it’s still a fantastic film in every sense of the word.  

2. HELL OR HIGH WATER

I remember first hearing about this film during the tail end of this past summer when I first saw the trailer for it during a screening of Jason Bourne. I thought that it looked interesting but I’ll admit that I didn’t get around to seeing it in theaters. However, when it did come out, I noticed that the film was getting rave reviews from all-around. Critics loved it and film fans loved it. I finally got around to seeing it once it got nominated for Best Picture and, ultimately, I found myself loving it just as much. Hell or High Water is about two brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard, who embark on a spree of bank robberies to acquire enough money to save their farm before it ends up being foreclosed by the bank. And that is a primary example of how well-layered writer Taylor Sheridan’s screenplay is. While you don’t condone what the two brothers are doing, their motivation for doing so shows that there is still a decent amount of humanity left in them. The film very much establishes the fact that it’s set in a place where people are just trying to get by in the rough economy and, as such, we see that this story of ‘cops and robbers’ isn’t so black and white. Chris Pine and Ben Foster do excellent jobs in the roles of Toby and Tanner, respectively, as do Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham in the roles of the two Texas Rangers who try and hunt them down. Pair that with excellent direction from David Mackenzie and you have a gritty modern-day Western that ends up being one of the genre’s best in recent years.

1. LA LA LAND

Well, at the risk of being incredibly predictable, my #1 pick goes to this year’s biggest front-runner, La La Land. It has a record-tying 14 nominations at this year’s ceremony and it’s surely going to win quite a few of them. However, with that said, I’m starting to notice some MAJOR backlash towards this film; namely, I’ve recently been seeing a lot of articles online in which the writers state that they’ll be extremely disappointed if the film ends up sweeping the awards. To that, I ask, why? What the heck would be so bad about this film winning all the awards? If it does, it genuinely earned them. Director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to Old Hollywood is a charming and original musical complete with terrific lead performances from Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and outstanding musical numbers. And of course, it all concludes with one of the best endings to any film in 2016. I’ve already gone over it before in my Top 12 Films of 2016 posts so I won’t repeat myself too much here. Basically, the great thing about it is that Chazelle goes against the typical ‘happy ending’ seen in these kinds of films but, in a way, does give us a happy ending, just not the one we primarily expect. And that’s why the film ended up being my #4 favorite film of 2016 and subsequently my pick for Best Picture this year. Seriously, though, why do I feel like the internet is now trying to make me feel bad for liking this film? Seriously, I don’t get it…

And those are my picks for this year’s Academy Awards. Thanks for following along and be sure to check back here in the next few days for my ‘Results/Recap’ post. Also, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own picks for this year’s ceremony. 

88th Academy Awards: Predictions

While I won’t get into the reason why just yet, obviously it is shaping up to be quite a controversial and tense Oscar ceremony this year. The 88^th Academy Awards, hosted by Chris Rock, who previously hosted the show in 2005, will be presented on February 28^th, honoring the many great films that came out this past year. But like with every Oscar ceremony, there’s been quite a lot of controversy surrounding it and not just for the one thing that everyone’s talking about at the moment (which, again, we’ll get to later on). Every year’s ceremony is subjected to much criticism and scrutiny by film fans over the nominations; who got nominated and who didn’t, etc. But as for me, I’ve moved on from complaining about snubs and all that noise because I feel that it’s just pointless to get worked up over stuff like this. Award shows are just as subjective as film itself. No matter how ‘accurate’ these shows are in honoring the best in film from the past year, they never fully please anyone. Everyone has their own opinion on who and what should win; for example, if I had a hand in picking the awards, I would give a lot of them to blockbusters like ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Tomorrowland’ because those were some of my favorite films from 2015. So in other words, do not expect me to point out a lot of ‘snubs’ in this post. Because if you ask me, people shouldn’t be taking the Oscars THAT seriously because they’re not meant to represent the be-all and end-all of film opinions. I don’t take them that seriously and yet still enjoy watching the show every year for the pageantry and excitement of it all.  

So with that said, today I’ll be listing my predictions for this year’s Academy Awards from the technical categories like ‘Best Visual Effects’ and ‘Best Score’ to the big ones like ‘Best Actor/Actress’, ‘Best Supporting Actor/Actress’, and of course, ‘Best Picture’. For the record, though, I will not be covering every single one of the 24 Oscar categories in this post, and the primary reason for that is in the case that I haven’t seen enough of the films featured in that category, which is usually the films nominated for ‘Best Foreign Film’ and ‘Best Documentary’. I will say though that, for the second year in a row, I have been able to watch all eight of the nominees for Best Picture. So when we get to that category, I’m just going to rank all of those films from least favorite to my #1 pick. And of course, as I just pointed out earlier, this is all subjective so be sure to sound off in the comments below to give your own picks for this year’s Oscars. So, without further ado, here are my picks for the 88^th annual Academy Awards.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

*EX MACHINA

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE MARTIAN

*THE REVENANT

*STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

MY PICK: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

I have the feeling that a lot of cinefiles are rooting for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to win this award for its predominantly practical effects work, particularly in regards to the action sequences. Another possible favorite for them is ‘Ex Machina’, with its impressive effects on a small budget. But as great as the effects in both of those films were, my vote goes to another film that, like ‘Mad Max’, also made the effort to do as many practical effects as possible; ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. And I’m just going to get this out of the way right now… I’m legitimately a little disappointed that it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination. I mean, sure, I have the feeling that it wouldn’t have won anyway given the other films in that category but the film was a legit critical hit with both fans and audiences. This wasn’t like the highly polarizing prequels; this was a genuine critically acclaimed hit so I think it should’ve at least gotten some more recognition from the Academy than just getting nominations in the technical categories. Well, at the very least, it’ll probably go home with at least one or two technical awards and I feel that Visual Effects is its best chance at an Oscar. After the much-maligned heavily-CGI developed nature of the prequels, J.J. Abrams brought back the series’ original tradition of having as many practical effects and real sets as possible, something that he also did with his ‘Star Trek’ films. The end result is most certainly one of the best-looking films of the year, hence why it earns my vote for best visual effects.

P.S. Don’t get too mad, ‘Fury Road’ fans, that film will get my runner-up spot in this category.

BEST FILM EDITING

*THE BIG SHORT

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE REVENANT

*SPOTLIGHT

*STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

MY PICK: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Once again I’m going with ‘Star Wars’ because editing is pretty darn crucial to the energetic nature of these films that make them so entertaining. In fact, some would argue that the editing was what saved the original ‘Star Wars’ from being a disaster all those years ago. For my runner-up pick, I’ll go with ‘The Big Short’. There were definitely a lot of quick edits in that film but I thought it all worked pretty well in conveying the chaos of the troubled economy of the time. 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

*CAROL

*CINDERELLA

*THE DANISH GIRL

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE REVENANT

MY PICK: CINDERELLA

Admittedly I can’t say much about this category so I’ll just make it quick. My vote goes to the excellent costume design from my #3 favorite film of last year, Cinderella, as done by legendary costume designer Sandy Powell. Simply put, Powell’s period-piece costumes were just as beautiful as the film itself, particularly Cinderella’s iconic blue ball-gown. My runner-up pick goes to ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. After all, costume design is a vital part to any ‘Mad Max’ film. In fact, I have the feeling ‘Fury Road’ is actually going to win this award this Sunday instead. Still, even with that in mind, ‘Cinderella’ does take my pick for this category partially because I kind of want to see a win for one of my favorite films from this past year.

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING

*THE 100-YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED (Try saying that title five times fast)

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE REVENANT

MY PICK: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Admittedly I don’t know how much I can truly say about ‘Fury Road’ when it comes to hairstyling seeing how two of the main characters, Furiosa and Nux, and all of the War Boys were bald. The makeup for the film was much more noteworthy, though, especially in regards to the pretty darn iconic look of the War Boys.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

*CAROL

*THE HATEFUL EIGHT

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE REVENANT

*SICARIO

MY PICK: THE REVENANT- EMMANUEL LUBEZKI

I’ve already talked about this film a couple of days ago so I won’t try to repeat myself too much here. Simply put, ‘The Revenant’ was one of the absolute best-looking films of the year thanks to Emmanuel Lubezki’s amazing cinematography, from the beautiful and occasionally wintry forest landscapes to the fact that he and Inarritu basically shot the entirety of the film with only natural lighting. For my runner-up pick, I’m going to go with the other wintry film in this category; Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’. That film prided itself on its cinematography as it was shot in glorious 70mm. And while I never got the chance to see the film in that style, the film was still one great-looking film with its wintery mountain backdrops and wide shots.   

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

*BRIDGE OF SPIES

*THE DANISH GIRL

*MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*THE MARTIAN

*THE REVENANT

MY PICK: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

While I may not have been as big on ‘Fury Road’ as, well, most of the internet was, that doesn’t mean that I won’t be giving it any attention with these predictions. I’m sure it’s going to win a few awards this Sunday. So with that in mind, ‘Fury Road’ does earn my pick for Best Production Design because let’s face it, that’s the best aspect of the film. Hell, that’s arguably the best part of any ‘Mad Max’ film, and ‘Fury Road’ arguably outshines them all. George Miller and comic artist Brendan McCarthy spent years coming up with the designs for the vehicles and the final result is truly one for the ages, from Immortan Joe’s ‘Gigahorse’, made from the frames of not one but two Cadillac Coupe de Villes, to the insanity that is the ‘Doof Wagon’, an 8-wheeler complete with a line of drummers, big speakers, and of course everyone’s favorite flame-throwing guitar wielder, the Doof Warrior. And that’s just in regards to the vehicles. The whole film is one gorgeous-looking effort from the filmmakers and the eye-popping color palette produces one great looking cinematic experience. I don’t even have a Runner-Up for this category because I don’t see how any of the other four films are going to beat ‘Fury Road’. It’s won nearly every major award for Production Design this awards season and I think it’s safe to say the film will earn that same award from the Academy this Sunday.

BEST SOUND MIXING/EDITING

MY PICKS: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

I’ll admit that I don’t know too much about sound mixing and sound editing so I can’t say much about it here. In short, my vote for both of these categories goes to ‘Star Wars’ because in some ways I feels that the sound design of the film is just as important as everything else that goes into making it all work. For runner-up, I’m again going to go with the same film for both categories; ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. The reason? Well remember that scene in the film where Max is on a long pole and moves across the screen as a big-ass explosion happens behind him? That moment was one of the best uses of a theater’s sound system that I’ve ever witnessed. You really could feel the thundering nature of that explosion even when considering the fact that you were just sitting in a theater watching it happen onscreen. In fact, I kind of have the feeling that my runner-up pick might end up being the actual frontrunner for both of these categories. Who knows?   

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

*EARNED IT (FIFTY SHADES OF GREY)

*MANTA RAY (RACING EXTINCTION)

*SIMPLE SONG #3 (YOUTH)

*TIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU (THE HUNTING GROUND)

*WRITING’S ON THE WALL (SPECTRE)

MY PICK: ‘TIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU’

I actually have to admit that when I was originally writing this section of the post, my original pick for Best Song was the criminally underrated theme from the criminally underrated Bond film ‘Spectre’; Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s on the Wall’. Admittedly, the primary reason why I wanted it to win was just so that in doing so, it would go against all of the criticism that the song got when it first debuted online because I do think that it’s a really good Bond theme, especially in regards to its orchestration and romanticized feel reminiscent of past Bond themes like ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and ‘For Your Eyes Only’. However, after listening to the other nominees, my pick changed to Lady Gaga’s emotionally powerful piece from the documentary ‘The Hunting Ground’, ‘Til it Happens to You’. ‘The Hunting Ground’ covers a really serious topic in regards to sexual assaults on college campuses and without having seen the actual film, this song is easily one of the best that Lady Gaga has ever done. She herself has been a victim of sexual assault in the past along with another member of her family so this song clearly must have meant a lot to her and it shows in her performance. This whole year has been a big one for Lady Gaga, as she also recently, and in some online circles rather controversially, won a Golden Globe for her role in ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’. And I think it’s safe to say she’ll probably be adding a well-earned Oscar win to her long line of accolades this Sunday.

But what about the other songs in this category? While it may not be my #1 pick anymore, ‘Writing’s on the Wall’ is still my runner-up pick of the other 4 nominees for the reasons that I listed earlier. ‘Manta Ray’ from the documentary ‘Racing Extinction’ has a nice melody to it but I’m not as positive on the vocals. I can’t really explain why but I feel that the song would’ve just worked better as an instrumental piece. As for ‘Simple Song #3’ from the film ‘Youth’, it too has a very nice and calming melody, in this case courtesy of a violin accompaniment. It also features a really nice performance by South Korean singer Sumi Jo, resulting in a very relaxing song that played a major part in the film, represented as a piece that had been written by Michael Caine’s character. And finally, want to know a fun way to stun a lot of cinefiles? Tell them that ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ got an Oscar nomination. That’s right, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, one of the most mocked films of last year, can now bear the distinction of being an Oscar nominated film. But you know what? For as much flak as I know that I’m going to get for this, I’m not bothered by this, simply because the film actually did have a pretty decent soundtrack. Though with that said… why ‘Earned It’? I thought the big one from that soundtrack was ‘Love Me Like You Do’ by Ellie Goulding. That was the one that got nominated for a Golden Globe. But then again, ‘Earned It’ won a Grammy so I guess it was technically the ‘bigger’ song on that album. I’m not defending the film or anything, in fact it was on my Top 10 worst of the year list, but even lousy films can have a solid soundtrack every now and then and, at the very least, I can say that about ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’… which is pretty much one of the only positive things that I can say about it.

P.S. Hey Academy, why no nom for ‘See You Again’ from ‘Furious 7’?

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

*THOMAS NEWMAN- BRIDGE OF SPIES

*CARTER BURWELL- CAROL

*ENNIO MORRICONE- THE HATEFUL EIGHT

*JOHANN JOHANNSSON- SICARIO

*JOHN WILLIAMS- STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

MY PICK: THE HATEFUL EIGHT

As much as I would love to give my pick to John Williams for his always excellent work for the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, my vote this year actually goes to another legendary film composer, Ennio Morricone, who provided the score for Quentin Tarantino’s latest balls-to-the-wall film epic, ‘The Hateful Eight’. As many others will no doubt point out, there’s a very haunting quality to Morricone’s score which matches pretty damn perfectly with the tension that comes from the story and the snowy landscape. Some have even said that the score feels like something out of a horror film, which is actually a pretty decent analogy seeing how Morricone did the score for John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’, which just so happened to star ‘The Hateful Eight’s Kurt Russell. I should probably also point out that Morricone actually hasn’t won an Oscar yet for his work despite his long and historic run in the film industry. He did win an ‘Honorary Academy Award’ in 2007 but has never won an official Oscar for Best Score despite having been nominated five times before for films like ‘Days of Heaven’ and ‘The Untouchables’. So yeah, I think it’s high time to give Morricone an Oscar. But for my runner-up pick, I’m still going to go with John Williams for his work on the latest ‘Star Wars’ film. Simply put, Williams and ‘Star Wars’ go together as well as PB&J.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

MY PICK: SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM

I’ll admit that I haven’t seen four of the five nominees for Animated Short Film so I’m just going to cut to the chase… my vote goes to Pixar’s ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’, which was released in theaters along with ‘The Good Dinosaur’. Sadly, no nomination was given to the short that ran with ‘Inside Out’, ‘Lava’. Based on what I’ve seen online it seems like that one didn’t do as well with critics which is a shame because I personally thought it was great. I thought it was really charming, had some gorgeous animation, and I love the title song for it. But anyway, I’m getting off track… back to ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’. Watching this short, you can most certainly sense how personal of a project this was to its creator, Sanjay Patel. This was directly inspired by Sanjay’s childhood growing up in San Bernardino, where he struggled at times with his identity due to him both following his family’s Indian traditions and acting like your typical American kid through watching cartoons and playing with action figures. This translates well into a short that has a lot of heart to it, especially in regards to its ‘father-son’ story as the father and son come to accept both of these identities instead of each of them favoring one over the other. And of course, the animation is excellent, even bringing in a cool superhero vibe. The Hinduist designs produce a superb, colorful, and exotic style that gives the short a nice original look unseen anywhere else. And speaking of Pixar…

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Well I’ve only seen one of these films so, again, I’ll just cut to the chase. My pick goes to…

MY PICK: INSIDE OUT

What more needs to be said about ‘Inside Out’? While I’m not one of the people who always expects Pixar to deliver a 15/10 masterpiece with every film, ‘Inside Out’ does its purpose of satisfying ‘that crowd’, being the first Pixar film since ‘Toy Story 3’ to receive universally positive reviews from critics and audiences. And rightfully so as it was definitely one of the studio’s finest and arguably most mature efforts to date. Not only did it develop a pretty unique concept around the idea of personified emotions that guide us through our daily lives (and yes, I’m aware of the ‘Herman’s Head’ comparisons. Moving on.), but it also handled them in a very mature way through putting the main character of Riley through situations that a lot of us can relate to, whether it’s moving to a new town/city like San Francisco or starting class at a new school. And yes, as ironic as it is to say given the fact that this is a film based around emotions, there are some very, very emotional scenes throughout this film that are guaranteed to make you tear up. Pair that with some of Pixar’s most colorful animation to date and a terrific voice cast highlighted by Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith in the roles of Joy and Sadness, respectively, and you have an animated masterpiece that definitely deserved all of the praise that it got when it was released. Though shockingly, it didn’t get a nomination for Best Picture, which definitely surprised a lot of people given how critically acclaimed it was and the fact that previous critically acclaimed Pixar films like ‘Up’ and ‘Toy Story 3’ did end up getting nominated for Best Picture as well as for Best Animated Feature. Well, at the very least, I think it’s safe to say that this is the front-runner for this particular category.

While I haven’t seen the other films in this category, I’m sure they were great as well. This includes what may be Studio Ghibli’s final film ‘When Marnie Was There’, Aardman Animation’s ‘Wallace and Gromit’ spin-off ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’, and Charlie Kaufman’s highly acclaimed stop-motion animated flick ‘Anomalisa’. However, this also resulted in two fairly disappointing snubs in my opinion in regards to some of the other really great animated films from this past year. One was Pixar’s other 2015 release ‘The Good Dinosaur’, which unfortunately pretty much confirmed the film’s status as a severe under-performer for the company. It only grossed about $300 million at the box-office and while ‘Inside Out’ was critically acclaimed by both critics and audiences alike, ‘The Good Dinosaur’ was received on the same level as ‘Brave’ and ‘Monsters University’, which is sad because I think that it’s really underrated, even if it is much simpler in execution compared to ‘Inside Out’. The other big snub was Blue Sky Studios’ ‘The Peanuts Movie’. And while I know it wasn’t the most critically acclaimed animated film of the year, I really, really loved this film as I felt it was one of the most heartwarming films of 2015 by resurrecting one of the most classic franchises in pop culture history but doing it with class and affection for the source material, which is a very big deal considering that the filmmakers made the risky venture of bringing the world of Peanuts to computer animation.  

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

*THE BIG SHORT

*BROOKLYN

*CAROL

*THE MARTIAN

*ROOM

MY PICK: THE MARTIAN

This category is a bit trickier to decide because I haven’t read any of the books that these five films were based off. So instead, I have to base this pick around which screenplay was the most well-written in my opinion. So for my pick, I’m going with Drew Goddard’s screenplay for ‘The Martian’ for making the complicated science that it covers easy to understand without talking down to the audience. For my runner-up pick, I’m going to go with a more serious screenplay in the form of ‘Room’. ‘Room’ primarily focused on a young boy experiencing the outside world for the first time in his life after he and his mom escape their captor who had kidnapped the mother years earlier and trapped them within a tiny shed they call ‘Room’, hence the title of the film. Obviously it is a very emotionally devastating story but it is one that is executed perfectly thanks to the direction, the cast, and a solid screenplay that does a fantastic job in conveying both the boy’s new life experiences and his mother’s struggles with re-adjusting to normal life. 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

*BRIDGE OF SPIES

*EX MACHINA

*INSIDE OUT

*SPOTLIGHT

*STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

MY PICK: INSIDE OUT

Why not? If you ask me, I’d say this award should go to Pixar’s latest masterpiece, which would actually be a first for an animated feature as usually those films only get recognized for the ‘Best Animated Feature’ award with a rare few occasionally getting a ‘Best Picture’ nom as well. And because ‘Inside Out’ didn’t get a Best Picture nom this year, I think that giving it the award for Best Original Screenplay would be a nice way to compensate for that ‘snub’ by honoring one of the most maturely written screenplays that Pixar has ever done. For my runner-up pick, I’m going to go with ‘Spotlight’. Like ‘Room’, it covers a heavy subject, in this case a sexual abuse scandal involving Roman Catholic priests, but handles it with maturity by sympathizing with the victims of this scandal, not over-glorifying its protagonists, and also conveying the effect that this scandal had on the people of Boston.

Before I get into the acting categories, it’s now time for me to finally address the elephant in the room; the Oscar diversity issue… again. Yes, for the second year in a row, all of the nominees in the acting categories are white with no minority actors or actresses getting a nomination. This controversy, which spawned the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, was an issue last year as well but it has torpedoed into a full-blown outrage this year now that it’s happened again. It’s gotten to the point where some folk in the industry, like Spike Lee and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, have announced that they’re boycotting the ceremony… and I’m just going to be frank… I feel that the whole boycotting situation is rather ridiculous. Now for the record, I’m not saying that this diversity thing isn’t an issue. It is, and thankfully the Academy has made it clear that they recognize the issue at hand as well and are now taking considerable efforts to prevent something like this from happening again. But remember in the intro to this post how I said no one should take the Oscars ‘that’ seriously? Well, the same principle applies here because it’s not entirely the Academy’s fault that this has happened. I concur with people like Whoopi Goldberg who say that it’s more of an issue with the film industry in general for not giving enough roles to minorities. And to quote Goldberg again, boycotting the show would be a huge disservice to Chris Rock, who has to weather all of this as this year’s host.  

Now, sure, the Academy could’ve done a much better job at highlighting minority performances from this past year, like the cast of ‘Straight Outta Compton’ or Samuel L. Jackson in ‘The Hateful Eight’. But at the end of the day, they’re just voting for a winner. They’re not the ones who are responsible for making the films that come out every year. All that they’re doing is just listing some of the best performances of the year and picking four names out of the 20 that are nominated. Of course these award shows are just as subjective as film itself and as some have argued, considering the fact that the acting categories are limited to five names per category, it’s really hard to limit down the best performances of the year to just five. Similar to how the Best Picture category has grown in size from five nominees to ten nominees and then a random number of nominees every year for some reason, some suggest that the acting categories should be expanded from just five performances from the past year. But at the end of the day, that’s as much as I’m going to say about this whole Oscar diversity thing because I don’t like to normally talk about this stuff when it comes to film. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the issues at hand, I just don’t like talking about them. And again, I do recognize the issue at hand with the Academy’s troubles when it comes to diversity. However, this whole diversity issue is more of an issue with the film industry in general than it is in regards to a simple awards ceremony. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into this year’s nominees for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

*JENNIFER JASON LEIGH- THE HATEFUL EIGHT

*ROONEY MARA- CAROL

*RACHEL MCADAMS- SPOTLIGHT

*ALICIA VIKANDER- THE DANISH GIRL

*KATE WINSLET- STEVE JOBS

MY PICK: JENNIFER JASON LEIGH

Of these next categories, Best Supporting Actress was the hardest to pick because this category is full of terrific performances across the board. While ‘The Danish Girl’ ended up being a rather polarizing film in regards to how it handled the true story of Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, Alicia Vikander was easily the film’s biggest highlight, even outshining her co-star Eddie Redmayne in the role of Einar/Lili’s wife Gerda Wegener. Again, while the film itself didn’t really cover the complete story of Lili and Gerda, Vikander’s performance helped give the film a really good amount of heart and emotion, resulting in one of many great performances from her in what has most certainly been her breakout year. Another terrific performance that stood toe to toe with the film’s main lead was Kate Winslet in the role of Steve Jobs’ confidant Joanna Hoffman in the Apple founder’s titular biopic. Winslet, who has already proven herself time and time again to be one of the best actresses in the businesses, more than held her own against Michael Fassbender as the one who was responsible for keeping Jobs’ moral compass in check. Rachel McAdams also shined in the role of reporter Sacha Pfeiffer in ‘Spotlight’, the Spotlight team’s lone female reporter whose family, particularly her grandmother, ended up being hit hard by the Catholic Priest Scandal, and as for Rooney Mara in ‘Carol’… well I haven’t seen the film so I can’t comment on it.

Ultimately though my pick goes to Jennifer Jason Leigh for her standout turn as the feral Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’. Believe it or not, this is Leigh’s first nomination for an Academy Award despite the fact that she’s long been regarded as one of the best actresses in the business. And while I’ll admit that I haven’t seen a lot of the films that she’s been in, her turn in ‘The Hateful Eight’ is more than enough proof of how talented of an actress she is. To put this next statement as nicely as I can, given the fact that pretty much all of the main characters in this film are despicable people, Daisy Domergue is a very animated character and Leigh, who’s particularly been known for her method acting, really sinks into the role of a character who spends the whole film chained to Kurt Russell’s John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth, resulting in yet another classic Tarantino character. The tough part now is trying to list my runner-up pick for this category. I guess if I had to choose from the other three whose films I have seen my main runner-up pick would be Kate Winslet in ‘Steve Jobs’. It seems like Winslet’s currently a favorite to win having also won a Golden Globe and BAFTA award for her work in the film. I think it’d also be pretty cool to see Alicia Vikander win for ‘The Danish Girl’, even though a lot of film fans feel she should’ve been nominated for her role as Ava in Alex Garland’s ‘Ex Machina’.  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

*CHRISTIAN BALE- THE BIG SHORT

*TOM HARDY- THE REVENANT

*MARK RUFFALO- SPOTLIGHT

*MARK RYLANCE- BRIDGE OF SPIES

*SYLVESTER STALLONE- CREED

MY PICK: SYLVESTER STALLONE

At the 49^th Academy Awards, one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history occurred when ‘Rocky’, in an underdog manner that paralleled the journey of its titular character, won the Oscar for Best Picture beating out films like Martin Scorcese’s ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Network’, and ‘All the President’s Men’. Its star/writer Sylvester Stallone was nominated for Best Actor as well but did not win. Nearly four decades later, it’s looking like Stallone will finally land Oscar gold for his seventh turn as the most famous character of his career, Rocky Balboa, in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Creed’. And given the rapturous ovation that he got when he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor last month, clearly a lot of people want to see him win it… and quite frankly he should. Stallone has always been great in the ‘Rocky’ films and in ‘Creed’, he’s arguably at his best. Rocky may not be the main character this time around but he still is a vital part of the story as he takes on the role of mentor for his old rival Apollo’s son, Adonis Johnson Creed. But at the same time, Rocky finds himself struggling with his own fight outside of the ring when he learns that he’s been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It’s probably the lowest that we’ve ever seen Rocky be at and it gets to the point where he feels his that time is done, especially considering many of those who were close to him (e.g. Adrian, Paulie, Apollo, etc.) are now gone. It’s arguably the most emotional performance of Stallone’s career and that’s why he earns my vote for Best Supporting Actor.

But that shouldn’t take away from the other great performances in this category. Mark Rylance was the big standout of ‘Bridge of Spies’ with his reserved and in some ways unassuming composure in the role of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Mark Ruffalo was also one of the biggest standouts of his film as reporter Michael Rezendes in ‘Spotlight’, who’s shown to be the most on edge of the Spotlight team when it comes to uncovering the Boston church scandal. As John Fitzgerald in ‘The Revenant’, Tom Hardy portrayed a ‘villain’ that was actually a pretty layered character despite his status as an antagonist towards Hugh Glass. And despite the instances where the film strayed from the true story it was based on, Hardy’s performance was just as superb as his main co-star’s was. And finally, there’s Christian Bale in ‘The Big Short’ as Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager who was the first to notice the rocky stability of the housing market back in 2005. Burry is quite frankly the most fascinating of the film’s main characters; he’s undoubtedly a genius but also fairly anti-social, primarily due to him being diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. Of these four, my runner-up pick is actually going to be a tie between Hardy and Ruffalo, though obviously I think it’s safe to say that Stallone will be taking this one come Sunday.     

BEST ACTRESS

*CATE BLANCHETT- CAROL

*BRIE LARSON- ROOM

*JENNIFER LAWRENCE- JOY

*CHARLOTTE RAMPLING- 45 YEARS

*SAOIRSE RONAN- BROOKLYN

MY PICK: BRIE LARSON

This year’s group of Best Actress nominees featured two particularly noteworthy performances from Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan. Both of these actresses have already had fairly lengthy careers but this year saw them both experiencing their true breakout performances through ‘Room’ and ‘Brooklyn’, respectively. Ultimately, though, it was Larson who shined the most in her turn as Joy ‘Ma’ Newsome in ‘Room’. Simply put, it was a very tough role for Larson, who had to take on the responsibilities of a character who was both a young mother and a kidnap victim, whose son is the only real bright spot of her life at that point. While the bulk of the film centered around her son Jack experiencing the outside world for the first time, we also see how Joy struggles to readjust to her normal life after her very traumatic experience. Obviously, this is one very emotionally devastating story and Larson handles her character’s shattered composure perfectly. Speaking of characters named Joy, my runner-up pick for this category (even though Larson is clearly the front-runner) is Jennifer Lawrence for her turn as entrepreneur Joy Mangano in David O. Russell’s ‘Joy’. Though with that said, it seems like Lawrence’s third straight Oscar nomination since 2012 has attracted a much more polarizing reaction from film fans as a result of the film’s generally polarizing reception. But I heavily disagree with those who say that she shouldn’t have been nominated, mostly because I think they’re just saying that because they weren’t big fans of the film. But even if ‘Joy’ wasn’t the absolute best film of the year, there’s no denying that Lawrence was still superb in the role of Mangano. Once she starts getting into the entrepreneurial business, Lawrence takes command of the screen and as a result, is easily the best part of the film.

BEST ACTOR

*BRYAN CRANSTON- TRUMBO

*MATT DAMON- THE MARTIAN

*LEONARDO DICAPRIO- THE REVENANT

*MICHAEL FASSBENDER- STEVE JOBS

*EDDIE REDMAYNE- THE DANISH GIRL

MY PICK: LEONARDO DICAPRIO

Yeah I know… I’m obvious. But hey, can you blame me? Leo was put through one hell of a shoot for ‘The Revenant’ but he came out on top to deliver yet another terrific performance that will hopefully get him that long awaited Oscar that has eluded him for so long. Another reason why I’m rooting for him? Well that would be the fact that I’d hate to see how angry the internet would get if Leo doesn’t win. Obviously, Leo’s cold streak at the Oscars has become quite a running joke online but something tells me that the internet would be particularly pissed off if he doesn’t win this year. So if any of the other 4 nominees in this category ends up winning instead, they’re definitely going to catch a lot of heat from angry film fans for stealing Leo’s thunder. Of those four, something tells me that last year’s winner Eddie Redmayne would get blasted the most on the internet if he beats Leo because ‘The Danish Girl’ wasn’t as well-received as Redmayne’s last Oscar flick ‘The Theory of Everything’. But you know what? If he ends up winning, I will defend the guy from angry internet fanboys because he actually did do a really good job in ‘The Danish Girl’.

Now like I said earlier, ‘The Danish Girl’ isn’t a perfect film, primarily due to the fact that it’s more of a fictional interpretation of the story of Lili Elbe. It should also be noted that Redmayne’s casting in the role of Lili attracted a considerable amount of backlash due to the fact that a cisgender man (in other words, one who identifies with his/her assigned gender) was taking on the role of the famous transgender figure. But even with that in mind, Redmayne did handle the role with maturity and grace and because of it, he and Alicia Vikander were the biggest bright spots of the film. It wasn’t their fault that the film didn’t completely deliver on the emotional depth of its true story. So in conclusion, if Redmayne wins this award for the second year in a row, I will legitimately be happy for him because he is one of my favorite up-and-coming actors in the industry. However, considering the typically savage nature of the internet when it comes to the Oscars, it’d probably be better that he doesn’t win so that the internet won’t crucify him for beating DiCaprio. In fact, he isn’t even my primary runner-up pick. That distinction actually goes to Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in, well, ‘Steve Jobs’. He may not have necessarily looked like Jobs but he most certainly acted like him. Matt Damon was also terrific in ‘The Martian’ but I don’t think he’s got much of a chance at winning this year.

BEST DIRECTOR

*ADAM MCKAY- THE BIG SHORT

*GEORGE MILLER- MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

*ALEJANDRO G. INARRITU- THE REVENANT

*LENNY ABRAHAMSON- ROOM

*TOM MCCARTHY- SPOTLIGHT

MY PICK: ADAM MCKAY

I’ll admit that this was another tough category to determine. I’ve seen some argue that maybe it should go to either George Miller for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ or Alejandro G. Inarritu, which would be his second straight win in this category, for ‘The Revenant’ due to the generally rough shoots that they had to endure in order to get these films made. But as well-shot and well-directed as both films are, they both suffered in terms of writing so instead I’m focusing more on the other three nominees in this category due to the fact that their films were a bit more balanced when it came to the material. Ultimately, my pick for Best Director will be Adam McKay for ‘The Big Short’. Obviously McKay is mainly known for his work in comedy, particularly his collaborations with Will Ferrell including ‘Anchorman’ and ‘Talladega Nights’. He even helped write the screenplay for ‘Ant-Man’. With ‘The Big Short’, though, McKay ended up going ‘against type’ to helm a true-story drama. But that doesn’t mean that his comedic abilities weren’t utilized, as the film’s witty screenplay helped lighten up the mood, which is a good thing considering that this film was about the financial crisis of 2008. For my runner-up pick, I’ll be going with Tom McCarthy for ‘Spotlight’, where he perfectly balanced the elements of this true story in order to highlight the importance of investigative journalism without over-glorifying its protagonists.

BEST PICTURE

And finally we come to Best Picture. For this part, I’m just going to do a ranked list of the eight nominees, starting from my least favorite to the film that earns my vote for Best Picture.

8. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

So yeah, if you’ve been following me for at least a year now, you probably know that I wasn’t too big on ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. I didn’t ‘dislike’ it but I do feel that the internet had considerably overhyped it in regards to many people calling this ‘one of the best films of the year’. I’ll admit I went into it without having previously seen the last three ‘Mad Max’ films but even though some say that you don’t have to see them before seeing this film, I do feel that doing so would’ve helped me get a better idea of what to expect. Now despite what I have to say about this film, I will give it credit for its greatest asset; its action. Primarily shot with practical effects and stunt-work unlike a lot of today’s action films, ‘Fury Road’ does feature some amazing action backed up by a terrific production design and an eye-popping color scheme. The film also features terrific performances from the likes of Charlize Theron as the film’s true main character Furiosa and Nicholas Hoult as arguably the film’s stand-out character Nux. But while those two performances are great as is the action, the film is severely lacking in regards to its story. Now for the record, I know that this wasn’t really the primary goal of the filmmakers and that the film is meant to be focused more on the visceral nature of the action. Still, at the end of the day this is just a simple ‘road chase’ film and Furiosa and Nux are really the only major characters in this film to get any sort of character development. And while the film may be called ‘Mad Max’, Tom Hardy is severely underused in the role of Max, who’s basically just a spectator to this whole plot and nothing more. Again, let me be clear, I don’t ‘hate’ this film but I just don’t see why some treated this film like it was the second coming of Christ. As great as the action is, the story is lacking so I feel that adding just a bit more to it, namely in regards to character development, would’ve truly made it one for the ages in my book.  

7. BROOKLYN

‘Brooklyn’ is a very charming romantic drama featuring a standout performance from lead actress Saoirse Ronan. She stars as a young Irish girl named Eilis who immigrates from her hometown in Ireland to Brooklyn, New York when her sister gets her a job in the city. While there, she meets and falls in love with a local boy named Tony (Emory Cohen) but when she learns that her sister has died, she returns home for the funeral and is courted by a local bachelor named Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), which puts her in a conflict regarding her status in both her hometown and her new home of Brooklyn. The film is very nicely shot and does a great job of capturing the struggle that Eilis goes through in having to adapt to a new world and the heartbreak that comes from having to leave her family behind, which does result in some genuinely heartbreaking moments like when Eilis first talks with her mom over the phone after her sister’s death. While she has already had a pretty lengthy career with films like ‘Atonement’ and ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, I view ‘Brooklyn’ as Saoirse Ronan’s true breakout performance. It’s the most mature role that she has taken to date and she handles it beautifully, all while being backed by a solid supporting cast that includes Cohen and Gleeson as her potential suitors and Julie Walters in a standout turn as Eilis’ stern but kind landlady in Brooklyn. The only reason why it’s this low on this list is because as good as it is, I don’t think it’ll take Best Picture.

6. THE REVENANT

Again, I already talked about this film earlier this week in my official review for the film. For a more extensive description of my thoughts on it, click Here for that review. In short, ‘The Revenant’ heavily benefits from terrific cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki and solid direction from Alejandro G. Inarritu. It also features Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy in some of the best performances of their careers. But despite the great cinematography, the film itself lacks quite a bit in terms of emotional depth, primarily because it occasionally goes against the real-life events that it is inspired by. This film gives the character of Hugh Glass a son that he never had in real life so we don’t care too much about the son when he gets killed by John Fitzgerald. Plus, the film’s ending is drastically different from what really happened to Glass and Fitzgerald and as cool as this finale is, I think the real ending would’ve been much more interesting and even rather thought-provoking because of the fact that Glass ultimately never got the chance to take revenge on Fitzgerald for leaving him to die. By the time he returned to civilization, Fitzgerald had joined the army and Glass realized that he would’ve gotten in even bigger trouble if he killed a U.S soldier. But in the end, that’s not the path the film takes and as a result it feels rather hollow. Still a great-looking film though featuring what could be the performance that could finally earn Leo his long-awaited Oscar.

5. BRIDGE OF SPIES

While not my favorite of this year’s Best Picture nominees or even one of Spielberg’s absolute best, there’s still no denying that ‘Bridge of Spies’ is very much a Spielberg film. With him in control, you can always expect a well-shot, well-edited, and overall just well-made film and that’s definitely the case here with this true story about how one man, James B. Donovan, orchestrated a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. Tom Hanks, as usual, is terrific in the role of Donovan as is Mark Rylance in the role of the unassuming Rudolf Abel, who was put in the center of the U.S.’s Cold War paranoia when he was arrested on the charge of being a Soviet spy. Really the only thing that keeps this from being one of Spielberg’s all-time best films is the fact that because the film is covering two major ‘storylines’ in the form of Donovan taking on the already lost case of Abel and the prisoner exchange for Francis Gary Powers, it can be a bit dry at times and lacks a bit in terms of tension. But again, this film is pure Spielberg and fans of his work are most certainly going to love his latest offering. 

4. ROOM

‘Room’ is one hell of an emotionally-draining film, in which Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay star as a mother and son who, unbeknownst to the son, have been held captive for years in a tiny shed by a man who had kidnapped the mother, Joy, when she was a teenager. Once they finally get free, the film primarily focuses around Joy’s struggles with PTSD and her son Jack experiencing the world for the first time. Again, heavy stuff here but the film also brings us a terrific mother-son relationship between Joy and Jack, both of whom are played excellently by Larson and Tremblay, which makes the happy moments between them all the more satisfying. Like Saoirse Ronan in ‘Brooklyn’, ‘Room’ is easily Brie Larson’s breakout role and she handles the deep emotional turmoil of Joy perfectly. I’ll admit it took me a little bit to get used to Tremblay as Jack but once the two of them get free, Tremblay is also superb and Jack’s adjustment to the real world is fascinating to behold. All of this comes together for a film that is, again, very hard to watch at times but also gives us a great story about how a mother’s love for her son helped them escape their precarious situation.  

3. THE BIG SHORT

I’ll admit it… I know very little about economics and anything relating to Wall Street and the housing market. But the great thing about Adam McKay’s drama ‘The Big Short’, which focuses on three separate parties who in 2005 realize that the housing market is about to collapse and shows how they decided to bet against it, that it recognizes that not everyone is going to understand the details of the topics that it’s covering. So in order to combat that, the film maintains a generally light-hearted tone via the occasional quips, mostly from Ryan Gosling’s character Jared, who basically serves as the film’s narrator, and a series of cameos from the likes of Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez who help explain some of the things they’re talking about in this film. The fact that this film does take a bit of a humorous slant to the story definitely is impressive and in some cases I guess you can say necessary for a story like this. That’s because, as the film clearly shows, while the main characters all come off wealthy as a result of them betting against the housing market, that’s actually coming at the expense of pretty much almost everyone else in the country. It serves as a biting indictment of the big banks for letting this happen in the first place and for basically getting away with it. In short, McKay’s rare foray into drama turns out to be an incredibly well-acted and fast-paced take on one of the most fascinating events in recent U.S. history by focusing on those who saw it coming before anyone else.

2. THE MARTIAN

While it may not have made my Top 12 for the year, ‘The Martian’ was most certainly one of the most entertaining blockbusters of 2015. And that’s saying a lot considering that this film, based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, is primarily based around a lot of science and could’ve ran the risk of being overly complicated for some viewers. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen as Drew Goddard’s screenplay, Weir’s writing, and Ridley Scott’s direction give the film a solid structure in which the science is explained in a way that’s pretty easy to understand without talking down to the audience. Plus, the film is anchored by Matt Damon’s outstanding performance in the lead role of stranded astronaut Mark Watney. Damon brings a lot of charisma to the role while also providing us with a good amount of humor via the occasional wit that comes from the screenplay. Though with that said, I guess I do need to address the ‘elephant in the room’ which is the fact that, at this year’s Golden Globes, the film was nominated for Best Comedy… and won. That became a running joke on the internet but honestly I think the backlash towards this nomination was a bit overblown. Yes, technically speaking, ‘The Martian’ is not primarily a comedy. It’s a story of survival in the harsh environment that is the Red Planet. But it was because of Matt Damon’s performance that the film gained a nice amount of humor via Watney’s wit and occasionally cocky (in a good way) attitude. So in other words, this film being nominated for Best Comedy isn’t a ‘completely out of left field’ move. To quote the RT consensus, this film is ‘surprisingly funny’, which I felt was a good move because it helped lighten the mood at just the right moments without being a straight-up comedy, hence why ‘The Martian’ was most definitely one of the most enjoyable films from this past year.

But at the end of the day, my favorite film of this year’s Best Picture nominees, and subsequently my vote for Best Picture, goes to…

MY PICK: SPOTLIGHT

‘Spotlight’ is the true story of what happened in 2001 when the ‘Spotlight’ team of the Boston Globe investigated into the very substantial child sex abuse scandal involving up to 87 Catholic priests in the Boston area and the cover-up of it as orchestrated by Cardinal Law. Obviously this is a very serious subject matter and director Tom McCarthy handles the situation with maturity. It’s not like the film tries to over-glorify its heroes, the members of the Spotlight team. Instead, it balances the focus between the Spotlight team and the victims of this scandal. And ultimately the reason why this works is because the film really does highlight how impactful the scandal was for the people of Boston given how big the Church has been in the lives of many in the area and the fact that all of the members of the Spotlight team were raised as Roman Catholics. At the same time, the film also highlights the importance of investigative journalism as well as even taking a little bit of time to address the growing divide between print and online journalism, which basically makes this an absolute must-see for anyone interested in the journalism industry. And of course, the film features a terrific ensemble cast. While everyone in the cast is great, from Stanley Tucci to Rachel McAdams to Liev Schreiber, the two biggest standouts are Michael Keaton as Spotlight’s no-nonsense editor Walter Robinson and Mark Ruffalo as reporter Mike Rezendes, who quite arguably takes the reveals of their investigation the hardest as evident in a scene where he and Robinson get into an argument over publishing the story before the Boston Herald is able to write it before them. Admittedly I don’t know what this film’s chances are at taking Best Picture but of these 8 nominees, my favorite of the bunch is ‘Spotlight’.

So those are my picks for this year’s Academy Awards. What films/performances have your vote for this year’s event? Sound off in the comments below with your picks and stay tuned for my Post-Oscars reaction post sometime after Sunday.