Academy Awards?

[madmarva]

The Academy Awards are on tonight. Any thoughts?

I really enjoyed Gravity, Wolf of Wallstreet and American Hustle. Most of the rest of the nominated movies appeared to be too depressing for me to see in the theaters.

Mud was my favorite movie of last year. McConaughey was great in it and in his small role in Wolf of Wallatreet.

U2 is supposed to perform. That'll probably be the highlight for me.

Ellen is pleasant enough, but three hours of self-deprecating humor is a whole lot.

[Hector]

If Cate Blanchette doesn't win for her incredible performance in Blue Jasmine...something is terrible wrong.

Sandra Bullock was good in Gravity...but come friggin' on...her acting doesn't even come close to Blanchette's...it's like a prime Undertaker vs the Brooklyn Brawler...world's apart in terms of pure acting talent.

[gummi]

I usually don't watch the show, just check the winners online after it's over. I've only seen 5 of the movies up for best picture, and my personal choice would be Dallas Buyers Club, hands down. Matthew McConaughey has become one of my favorite actors. Between Dallas Buyers Club and HBO's True Detective, he's been flat-out amazing lately. The others I saw were American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, and The Wolf of Wall Street. While I enjoyed them all, with the exception of The Wolf of Wall Street, none of them are films that I'd really want to see a second time. I also really liked Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, but I'd go with Meryl Streep in August, Osage County for the win. One of the all-time most dismal, depressing movies I've ever seen, but she was fantastic in it.

[Hector]

I also really liked Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, but I'd go with Meryl Streep in August, Osage County for the win. One of the all-time most dismal, depressing movies I've ever seen, but she was fantastic in it.

She's my second choice...

[4NDR01D]

My wife, our friends and I have been doing "themed" Oscar viewing dinner parties for about last 7 years (best movie nominees only), we're a little behind so we are having an epic movie viewing day today.
Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyer's Club and 12 Years a Slave and then, the Oscars.
Nebraska is my leading favorite for best picture but there's just no way it wins. Hopefully Bruce Dern wins, we was fantastic.

[madmarva]

Here are my guesses for winners. I haven't seen all the films, but It's hard to miss the buzz. If you want to play along cut, paste and bold your pick.


Best Picture

American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity

Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)


Best Actress in a Leading Role

Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)


Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)

Best Animated Feature

The Croods (Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco, Kristine Belson)
Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri)
Ernest & Celestine (Benjamin Renner, Didier Brunner)
Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho)
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki)

Best Cinematography

The Grandmaster (Philippe Le Sourd)
Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel)
Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael)
Prisoners (Roger A. Deakins)

Best Costume Design

American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson)

The Grandmaster (William Chang Suk Ping)
The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
The Invisible Woman (Michael O'Connor)
12 Years a Slave (Patricia Norris)

Best Directing

American Hustle (David O. Russell)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

Best Documentary Feature

The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen)
Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher)
Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley, Jeremy Scahill)
The Square (Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer)
20 Feet from Stardom (Nominees to be determined)

Best Documentary Short

CaveDigger (Jeffrey Karoff)
Facing Fear (Jason Cohen)
Karama Has No Walls (Sara Ishaq)
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed)
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Edgar Barens)

Best Film Editing

American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten)
Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse)
Dallas Buyers Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger)

12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)

Best Foreign Language Film

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Omar (Palestine)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty)
The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny)

Best Original Score
The Book Thief (John Williams)
Gravity (Steven Price)
Her (William Butler, Owen Pallett)
Philomena (Alexandre Desplat)
Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)


Best Original Song
Happy (Despicable Me 2)
Let It Go (Frozen)
The Moon Song (Her)
Ordinary Love (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)


Best Production Design

American Hustle (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)
Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woollard)
The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)
Her (K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena)
12 Years a Slave (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker)


Best Animated Short Film


Feral (Daniel Sousa, Dan Golden)

Get a Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, Dorothy McKim)
Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)
Possessions (Shuhei Morita)
Room on the Broom (Max Lang, Jan Lachauer)

Best Live Action Short Film

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me) (Esteban Crespo)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) (Xavier Legrand, Alexandre Gavras)
Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) (Selma Vilhunen, Kirsikka Saari)
The Voorman Problem (Mark Gill, Baldwin Li)

Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker, Richard Hymns)
Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney)
Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Burge, Chris Ward)
Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman)

Best Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro)
Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland)
Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow)

Best Visual Effects


Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds)
Iron Man 3 (Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick)
The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier)
Star Trek Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)
Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)
Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope)
12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)

The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)

Best Original Screenplay

American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack)
Her (Spike Jonze)
Nebraska (Bob Nelson)

[madmarva]

I usually don't watch the show, just check the winners online after it's over. I've only seen 5 of the movies up for best picture, and my personal choice would be Dallas Buyers Club, hands down. Matthew McConaughey has become one of my favorite actors. Between Dallas Buyers Club and HBO's True Detective, he's been flat-out amazing lately.

If you haven't seen Mud, he's excellent in it as well.

[spacecaps]

I don't really care about the Oscars but Gravity was the best movie I've seen in the last couple of years. I really hope that wins. It's always more interesting when a Sci-Fi or action movie is up for the award because no matter how good it is, it's always an underdog.

[Godzilla]

I'm usually not a Twitter fan, but the guys behind Riftrax and going to be live riffing the events. That might be enough to get me to watch.

[J.B.]

I hope American Hustle cleans up.

[gummi]

If you haven't seen Mud, he's excellent in it as well.

No, I haven't seen that. Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to check it out.

[Brazoo]

I know it's not everyone's thing, but I thought "Wolf" was one of the craziest and funniest movies I've seen in ages. Loved it. DiCaprio and Hill were both fantastic.

I really liked "Nebraska" and "Gravity" as well. I haven't seen "Hustle" or "12 Years..." yet.

I like that most of the Best Picture nominees are very unusual choices compared with other years. Comedies and action movies never get their due, so it's great to see the category almost filled with those. Personally, I'd like to see almost any of those win for that reason. "12 Years..." and "Dallas" are more of the typical Oscar choices. They both may be really great, but I don't think they're the kinds of movies that change the way those stories are told in any significant way. I thought "Wolf", "Gravity" and "Nebraska" were gutsier and more game-changing - Oscar-wise, anyways.

Buzz makes it seem like "12 Years..." is going to take it, from what I can tell.

[madmarva]

I wasn't expecting a black comedy with Wolf of Wallstreet, but it was excellent, lusty fun with solid performances throughout. I think as more people see it, it will eventually gain a greater status. Hard to beat Scorsese.

American Hustle is very good, too. Fine performances all around, but it went a little long to me. Could have been tightened up. But if there is an award for best hair, this movie should get it.

Captain Phillips is a fine movie but it doesn't stand out, to me.

12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyer's Club, Nebraska, Her just seemed to be kind of depressing subjects to me. I'll likely see them at some point, but didn't feel like seeing the at the theater.

[gummi]

Good lord, it's been 2 hours since best supporting actor was announced and still no news on best actress, actor, and picture. Now I remember why I stopped watching the Oscars and just checking the results after it is over.

[superherocrazy]

I'm just watching right now until Comic Men comes on! I know it's a big night but an all day event come on, it's not the Super Bowl.