My Oscar Picks

Based on a number of factors and previous award wins here are my predictions for tonights Oscars.

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les MiserablesJoaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings PlaybookPhilip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, LincolnBenh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Haneke

Django Unchained, Quentin TarantinoFlight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature
Brave
FrankenweenieParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami LaneLes Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie SpencerThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson

Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna PinnockLincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman

Best Live Action Short
AsadBuzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip StocktonSkyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Oscar Party

I enjoy awards season and I usually throw an Oscars Party. Since my Oscar menu last year was a success I have decided to do it again. That is I theme my appetizers around each best picture nominee. I either redo a food featured in the movie or I come up with something that I think will fit with each film. For example in Beasts of the Southern Wild the little girl's name is Hushpuppy so I have decided to make Hushpuppies which are a southern cornmeal dumpling kind of like a corn dog. Here is my menu below.

Amour - devilled eggs
Argo - an Iranian dip made with cucumber, dill and yogurt
Beasts of the Southern Wild - hushpuppies
Django Unchained - white cake
Les Miserables - French baguette with balsamic and oil
Life of Pi - vegetarian curry samosas
Lincoln - Oscar shaped gingerbread cookies
Silver Linings Playbook - "crabby snack" crab stuffed mushrooms
Zero Dark Thirty - hummus with veggies

Oscar Shorts

So I have seen both the Oscar nominated live action and animated short films. You can tell what the filmmakers were thinking when they decided to make these shorts.

The animated shorts included a Simpsons one where Maggie goes to daycare, a Disney on about a man finding his love via a paper airplane, a tale from the book of Genesis; Adam and his dog and an internet video about guacamole. My favourite of the animated shorts is "Head over Heels" a cute love story where the husband lives on the bottom of the house and the wife lives on the ceiling. And it was made by students at the NFTS in the UK.

The live action shorts were all pretty heavy this year. Only two of the films were set in North America which meant there was great scenery. All the films had great production value. Death of a Shadow (Belgium/France) was a unique story about a man who takes pictures of shadows when thy die. Cerfew (USA) was about an uncle taking care of his niece. Buzkashi Boys (Afghanistan/USA) was about two boys; a street kid and a blacksmith's son who both dream of playing Buzkashi (Afghanistan polo). It was also nice to see a Canadian film nominated this year; Henry, a pianist relives flashbacks as he is trying to find his wife. My favourite out of the live action shorts was Asad, set in a Somali village, told the story of a young boy and his bad luck with fishing.

If you want to catch the shorts head to the Vancity Theatre.

Searching for Sugar Man

The Rio Theatre has been showing quite a few Oscar nominated films recently and Searching for Sugar Man was just one of them. This documentary answers what happened to the mysterious Rodriguez. Before watching this documentary I had only ever heard the song Sugar Man, but I had never really looked up who sung it, Searching for Sugar Man answers that.

Back in the early 70s Rodriguez released 2 albums which were huge flops. But during a time in South Africa where people were suffering and wanting to stand up to their government they found something in Rodriguez's songs. His "Bob Dylan-esque" songs resonated with South Africans who used his songs to find the courage to fight back. In turn Rodriguez had become the Elvis of South Africa. Over half a million copies of Rodriguez's albums were sold in South Africa, yet no one in America even knew who he was. Because no one knew who he was rumours were spread that he had killed himself on tour. But after years and years 2 fans who just want to know who and where Rodriguez came from. This film follows their story and answers just who Sixto Rodriguez is.

Searching for Sugar Man is a must see for anyone who thinks of themselves as music lovers or who loves a great little detective piece. But if you haven't heard of Sixto Rodriguez go out and watch this film or buy his albums that is if you can find them.

Oscar Noms

Well the list came out this morning and I am quite surprised as I'm sure many critics are. The category that is always the hardest to predict I think is Best Actress. This year there were an abundance of great performances. Marion Cotillard did an amazing job in the French film Rust and Bone, she played a whale trainer that looses her legs in an accident. Rachel Weisz stars in the limited released The Deep Blue Sea as the wife of a British Judge in post WWII who has an affair with Tom Hiddleson. Helen Mirren plays Alma the with of Alfred Hitchcock opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock. But all these women were not nominated. All the women chosen this year were all deserving. The surprise in this category is Quvenzhane Wallis the little girl who plays Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

The surprise in the Best Actor category this year is Joaquin Phoenix. But I think the biggest surprise this year is the nominations for Best Director. Both Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow were snubbed and replaced by indie film-makers. Tom Hooper also didn't make the cut this year. Now granted I'm not a Bigelow fan but in past years this category has been in synch with the DGA nominations. However I am great-full the Academy is looking at indie films and film-makers. I'm also glad the Academy is recognizing foreign film-makers outside of the Best Foreign Film category.

And of course the Canadian connection to the Oscars this year. Kim Nguyen, from Montreal directed “Rebelle” aka War Witch which is nominated for best foreign-language film. Mychael Danna, from Toronto, is nominated for best song and best original score for “Life of Pi". Yan England, the Quebec, writer, director and producer of “Henry” is nominated for best live-action short. Ariel Nasr, from Halifax, is the producer of “Buzkashi Boys” nominated as well for best live-action short.


Here are the nominations:

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Haneke
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin,
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood

Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman

Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Award season

It's that time of year again awards season!

Here's a list of the films you should see. I still even need to catch up.

POSSIBLE NOMINATIONS FOR BEST PICTURE
Amour
Arbitrage
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Deep Blue Sea
Django Unchained
Flight
Hitchcock
The Hobbit
Hyde Park on Hudson
The Impossible
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
The Paperboy
Quartet
Rust and Bone
The Sessions
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty