Golden boy.

its oscar season. the nominees have been outed and the winners will be presented in less than a month. its the time of year when every self-appointed movie buff gives his/her five dimes on who will win and who should win. so i guess i cant be any less of a movie buff than anyone else. here goes. well make this into neat and tidy lists. i like lists. ive mentioned that before i think. so batting first, for the academy - the nominees!

Best Movie - Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen

Best Director - Clint (Letters from Iwo Jima), Stephen Frears (The Queen), Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Babel), Paul Greengrass (United 93), Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Best Actor - Leo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Actress - Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin (LMS), Jackie E Haley (Little Children), Djimon Honsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

Best Supporting Actress - Adriana Barrazza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (LMS), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)



and now, my opinion.

Best Movie -> will win: Babel, just cos its so "big" and meaningful. an epic movie, with solid acting. very oscar material.
should win: Little Miss Sunshine, just wonderfully real and human. deals with real emotions and real situations, with characters one can relate to. its just a wonderful feel good movie. and its hilarious.

Best Director -> will win: Martin Scorsese, he deserves it. finally. a legend. and no oscar as of yet. come on. (and ive heard that The Departed is good.)
should win: see above.

Best Actor -> will win: Forest Whitaker, havent seen the movie. but you can tell its oscar material. and its such a hardcore role for him. just very oscar. and again, "meaningful" role, "meaningful" movie.
should win: Ryan Gosling, havent seen Half Nelson either, but its apparently really good. and also i loved Ryan in The United States of Leland and The Believer, and it would be good to see a young actor get the award.

Best Actress -> will win: Helen Mirren, its obvious. the queen. serious. come on.
should win: Helen Mirren maybe, havent seen any of the movies, so cant really say, but i do believe Helen Mirren will live up to the hype once i see the queen.

Best S.Actor -> will win: Eddie, probably, with all the hype around Dreamgirls its bound to win one of the big 'uns.
should win: Alan Arkin, again, cant really say bout the others, but Alan was fantastic as grandpa/dad/fatherinlaw in LMS, and the movie deserves at least one win.

Best S.Actress -> will win: Jennifer Hudson, two words: Dreamgirls
should win: Rinko Kikuchi/Abigail Breslin: Rinko was stupendous as the deaf japanese girl in Babel, i think she deserves it easy. but then again Abigail was fantastically cute and very good in LMS as well, tho i guess this has more to do with me wanting LMS to win something, if i think bout it seriously i think Rinko Kikuchi deserves it. she was phenomenal.

so there we have it. a short and sweet list of my predictions for February 25th. well see what happens.

id like to thank the academy....
anton

ps. didnt you find it tasteless to have the "Winner - Best Director, Cannes 2006" thingy in the beginning of Babel? in the trailer it would be fine to have it. but in the actual movie? come on. i felt that it was just so in your face, like hes warning us that were gonna see something amazing and really meaningful, so pay attention. this also relates to why my expectations fell a bit short with babel, which was beacuse iñarritu tried too hard to be meaningful and make a "big"/important movie, tho it was still very good, as you can see from the 5th position on my best of 2006. but still, come on. is iñarritu slightly full of himself?