The rest of the predictions of the 2006 Oscar Nominations

My goodness, the week sure went fast, didn't it? Instead of throwing another dozen articles at you (and I would never get them done in time!) I'd like to focus on the majority of the categories and give you some thoughts about each. For a full list of nominees, point your browser HERE.

Best Picture

It's the year of Marty. Clint had his heyday back in '04, and it seems like it's simply his time to take home the Best Picture bacon. And you know what? It's a great hear to honor him.

Who Will Win: The Departed
Who Should Win: Either The Departed or Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Director:

Marty for 2006.

Who Will Win: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Who Should Win: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor:

Who Will Win: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Who Should Win: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress:

Who Will Win: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Who Should Win: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Foreign Language Film:

Who Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Who Should Win: The Lives of Others

Best Animated Feature Film:

Who Will Win: Cars
Who Should Win: Monster House

Best Cinematography:

Who Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Who Should Win: The Prestige

Best Art Direction:

Who Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Who Should Win: The Prestige

Best Costume Design:

Who Will Win: Dreamgirls
Who Should Win: The Devil Wears Prada (because it's, like, about costumes and stuff)

Best Documentary:

Who Will Win: An Inconvienent Truth
Who Should Win: An Inconvienent Truth

Best Makeup:

Who Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Who Should Win: Pan's Labyrinth

Best Music Score:

Who Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Who Should Win: Notes on a Scandal

Best Song:

Who Will Win: Any of the three "Dreamgirls" songs
Who Should Win: Who flippin' cares? But what the hell..one of the three "Dreamgirls" songs

Best Sound Mixing:

Who Will Win: Dreamgirls
Who Should Win: Apocalypto

Best Sound Editing:

Who Will Win: Letters From Iwo Jima
Who Should Win: Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Who Will Win: The Departed
Who Should Win: The Departed

Best Original Screenplay:

Who Will Win: Little Miss Sunshine
Who Should Win: Letters From Iwo Jima

Oscar 2006 Predictions...Best Visual Effects

Moving along with my predictions for the quickly approaching Oscar season, it's time to yak about another techincal category, that pesky award known as Best Visual Effects.

All three of the nominated films are swimming in computer generated effects work which has come a long way even in the past few years. Say what you will about last year's The Fountain, yet that was a film that was end-to-end with in-camera

Best Visual Effects Nominees:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

When the mass majority of people think of Pirates, they think of Johnny Depp, nice locales and an extremely bloated running time. I don't think they'll remember the effects work that went into Davy Jones. As for Posiedon, it will enjoy the fact it was nominated, but there's no way the digital waves and boat will walk away with an award.

Superman Returns has the most thorough visual look, makes flying look easy and uses its computer imagery to forward the story of the real Superman III, and thus will grab the award.

Who Will Win: Superman Returns
Who Should Win: Superman Returns

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Oscar 2006 Predictions...Best Editing

Moving away from the acting Oscar predictions, I'd like to move onto a technical category that most Oscar viewers usually avoid and get up to make a sandwhich at this point. Still, the film editing category is a very important one for without it, these films would all be like Russian Ark, and while that flick was pretty cool, it might get pretty dull if we didn't have editors cuttin' the movies for us.

Who's Up:
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Out of all of these films, The Departed stands above-and-beyond. Thelma Schoonmaker, who has knocked back two Oscars in the past, has done so for a reason. She makes the cutting a character in the film, and in Departed she shows a way to connect the story and the characters without showing off. And Thelma does it all; she marries long takes, quick cuts, freeze-frame and even has a brilliant edit where the sound of tires squealing bleed briefly into a scene transition.

As for the rest of the players, Blood Diamond could have USED some editing to get its bloated running time down to something a little more tolerable. Children of Men's genius was all of the long takes the film utilized, but voters may not see that as film editing (even though it is). And United 93's only other nomination (besides Director) will just be that, despite the film somehow capturing all of the mayhem of 9/11 flawlessly.

Babel may upset The Departed for it juggles so many stories and characters, but I still think it will be the year, once again, of Thelma. But I may be wrong.

Who Will Win: The Departed
Who Should Win: The Departed

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Oscar 2006 Predictions...Best Supporting Actor

OR: Will Norbit himself win an Oscar?

Moving along on the predictions for the upcoming Oscars telecast, we now look at the Best Supporting Actor category, and once again there are some bizarre nominations to look at here.

And while I usually don't bemoan the Academy not nominating someone, come on you guys...Jack Nicholson could have easily had a fourth Oscar for his overly violent, racist mobster in The Departed. For shame!

The could-have-been-somebodies:

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

I think the majority of us were expecting Mr. Murphy to score a nom for his James Brown-lite character in Dreamgirls, and I think he does a good job in the flick. In fact, he and Jennifer Hudson are the best things in the film, and there is a very solid chance that the two of them could be pictured together backstage holding little naked gold statues. I guess voters will have to look away from the fact Murphy just appeared in the $33 million, opening-weekend grossing Norbit which has been getting some of the worst reviews of Murphy's career.

Still, there's not much competition. Jackie Earle Haley did some great work in Little Children and will no doubt make a comeback with just the nomination in tow. Djimon Hounsou is a favorite with the academy (he was nominated in 2002 for In America) yet he's in a film where he co-stars with a great actor also nominated this year for the wrong film. The right film is The Departed, yet will voters go for Wahlberg's foul-mouthed Boston trooper? Many voters will be wondering where Jack is on the ballots.

That leaves Alan Arkin, who gives a real memorable performance in Sunshine and has most of his great work alongside fellow nom Abigail Breslin which voters will remember. It is also his third nomination (the other two were over 30 years ago!) poses the only real challenger to knock Murphy out of the game. Again, Sunshine gives me the impression that is only going to walk away with one Oscar, so this could be the upset. And if he does, Norbit was the undoing after all.

Who Will Win: Eddie Murphy
Who Should Win: Jack Nicholson....but I'll take Alan Arkin

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Oscar 2006 Predictions...Best Supporting Actress

Here is the first in a series I'll try to write about right up to the February 25th telecast of those pesky Oscars we either hate to love or love to hate.

My predictions will be based on my gut feeling, basing it on buzz of the performance, tracking previous awards and...well, I've guessed these pretty well over the years, so what's stopping me now?

I will then choose my favorite from the lot, if anyone cares.

So who's up for this particular award? The nominees:

Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

It was not surprising to see my gal Cate and Jennifer Hudson grab their noms, but I was surprised to see two noms for Babel and a score for Little Miss Sunshine herself. Young Ms. Breslin would score my vote in the category, as she was the glue to a pretty great road flick.

Cate already won two years ago for her take on Katherine Hepburn and I doubt she will repeat the win two years later for what is still a good performance. Both Barraza and Kikuchi may cancel each other out for their work in Babel, and both parts were somewhat miniscule.


Jennifer Hudson simply has IT right now. She's the hot shit and the academy knows it, and her win at the Golden Globes has her pegged for this award. And since Dreamgirls is lacking the prestigious Best Picture and Director, they may choose to give their top honor to Hudson. OR, perhaps they secretly hate this movie SO much that they may choose to pull a Color Purple and send them home empty handed.

In that case, the primo challenger Hudson has is young Abigail, who, if she wins, will be the second youngest winner to Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon. A LOT of people loved Sunshine and the academy showed their love with four nominations, so this could be the only one it walks away with. Still, it seems Hudson is destined to win.


Who Will Win: Jennifer Hudson
Who Should Win: Abigail Breslin

Jason
efilmcritic.com

Jack says you're buying The Departed on DVD

Well well well,

I did the rare thing for the first time in two months of endlessly selling off my used DVD's...I actually bought one!

I found myself in the corporate conglomerate known as Future Shop (Yeah, and I frequent Cineplex Entertainment theatres and shop at Walmart too...aren't I a hypocrite?) to pick up a limited steelbook edition of The Departed on DVD.

And as some of my pals know, I love this movie to death. It's one of the best of 2006. Not only is it one of Scorsese's best flicks, but it is a story so richly layered with double-crossings, deception, lies and levels of power, and boy does it kick butt with repeat viewings. I normally don't see movies on a repeat basis anymore, but I viewed this mofo THREE times theatrically and have been counting the days until I can spin it on my home playa.

But what else did I see at Fuhrer Shop? A multitude of different editions of this flick:

- The 1 disc, widescreen edition that contains only the feature
- The same 1 disc but in the dreaded full-screen format (do any goofnuts still buy these?)
- The preferrable two-disc special edition featuring interviews and documentaries
- The previously mentioned steelbook edition, which houses same two discs of the SE
- A film only version on Blu-Ray DVD
- A release of the film on HD-DVD with the same special features of the two-disc SE

We're going format nuts! I was amazed I didn't see a Playstation Portable version on the same shelf.

(If you're one of those folks up in the Great White North that don't care for the dredded bilingual packing of their favorite movies on DVD, you'll be happy to know that the Steelbook edition is completely free of french text. Don't be fooled by the english/french insert on the back...it comes off.)

I'm still not that ga-ga over the whole Blu-Ray and HD-DVD format war that's going on right now. They both seem like good formats if you have fully invested in HD, for sure, but who knows which format is going to fold first? Right now, Blu-Ray is winning 3-to-1 in the sales, so I guess that's good for them. When all the dust settles and I feel like replacing my current television, maybe I'll make the jump. But those regular, low-res NTSC DVD's are still pretty hard to resist considering that the $6.88 bin at Wal-Mart is now 2/$10.00.

Oh, and if you do your homework, you can score discs off of Ebay for $1. Just a tip.

Jason
efilmcritic.com