Ashleigh Heaton and Wren Culp
Editor-in-Chief and Webmaster
The Oscars – a night of celebration of the best of the year’s filmmaking. Millions of viewers tune in Oscar night to see what movies will reap the biggest awards, though not always sure who to predict will win what. That’s where we come in.
However, predicting winners is trickier than meets the eye, because we, the general audience, aren’t voting – the Academy, made up of respected actors and filmmakers, votes. And the Academy has a completely different taste in movies than the general audience; some votes are cast for political reasons, and some are cast even without seeing the other films in the category.
2010 was fairly weak in films, but those who garnered nominations were well-deserved. While The King’s Speech and True Grit lead the pack in nominations (12 and 10, respectively), crowd-pleaser The Social Network will likely snatch the biggest awards of the night.
With that in mind, here are The Sidekick’s Oscar winner predictions, cast by Wren Culp and Ashleigh Heaton. Be sure to tune in on Sunday, Feb. 27 to watch the 83rd Academy Awards for yourself and see if we guessed right.
Best Picture: The Social Network
Though the Best Film category houses a whopping 10 nominations, the true battle is usually between two, sometimes three films. This year, that battle is between The Social Network, Black Swan and The King’s Speech, and our predication has to go to The Social Network.
Sure, The Social Network has been slandered for its inaccuracy with true events, but the Academy is probably going to turn a blind eye to that detail and focus on the big picture – it’s genius. When previews started surfacing for the film, audiences laughed at the idea of an entire movie dedicated to the founding of Facebook, but the cast and crew made such a modern, symbolic piece of art that everyone stopped laughing pretty quick. That fact alone will give the Academy reason enough for praise.
As for The King’s Speech and Black Swan, they’ll probably have to settle for wins in Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. The King’s Speech may have a slight edge over Black Swan since it received vastly more nominations on a whole, but having the most nominations does not mean having the best chance at winning.
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
It’s safe to say that, a majority of the time, the Best Picture and Best Director winners are from the same movie. There have been a few exceptions in the past (most recently in 2005,) but it’s most likely going to hold true this year for Social Network favorite David Fincher. After all, he did make an intelligent drama out of the founding of Facebook.
If, however, this is an odd year, the second most likely winner would be Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan. Both directors created intelligent and highly stylized films, so there may be an upset; however, while Aronofsky’s edgy release is good, the Academy didn’t nominate Black Swan for any screenplay awards, unlike The Social Network (which will most likely win Best Adapted Screenplay). Not a sure indicator, but a good one.
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
This is one of the few categories we don’t see a win for The Social Network, even though Jesse Eisenberg is a strong nomination. Instead, Firth will most likely take home the gold for the heavily nominated The King’s Speech simply because he had a much more difficult character to tackle.
Put it this way: the Academy usually praises actors who take risks and succeed tremendously, as Firth did in his performance of the stuttering and reluctant monarch King George VI; Eisenberg played a jerky computer nerd. And coupled with his nomination last year for A Single Man, Firth outshines Eisenberg by a fairly wide margin. In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on Eisenberg.
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Luckily for her, Portman stands virtually unrivaled in this category for her role in the ballet psychological-thriller, Black Swan. And with good reason – it’s hard to walk out of the film not impressed by her descend-to-madness acting and total immersion in ballet culture. The Golden Globes and the Screen Actor’s Guild have both recognized her work, and the Academy is sure to join the trend.
The only real threat to Portman’s crown of glory is Annette Bening for her work in The Kids Are All Right, which critics have fawned over since its summer premiere and earned her a Golden Globe (but let’s remember, Burlesque was nominated at the Globes this year.) However, it would still be a huge surprise for the Academy to favor Bening’s quirky to Portman’s insanity.
Other categories:
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Original Screenplay: The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
What do you think? Are our predictions way out there, or pretty reliable? Be sure to see if we’re right on Oscar night!
