Look for Leo DiCaprio to pick up the Best Actor Oscar for The Revenant. This Sunday’s 88th annual Academy Awards telecast should be more interesting than most because of the controversy surrounding the all-white acting nominees for the second year in a row and the anticipated reaction by outspoken emcee Chris Rock. His selection and the number of awards presenters of color … [Read more...]
Oscar nominations left good films, performers on cutting-room floor
You can tell it was a good year at the movies when so many nomination-worthy pictures and performers got snubbed by the Academy. Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant walked off with the most nominations (12), followed by Mad Max: Fury Road, the type of major studio commercial hit that the expansion of the Best Picture category aimed at including. It pulled in 10 nominations, but … [Read more...]
Oscar nominations have more than fair share of snubs
What do Jake Gyllenhall, David Oyelowo, Amy Adams and Jennifer Aniston have in common? They all turned in first-rate performances last year -- in Nightcrawler, Selma, Big Eyes and Cake, respectively -- but failed to earn Oscar nominations for their efforts when the career-boosting list of potential Academy Award winners was released this morning. 2014 saw a crowded field of … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: ‘12 Years’ for picture, McConaughey for actor
Several of the acting categories in the 86th annual Academy Awards appear to be locked up, but the top statuette for Best Picture is headed towards a photo finish this Sunday evening. By most accounts, 2013 was a solid year at the movies, with an array of first-rate releases. Nine films received the required 5 percent of first-place votes and, therefore, are in the running to … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: It’ll be ‘Argo’ for Best Picture
Being snubbed for a Best Director Oscar nomination may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Ben Affleck. No, there are no write-in votes allowed for the Academy Awards, so Affleck will not get a statuette this Sunday night for helming the involving, suspenseful, occasionally accurate Argo. But ever since he was passed over for a nomination, there has been a … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: ‘Artist,’ Clooney, Streep, Plummer, Spencer
2012 will officially become the year of the silent, black-and-white film after Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. That is when The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius’s clever homage to the early days of the movies will be anointed as the best picture of the year. Of course, it is not. The Descendants is, but there is no denying the groundswell of affection in Hollywood for the band of … [Read more...]