We predict the 2015 Oscar winners
The 87th Academy Awards officially ends the Awards season this Sunday and predicting the winners might be easier this time round as past award ceremonies are usually good indicators.
Check out our predictions of who might walk away with an Oscar in the main categories. Unfortunately, we’ve decided to exclude the technical categories as they’re difficult to predict and hence are only focusing on the main categories.
Featured below is a table with two columns, the first being the list of nominees with the predicted winner in bold. The second is a brief analysis of why will it win?
List of nominees (Predicted winner in bold)
Why will it win?
Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
It was initially thought that Boyhood would win Best Picture due to its Golden Globe, BAFTA and Critic’s Choice win. However, things took an unexpected turn when Birdman won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Producers Guild of America (PGA), Directors Guild of America (DGA) – all of which mainly include Academy members. So there’s no doubt that Birdman will walk away with the prize.
Best Director
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game
The films of the last two Best Director recipients didn’t walk away with Best Picture. Last year, Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for Gravity, but 12 Years a Slave walked away with Best Picture. Then the year before that, Ang Lee took Best Director for Life of Pi while Ben Affleck (who wasn’t even nominated for Best Director) claimed Best Picture for Argo. This year the Academy will likely give the Best Director prize to Linklater as the filmmaker took 12 years to craft Boyhood and there’s no doubt that the Academy will honour that.
Best Actor
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Redmayne gives a layered performance as Stephen Hawking and almost certainly deserves this accolade. He’s practically won every single award for his performance and his Oscar win is already set in stone, unless the Academy favours Birdman so much, that they give it to Michael Keaton instead.
Best Actress
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
Julianne Moore has the win in the bag because like Redmayne, she has swept the Best Actress win at basically every single award ceremony this year. Plus she’s the strongest contender as Jones’ performance in The Theory of Everything wasn’t particularly worthy of a nomination while Cotillard was only added into this category as a way for the Academy to snub Jennifer Aniston. While Witherspoon and Pike are strong contenders, both performances couldn’t reach the same heights as Moore’s .
Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J. K. Simmons – Whiplash
Playing a crazy, abusive and hardcore music instructor, J.K. Simmons unanimously deserves all the recognition and awards he’s been receiving.
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Laura Dern – Wild
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
First of all, Dern and Knightly should not have been nominated, while Stone had way too little screen time to actually guarantee a win. Streep on the other hand practically owned Into the Woods despite only being a supporting player and is my personal choice to win. However, Arquette is already deemed the winner because like Redmayne and Moore, she’s won at almost every single award ceremony.
Best Animated Feature Film
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
This one’s rather difficult to predict as The Lego Movie hands down deserves the trophy, but was unfortunately snubbed. How to Train Your Dragon 2 won a Golden Globe and an Annie while Lego won a PGA and a BAFTA. At this rate, it’s between Dragon and Big Hero 6, but with Dragon’s dark and mature themes, I’m guessing the Academy goes with Dragon.
Best Original Screenplay
Birdman – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Armando Bo
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher – E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
Winning a Writers Guild of America (WGA) for Original Screenplay, Budapest Hotel will once again claim the prize at the Oscars as I’m sure most readers enjoyed its peculiar style.
Best Adapted Screenplay
American Sniper – Jason Hall from American Sniper by Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore from Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson from Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten from Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Wilde Hawking
Whiplash – Damien Chazelle from his short film of the same name
Winning a WGA in this category, The Imitation Game is poised to claim this prize.
Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat
The Imitation Game – Alexandre Desplat
Interstellar – Hans Zimmer
Mr. Turner – Gary Yershon
The Theory of Everything – Jóhann Jóhannsson
This one’s between Theory and Budapest, but because of the Academy’s love for the latter – nine nominations to be exact, I’m going with Budapest.
Best Original Song
Everything Is Awesome from The Lego Movie – Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson
Glory from Selma – Music and Lyric by John Legend and Common
Grateful from Beyond the Lights – Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
I’m Not Gonna Miss You from Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond
Lost Stars from Begin Again – Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois
Despite Everything is Awesome’s catchy tune and chorus, most are feeling the love and glory from Selma, so why not the Academy?
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida (Poland) in Polish – Paweł Pawlikowski
Leviathan (Russia) in Russian – Andrey Zvyagintsev
Tangerines (Estonia) in Estonian and Russian – Zaza Urushadze
Timbuktu (Mauritania) in French – Abderrahmane Sissako
Wild Tales (Argentina) in Spanish – Damián Szifrón
Hmm… Controversial Russian film Leviathan or Polish holocaust Ida. I’m guessing the Academy will play it safe and go for Ida.
Best Documentary – Feature
Citizenfour – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutsky
Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester
The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders, Lélia Wanick Salgado and David Rosier
Virunga – Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
With the snubbing of Life Itself, Citizenfour is the next best thing, winning a DGA and a BAFTA.
Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy – Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner and Paul Corbould
Interstellar – Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer
We all know that Interstellar’s visuals are out of this world, however, the Academy might just favour motion capture apes (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) instead. But my gut is telling me Interstellar.
If you’re keen to see all the nominations, click here.
Catch the 87th Academy Awards on SA TV at 03.46am, Monday February 23, 2015 on MNet Movies Premiere (channel 103). If you’re looking for a more civilised hour to catch this prestigious awards show, then tune onto MNet (Channel 101) later that same day at 7:30pm.
