place your bets: oscar picks of 2011

I desperately wanted to do a special Oscar prediction video for you guys but believe it or not, it takes me longer to record and edit a video than it does for me to write what I was going to say. But no worries, hopefully I’ll have a video recap for you on Monday. And due to my technically difficulties (as well as life happening), that’s why you’re just now hearing about my picks when I usually decide fairly early.

Some picks this year were no brainers like Natalie Portman and Christian Bale, while others I had to take a guess or I feel is a tie since both were so good. Then of course, there are the inevitable few that I don’t know anything about so I’m just guessing for guessing’s sake or from what I hear from any past media buzz that may have been going on the past months. I don’t actually bet money but if I did, my picks are based on who I think would win, not who should win. As you’ll notice, I voice my opinion on both or why I chose what I chose. But, on to the picks! My picks are in bold.

BEST PICTURE (Out of the 10, I’ve only seen 6. *I haven’t seen yet)
127 Hours*
Black Swan
The Fighter*
Inception – I would love it if this would win, it’s my personal best of the year
The Kids Are All Right*
The King’s Speech – with 12 nods and several other wins, this looks like the big favorite as well as a superb movie
The Social Network – while also a very great movie, this might be a #2 choice
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone*

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful – a surprise nod to many
Jeff Bridges, True Grit – awesome as usual
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network  – I loved this performance
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech – Well deserved, I’d be surprised if he didn’t win)
James Franco, 127 Hours – how often does a nominee be a host too?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter – even though I haven’t seen it, he’s all I hear about in this movie
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech – being the only movie I’ve seen in this category, I really liked his performance here

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan – this has been her year and she’s practically won every other award for this role
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter – I hear her name tossed around a lot, but that may or may not mean she could win this.
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit – I loved her performance in this movie, I think a lot of others did too so I’m gonna go with her on this one
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

BEST ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3 – it’ll win this one versus Best Film

BEST ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara – I admit, I’m taking a guess with this one
Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat – I’m trying to be fair but I would want Inception to win everything it’s nominated for
The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister – having seen all of these, I like this pick, but I have a feeling this might be a loss, even with the stunning shots this film has. I did notice a minor trend that whatever movie wins Art Direction may have a strong chance for Cinematography too… Maybe. I hope this wins, I loved many of the scenes but this may end up going to…
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen – I don’t want to not comment on this one… I loved the way many of the scenes were shot and I think this has a stronger chance of winning
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood – the latest trends show that period pieces set in the Elizabethan era tend to win these. This is the closest that looks like that, plus there were some very colorful and intricate costumes in this movie that stand out
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beaven – due to it’s high nomination count, it’s possible this may end up winning, also due to this being a true story and attention to detail and accuracies
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network – it may or may not win best film but I think he was the better director out of these films that I’ve seen
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Christopher Nolan, Inception – oh wait, he wasn’t nominated

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz – it’s the only one I’ve seen so far, but it’s also the only one I’ve heard mentioned. Probably not going to win but I don’t much about the others (yet)
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT – out of fairness, I won’t pick anyone here since I’ve seen nor heard any of these
Killing in the Name (Nominees TBD)
Poster Girl (Nominees (TBD)
Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

BEST EDITING (if only Inception had been nominated)
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech, Tariq Anwar – this was a tough pick to make, since I haven’t seen 2 of the films here, I’m wondering what was great about the editing in those films. As for this film, certain edits stand out to me so I’ll pick this one
The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico) – once again, this is the only film I’ve heard about, so I’ll go with this one

BEST MAKEUP
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey – first, it’s the only movie I’ve seen, and Rick Baker is the only makeup artist I know by name and he’s a big name, no offense to the others nominated.

BEST SCORE
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer – none of the other scores are as recognizable as this film, nor have they been made into apps and ringtones.
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – I want to point out this film’s score too, it also caught my attention in the film as well as fit the mood of the film quite well

BEST SONG
“Coming Home,” Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey – I’m only picking this song because it’s the only one I’ve heard about. I haven’t seen the film or heard the song, but I heard talk about how good of a song it was. Does that mean it’ll win? No, but we’ll find out on Sunday.
“I See the Light,” Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
“If I Rise,” 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3, Randy Newman – while this is the only movie I’ve seen, I don’t remember this song

BEST ANIMATED SHORT (once again, I haven’t heard anything about any of these nor have I seen any so I won’t vote)
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT (no pick from me here either)
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

BEST SOUND EDITING (sound effects)
Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague – this was good but I think Inception was better
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger

BEST SOUND MIXING
Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (this is a very tough call… there’s a lot going on in the 3 out of the 5 films I saw)
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips – from super skinny bodies, big heads, people shrinking, all in a dream world with disappearing cats… I mean they made the beloved cartoon come to “real” life.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb – I’m playing favorites here, but did we not all see dreams collapsing and a dream world fold on itself?
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick – I live for special effects and this film delivered.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year, written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; 
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, written by Christopher Nolan – he’s gotta win something! He had been toying with this for years!
The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler – again, due to the number of nods, a close favorite probably

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin – this is another tough call, but I’m going to go with this film due to the dialogue alone. While my other pick, I choose for the same reason
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – there can only be one winner, but if there were 2, this would be it since contractions were hard to find
Winter’s Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Well, let’s see how we do this Sunday. Follow me on Twitter or on Facebook as I liveblog the telecast.