Oscar Nomination Predictions

Because I could, here is my list of predictions for the 2012 Oscar nominees. These aren't necessarily my favourite, but the ones I think will get nominated.

Best Picture (I have the first 5 bolded as the top five if there aren't 10 nominees this year)
-The Descendants
-The Artist
-Moneyball
-Hugo
-Midnight in Paris
-the Tree of Life
-War Horse
-the Help
-the Ides of March
-Shame

The only odd bug on this list is Shame. Perhaps my choice for placing it there is due to personal taste. I did think it was one of the more powerful films this year. If it doesn't get it, it will either be Tinker, Tailer or Extremely Loud.

Best Director
-Alexander Payne for the Descendants
-Michel Hazanavicius for the Artist
-George Clooney for the Ides of March
-Terrence Malick for the Tree of Life
-David Fincher for the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

There's a lot of competition this year especially in this category. It's because Woody Allen also deserves a spot here among many others. This category was a tough guess.

Best Actor in a Leading Role
-Jean Dujardin for the Artist
-Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar
-Michael Fassbender for Shame
-George Clooney for the Descendants
-Bradd Pitt for Moneyball

This is more or less the top choices from the Globes, but they seem to be the more prominent picks. I would however like to see Gary Oldman on there somewhere.

Best Actress in a Leading Role
-Rooney Mara for the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
-Maryl Streep for the Iron Lady
-Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk about Kevin
-Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
-Viola Davis for the Help

You may notice that I didn't have Michelle Williams on there. She was good, but every years there's always one person everyone thinks will get it and then doesn't even get the nomination. For some reason I think she'll miss out this year. I don't know why, but I wouldn't be surprised if she beats out Glenn. It's hard because they all deserve it.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
-Christopher Plummer for the Beginners
-Albert Brooks for Drive
-Viggo Mortensen for A Dangerous Method
-Max Von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
-Bradd Pitt for the Tree of Life

Haven't seen Extremely Loud, but Max seems to have a strong performance in this. Much different from his hollywood typical, sinister screen villain. The guys a great actor, he deserves some academy love.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
-Shailene Woodley for the Descendants
-Jessica Chastain for Tree of Life
-Octavia Spencer for the Help
-Berenice Bejo for the Artist
-Evan Rachel Wood for the Ides of March

Although I may be making a bit of a bold claim for Evan Rachel Wood. I thought her performance was rather strong, and subtle. To be honest I haven't seen the Help but apparently the acting is really good in it. Jessica Chastain could probably get nominated for that movie instead of Tree of Life.

Best Original Screenplay
-Midnight in Paris
-50/50
-Bridesmaids
-the Artist
-A Separation

A Separation is a foreign film, but from time to time they'll make it onto this list. I haven't seen it yet, but I have a feeling it will get more than just the foreign film nod.

Best Adapted Screenplay
-Moneyball
-the Ides of March
-the Descendants
-Hugo
-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Since most of the films this year were based on other material, there's much competition here. I tried my best to guess who may get it.

Best Cinematography
-the Tree of Life
-War Horse
-Hugo
-Drive
-the Artist

If one on this list doesn't get it, it will sadly probably be Drive. Although it was one of my favourite films of this year, I sadly believe it won't get the attention it deserves at the oscars. This is simply because there is so much tough competition all the sudden.

Best Editing
-the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
-the Artist
-War Horse
-the Tree of Life
-Hugo

For some reason I wanted to put the Ides of March on this list. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it being edited quite well. Although War Horse was well edited, there's a lot I think they could have just taken out. Whether that effects credibility in this category, I don't know, but they could have taken a lot of that film out. But it will probably get something because the editing worked really well to convey emotion in the horse. Another one I'd like to see here is Drive, but due to the intense competition might not get the spotlight in this category.

Best Art Direction
-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
-War Horse
-the Tree of Life
-Midnight in Paris
-Hugo

Don't know about Tree of Life or Midnight. The Artist will likely slide in here somewhere.

Best Original Score
-Hugo
-TinTin
-the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
-the Artist
-War Horse

This seems to be the common choice for predictions in this category. John Williams, Howard Shore, Trent Reznor and another guy who did the Artist.

Best Original Song
I don't have a clue actually for this category.

Make-Up (I'm really no expert in this category)
-J. Edgar
-the Iron Lady
-Albert Nobbs
-the Artist

I'm probably wrong. Maybe I'll just start putting in the Artist because it seems to be showing up a lot.

Best Costume (nor am I an expert in this one)
-Albert Nobbs
-the Artist
-the Iron Lady
-Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
-War Horse

I really don't know for this one either. Again, I threw the Artist in there.

Best Visual Effects
-Rise of the Planet of the Apes
-the Tree of Life
-Super 8
-Transformers 3
-Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Tree of Life may seem out of place here, but there was actually a lot of effects done for this film. What's interesting about it is how a lot of effects they went back to using old techniques especially for the space sequences.

Best Sound/Sound Editing
-Super 8
-Transformers 3
-Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
-War Horse
-Rango

Best Sound Mixing
-Super 8
-Transformers 3
-Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol
-Tin Tin
-Rise of the Planet of the Apes

These two categories usually have similar noms, but there's usually a little variety.

Best Foreign Film
-A Separation
-The Skin I live In
-Le Havre
-Elite Squad 2

I don't know what the fifth one will be in this category. To be honest I haven't really seen a lot of foreign films this year so my guess is really limited to the ones I've seen. Either way, I do think these ones have a strong chance. A Separation will probably win though.

Best Documentary
-The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
-Senna
-Project Nim

Again I don't know what the next three will be, I haven't really followed docs this year. But I am surprised to see that Senna has not been on other prediction lists. Perhaps it's not even in the running and there's something I'm missing but it's in my opinion one of the best films of this year.

Best Animated Feature
-Tintin
-Rango
-Arthur Christmas
-Puss in Boots
-Cars 2

I don't know if Cars 2 will get nominated. There's a chance that there's some non-american film that gets nominated like the Illusionist from last year knocking out Tangled.

Looking back, the Artist Shows up quite a lot along with the Descendants, Hugo and the Tree of Life. One that really surprises me is War Horse. At first I was actually puzzled that it would get any consideration for Best Picture. Not that it was bad, but parts of it really dragged and brought the whole thing down. However, if you look at the technical side of it, more specifically the editing and the cinematography, these elements worked really well to put emotion into a horse. It was a very emotionally film so for that reason it will probably get quite a few nominations, but mainly for it's technical achievements.

That's my list. Lets see if I'm right.