Well, they’re tonight! A very odd set of nominees in my opinion and I don’t much agree with the top award nominees, but it does make for an interesting night. I think Best Director will be a tense moment, for sure.
If you want to join the Straight Dope Pool, now is obviously your last chance. You can read on how to do that in the Game Room thread here.
Anyone else looking forward to it? I usually flip back and forth to them, but I’m sure I’ll post thoughts here as it air.
Yeah, I’m one who looks forward to this every year.
This is a good year for me in terms of having seen a good number of the nominees. I’ve seen all Best Picture Noms, all Screenplay Noms (both categories), all Directing Noms, all Best Actor and Best Supporting Noms, all Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Noms EXCEPT Naomi Watts and Helen Hunt, all Live Action Shorts and all Animated Shorts.
Bad year for me for Documentaries. Haven’t seen any- neither features nor shorts.
Bad year for me for Foreign Films. Only saw Amour. I saw the trailer for War Witch and really want to see it but it doesn’t open around here until Friday. I missed A Royal Affair when it was out and Kon-Tiki hasn’t had a U.S. release yet. I could and might go see No today. There won’t be any suspense for me either way though. There a Best Foreign Film Nom that is also a Best Picture Nom . . . which pretty much guarantees that it will win Best Foreign Film. I can kick myself for missing a film while it was in theaters, but it kills me to not have had the opportunity to see it. Every year it seems there are a few in this category that are not released until after the Awards. If the film has been submitted “For Consideration” then at least be poised and ready for a U.S. release once the nominations are announced!
I’ll have a strong opinion in each category, but the only real emotional investment I have is that I’d like “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” to win Best Original Song- and I say that not as a Seth MacFarlane fanboy. I’ve really never paid any attention to any of MacFarlane’s work and I only saw Ted as something to do on an evening out with my niece- it wasn’t a movie high on my list of things to see. When that song started over the opening sequence, my entire disposition changed- I was then excited about the movie and in the space of three minutes I loved the characters . . . and I love the song as a stand-alone. So, enhances the movie PLUS stands on its own as an AWESOME song. Perfect for and Academy Award in this category.
I expect “Skyfall” will win. C’mon, it’s not only a Bond song but it is a Bond song during official Bond Celebration Year and if that’s not enough . . . it’s sung by ADELE who everybody just LOVES to LOVE. So, “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” is an underdog, which only increases my emotional investment.
As of last night, I’ve seen all the Best Pic noms except “Armour”. I watched “Les Miserables” last night, something I hope I never have to endure again.
All the noms for best animated short are online, so if you want to have a category in which you’ve seen them all, that’s easy to do between now and tonight, assuming you are reading this right now.
yay oscars! i’ve been looking forward to this for awhile. i love seth macfarlane, so i’m excited he’s hosting. i’m the most invested in the big awards-best pic, actor, actress, director, etc. i’m rooting for anne hathaway and daniel day lewis.
The Oscars are my Super Bowl.
Strangely enough, the only category that I feel that way about are the live-action shorts. I’ve seen every nominee except The Gatekeepers from the feature docs and all the short docs (can never seem to track those down, for some reason), and the live-action short category is the only one where I think one nominee (Death of a Shadow, in this case) is far and away the best choice in the category. Even though I’m really rooting for Emmanuelle Riva for lead actress and How to Survive a Plague for feature doc, among others, but a win for Death of a Shadow will make me literally stand up and cheer.
I always look forward to seeing the dresses (yes, I’m one of those), but I usually skip the red carpet preshow. The interviewers are too inane even for me.
Hmmm, interesting that this is the big category for you this year. I would probably go with Death of a Shadow, but if so then Asad and Buzkashi Boys would be tied for a very close second. There wasn’t really an absolute stand-out “Best” for me for this category.
Curious. It’s unquestionably well-made, but felt like little more than a warmed over Twilight Zone episode. All Steampunk mechanics but little heart. For me, Asad and Curfew are far superior although I’m hoping the former takes it.
Alas, I’ll be Stage Manager of the only Academy-sanctioned Oscar event in Northern California so I’ll be mostly watching the show from my peripheral vision and won’t be able to contribute to the thread until tomorrow.
Have fun everyone!
I rarely watch them all the way through; I record and then speed through for the memorable moments. That said, I am curious how Seth MacFarlane does; I watched an interview with him earlier and he seemed surprisingly serious and bitter at how critics have it in for him but automatically love other hosts (specifically Billy Crystal and Tina Fey/Amy Poehler at [Golden Globes?]).
I will be stunned if Skyfall loses, though I do think it isn’t that great. I think Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” is the best Bond song ever and it was only a few years ago.
The real shame is that Song of the Lonely Mountain isn’t nominated. It’s awesome.
The lyrics come from the original Tolkien do they not?
I think that’s enough to disqualify it based on the requirement that the song be written specifically for the movie. Although, with preexisting lyrics set to newly composed music this may be without precedent.
P.S. Top 3 Bond songs:
The credit is as follows on Wikipedia, which I would guess comes off the CD booklet.
“Song of the Lonely Mountain” (lyrics and performance by Neil Finn, music by Finn, Donaldson, Long, Roche and Roddick)
Sounds original to me.
Agreed. Sounds like it would have been eligible. I hadn’t researched my question, I just remember that there were many songs in the original book and I thought it likely that that is where “Song of the Lonely Mountain” came from.
Thanks for the info!
I’m watching in Paris France where I’m desperately hoping there’s an English only audio option (they do that for some films) so I don’t have to put up with an interpreter talking French over all the speeches. If there isn’t I may be asking lots of questions here!
Hoping DDL makes history with a third best actor win. I’d like Django Unchained to pick up the best film award although I don’t think it will. It was by far the most enjoyable of the nominees. Sorry but apart from the performance by Lewis and a few bits of he cinematography I found Lincoln pretty dull. I assume Django is also nominated for best original score. It was another masterpiece by Ennio Morricone so routing for that too.
Also curious to see a foreign film nominated for best movie. So that means best movie can be any world film - well frankly that undermines almost every set of nominations ever announced. How English language-centric its been!
“Nobody Does It Better” is top 3, surely.
Live And Let Die surely…
Likewise…I even took a nap today to ensure that staying up late wouldn’t mess me up tomorrow at work!
No Score Nomination for Django Unchained.
Morricone wrote the song “Ancora Qui” but the score of the film was pieced together from various sources.
“You Only Live Twice”, assuredly.
Goodness gracious, Adele looks like some freakish giant when she’s standing next to Kristin Chenoweth. And then Kristin took off her heels! Aieeeee!
For perspective, Kristin is only one inch taller than Linda Hunt, who won an Oscar for playing a dwarf.