And so, down to the big one. Best Movie of the year.
The Nominees: ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’; ‘Django Unchained’; ‘Life Of Pi’; ‘Les Miserables’; ‘Amour’; ‘Argo’; ‘Zero Dark Thirty’; ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘Lincoln’
Last year was such a great year for films that this category could’ve easily gotten twenty movies. By now I think my dislike for ‘Les Miserables’ is obvious, and I’m far from the only one, but it’s still the kind of movie that the academy likes (Long, historicial, famous actors, singing), but at the same time, it has its fair share of followers and admirers, among both audiences and critics. The Academy surprised us with the nomination for ‘Amour’, and it’s a good surprise I must add. It also got a director nomination. So in a whole, the set of nominees is rather excellent and well chosen. Well done, the Academy.
But of course, there are snubs. My favourite of last year’s, ‘The Master’, got ignored, and as much as I expected it to happen, it still disappointed me, I was kinda waiting for a “Tree Of Life” moment like last year. ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, ‘Flight’, ‘The Sessions’ and blockbusters like ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ are all well-received that had a chance of a nomination. For me, though, since you can have ten nominations, I would’ve loved the Oscars to just include ‘Skyfall’ on the list. Instead of ‘Les Miserables’ would’ve been even better, but that would’ve never happened. ‘Skyfall’ shattered expectations and raised the bar, and also got a crap load of money. It’s movies like ‘Skyfall’ the Academy expanded its Best Picture nominees to up to ten instead of five
Who Should Win: Well, this is my personal opinion and my favourite from that list is ‘Life Of Pi’, ‘Amour’ is as good as “Life Of Pi” so that winning would make me go on cartwheels. I loved movies like ‘Django Unchained’, ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, so I won’t be too sad if they won.
Who Will Win: I have no idea. Well, I do but I’m not entirely sure. Let’s start eliminating, I don’t think ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild’ and ‘Les Miserables’ will win. ‘Amour’ got plenty of love in general but a Best Picture win might be too far for the Oscars. That leaves 6 films, and all of them have chance, as minute as it can, in winning this. ‘Django Unchained’ and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ don’t have a director’s nomination, and they haven’t exactly swept the Oscar season with wins, so I’d be surprised if neither wins. ‘Life Of Pi’ might dominate the technical categories, and some academy voters might ward to the story, but it’s not Oscar bait enough in my book to win it, and it also faired averagely at awards shows. That leaves ‘Argo’, ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’. And all three have a chance.
I predicted three months ago that this is gonna be between ‘Argo’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, and it was going to be only those until the Oscars dropped the bombshell and snubbed Ben Affleck for best director. Usually best director wins best picture, and I can see Spielberg winning there, so ‘Lincoln’ is the frontrunner here. David O. Russell’s win at the BAFTAs for Adapted Screenplay gives a strong case for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, and “Argo”’s domination in all awards shows still gives it quite a chance despite its best director snub. And so I’m left with a headache.
But I’ll have to make a call, and my call would be ‘Lincoln’. The movie has gotten so much love in America, and it is basically a blockbuster there, and it is exactly the kind of move the Oscars love to honour, and it is quite an amazing film, so I’ll be more than happy.
Yazen Al Samen
The Rabbit and Reel 