Because I Have No Life

As the title suggests, I have no life. Hence why I am squirming with excitement as I read the Oscar noms. I like to have a record of them somewhere, and I might as well use this blog for that purpose this year!

BEST PICTURE
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook -- Rooting for him!
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln -- Prediction for win but I'm often wrong with this category
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Denzel Washington - Flight

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty -- Maybe? I've heard she's phenomenal
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook -- Probably not; she was great but maybe not typical Oscar?
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts - The Impossible

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin - Argo
Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook -- Rooting for him! Such a brilliant performance
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained -- I WANT

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables -- Prediction for win but again, could be wrong
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall - Roger Deakins

COSTUME DESIGN
Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran -- Prediction for win
Les Miserables - Paco Delgado
Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman - Colleen Atwood -- I love Colleen Atwood though

DIRECTING
Michael Haneke - Amour
Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

FILM EDITING
William Goldenberg - Argo
Tim Squyres - Life of Pi
Michael Kahn - Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers - Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg - Zero Dark Thirty

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour - Austria
Kon-Tiki - Norway
No - Chile
A Royal Affair - Denmark
War Witch - Canada

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna, and Martin Samuel - Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater, and Tami Lane - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell - Les Miserables

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Dario Marianelli - Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat - Argo
Mychael Danna - Life of Pi
John Williams - Lincoln
Thomas Newman - Skyfall

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Before My Time" - Chasing Ice - Music and lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend" - Ted - Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" - Life of Pi - Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
"Skyfall" - Skyfall - Music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" - Les Miserables - Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Anna Karenina - Sarah Greenwood (Production Design); Katie Spencer (Set Decoration)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration)
Les Miserables - Eve Stewart (Production Design); Anna Lynch-Robinson (Set Decoration)
Life of Pi - David Groupman (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)
Lincoln - Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration)

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head Over Heels
Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"
Paperman

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

SOUND EDITING
Argo - Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained - Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi - Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall - Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty - Paul N.J. Ottosson

SOUND MIXING
Argo - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Miserables - Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi - Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall - Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi - Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
Marvel's The Avengers - Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus - Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman - Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Argo - Written by Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Screenplay by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi - Written by David Magee
Lincoln - Written by Tony Kushner
 Silver Linings Playbook - Written by David O. Russell

WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Amour - Written by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained - Written by Quentin Tarantino
Flight - Written by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom - Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty - Written by Mark Boal

So there we have it. I'm excited about this year's Oscars, mostly due to the fact that for the first time in four years, I've got access to a television with satellite and am therefore able to watch the ceremony!

Every time the Oscars are on, I get a little excited once it's actually the day of the show. I love watching awards shows, since they're so multi-faceted for me. I love to look at the clothes, both the good and the...well, the interesting choices. (Sometimes I cannot understand what people were thinking when they put something on, but it doesn't necessarily mean that their choice is bad; it's just different. I don't call designers bad because I dislike what they put together.) I love the commentary, although I like some people's better than others. (Looking at you for the "other", Ben Mulroney and Ryan Seacrest...) I love the interviews, and since Jennifer Lawrence will be at this year's show (or at least, I hope she will be, although I'm assuming she will be, since she's nominated), I'm looking forward to that greatness; I love that girl. I wasn't home to watch the awards the last time she was at the ceremony. Anyway, I also love just the anticipation. I pay attention to each category; a lot of people only truly care about the big ticket categories: Best Picture, the acting, directing and writing. I take an interest in the others. The only ones I don't really care about, personally, would be the animated films, since I'm not a big fan of animated films as a general rule.

I always try to see the films in question, at the very least the ones up for Best Picture, although I always want to see the short films and the documentaries but they're harder to find. I don't think I've ever seen all of the films nominated, though; one day! It makes me feel more well rounded and more prepared going into the ceremony, or even just speculating on who or what will win what category. But at least from the films I have seen, I can kind of speculate. (It's always speculation, although generally it's pretty easy to tell which films will sweep or which actors/actresses will dominate, due to who generally wins. Mostly.) For instance, this year, I've seen Les Mis, Djagno Unchained, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, out of the Best Picture noms. Not a lot, unfortunately. I was glad to see that Jen Lawrence got a nod, as did Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. I thought they were all brilliant in Silver Linings, and I didn't know if Jennifer Lawrence would get a nod, despite everyone saying she would. I guess the masses were right! I had some predictions, and most of them came true (Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, for instance, as well as Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom writing, Anna Karenina for costumes and production design, Les Mis for sound mixing), but because I haven't seen some of the movies, I wasn't sure what to expect in some areas.

Anyway. I'm rambling. So now y'all can see how invested I get in these awards! I'm not sure why; never have been sure why, probably never will be. I don't really care about the reason; I get interested, perhaps about the ways awards are distributed, perhaps how the Academy works, perhaps how most of the same people win awards every time they're nominated (Meryl Streep, anyone?), perhaps just about the hugeness of the ceremony. I'm not a big fan of the U.S. as a country sometimes, and I'm glad I don't live there, but they do have the majority of the world's films, and as someone who loves watching films and dissecting some of them, and learning the history of them, and the fact that some of my favourite actors and actresses have been American, I know they're the hub of something that I'm a big fan of, so it doesn't matter. (Not that all the movies I watch are American; I have a few Canadian movies, and I'm a huge fan of anything British.) But they do throw the biggest parties, in the form of awards shows, that I love watching, and they've given some great people to the world. (I'm reading a biography of Grace Kelly right now, so that may have something to do with that particular ramble, as well as the ramble trying to communicate the history and legacy of the Oscars, and how important they still are.)

ANYWAY ANYWAY. So Oscar nods are out! I've put some predictions there but I try not to do too many predictions in categories where I haven't seen the majority of the movies. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is Seth MacFarlane as host. I can't stand him on Family Guy, so we'll see how that goes.

Another post can be expected later tonight, as it is January 10th, but I'll get into that later, once I've had time to organise my feelings about it. This post was not a great consolidation of thoughts haha.