The Oscars are tonight which is my annual reminder that we watch a smidgen of the films that we used too. A couple of recent long plane journeys have seen me catch up on a few of the contenders and once our Apple TV plays catch up, then we will no doubt catch up with the others to see what was hot and and what was not.
To the Oscars then, and in the Best Picture category The Kings Speech and The Social Network are clear favourites, both of which I haven’t seen. I have seen Black Swan, but from previous history I can’t see the Academy having the imagination for it. I’m pretty sure Inception wouldn’t have been nominated previously when only five movies were chosen, but I’m glad it was. Although how director Christopher Nolan’s was not nominated is beyond me.
True Grit and The Fighter haven’t reached me yet but I have heard very good things about the 1969 western re-make. I loved the indie gem Winter’s Bone and even though I really liked The Kids Are All Right, the hype left me a little disappointed.
I saw Toy Story 3 with my son but never considered it a Best Picture winner, but it must walk away with the Best Animated Feature Film. I watched 127 Hours on a plane and sure James Franco has to be Best Actor material for a daring role but the movie didn’t do an awful lot for me.
In the Best Leading Actor category I only saw Franco, out of the Best Actresses Natalie Portman was sublime in Black Swan and I hope she wins. Annette Bening though would also be a worthy winner.
One of the best fims I saw in the last year was The Town and Jeremy Renner, nominated as Best Actor last year for The Hurt Locker, played a wonderfully steely role as Gem and he is my favourite to win Best Supporting Actor, however Christian Bale is odds on.
I’m struggling on the Best Supporting Actress as I never saw any the films but in Best Director Darren Aronofsky definitely pushed the boundarieswith Black Swan but Christopher Nolan should’ve been lining up alongside him.
