84th Annual Academy Awards: We Pick The Oscar Winners So You Don't Have To

February isn’t only host to the football showdown of the year but later this month the stars come out to see who will throw the smackdown and walk away with the gold statue. Yup, the 84th Annual Academy Awards or better know as The Oscars are coming up on the 26th. Now we here at DayOldStubble understand that most people only care about the main categories, we couldn’t agree more. So we picked the 7 categories that we are the most interested in seeing who wins.

Best Picture

The Nominees are:

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

Sadly I have not seen most of these movies due to living in a small city. This year there are only nine nominees, leaving one spot open which I felt could have been filled by any number of films. Some of which could have been serious contenders. From what I can tell The Descendants and The Artist are the two forerunners. If I had to speculate on who the winner would be, I would say The Artist for its style, acting and music. There’s a reason it has 10 other nominations. Personally my pick for the top film would go to Hugo (one of the two films I did see in this category). Here’s the thing though folks. Hugo has the most nominations with 11. Yup, it goes toe to toe with The Artist in most categories, but pulls away with a nomination in Visual Effects, something The Artist has none of. If the voters recognize that Hugo has the whole package instead of just a bunch of hype, then we should be looking at a surprise win folks.

Winner: Hugo

[magazine]

Best Actor

The Nominees are:

• Demian Bichir  (A Better Life)
• George Clooney  (The Descendants)
• Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
• Gary Oldman  (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
• Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

When I pick the best actor (or actress for that matter), I always lean towards the person who seems to immerse themselves completely in their role. Gary Oldman is my pick for the Best Actor this year. He convincingly pulls off the experience of a cool, calculated, and intelligent spy. A far cry from other spy movies (cough, MI:4, cough), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a perfect film for Oldman to showcase his skills and I look forward to him coming out on top.

Winner: Gary Oldman

Best Actress

The Nominees are:

• Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)
• Viola Davis (The Help)
• Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)
• Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
• Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

This will be another competitive year for this category. Of the five women, three are no stranger to being nominated. One is a newcomer with some great chops and the fifth is an abomination. Personally, I really hope Glenn Close pulls off the win with her sixth nomination. Her portrayal of a woman who disguises herself as a man to make a living as a butler is Oscar worthy. Her transformation and mental process is hard to comprehend, but her acting is really what made that film. That’s what I look for when a person’s acting is so great it is the one thing that really drives a film.

Winner: Glenn Close

Best Supporting Actor

The Nominees are:

• Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn)
• Jonah Hill (Moneyball)
• Nick Nolte (Warrior)
• Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
• Max Von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

It seems this year had very view quality male supporting roles to pick from. I am having a hard time remembering any supporting actor who made an impression on me. At least they culled together some of the best actors and gave them the nominations. A pick from these nominees will at least give them some long deserved attention. I would really like Nick Nolte to be able to put that statue in his home this year. He has had so many great roles and rarely gets the attention that he deserves because of some good competition. Out of the choices that were given I feel he had the most impact on his movie.

Winner: Nick Nolte

Best Supporting Actress

The Nominees are:

• Bérénice Bejo (The Artist)
• Jessica Chastain (The Help)
• Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)
• Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)
• Octavia Spencer (The Help)

In my opinion it can be easier to pick supporting role winners than leading roles. This is due to the fact that a supporting actor/actress can gain significant attention by essentially “stealing” scenes. When a person in a supporting role does such a good job that they stand out amongst the top-billed actors in the movie, that’s top-tier acting. This requires me to give some credit to Bridesmaids, which besides this category should be left off any other ballots. I must say that Melissa McCarthy pulled out all of the stops in this film with her role. She took a very crass character and had fun with her, which showed to everyone who watched Bridesmaids. Here’s to Melissa and may her wins be aplenty.

Winner: Melissa McCarthy

Best Director

The Nominees are:

• Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
• Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
• Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
• Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)
• Alexander Payne (The Descendants)

This is a category on which I am quite torn. I really like Hugo and want to give the win to Martin Scorsese but I really can’t ignore what Woody Allen did with Midnight in Paris. He did a wonderful job portraying 1920’s Paris and fusing that line between the past and present. He had the romanticism of Paris down to a T. Which isn’t surprising with how well this man can take a city, capture its essence, boil it down, and inject it into a movie to the point where the city itself is a character in his movies. So I am sorry Scorsese, the lovable, stuttering man from Brooklyn gets my vote this year.

Winner: Woody Allen

Best Animated Film

The Nominees are:

• A Cat in Paris
• Chico & Rita
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Puss In Boots
• Rango

I almost refuse to give my opinion on this category this year. I am angry with the Academy and in total shock how they could even possibly not include The Adventures of Tintin. I mean come on, Puss in Boots???? KUNG FU PANDA 2?????? Really? These two films are nominees but not Tintin? I am not saying these are bad movies. But they are in no way are on the level of Tintin, even in just the animation department. In retaliation, and because I have no knowledge of the two foreign nominees, my vote goes to Rango.

Winner: Rango

[/magazine]