In all honesty, the Academy Awards has lost credibility with me, with its history of rewarding safe and conservative films, instead of pioneering and daring ones. “Dances with Wolves” over “Goodfellas,” “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan,” “Forrest Gump” over “Pulp Fiction.” These are just a few examples of Oscar choices that made me shake my head. Also, with the abundance of other film awards handed out prior to the Oscar telecast, it’s become significantly easier to guess who will win. As a result, TV ratings have declined, along with the interest and hype leading to the big show.
Still, winning an Oscar is the highest honor in film. No matter how many Golden Globes or SAG awards a film wins, its legacy will be measured by the number of Oscars it garners. Thus, movie fans will watch closely as the winners are announced this Sunday. I’ve been following Oscar trends and results for a few decades and have established a good track record for predicting the winners each year. So if you want to win your office Oscar pool, here are my picks below.
Best Picture (8 of 8)
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"
There are nine nominees in the Best Picture category this year, and for the first time in a long time, I've seen all the nominated films. First off, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" and "The Help" don't deserve to be nominated, so they can be removed from consideration. "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball," and "War Horse" were all nice films, but that's their problem. They're too nice. While the Academy certainly likes feel-good films, there wasn't anything particularly memorable about these three nominees. "The Tree of Life" was brilliant at times, but it probably turned off too many viewers to really have a shot.
That leaves "The Artist," "The Descendants," and "Hugo." "Hugo" actually leads the pack with 11 total nominations, but lacks momentum coming in with no wins at any of the major awards. "The Descendants" and "The Artist" both won Golden Globes for Best Picture (Drama and Comedy, respectively), but "The Artist" has also won the Best Picture category at BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle. As stated earlier, the Academy loves to give their Best Picture prize to a feel-good film so I'm betting that "The Artist" walks away with the coveted top prize.
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[...] Nonstop Honolulu’s movie blogger Myong Choi gives his picks for this year’s Oscars. And like I said, we all seem to agree on who should get the awards in the acting categories. [link] [...]