Oscar Predictions & Curiousities : Visuals & Score
Monday, May 19, 2014 at 7:00PM I haven't forgotten about the Oscar charts. This first installment is the most time-consuming is all, as it sets the templates up for an entire years worth of handwringing and hiearchy juggling. With this latest update we only have the "big eight" categories left to do (minus actor & supporting actress which we've already surveyed). But here are a few thoughts on new charts that are up...
WarDaddy's (Brad Pitt) team in "Fury". The film is scored by Oscar-winner Steven Price
SCORE
I perhaps overstate the music branch's love for their favorite sons each year. It's not that that love isn't evident each year (stop to consider how many composers, for example, have 8 or more nominations and how rare that is in many other fields) it's that Hollywood's favorite composers are quite prolific so, John Williams & Alexandre Desplat aside (who never miss for a nomination) aside, there's no guarantee that any of them will win traction since all of their rivals are also in the mix each year.
A few things to be curious about in 2014:
• Steven Price (Gravity) just won the Oscar on his first nomination so can he become a favorite? If so he's scoring Fury, the WW II tank drama with Brad Pitt in the lead this year.
• Which Desplat score will they go for since they always have (at least) a few choices: Grand Budapest Hotel, Unbroken, or Godzilla? Or all three. Heh.
• It's been awhile since James Newton Howard (Maleficent) or Danny Elfman (Big Eyes) were in the mix. This year?
• Will Thomas Newman (Get On Up, The Judge) ever win the statue? He's the most nominated working composer who has never won with 12 failed attempts
CINEMATOGRAPHY
I would've given them their whole post but I can't even talk about this today. *sniffle* Gordon B Willis (RIP)
Maleficent wonders which fairy tale Oscar wants to hear
COSTUME
The internet did a good job of spreading the fun factoid I once shared that Colleen Atwood (Into the Woods) and Sandy Powell (Carol) don't win the costuming Oscar unless the other one is nominated. So we'll have to look elsewhere for fun trivia this year. A few things I'm curious about this year:
• Milena Canonero is back! The three time Oscar winner did wonderful work on Grand Budapest Hotel. Oscar tends to shun creative stylized work like that (what a shame that they passed up her instantly iconic work on The Royal Tenenbaums) when they can opt for period realism instead so that's kind of a longshot but wouldn't it be sweet?
• Will Oscar help Anna B Sheppard stretch? If they like her Maleficent costumes maybe she'll get offered movies outside the World War II genre, the box that Hollywood likes to keep her in (She also costumed Fury this year.
• Which of the rising crop of costume design stars is going to make it to an Oscar nomination first: Jane Petrie (Suffragette - I have it for 2015 but maybe it'll be released this year), Kurt & Bart (Hunger Games: Mockingjay), or Steven Noble (Two Faces of January, Theory of Everything) ?
FILM EDITING
It's too early to talk about this category really since, more than any other category, it depends entirely on what people like for Best Picture.
Will AMPAS finally embrace the creative achievements in Wes Anderson's filmography
PRODUCTION DESIGN
My prediction for Grand Budapest Hotel is, I'll admit instantly, wishful thinking. (But it's early, so I'm allowed a few of those). It's perplexing that the art direction branch, like the costumers, often shun cool stylization such as the kind you often see in Wes Anderson features. But I'm hoping that the production designers can't help but recognize Adam Stockhausen's extraordinary range, hopping from pre Civil War realism (12 Years a Slave won him his first nomination) to Wes Anderson's fanciful dioramas with not only ease but confidence and panache.
A few other things to be curious about:
• Is Oscar done with the Middle Earth films (last year they had their first miss in this category) or will they want to send the Hobbit trilogy away with a 6th nomination for Dan Hennah?
• Can Maria Durjovic (The Imitation Game) finally snag a nomination? She's done great work before and been egregiously snubbed (think Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and somehow the Oscar heat from Billy Elliott and The Hours didn't rub off on her either time
• Is Dennis Gassner a contender for his second win? He won the category for the very handsome Warren Beatty picture Bugsy (1991) but he's designed several completely gorgeous, classy and showy movies since then like, oh, The Truman Show (1998), O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), and Big Fish (2003). Will Into the Woods be received well enough to make him a frontrunner?
Which Oscar fates are you most curious about for this season?
Reader Comments (5)
I complain a lot about my favorite actresses and their history with Oscar, but to think that Gordon Willis wasn't even nominated for "The Godfather Part II" and "Manhattan" infuriates me.
We are really considering Carol for 2014?
Best Actress!!!!!!!!
Just saw Godzilla, and the thing that has stuck with me most was that SCORE. Alexandre Desplat is such a genius.
Such a lot of work goes into these predictions every year, and I always pore over them greedily. Thank you!
I do think BELLE should at least be on the long list for Costume Design (Anushia Nieradzik). Lots of period frocks on show, and Oscar is kinder to single nods from earlier release films.
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is now 2015: Fox Searchlight have announced US date of 1 May, so this does not sound like a winter release with a qualifying Oscar run (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=108996).
Finally, SUFFRAGETTE has a Boxing Day release date in Australia, so I suggest it may well surface by year's end in the US (dependent on distributor of course).