Hello Fuzzbuckets! It's here! Oscar weekend 2019! And there are already too many exclimation marks in this paragraph! But who cares, here's another for good measure! Below are my annual "Wouldda, couldda shouldda" predictions, informing you of where to put your money, where you could put your money, and where my heart is in each category. This is part 1 only, with part 2 to follow later this weekend. Let's get started shall we:
**Quick note: the films marked with a * are the ones I've seen. If I've watched all in that category, the category contains a star**
**Quick note: the films marked with a * are the ones I've seen. If I've watched all in that category, the category contains a star**
Best Foreign Language Film
- Capernaum (Lebanon) in Arabic – Directed by Nadine Labaki
- Cold War (Poland) in Polish and French – Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski
- Never Look Away (Germany) in German – Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Roma (Mexico) in Spanish and Mixtec – Directed by Alfonso Cuarón*
- Shoplifters (Japan) in Japanese – Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Will Win: Roma
Could Win: Cold War – in an absurd, shocking Game of Thrones WTF kind of way.
Should Win: I’d abstain from this having not seen the others, but I’d love to see them all at some stage.
Best Documentary – Feature
- Free Solo – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill
- Hale County This Morning, This Evening – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim
- Minding the Gap – Bing Liu and Diane Quon
- Of Fathers and Sons – Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert
- RBG – Betsy West and Julie Cohen
Will Win: Free Solo
Could Win: RGB
Should Win: Having not seen a single one of these, it’s really hard to say
Best Documentary – Short Subject
- Black Sheep – Ed Perkins and Jonathan Chinn
- End Game – Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
- Lifeboat – Skye Fitzgerald and Bryn Mooser
- A Night at the Garden – Marshall Curry
- Period. End of Sentence. – Rayka Zehtabchi and Melissa Berton
Will Win: Black Sheep (according to a reputable source)
Could Win: ??
Should Win: If you’ve read my previous Oscar predictions you’d know by now how I decide this category. It’s all in the name! What’s the one that sounds the coolest. Period. End of Sentence.
Best Original Score
- Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson*
- BlacKkKlansman – Terence Blanchard*
- If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell
- Isle of Dogs – Alexandre Desplat
- Mary Poppins Returns – Marc Shaiman*
Will Win: Tough call, as Globe Winner, First Man, was not nominated (a crime if you ask me). I’d say Beale Street, though Black Panther could surprise here.
Could Win: Black Panther
Should Win: Despite it’s rich visual elements, the first thing I noticed about Black Panther was it’s lively score. I would vote for this one here – though I suspect the duo of Desplat and Anderson in Isle of Dogs is stellar.
Best Original Song
- "All the Stars" from Black Panther – Music by Mark Spears, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth and Anthony Tiffith; Lyrics by Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, Anthony Tiffith and Solána Rowe*
- "I'll Fight" from RBG – Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren
- "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns – Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman*
- "Shallow" from A Star Is Born – Music and Lyrics by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt*
- "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Music and Lyrics by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
Will Win: Shallow
Could Win: Like, if it snowed in Joburg, All the Stars
Should Win: The Place where Lost Things Go is tenderly beautiful (and I can’t wait for Bette Midler’s rendition on Oscar night!), this category should be called “Shallow and its competitors”, because it’s the unstoppable juggernaut that’s still being played excessively on the radio… and our Spotify playlists!
Best Sound Editing*
- Black Panther – Benjamin A. Burtt and Steve Boeddeker
- Bohemian Rhapsody – John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone
- First Man – Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
- A Quiet Place – Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
- Roma – Sergio Díaz and Skip Lievsay
Will Win: I feel like First Man and A Quiet Place have the upperhand here, but Bohemian won the precursor to this award, which complicates things slightly. I’d go with First Man as its only win for the evening.
Could Win: A Quiet Place or Bohemian
Should Win: A Quiet Place (or First Man)
Best Sound Mixing*
- Black Panther – Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter J. Devlin
- Bohemian Rhapsody – Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali
- First Man – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis
- Roma – Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio Garcia
- A Star Is Born – Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve A. Morrow
Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody
Could Win: First Man, Black Panther or A Star is Born, really…
Should Win: First Man
Best Production Design*
-Black Panther – Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Jay Hart
- The Favourite – Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton
- First Man – Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas
- Mary Poppins Returns – Production Design: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
- Roma – Production Design: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decoration: Bárbara Enríquez
Will Win: The Favourite – the Academy loooooves those period pieces in this category
Could Win: Black Panther or First Man
Should Win: Black Panther! The sleek technological world blended with the African landscape was something unique and beautiful to behold.
Best Cinematography
- Cold War – Łukasz Żal
- The Favourite – Robbie Ryan*
- Never Look Away – Caleb Deschanel
- Roma – Alfonso Cuarón*
- A Star Is Born – Matthew Libatique*
Will Win: Roma
Could Win: Cold War (because black and white film making is like, very in this year)
Should Win: Roma was shot so beautifully! Though A Star is Born captured the drama of stardom more than any episode of American Idol ever could.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Border – Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer
- Mary Queen of Scots – Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks
- Vice – Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney*
Will Win: Vice (always look to the category with more than one nominees for this category)
Could Win: I don’t even know what Border is, TBH
Should Win: *shoulder shrug emoji* Black Panther wasn’t nominated here – and it should’ve been!
Best Costume Design
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Mary Zophres
- Black Panther – Ruth E. Carter*
- The Favourite – Sandy Powell*
- Mary Poppins Returns – Sandy Powell*
- Mary Queen of Scots – Alexandra Byrne
Will Win: The Favourite (just like production design, period pieces often win just because they’re period pieces – and replicating history is hard)
Could Win: Black Panther
Should Win: Black Panther
Best Film Editing*
- BlacKkKlansman – Barry Alexander Brown
- Bohemian Rhapsody – John Ottman
- The Favourite – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
- Green Book – Patrick J. Don Vito
- Vice – Hank Corwin
Will Win: Bohemian Rhapsody and The Favourite won the precursor awards and Vice won the BAFTA, so it’s between them… Bo Rap is actually very poorly edited though, and I don’t really consider The Favourite to be a standout in terms of its editing. I’d go with Vice
Could Win: the other two
Should Win: Vice
Best Visual Effects
- Avengers: Infinity War – Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick*
- Christopher Robin – Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones and Chris Corbould
- First Man – Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J. D. Schwalm*
- Ready Player One – Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler and David Shirk*
- Solo: A Star Wars Story – Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy*
Will Win: People are betting on Avengers: Infinity War, but I’m not so sure. A few years ago I thought Mad Max: Fury Road had this in the bag, but Ex Machina won. This suggested to me that even when you have a fantastic blockbuster contender (which this category is known to be filled with) the academy would still vote for a smaller, indie-type film. For that reason, I’m picking First Man here
Could Win: Avengers
Should Win: Avengers (and if it does, it will – along with Black Panther – be the first academy award win for the MCU – a bizarre fact considering the amazing accomplishments of this franchise… but that’s another article all on its own.
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2!
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