Oscar Season: Jack's Predictions pt. 4

Hi everyone, so I kind of blanked on writing up yesterday’s blog for my technical categories, let’s just say if Inception has a chance of winning a chunk of the evening Oscars, it’s in the sound and visuals (Social Network gets my vote for film editing). Tonight, I am going to keep the ball rolling with my picks for Animated Feature and Best Foreign Film. One category, I am 100% sure I am right, the other I haven’t a clue, but I am going on the information I have. With that being said, here are the nominees:

Best Animated Feature:

How to Train Your Dragon- Dreamworks

The Illusionist- Warner Brothers/Pathe

Toy Story 3- Pixar

Initial Thoughts: I had a gut feeling Illusionist would make the list, but I wasn’t 100% about it, especially since there were only going to be 3 nominees compared to 5 of last year, though I think there was a much better selection last year. The other two I felt were obvious choices, but I thought they would’ve gone with Tangled since it was well received and did well at the box office whereas Illusionist hasn’t made much of a splash as far as box office really. Still, I am a sucker for art house films so I am glad it’s nominated, but it won’t win because it’s kind of obvious who will.

Prediction: Pixar owned this award the moment Toy Story hit theaters, and I am not simply stating this was an obvious choice, but the right one. I have been rather hit or miss with my love for Pixar (I felt like Wall E and Ratatouille were alright), but Pixar this year and last have really raised the bar as far as material goes, I am actually worried for their next feature, Cars 2, especially since the original itself wasn’t that well received (in terms of Pixar films). Nonetheless, my pick is Toy Story 3.

Best Foreign Film:

Biutiful- Mexico

Dogtooth- Greece

In a better World- Denmark

Incendies- Denmark

Outside the Law- Algeria

Initial Thoughts: I am shocked that Dogtooth was even considered a contender for a nomination, let alone nominated. Not that it isn’t deserving, but the Academy generally votes for more traditional films, films that we would like to remake one day (because that is how we work, considering we are working on a remake of last year’s winner). Dogtooth is the kind of film that not only spits at such an idea, it down right murders any form of tradition the academy look for in a foreign film. Still, glad to see it and Biutiful nominated, would love to see the latter win but I do not like either of their chances.

Predictions: It is between Incendies and In a Better World because those are the two I think are the ones the academy are looking for (Outside the Law maybe, but I am not liking its chances). Now, here is where my guessing skills get mixed with general opinion and some facts I looked up. In a Better World won the golden globe and the winner have rarely won the Oscar as well (only twice in the past decade has a film won both). Incendies trailer really struck me, more so than the others, and I have heard strong buzz as far as its chances go, so that is my pick. There might be enough Javier Bardem love for Bituiful to upset, but I’m not convinced it will happen, oh well.

Tomorrow I shall be looking at the nominees in both Lead Acting Categories