Oscar Pick’em: A cupcake extravaganza
I’ve decided to enter an Oscar pool with three fellow bloggers (whom I actually know IRL): Justin, Susan, and Wife (whom I really know in IRL, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN). Other than watching a butt-ton of movies I am pretty dull about them. I wouldn’t say I have a dearth of movie related knowledge, but I wouldn’t say the pink triangle is my bailiwick either.
Oh PS. Winner of the pool gets to pick a movie we all must watch together while the losers must make delicious sundries including: cupcakes, pigs-in-a-blanket, and smoothies. What follows is a semi-annotated list of who I think will — and possibly should &mdashl win the 79th Academy Awards.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Queen
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Peter O’Toole
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Helen Mirren
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Eddie Murphy — DARKNESS!!!
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Rinko Kikuchi — Really I wanted to pick that cute girl from Little Miss Sunshine, but I didn’t.
Best Achievement in Directing
Martin Scorsese
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Little Miss Sunshine
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Notes on a Scandal
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Children of Men — Seriously, a twenty minute battle scene with no cuts. Amazing.
Best Achievement in Editing
The Departed
Best Achievement in Art Direction
El Laberinto del Fauno
Costume Design
Dream Girls
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Notes on a Scandal
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Dream Girls “Listen” — I’m pretty sure a song from Dream Girls will win, but I don’t really know which one.
Best Achievement in Makeup
Apocalypto
Best Achievement in Sound
Flags of Our Fathers
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Flags of Our Fathers
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Happy Feet
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
El Laberinto del Fauno
Best Documentary, Feature
An Inconvenient Truth — I wish Al Gore could add “Academy Award Winner” to his resume. That would be so badass.
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Recycled Life — Let’s just assume this movie is about recycling. Because, LBH, 2k7 is all about the Planet Earth
Best Short Film, Animated
The Little Matchgirl
Best Short Film, Live Action
The Saviour — Because I thought it was obvious.
Technorati Tags: movies
Oooh. Not a lot of overlap here between your picks and Val and my picks. You’re going out on a bit of a limb, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could win big if a few things go your way!
— RMSzero | @
Haha! Happy Feet! Come on!
— Susan | @
Happy Feet? Really? Really?
— Valeree Lynn | @
I’m telling you. Penguins > NASCAR. I just can’t vote for NASCAR, I’m sorry.
Plus it had a sweet Stevie Wonder track in the previews. You can’t beat Stevie Wonder.
— MaxPower | @
wtf is this people magazine or something?
but QUEEN *is* the best band ever and it’s about time they won best picture, even though they arent even a movie. THEY ARE THAT GOOD.
— midas | @
i agree midas. add an adventure story here (midas) please, i’m in a bit of a good story slump lately or else id volunteer myself.
— vanimal3000 | @
that said. go CARS dude. you live in RIC save Feet for those cold weather yanks.
— vanimal3000 | @
Here is some analysis on the picks, for those who are not in the contest and getting my lengthy e-mails:
Lone Ranger Picks
Where people all by their lonesome? These are great chances to pick up points on the field.
Ross: 8 LR’s for 28 points (including The Queen for BP)
Susan: 4 LR’s for 17 points (I kind of hope she gets it right on LMS for BP)
Val: 7 LR’s for 16 points (I also kind of hope Val gets it right on Mark Wahlberg)
Justin: 3 LR’s for 6 points (I am boring.)
Consensus
Don’t even bother looking at these categories, we’re all the same!
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Best Director: Scorcese (finally!)
Best Foreign Language Film: El Labyrintho de Pano
Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine. Seriously.
Cinematography: Children of Men.
Documentary Feature: Inconvenient Truth. (I almost over-analyzed this one. Phew.)
Visual Effects: Pirates 2.
Similarity
Who agrees with who? Who disagrees the most?
Interestingly, Ross and Val disagreed on a chart-topping 48 points worth of awards. That’s a disagreement on 58% of the points. While, at the same time, Val and I agreed on 60 out of the 83 points worth of awards (72%). Susan’s closet match was me, at 55 points (66%). Interestingly, Susan agreed with Ross (55%) a bit more than she agreed with Val (53%).
— RMSzero | @
Hey Justin, I think people are a little overwhelmed by our W. W. Gordon-ness. Clearly their upbringings were a little less stringent and data-based (and probably a lot more fun and whimsical.) Blanket apology, folks.
— Susan | @