Saturday, January 20, 2018

Douglas Laman's 90th Academy Awards Nominees Predictions (PART ONE)

The nominees for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday. Everyone from Variety to The Hollywood Reporter to award-centric websites like Gold Derby have been doing their final round of Oscar nominee predictions, so what the hey, I'll embrace conformity and also join in on predicting who gets nominated for what at this year's Oscars. Just a heads up before we go forward, these Oscar nominee predictions are not based on my own personal desires for what should be nominated, but rather based on numerous other factors like who's getting the most buzz in the industry, who has been nominated at crucial recent award shows like the Producer's Guild of America Awards and so on.


Best Documentary Short Subject
I'm woefully unfamiliar with the world of documentary shorts, but luckily, the Academy has reduced the films eligible for being nominated this year to a shortlist of ten projects. This one's a total shot in the dark but let's go with these five:

Edith+Eddie
Heroine 
116 Cameras
Ram Dass, Going Home
Traffic Stop

Best Live-Action Short Film
Another one of the two categories I'm completely out of my realm, but once again, the Academy was kind enough to provide a shortlist of ten films in contention for being nominated here. The Academy has already given three of these ten shorts Student Academy Awards and I wager those three will get actual nominations this year. My predictions for the nominees are below and I've added an asterisk to the ones that won a Student Academy Award this year!

Facing Mecca*
Watu Wote*
Rise of A Star
My Nephew Emmett*
Witnesses
In A Heartbeat
Best Animated Short Film
Oh hey, a category where I've seen some of the prospective nominees. Lou shouldn't have any trouble getting in here thanks to it being a PIXAR production and by far the most seen of the nominees while In A Heartbeat was a viral sensation in 2017 that should also be able to leverage it's high-profile into an Oscar nomination. A new Glen Keane project, Dear Basketball, feels like a likely nod while Fox And The Whale and Cradle should round out the pack.

Lou
Dear Basketball
Fox And The Whale
Cradle
In A Heartbeat

Best Sound Editing
You typically get a mixture of Best Picture nominees and big blockbusters in the two sound categories and this year should be no different. Dunkirk is getting in here without question and fellow likely Best Picture nominee The Shape of Water will likely find itself nominated here as well. A Star Wars movie has managed to find itself into one of these categories for each of the past two years (The Force Awakens got nominated in both sound categories) and I think The Last Jedi swoops in to score a nomination here. Rounding out the nominees, let's say Get Out and Wonder Woman score the last nominations

Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Wonder Woman
Get Out
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Sound Mixing
There's traditionally a large number of overlap between the nominees for Best Sound Mixing and Editing and that's likely to continue here. Dunkirk, The Shape of Water and The Last Jedi should be able to repeat while The Post and The Greatest Showman (laugh at the latter prediction all you want, musicals are a recurring fixture in this category in terms of nominees) are the last two nominees.

Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
The Post
The Greatest Showman 

Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Another Oscar category where I have a shortlist to work from. We've got seven films in contention here for three nominations and of those seven movies shortlisted, Darkest Hour and Wonder are the two that are shoo-ins for nominations. Who gets the final slot? Bright's got a lot of the kind of overt easily recognizable prosthetics that this category has recognized in years past but controversy over its lack of crediting its makeup team could leave it out in the cold. Ghost In The Shell has no chance of being nominated and the Academy will likely pass on Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 in order to recognize a more traditional drama. Therefore, I, Tonya is likely to be the one that gets the final nomination here.

Darkest Hour
Wonder
I, Tonya 
Best Production Design
When predicting Best Production Design nominees, it's always a good idea to give the advantage to prospective Best Picture contenders, though last year's baffling nominations for Passengers and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them shows that's not a foolproof plan. For this year, Dunkirk (which is gonna be a mainstay in all these technical categories) will have no problem scoring a nod, ditto for The Post and The Shape of Water. Phantom Thread, I'm gonna wager, makes it in as does Murder On The Orient Express, though don't be shocked if the Academy's love for musicals makes The Greatest Showman a surprise nominee.

Dunkirk (Nathan Crowley, Emmanuel Delis)
The Post (Rick Carter, Rena DeAngelo)
The Shape of Water (Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieau)
Phantom Thread (Mark Tildesley, Veronique Melery)
Murder On The Orient Express (Jim Clay)

Best Costume Design
A movie all about the fashion industry like Phantom Thread is getting in, no doubt about it. But what about the rest of the four nominees? The Greatest Showman is reappearing here, ditto for Murder On The Orient Express. The Shape of Water should be the Best Picture nominee that snags itself a Best Costume Design nomination and then Beauty And The Beast will probably round out the category.

Phantom Thread
The Greatest Showman
Murder On The Orient Express
Beauty And The Beast
The Shape of Water 

Best Visual Effects
Here's another technical category with a shortlist to work from. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Shape of Water, Dunkirk and War For The Planet of The Apes are the guaranteed nominees. Who gets the final nomination? Well, Blade Runner 2049 feels like a likely contender here even if it's lower-profile since it's theatrical run may keep it from a nomination. Meanwhile, the lone superhero title on the shortlist, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2, feels like it shouldn't be underestimated but I'm predicting Okja is the one that rounds out the category.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Okja
War For The Planet of The Apes
The Shape of Water
Dunkirk

Best Cinematography
Here's where Blade Runner 2049 is guaranteed a chance to shine. The Shape of Water and Dunkirk, who are looking to dominate the technical categories, are almost certainly scoring nods here. Darkest Hour is likely to get itself another nod here, while the final spot is a point of contention. Three Billboards and Call Me By Your Name might be able to wrangle their clout to get the final nomination here but I'm wagering Mudbound makes history by scoring a nomination here and making cinematographer Rachel Morrison the first woman ever nominated in this category.

Blade Runner 2049 (Roger Deakins)
The Shape of Water (Dan Lausten)
Mudbound (Rachel Morrison)
Dunkirk (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Darkest Hour (Bruno Delbonnel)
Best Documentary Feature
Of the 15 movies shortlisted for this category, it feels like the Jane Goodall documentary entitled Jane has the most buzz to it, that one's getting in for sure. Netflix's documentary Icarus also feels like a likely nominee as does fellow documentary distributed by a streaming service (Amazon in this case) City of Ghosts. Ex Libris- The New York Public Library and the Agnes Varga motion picture Faces Places should round out this category

City of Ghosts
Icarus
Ex Libris- The New York Public Library
Faces Places
Jane 

Best Film Editing
Dunkirk, we meet again. Yep, Christopher Nolan's latest should have no trouble securing a nomination here and Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards should also manage to get nominated. For the other three nominations, it's a little more all-over-the-place, there seems to be a bunch of buzz floating around for a variety of titles if other Oscar nominee predictions I've seen are any indication. The Shape of Water should get in I'd imagine, probably Get Out as well. As for the final nomination, let's hand that one over to...Lady Bird, that's my personal prediction for who rounds out the category. If there's any potential spoiler here, look out for Baby Driver, which may get run over by Best Picture contenders but whose editing received so much acclaim that it's impossible to discount it entirely.

Lady Bird
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri
Dunkirk
Get Out
The Shape of Water

Come back on Monday for the second part of my Oscar nominee predictions, including who I think will be nominated for Best Picture!

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