Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days,
Movie Dearest's very own
Men on Film —
Chris Carpenter,
Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of
"If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions (you can see those
here), but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy.
So without further ado, the envelope please...
The nominees for
Best Picture are:
Black Swan,
The Fighter,
Inception,
The Kids Are All Right,
The King's Speech,
127 Hours,
The Social Network,
Toy Story 3,
True Grit and
Winter's Bone.
And our winners would be:
CC:
The Social Network is the near-perfect standout for me out of an unusually strong list of contenders.
NC: The film that transported me to a fully realized and stylized world wasn't
Inception. It was the Coen Brothers' vivid
True Grit.
KH: Call me and my pick old fashioned, but I was swept up by the emotion and quiet power of
The King's Speech.
The nominees for
Best Actor are: Javier Bardem in
Biutiful, Jeff Bridges in
True Grit, Jesse Eisenberg in
The Social Network, Colin Firth in
The King's Speech and James Franco in
127 Hours.
And our winners would be:
CC: If these same performances were nominated any other year, I might well vote for Franco's intense, revelatory work in
127 Hours. However, since
Firth was robbed for
A Single Man, this is his year.
NC: I loved Bridges' rough and ready version of Rooster Cogburn, but
Firth deserves to be rewarded for his second great performance in two years.
KH: Once again,
Firth delivered a heartbreaking performance filled with strength and subtlety.
The nominees for
Best Actress are: Annette Bening in
The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman in
Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence in
Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman in
Black Swan and Michelle Williams in
Blue Valentine.
And our winners would be:
CC: This is another incredibly strong list of performances and I'm feeling conflicted between Bening and Portman, but I would likely "vote with my heart" and go with
Portman.
NC: I love Portman's cuckoo swan princess, but my vote goes with the tightly wound but oh so subtle work of
Bening.
KH: I still can't get
Portman's crazy ballerina out of my head.
The nominees for
Best Supporting Actor are: Christian Bale in
The Fighter, John Hawkes in
Winter's Bone, Jeremy Renner in
The Town, Mark Ruffalo in
The Kids Are All Right and Geoffrey Rush in
The King's Speech.
And our winners would be:
CC: Bale's is the showiest role and performance here, but I prefer the other more low-key nominees. I vote for the long admired but never-before-nominated
Ruffalo, who was excellent as the unwilling pariah of a sperm donor/father.
NC: In another year, I'd have rushed to Rush's defense or gone to town with Renner, but how can you bail on
Bale's brilliant transformation?
KH:
Bale took enormous risks with a characterization that could have easily been too over-the-top.
The nominees for
Best Supporting Actress are: Amy Adams in
The Fighter, Helena Bonham Carter in
The King's Speech, Melissa Leo in
The Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld in
True Grit and Jacki Weaver in
Animal Kingdom.
And our winners would be:
CC: Similar to my feelings about Bale in the same film, I thought Leo's role/performance a bit too flashy. I would vote for the amazing
Steinfeld and think most Academy voters are doing the same.
NC: Leo was spot-on as the trashy mom, but
Steinfeld made an incredible first impression full of her own "true grit".
KH: Her co-star is getting all the press, but I was taken by
Adams' ballsy "bar girl".
The nominees for
Best Director are: Darren Aronofsky for
Black Swan, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen for
True Grit, David Fincher for
The Social Network, Tom Hooper for
The King's Speech and David O. Russell for
The Fighter.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Fincher's direction is masterful here, and he deserves an Oscar not only for it but his impressive body of work to date (
Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, et al).
NC: Fincher is hard to argue with, but the
Coen Brothers reined in their excesses (mostly) with
True Grit. Their virtuoso work wiped the other directors from my mind.
KH:
Hooper may be the least-known of the bunch, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it.
The nominees for
Best Adapted Screenplay are:
127 Hours,
The Social Network,
Toy Story 3,
True Grit and
Winter's Bone.
And our winners would be:
CC:
The Social Network, hands down. No one would have thought the story of Facebook's founding could be so dramatic.
NC: That dialogue! So pure and so contraction-free!
True Grit was the true favorite of mine and the script was the major reason.
KH:
Toy Story 3 brought the beloved animated trilogy to a bittersweet close.
The nominees for
Best Original Screenplay are:
Another Year,
The Fighter,
Inception,
The Kids Are All Right and
The King's Speech.
And our winners would be:
CC: While it does reference many prior movies, intentionally and lovingly,
Inception is still the most original and extraordinarily complex script out of this bunch.
NC: Taking her personal experience and turning it into a witty, controversial comedy,
Lisa Cholodenko's script for
The Kids Are All Right was all great.
KH: Have to give it to
The King's Speech writer.
The nominees for
Best Cinematography are:
Black Swan,
Inception,
The King's Speech,
The Social Network and
True Grit.
And our winners would be:
CC: I love that four out of five of these films tended toward darkness and their DP's did equally great work, which makes it hard for me to single one of them out. I would vote here for the more traditional — and brighter — visual pageantry of
The King's Speech.
NC: The burnished beauty of
True Grit ruled over all the kings, swan queens, social media and dream weavers.
KH: The look of
Black Swan had such a brittle realness to it that made the shocking weirdness all the more thrilling.
The nominees for
Best Art Direction are:
Alice in Wonderland,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,
Inception,
The King's Speech and
True Grit.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Alice in Wonderland was a visual delight from beginning to end and the standout for me.
NC: Sure, it was a mess of a movie, but the Art Direction of
Alice in Wonderland was divine.
KH: Unfazed by the glitz of the fantasy entrees, my vote would be for the period royal opulence of
The King's Speech.
The nominees for
Best Costume Design are:
Alice in Wonderland,
I Am Love,
The King's Speech,
The Tempest and
True Grit.
And our winners would be:
CC:
I Am Love boasts ravishing contemporary attire and star Tilda Swinton knows how to work it, but I vote for the various, more classic styles on display in
The King's Speech.
NC: True, the Oscar-worthy Swinton looked glorious; but
Alice in Wonderland trumped the others visually (if never emotionally).
KH: Again, royalty reigns for me with
The King's Speech.
The nominees for
Best Original Score are:
How to Train Your Dragon,
Inception,
The King's Speech,
127 Hours and
The Social Network.
And our winners would be:
CC: The composers of all these did very interesting work and I loved Hans Zimmer's frequent nods to the Bond movies'
musical guru, the late John Barry, in
Inception. However,
The King's Speech score is the most emotionally affecting of them, which always gets me in the final analysis.
NC: Alexandre Desplat is my single favorite composer, and since he wasn't recognized for
The Ghost Writer, he deserves an Oscar for his royal triumph in
The King's Speech.
KH:
How to Train Your Dragon's Celtic-flavored music scored with me.
The nominees for
Best Original Song are: “Coming Home” from
Country Strong, “I See the Light” from
Tangled, “If I Rise” from
127 Hours and “We Belong Together” from
Toy Story 3.
And our winners would be:
CC:
“I See the Light” is a new classic among Disney films and other movie musicals. I predict it will also serve as a lovely wedding ballad for years to come.
NC:
“I See the Light” is light and lovely.
KH: It's a toon tune sweep again:
“I See the Light” was the highlight of
Tangled.
The nominees for
Best Film Editing are:
Black Swan,
The Fighter,
The King's Speech,
127 Hours and
The Social Network.
And our winners would be:
CC: This category is where
Black Swan really scored for me. With its quick cuts between dance & drama and sanity & insanity, the editing was (as the film's lead character would surely agree) perfect.
NC: You almost want to black out from the wildly effective editing of
Black Swan.
KH: It was the editing of
127 Hours that made it so "edge-of-your-seat" satisfying.
The nominees for
Best Visual Effects are:
Alice in Wonderland,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,
Hereafter,
Inception and
Iron Man 2.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Inception may not have been the flashiest of the nominees, but its effects felt the most organic and realistic to me.
NC:
Hereafter's tsunami recreated an event we all saw on CNN, but this is about the only place for me where
Inception planted the idea of perfection in my mind.
KH:
Inception brought it in the effects sequences, both big and small.
The nominees for
Best Sound Mixing are:
Inception,
The King's Speech,
Salt,
The Social Network and
True Grit.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Inception featured the most "bang" in this category, especially when compared with the just plain noisy
Salt.
NC: Again,
Inception was a dream in this category.
KH: Remember the infamous ending of
Inception...?
The nominees for
Best Sound Editing are:
Inception,
Toy Story 3,
Tron: Legacy,
True Grit and
Unstoppable.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Inception, ditto my remark above but here applied to
Unstoppable.
NC: Uh-oh, how did I end up giving
Inception a third award? Because these accolades have nothing to do with its derivative script.
KH: ... we're still waiting for the sound of that top falling.
The nominees for
Best Makeup are:
Barney's Version,
The Way Back and
The Wolfman.
And our winners would be:
CC: Lycanthrope master Rick Baker scores again with the granddaddy of all cinematic werewolves,
The Wolfman.
NC: True, Benecio del Toro is already half werewolf, but how can you compare the fabulous work Baker did with these other films?
KH: I just can't give it to Baker for another werewolf movie, so I'll go for the sunburns and Colin Farrell tattoos of the sight-unseen
The Way Back.
The nominees for
Best Animated Feature are:
How to Train Your Dragon,
The Illusionist and
Toy Story 3:
And our winners would be:
CC: Though I consider
Toy Story 2 the best of the trilogy,
Toy Story 3 triumphs here over its very worthy rivals.
NC: Nothing toyed with audiences emotions like
Toy Story 3, about which grown men admitted bawling.
KH:
Toy Story 3 was an instant classic, animated or otherwise.
The nominees for
Best Foreign Language Film are:
Biutiful from Mexico,
Dogtooth from Greece,
In a Better World from Denmark,
Incendies from Canada and
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) from Algeria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Since
Biutiful is the only nominee here I've seen to date, it gets my vote. It is morose in spots and gets long but it has effective moments and Bardem is great as usual.
NC: I found
Biutiful anything but, so I always hope to live
In A Better World.
KH:
Dogtooth was a trip, but I found
Biutiful emotionally and spiritually rich.
The nominees for
Best Documentary Feature are:
Exit Through the Gift Shop,
Gasland,
Inside Job,
Restrepo and
Waste Land.
And our winners would be:
CC: In the absence of the wonderful
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work in this category,
Exit Through the Gift Shop emerges on top.
NC: Our Wall Street leaders bled us dry and all we got was this lousy T-shirt... and the chilling documentary
Inside Job.
KH: Rarely does the doc branch offer up a not-so-serious nominee, and
Exit Through the Gift Shop was a hoot-and-a-half.
The nominees for
Best Documentary Short are:
Killing in the Name,
Poster Girl,
Strangers No More,
Sun Come Up and
The Warriors of Qiugang:
And our winners would be:
CC,
NC,
KH: Sadly, time is truly too short to see everything and we haven't had the privilege of viewing any of these yet.
The nominees for
Best Animated Short are:
Day & Night,
The Gruffalo,
Let's Pollute,
The Lost Thing and
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary).
And our winners would be:
CC: Some great work here but the odd, moving
The Lost Thing is easily my favorite.
NC:
Day & Night didn't say anything profound, but as they say, getting there is more than half the fun.
KH: With its mixture of old school traditional animation and 3-D CGI, Pixar's
Day & Night showcased the bets of both worlds.
The nominees for
Best Live Action Short are:
The Confession,
The Crush,
God of Love,
Na Wewe and
Wish 143.
And our winners would be:
CC:
Wish 143 is an irreverent but touching delight.
KH: It's a great year for this category, with five worthy contenders. In the end,
Wish 143 proves to be as irresistible and persistent as its protagonist.
And now for our own special category of dishonorable mention, the
Worst Nomination of the Year:
CC: While this is a rare year in which I feel all the nominees in every category are well-deserved, I wish the directors' branch would have passed over the
Coen Brothers (who won the Best Director Oscar just 3 years ago) in favor of either Christopher Nolan for
Inception or Debra Granik for
Winter's Bone.
True Grit, while good, isn't as strikingly directed as these two haunting visions.
NC: My pick is for the noisy incoherence of
Inception as Best Picture over the superior-in-every-way
Shutter Island. Leo and his wife's mental struggles were better and the whole reality vs. fantasy was so much more involving on Scorcese's creepy psycho island.
KH: I could go for such easy targets as the redundant
Harry Potter Art Direction (come on, half of the movie took place in a tent!) or Randy Newman's Randy Newman-esque
Toy Story theme song. Instead, I'll aim for the big guns and go with the overrated
Jesse Eisenberg of
The Social Network, considering his questionable Best Actor nomination Oscar-blocked such worthier candidates as
Get Low's Robert Duvall and
Blue Valentine's Ryan Gosling.
And finally, see the comments section below for how we would rank the 10 Best Picture nominees, just like how Academy members are
required to do now when they vote.
And while you're there, tell us who and what you would vote for too!
Illustrations by Adam Simpson for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
