2020 OSCARS: The Winners

The winners of the 92nd Annual Academy Awards were announced last night, and I correctly predicted 6 of 8 of the Top 8 categories, missing the big wins for "Parasite" in the Best Picture and Best Director categories, which I am quite happy about. Elsewhere I picked 17 of 24 categories correctly. Parasite ended with the most with 4 while both 1917, Once Upon a Time..in Hollywood and Ford v Ferrari ended with 3 Oscars each.

Best Picture
Parasite

Best Director
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho

Best International Feature
Parasite – South Korea

Best Actress
Renee Zellweger – Judy

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker

Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern – Marriage Story

Best Supporting Actor
Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best Cinematography
1917 – Roger Deakins

Best Film Editing
Ford v Ferrari – Michael McCusker & Andrew Buckland

Best Original Screenplay
Parasite – Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi

Best Original Score
Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir

Best Animated Feature
Toy Story 4

Best Documentary Feature
American Factory

Best Production Design
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – Barbara Ling & Nancy Haigh

Best Costume Design
Little Women – Jacqueline Durran

Best Sound Editing
Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester

Best Sound Mixing
1917 – Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson

Best Visual Effects
1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler & Dominic Tuohy

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan & Vivian Baker

Best Original Song
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again – Rocketman (Elton John & Bernie Taupin)

Best Documentary Short
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

Best Animated Short
Hair Love

Best Live Action Short
The Neighbors’ Window

2020 OSCARS: My Predictions in the Top 8 Categories

Here is my annual prediction post for the 2020 Oscars, i.e. the 92nd Academy Awards. I really just consider the Top 8 categories on the blog but I play the Oscar prediction game like lots of other people (on other websites) where I think about all 24 categories. Last year I predicted 4 of 8 categories correctly and 12 of 24 overall. This year I have only seen a few of the nominated pictures.

Best Picture:

• “Ford v Ferrari” 
• “The Irishman” 
• “Jojo Rabbit” 
• “Joker” 
• “Little Women” 
• “Marriage Story” 
• “1917” 
• “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” 
• “Parasite” 

SHOULD WIN: Parasite.
WILL WIN: 1917.

Director:

• Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”)
• Todd Phillips (“Joker”)
• Sam Mendes (“1917”)
• Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”)

SHOULD WIN: Bong Joon Ho, Parasite.

WILL WIN: Sam Mendes, 1917.

Lead Actor:

• Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)
• Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)
• Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”)

SHOULD WIN: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria).

WILL WIN: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker.

Lead Actress:

• Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”)
• Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”)
• Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”)
• Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”)
• Renee Zellweger (“Judy”)

SHOULD WIN: Renee Zellwegger, Judy.

WILL WIN: Renee Zellwegger, Judy.

Supporting Actor:

• Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”)
• Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”)
• Al Pacino (“The Irishman”)
• Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”)
• Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

SHOULD WIN: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

WILL WIN: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Supporting Actress:

• Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
• Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”)
• Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”)
• Florence Pugh (“Little Women”)
• Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”)

SHOULD WIN: Laura Dern, Marriage Story.

WILL WIN: Laura Dern, Marriage Story.

Adapted Screenplay:

• Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”)
• Steve Zaillian (“The Irishman”)
• Anthony McCarten (“The Two Popes”)
• Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”)
• Todd Phillips and Scott Silver (“Joker”)

SHOULD WIN: Little Women

WILL WIN: Jojo Rabbit.

Original Screenplay:

• Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”)
• Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”)
• Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917”)
• Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
• Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won (“Parasite”)

SHOULD WIN: Parasite.

WILL WIN: Parasite.

FILM REVIEW: Her

I have finally gotten around to writing up my review of Spike Jonze's Her, the last movie eligible for my Best Films Seen in 2013. Since I saw the movie on Christmas Day it has gone into wide release, become critically acclaimed (93% on rotten tomatoes) and received five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Original Song and Original Score. Surprisingly, neither Joaquin Phoenix nor Amy Adams received nominations for their acting, and the Academy did not break ground with a nomination for Scarlet Johansson who does not appear in the film but whose voice is one of the most significant features of the film.

Her is a very involving, thought-provoking film. The plot revolves around Phoenix's character Theodore Twombly whose job it is to write personal letters for other people. He uses voice recognition software to dictate the letters, which are then generated in amazingly realistic handwriting fonts on various stationery. This is a perfect example of the confounding contrasts in the film. Technology is visibly enhanced from our current reality, but people are still sending each other hand-written letters? Twombly is a very solitary person who is going through a divorce. He purchases a new operating system, which has a new self-aware artificial intelligence voiced by Johansson named Samantha, who quickly becomes the most important thing in his life.

In fact, Her is really a non-traditional love story between Twombly and Samantha. However, in Jonze's vision of the future (which is purportedly set in a future Los Angeles, but contains shots of architecture from various cities in Asia like Shanghai and Tokyo) it is not unusual for people to have emotional relationships with artificial intelligences. In fact, the other significant human character in the film is Amy (played by Amy Adams) also has a clear emotional attachment to her operating system as well.

The film definitely makes you think about the definitions of intimacy and relationship, all the time giving you an engrossing look at a potential future which seems both realistic, intriguing and disturbing simultaneously.

Title: Her.
Director: Spike Jonze.
Running Time: 2 hours, 6 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language, sexual content and brief graphic nudity.
Release Date: December 18, 2013 (limited).
Viewing Date: December 25, 2013.

Writing: A-.
Acting: A.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A- (3.67/4.0).