I rank my final predictions from most likely to least. Winner is in italics and my personal pic is in bold. This was a year that would be easy to predict for anyone who is not a professional Oscar watcher, because anybody could simply predict an unlikely ROTK sweep in every category. My final score was 18/24. Not too shabby eh?
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Best Picture 1. ROTK 2. Mystic River 3. Lost In Translation 4. Master and Commander 5. Seabiscuit |
Truly the most deserved, most anticipated, and most predictable category of the evening. After this happened this became one of the happiest nights of my life. |
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Best Director 1. Peter Jackson(ROTK) 2. Sofia Coppola(Lost In Translation) 3. Clint Eastwood(Mystic River) 4. Peter Weir(Master and Commander) 5. Fernando Mierelles(City of God) |
Also, the most deserved category of the evening. Arguably no director has ever worked harder on one project. Great job Peter! |
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Best Actor 1. Sean Penn(Mystic River) 2. Bill Murray(Lost in Translation) 3. Johnny Depp(Pirates of the Caribbean) 4. Ben Kingsley(House of Sand and Fog) 5. Jude Law(Cold Mountain) |
A diffucult three-way race. Some were saying Murray, but I knew that the comedy votes would be split between him and Depp opening it up (disappointingly with bias) for Penn. |
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Best Actress 1. Charlize Theron(Monster) 2. Diane Keaton(Something's Gotta Give) 3. Keisha Castle-Hughes(Whale Rider) 4. Naomi Watts(21 Grams) 5. Samantha Morton(In America) |
Another easy category. Despite how much I loved Morton's performance, I'm glad Theron got it. |
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Best Supporting Actor 1. Tim Robbins(Mystic River) 2. Alec Baldwin(The Cooler) 3. Djimon Hounsou(In America) 4. Benicio Del Toro(21 Grams) 5. Ken Watanabe(The Last Samurai) |
Despite my strong bias against Robbins, he did deserve it by a mile. Thanks for not making a controversial speech this time. It would have ruined my night. |
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Best Supporting Actress 1. Renee Zellweger(Cold Mountain) 2. Shohreh Aghdashloo(House of Sand and Fog) 3. Patricia Clarkson(Pieces of April) 4. Holly Hunter(Thirteen) 5. Marcia Gay Harden(Mystic River) |
Dreamworks' campaign against Zellweger backfired against them. She deserved it for a good performance by an overdue actress. |
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Best Original Screenplay 1. Lost In Translation 2. In America 3. Finding Nemo 4. The Barbarian Invasions 5. Dirty Pretty Things |
I don't see what was good about any aspect of Translation, especially the screenplay. Nonetheless, it's nice to award another Coppola. Yet this makes Sheridan more overdue. |
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Best Adapted Screenplay 1. Mystic River 2. ROTK 3. Seabiscuit 4. American Splendor 5. City of God |
Possibly the most difficult category to predict of the evening, any of the five had a chance. It took me hours to come to the conclusion of Mystic. Yet half way through the show I would have changed it to ROTK since it was sweeping. |
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Best Art Direction 1. ROTK 2. Girl With A Pearl Earring 3. Master and Commander 4. Seabiscuit 5. The Last Samurai |
This was well deserved after two Rings snubs. Way to go Grant Major! |
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Best Cinematography 1. Girl With A Pearl Earring 2. Seabiscuit 3. Master and Commander 4. Cold Mountain 5. City of God |
ROTK's nom snubs in cinematography and sound editing were done intentinally so it wouldn't break the win record of 11, and to allow M&C to win a couple. I would have said M&C if I knew ROTK would win all its noms. |
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Best Editing 1. ROTK 2. City of God 3. Master and Commander 4. Cold Mountain 5. Seabiscuit |
I'm proud of myself here. While everybody was saying City of God, I took a risk of saying ROTK, and was right. |
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Best Costumes 1. ROTK 2. The Last Samurai 3. Girl With A Pearl Earring 4. Master and Commander 5. Seabiscuit |
A deserved win after two snubs again. It was from this point in the show that I knew ROTK would go on to sweep. |
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Best Makeup 1. Pirates of the Caribbean 2. ROTK 3. Master and Commander |
I didn't expect ROTK to win all its noms originally. This category seemed like the most likely to fail in. Yet, the power of sweep picked it up. And how did M&C get nominated? |
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Best Visual Effects 1. ROTK 2. Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Master and Commander |
An obvious win. I feel a little bad that LOTR took this category all three years taking wins from six other films. Nonetheless, LOTR has set a new standard for visual effects. |
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Best Sound 1. ROTK 2. Master and Commander 3. Pirates of the Caribbean 4. The Last Samurai 5. Seabiscuit |
ROTK managed to beat M&C thanks to the sweep. They both deserved it. But ROTK snub in this category would have been horrible. |
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Best Sound Editing 1. Master and Commander 2. Finding Nemo 3. Pirates of the Caribbean |
See cinematography. |
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Best Score 1. ROTK 2. Cold Mountain 3. Big Fish 4. Finding Nemo 5. House of Sand and Fog |
Another deserved win for Shore for a breathtaking dramatic melody. I would have liked to see Elfman (my second favorite composer) take it as well for the first time after a long career. |
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Best Song 1. ROTK 2. A Mighty Wind 3. Cold Mountain(Sting) 4. The Triplets of Belleville 5. Cold Mountain(Costello) |
This was a deserved win. This category seemed a little weak this year, for four of the songs (all but Belleville) were rather dull. LOTR should have won song it's first year with Enya's song instead. |
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Best Animated Film 1. Finding Nemo 2. The Triplets of Belleville 3. Brother Bear |
An obvious win. I didn't like Nemo as much as the general public, but it makes up for the Monsters, Inc. snub. |
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Best Foreing Language Film 1. The Barbarian Invasions 2. Twin Sisters 3. The Twilight Samurai 4. Evil 5. Zelary |
An obvious win, despite having not seen any nominees. Hooray for Canada! |
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Best Documentary Feature 1. Capturing the Friedmans 2. The Fog of War 3. My Architect 4. The Weather Underground 5. Balseros |
I went against the crowd saying Friedmans instead of Fog, and I regret it. I just didn't think that the academy would award two politically controversial documentaries in a row. |
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Best Documentary Short 1. Chernobyl Heart 2. Asylum 3. Ferry Tales |
An obvious win about a tragic topic. |
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Best Short Film 1. The Bridge 2. Two Soldiers 3. Squash 4. Torsion 5. The Red Jacket |
It was a two way race and I was wrong. I seem to have done well in all but the independent categories this year. |
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Best Animated Short Film 1. Destino 2. Boundin' 3. Harvie Krumpet 4. Nibbles 5. Gone Nutty |
One of the biggest surprises of the evening came from the arguably least important category. Who thoght that a collaberation of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali made several years ago would lose? |