Updated: 5/26
Cinematography
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. The Tree of Life | 2. True Grit | 3. Inception | 4. Miral | 5. Shutter Island |
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Others: The American, Black Swan, Eat Pray Love, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I, The Way Back
There are several overdue cinematographers competing here including Emmaunuel Lubezski, Roger Deakins and Wally Pfister. I'm going with them as well as films that seem to have, or might end up having, lots of dark dramatic shots. That seems to be the type the Academy goes for these days. |
Art Direction
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. Inception | 2. The Tree of Life | 3. True Grit | 4. Agora | 5. Alice in Wonderland |
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Others: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I, The King's Speech, Robin Hood, Shanghai, Shutter Island
What Avatar's win last year told us is that the Academy finally recognizes complete CGI sets in this category. That is why Inception and Alice in Wonderland have good chances. I can see Inception winning since they also built a scale model of a rotating city. The rest are essentially period films and best picture contenders. |
Editing
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. Inception | 2. The Tree of Life | 3. The Fighter | 4. The Way Back | 5. True Grit |
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Others: Black Swan, Hereafter, Love and Other Drugs, Miral, Shutter Island
Early on, it's easiest just to predict the best picture frontrunners in this category and you'll probably be pretty spot on. I think Lee Smith should finally win this year for either Inception or The Way Back. |
Costumes
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. The King's Speech | 2. The Tempest | 3. Alice in Wonderland | 4. Secretariat | 5. True Grit |
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Others: Agora, Black Swan, The Conspirator, Miral, Shanghai
What the last five years of this category have taught us is that it likes flashy period costumes in female-driven films that aren't necessarily great films. Four out of five of last year's nominees were exactly that. This clearly puts King's Speech as the frontrunner for being the obvious flashy European royalty costumes that practically always win this category. Period dramas fill out the rest, but I would like to see a good fantasy film like Alice in Wonderland show up here. |
Makeup
Top Three Contenders
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| 1. Alice in Wonderland | 2. True Grit | 3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I |
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Others: The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Jonah Hex, Let Me In, A Nightmare on Elm St., Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
I noticed something. Is it me or does this category keep getting weaker every year? Perhaps it's because it's becoming more common for filmmakers to create strange creatures with CGI rather than prosthetic makeup. Well so far this year we've seen a couple of well made-up films like Alice in Wonderland and Nightmare on Elm St. Maybe the Harry Potter franchise can finally score a nomination in this category. And there's got to be some period film like True Grit nominated. |
Visual Effects
Top Three Contenders
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| 1. Iron Man 2 | 2. Tron: Legacy | 3. Inception |
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Others: Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I, The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Robin Hood
This seems like a weak year for visual effects. Or maybe it just seems that way because visual effects have peaked. Once Avatar has been done, there's nothing else that has yet to be done. So the nominees will just be films with semi-impressive effects like Iron Man 2. But I have a suspicion that Inception might feature more special effects trickery than the trailer would show. |
Sound Mixing
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. Inception | 2. Iron Man 2 | 3. Tron: Legacy | 4. The Way Back | 5. True Grit |
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Others: The Expendables, The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Salt, The Tree of Life
I'll never fully understand the sound mixing category since I think they've made bad decisions the last four years in a row. For some reason, they'll probably go with a simple quiet film. But until then I'll predict complicated sci-fi films like Inception and Iron Man 2. |
Sound Editing
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. Iron Man 2 | 2. Inception | 3. Tron: Legacy | 4. The Way Back | 5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I |
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Others: Alice in Wonderland, The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Robin Hood, Toy Story 3
Normally I reserve a spot for Pixar here but I don't think Toy Story 3 will have the same complicated sounds as Wall-E or Up. So I'll go with the clanging metal for Iron Man 2. I wonder if this is another category that the Harry Potter franchise will finally be nominated for. |
Score
Top Five Contenders
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| 1. Alexandre Desplat (The Tree of Life) | 2. Hans Zimmer (Inception) | 3. Danny Elfman (Alice in Wonderland) | 4. Carter Burwell (True Grit) | 5. Randy Newman (Toy Story 3) |
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Others: Michael Andrews (Cyrus), Alexandre Desplat (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Par I), Elliott Goldenthal (The Tempest), Harry Gregson-Williams (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), James Newton Howard (The Last Airbender, Salt), Jan Kaczmarek (Get Low), Dario Marianelli (Agora, Eat Pray Love), Gustavo Santaolla (Biutiful), Marc Streitenfeld (Robin Hood) This category has shown repeatedly that it really doesn't care about overdue status. That's why there are so many great unrewarded composers like Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, and Thomas Newman. Maybe one of them like Alexandre Desplat can finally win this year. He has two strong candidates. If not, I'm hoping Danny Elfman can get an overdue win. You know, all the limiting rules in this category are causing so many great films to be ineligible, thus making it even harder to predict. |
Song
Top Five Contenders
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Others: ? |
