Oscar Predictions

We've had a good run at seeing most of the contenders for best picture but I feel more invested in the live and animated shorts and foreign language categories. Some of this is because I've seen more of the nominees but also because the storytelling is on another level in these categories. Movie making does not seem to improve within the Hollywood system and the diversity in these categories counteracts the #OscarsSoWhite. Here are my picks for the 2016 #WhiteOscars. I'll update this post with the results.

BEST PICTURE

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Brooklyn (haven't seen it)

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

Room -Winner

Spotlight

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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo (haven't seen it)

Matt Damon, The Martian

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant (haven't seen it) - Winner

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs (haven't seen it)

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

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ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett, Carol

Brie Larson, Room - Winner

Jennifer Lawrence, Joy (haven't seen it)

Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years (haven't seen it)

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn (haven't seen it)

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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christian Bale, The Big Short

Tom Hardy, The Revenant (haven't seen it)

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies -Winner

Sylvester Stallone, Creed (haven't seen it)

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ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight (haven't seen it)

Rooney Mara, Carol

Rachel McAdams, Spotlight

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl - Winner

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs (haven't seen it)

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ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Anomalisa (haven't seen it)

Boy and the World  (haven't seen it)

Inside Out - Winner

Shaun the Sheep Movie (haven't seen it)

When Marnie Was There (haven't seen it)

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CINEMATOGRAPHY

Carol

The Hateful Eight  (haven't seen it)

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant  (haven't seen it) - Winner

Sicario  (haven't seen it)
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COSTUME DESIGN

Carol

Cinderella  (haven't seen it)

The Danish Girl

Mad Max: Fury Road - Winner

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

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DIRECTING

The Big Short

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant  (haven't seen it)

Room - Winner

Spotlight

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DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Amy - Not the Winner

Cartel Land  (haven't seen it)

The Look of Silence  (haven't seen it)

What Happened, Miss Simone? (haven't seen it)

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (haven't seen it) - Winner?

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DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Body Team 12  (haven't seen it)

Chau, beyond the Lines (haven't seen it)

Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah (haven't seen it)

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (haven't seen it) Winner? 
Last Day of Freedom (haven't seen it)

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FILM EDITING

The Big Short - Winner

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant  (haven't seen it)

Spotlight

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Embrace of the Serpent  (haven't seen it)

Mustang - Winner!

Son of Saul  (haven't seen it)

Theeb

A War (haven't seen it)

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MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Mad Max: Fury Road

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared - Winner

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

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MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Bridge of Spies  (haven't seen it)

Carol

The Hateful Eight (haven't seen it) Winner

Sicario (haven't seen it)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Earned It,” Fifty Shades of Grey

“Manta Ray,” Racing Extinction  (haven't seen it)

“Simple Song #3,” Youth (haven't seen it)

“Til It Happens To You,” The Hunting Ground (haven't seen it) Winner?

“Writing’s On The Wall,” Spectre (haven't seen it)

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PRODUCTION DESIGN

Bridge of Spies 

The Danish Girl - Winner

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

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SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Bear Story

Prologue

Sanjay’s Super Team

We Can’t Live without Cosmos

World of Tomorrow - Winner!!!! I love this movie.

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SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Ave Maria

Day One

Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut) Winner! I think about this movie almost everyday

Shok

Stutterer

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SOUND EDITING

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

Sicario (haven't seen it)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Winner
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SOUND MIXING

Bridge of Spies  (haven't seen it)

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant (haven't seen it)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Winner

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VISUAL EFFECTS

Ex Machina  (haven't seen it)

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

The Revenant (haven't seen it) Winner

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

The Big Short

Brooklyn  (haven't seen it)

Carol

The Martian

Room - Winner

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WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Bridge of Spies 

Ex Machina (haven't seen it)

Inside Out - Winner, sure why not?

Spotlight

Straight Outta Compton (haven't seen it)

Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

Movie: 2016 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts
When: 7:15, Thursday, February 3
Who With: JL, plus some good Missoula run-ins!
YTD Movie Count: 11
Snacks: popcorn and cold smoke

Reaction: So many movies! Five were up for best animated short and three more were shown as honorable mentions. A much lighter hearted blend than the live action shorts, not to say their wasn’t plenty of melancholy in the mix. Our audience had a REAL PARTICIPATOR in the row ahead of us. Full body wiggling then there were squiggles on screen, and verbally boing-oing-oing-ing along with any sound effect. Anyway, he was having fun and so was I. Here’s what we saw:
Sanjay’s Super Team – dir. Sanjay Patel, USA, 7 minutes 
Pixar-so-good! The standard bearer has done it again with this super sweet story of father, son, religion, and super heroes.
World of Tomorrow – dir. Don Hertzfeldt, USA, 17 minutes
My pic for the win! Hertzfeldt introduces a little girl with her adult clone from the somewhat distant future. They have heavy a philosophical conversation touching on love, death, class, and tech while exploring the universe.
**Update 2/20/16: Heard a great NPR interview with Don about "World of Tomorrow" and learned it's available on Netflix.
Bear Story – dir. Gabriel Osorio, Chile, 11 minutes 
Beautiful depiction of a bear family and circus sadness. After our September trip to Chile, JL instantly felt the Chilean history bursting in-between the lines here. I was slightly oblivious but the story is painful either way. This is a big contender for the prize and knows it. The audience was a little turned off by the wall of awards shown at the start.
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos – dir. Konstantin Bronzit, Russia, 16 minutes
Another bittersweet story, this time following two buds as they train in the Russian cosmonaut program. I still don’t understand why ‘cosmonaut’ was translated to “astronaut” at one point within the animation. I do know that space is a nasty quest.
Then they showed a few honorable mentions that are not nominated:
If I Was God: Very Canadian narration of a middle school frog dissection. I didn’t really feel this one.
Taking Flight: The Roxy claims it showed this to us but it did not.
The Short Story of a Fox and a Mouse: Beautifully done but not how nature works.
The Loneliest Spotlight: Pulling at my land use planner heart strings and narrated by Patton Oswalt, we see the years pass from the vantage of a street spotlight. I loved the animation of the cars moving through traffic.
Catch It: Abso-boring, full of meerkats and cliches.
Prologue – dir. Richard Williams, UK, 6 minutes
You don’t get the link for this one because I hate it so much. Yes, I know there’s a very impressive technique on display but I am here for the stories and this one is just for dudes. We got the very important notice that Prologue has male nudity and is not good for young children.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: The Danish Girl

Carol

Saw this movie about 1950 lesbians
with a bunch of 2016 lesbians.

Movie: Carol
When: Saturday, January 16, 2016
Who With: JL, MF, KP, JC, AC
YTD Movie Count: 6
Snacks: We met up at the Bridge before the show. I’ve had a goal to go off-pizza here for a while. They have a pretty robust menu but those slices greet you so welcomingly I’ve struggled to succeed. Not this night! The chilly weather made Thai Chicken soup the perfect substitute and the speediness between order and eating is sure to pave the way toward other non-pizza options. The soup went nicely with bites of JL’s cheese slice and the
Ubuntu Robust Porter on tap from Imagine Nation Brewery.
Then we went to town on using the perks included with our movie membership. We got everybody in for free using guest passes. JL and I shared a requisite popcorn bowl with nutritional yeast and masala spice (very tasty) and these fools kept getting us Cold Smokes. Everybody wins in the friend department.

Reaction: I liked it! There was a weighted intensity to the story that some (JL) might interpret as sloooow. And there’s probably a scene or two that could have been cut, but I enjoyed a feeling of watching the story unfold on the outside. I’ve always said my favorite part of any movie is before anything really happens. To a certain extent, that’s this whole movie. So, I’m not sure that’s a super convincing argument to go see this but it is in the running for WhiteOscars and Rooney Mara is Audrey Hepburn, so that’s a fun facet added in.

Recommendation: Let’s Go! | Let it come to you  | Let it pass
Next Up: The Big Sleep (Also anxiously waiting to learning whether all my Roxy links will break when we move on to the February movies…)