My 2008 Oscar Picks!

So I’m sitting at my desk on Thursday afternoon when the thought crossed my mind: “Oh crap! The Oscars are this Sunday!”

You see, I had.. uhhh.. “obtained” copies of almost all the movies in this year’s Oscar race; I’ve had some them as far back as last September. I had not, however, actually seen most of them. So from Friday night until the wee hours of Sunday morning, I watched seven of the movies below. And boy, are my eyes tired! I am “cinematically exhausted”, if such a thing actually exists.

And so… below is my list of Oscar picks for 2008. My picks are in RED. Keep a couple of things in mind when you read my choices:

1. This list is of the nominees I want to win, not necessarily nominees I think will win. I predict the awful No Country For Old Men (a movie I needed 20 cups of coffee to get through) will clean up this year.
2. I tried to be objective as possible, and decide each award on its own merits. I did my best to stay away from “Johnny Depp has been in so many great movies, he really needs an Oscar”, “George Clooney was robbed in 2005″ and\or “Hal Holbrook is getting old, this might be his last chance to get an Oscar!” I will admit, however, that a previous Oscar win did have an impact in one category this year: best supporting actor. Personally, I thought that Philip Seymour Hoffman was great in Charlie Wilson’s War; had he not won the Oscar for Capote in 2005, I probably would have picked him this year.
3. Categories in strikethough are categories that I either don’t have an opinion on (“Best original song”), or films I did not have the chance to see (Such as “Best Live Action Short Film”).

Without further ado… my picks!

 

Best motion picture of the year

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Achievement in directing

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
Juno (Jason Reitman)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Performance by an actor in a leading role

George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones – In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James…
Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook – Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away from Her
Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney – The Savages
Ellen Page – Juno

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
Ruby Dee – American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Best animated feature film of the year

Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf’s Up

Adapted screenplay

Atonement (Christopher Hampton)
Away from Her (Sarah Polley)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Ronald Harwood)
No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Original screenplay

Juno (Diablo Cody)
Lars and the Real Girl (Nancy Oliver)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Ratatouille (Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird)
The Savages (Tamara Jenkins)

Achievement in art direction

American Gangster (Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino)
Atonement (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)
The Golden Compass (Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock)
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo)
There Will Be Blood (Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson)

Achievement in cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James… (Roger Deakins)
Atonement (Seamus McGarvey)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Janusz Kaminski)
No Country for Old Men (Roger Deakins)
There Will Be Blood (Robert Elswit)

Achievement in costume design

Across the Universe (Albert Wolsky)
Atonement (Jacqueline Durran)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Alexandra Byrne)
La Vie en Rose (Marit Allen)
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Colleen Atwood)

Achievement in film editing

The Bourne Ultimatum (Christopher Rouse)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Juliette Welfling)
Into the Wild (Jay Cassidy)
No Country for Old Men (Roderick Jaynes)
There Will Be Blood (Dylan Tichenor)

Best foreign language film of the year

Beaufort – Israel
The Counterfeiters – Austria
Katy? – Poland
Mongol – Kazakhstan
12 – Russia

Achievement in makeup

La Vie en Rose (Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald)
Norbit (Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Ve Neill and Martin Samuel)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

Atonement (Dario Marianelli)
The Kite Runner (Alberto Iglesias)
Michael Clayton (James Newton Howard)
Ratatouille (Michael Giacchino)
3:10 to Yuma (Marco Beltrami)

Achievement in sound editing

The Bourne Ultimatum (Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg)
No Country for Old Men (Skip Lievsay)
Ratatouille (Randy Thom and Michael Silvers)
There Will Be Blood (Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood)
Transformers (Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins)

Achievement in sound mixing

The Bourne Ultimatum (Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis)
No Country for Old Men (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland)
Ratatouille (Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane)
3:10 to Yuma (Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe)
Transformers (Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin)

Achievement in visual effects

The Golden Compass (Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier)
Transformers (Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier)

Best documentary feature

Best documentary short subject

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

Best animated short film

Best live action short film