Oscar Predictions 2014, part 5: Summing It All Up

Ok kids, the Academy is announcing their nominees in a little over twelve hours (thank God I don't have much to do tomorrow, or else I'd be wrecked the whole day--why they announce nominees before the sun comes up totally mystifies me), which means I've got a little over twelve hours before every one of these prediction posts becomes totally meaningless. Yay! So I'll jump right into it. I'm just going to list my super final, super serious, super official predictions, sans commentary, allowing myself only one alternate.

As far as big changes from the predictions I've been posted are concerned, there are actually quite a few of them--chalk it up to pre-Oscar jitters. I changed my alternate in Best Picture from Unbroken to Nightcrawler, changed my alternate in Actress from Marion Cotillard/Two Days, One Night to Amy Adams/Big Eyes, changed my alternate in Supporting Actress from Laura Dern/Wild to Rene Russo/Nightcrawler, moved Big Eyes into Production Design, which meant taking Interstellar out, changed my alternate in Costume Design from Selma to The Imitation Game, moved The Grand Budapest Hotel into Film Editing, which meant kicking American Sniper out, replaced Transformers with The Imitation Game in Sound Mixing,and replaced The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies with Guardians of the Galaxy in Sound Editing.

Incidentally, I know it's all a bit silly and backwards to put this much effort into Oscar prognostication while I've yet to even offer up any thoughts about the best of the year and all that, but them's the breaks. The release schedules of all the lovely little indie movies that we apparently don't deserve in the middle of the country make it so that I'm basically unable to put out a semi-meaningful 'best of the year' post until Mid-February. But just know that if I could guarantee any nomination tomorrow, it would be Under the Skin in...just about any category (Picture! Director! Actress! Screenplay! Cinematography! Score! Sound! The list goes on), and if I could prevent any nomination, it would be The Theory of Anything for just about any of its craft category possibilities (Costumes, Score, Cinematography--it's boring on just about all counts).

So here we go!



Best Picture
Boyhood
The Imitation Game
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Theory of Everything
Selma
Whiplash
American Sniper
Gone Girl
Alternate: Nightcrawler

Director
Richard Linklater-Boyhood
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu-Birdman
Wes Anderson-The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum-The Imitation Game
Damien Chazelle-Whiplash
Alternate: Ava DuVernay-Selma

Actor
Michael Keaton-Birdman
Eddie Redmayne-The Theory of Everything
Benedict Cumberbatch-The Imitation Game
David Oyelowo-Selma
Jake Gyllenhaal-Nightcrawler
Alternate: Steve Carell-Foxcatcher

Actress
Julianne Moore-Still Alice
Reese Witherspoon-Wild
Rosamund Pike-Gone Girl
Felicty Jones-The Theory of Everything
Jennifer Aniston-Cake
Alternate: Amy Adams-Big Eyes

Supporting Actor
J.K.Simmons-Whiplash
Edward Norton-Birdman
Ethan Hawke-Boyhood
Mark Ruffalo-Foxcatcher
Robert Duvall-The Judge
Alternate: Christoph Waltz-Big Eyes

Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette-Boyhood
Meryl Streep-Into the Woods
Keira Knightley-The Imitation Game
Jessica Chastain-A Most Violent Year
Emma Stone-Birdman
Alternate: Rene Russo-Nightcrawler

Original Screenplay
Boyhood
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler
Selma
Alternate: A Most Violent Year

Adapted Screenplay
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Gone Girl
American Sniper
Whiplash
Alternate: Wild

Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Mr. Turner
Big Eyes
Alternate: Interstellar

Costume Design
Into the Woods
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Maleficent
Big Eyes
Inherent Vice
Alternate: The Imitation Game

Visual Effects
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Guardians of the Galaxy
Godzilla
Alternate: Maleficent

Makeup and Hairstyling
Guardians of the Galaxy
Maleficent
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alternate: Foxcatcher

Film Editing
Boyhood
The Imitation Game
Birdman
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alternate: Whiplash

Cinematography
Birdman
Mr. Turner
Unbroken
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Theory of Everything
Alternate: Selma

Original Score
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Alternate: The Homesman

Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Unbroken
Into the Woods
Birdman
The Imitation Game
Alternate: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Sound Editing
American Sniper
Interstellar
Unbroken
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy
Alternate: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Original Song
"Lost Stars"-Begin Again
"Everything is Awesome"-The Lego Movie
"Glory"-Selma
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You"-Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
"Grateful"-Beyond the Lights
Alternate: "What is Love"-Rio 2

Animated Film
The Lego Movie
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Alternate: Song of the Sea

Foreign Language Film
Ida-Poland
Timbuktu-Mauritania
Leviathan-Russia
Force Majeure-Sweden
Wild Tales-Argentina
Alternate: Tangerines-Estonia

Documentary Feature
Citizenfour
Life Itself
The Overnighters
Last Days in Vietnam
Virunga
Alternate: The Salt of the Earth


That's that. Check back tomorrow to see how abysmally I've done!