Oscar Preview Week: Best Picture and My Predictions
Here we go as Oscar Preview Week concludes with the five films up for Best Picture of 2006 and my picks. In Best Picture, you've got a Golden Globe winner for Foreign Language film going up against a Golden Globe winner for Motion Picture-Drama. Though one of them is favored to win, don't rule out the other three nominees. And they are...
BEST PICTURE (producers' names are in parentheses):
"Babel" (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Jon Kilik, and Steve Golin): Several interwoven storylines unfold across four countries as difficulties in communication and understanding complicate life in the shrinking global village. A Moroccan shepherd, a pair of American tourists, a deaf Japanese teenager, and a Mexican nanny and her two young American charges are among the characters whose lives connect in unexpected ways.
"The Departed" (Graham King): Unbeknownst to the Massachusetts state police department, crime boss Frank Costello has placed a mole in its ranks: cadet Colin Sullivan. The police succeed in infiltrating Costello's organization as well, however, providing a credible criminal background for undercover cadet Billy Costigan, who manages to gain Costello's trust.
"Letters From Iwo Jima" (Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Lorenz): The battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Second World War, is examined from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers defending the island. A cache of letters found years later provides the perspectives of several soldiers as they prepare for the coming American attack, longing for home and knowing they face almost certain death. Eastwood's last Best Picture win was for "Million Dollar Baby" two years ago; Spielberg's was for "Schindler's List" in 1994.
"Little Miss Sunshine" (David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, and Marc Turtletaub): Seven-year-old Olive dreams of winning a children's beauty pageant and convinces her family to drive her from their home in New Mexico to California for the Little Miss Sunshine competition. Along for the ride are Olive's father, a failed motivational speaker, her heroin-addicted grandfather, silent brother, suicidal uncle, and her increasingly frustrated mother.
"The Queen" (Andy Harries, Christine Langan, and Tracey Seaward): In the days immediately following the death of Princess Diana in 1997, public grief turns to outrage at the perceived lack of response to the tragedy on the part of Britain's royal family. As the recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair urges her to be more responsive to the mood of the nation, Queen Elizabeth confronts the changes that modern life has forced on the centuries-old monarchy.
And that's the field, now comes to the all-important question: Who will take it all on Sunday night? Last year, thanks to a last-minute pick for "Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain", I finally got all six right for the first time. But will I make it two years in a row? Here's who I think will walk out of the Kodak Theatre after Sunday with the hardware:
Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Director: Martin Scorsese (will he finally win this time?)
Best Picture: Last year, "Brokeback Mountain" may have received the Golden Globe but in the end -- thanks to a Screen Actors Guild win -- lost to "Crash". This year, "Babel" picked up the Globe though it was "Little Miss Sunshine" taking the SAG for Best Motion Picture Ensemble. But I'm not going to repeat myself this time and will say that when the smoke clears, everyone will be babbling about "Babel."
Here we go as Oscar Preview Week concludes with the five films up for Best Picture of 2006 and my picks. In Best Picture, you've got a Golden Globe winner for Foreign Language film going up against a Golden Globe winner for Motion Picture-Drama. Though one of them is favored to win, don't rule out the other three nominees. And they are...
BEST PICTURE (producers' names are in parentheses):
"Babel" (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Jon Kilik, and Steve Golin): Several interwoven storylines unfold across four countries as difficulties in communication and understanding complicate life in the shrinking global village. A Moroccan shepherd, a pair of American tourists, a deaf Japanese teenager, and a Mexican nanny and her two young American charges are among the characters whose lives connect in unexpected ways.
"The Departed" (Graham King): Unbeknownst to the Massachusetts state police department, crime boss Frank Costello has placed a mole in its ranks: cadet Colin Sullivan. The police succeed in infiltrating Costello's organization as well, however, providing a credible criminal background for undercover cadet Billy Costigan, who manages to gain Costello's trust.
"Letters From Iwo Jima" (Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Lorenz): The battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Second World War, is examined from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers defending the island. A cache of letters found years later provides the perspectives of several soldiers as they prepare for the coming American attack, longing for home and knowing they face almost certain death. Eastwood's last Best Picture win was for "Million Dollar Baby" two years ago; Spielberg's was for "Schindler's List" in 1994.
"Little Miss Sunshine" (David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, and Marc Turtletaub): Seven-year-old Olive dreams of winning a children's beauty pageant and convinces her family to drive her from their home in New Mexico to California for the Little Miss Sunshine competition. Along for the ride are Olive's father, a failed motivational speaker, her heroin-addicted grandfather, silent brother, suicidal uncle, and her increasingly frustrated mother.
"The Queen" (Andy Harries, Christine Langan, and Tracey Seaward): In the days immediately following the death of Princess Diana in 1997, public grief turns to outrage at the perceived lack of response to the tragedy on the part of Britain's royal family. As the recently elected Prime Minister Tony Blair urges her to be more responsive to the mood of the nation, Queen Elizabeth confronts the changes that modern life has forced on the centuries-old monarchy.
And that's the field, now comes to the all-important question: Who will take it all on Sunday night? Last year, thanks to a last-minute pick for "Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain", I finally got all six right for the first time. But will I make it two years in a row? Here's who I think will walk out of the Kodak Theatre after Sunday with the hardware:
Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Director: Martin Scorsese (will he finally win this time?)
Best Picture: Last year, "Brokeback Mountain" may have received the Golden Globe but in the end -- thanks to a Screen Actors Guild win -- lost to "Crash". This year, "Babel" picked up the Globe though it was "Little Miss Sunshine" taking the SAG for Best Motion Picture Ensemble. But I'm not going to repeat myself this time and will say that when the smoke clears, everyone will be babbling about "Babel."
So there you go. We'll see how I fare on Sunday when the 79th Annual Academy Awards air on ABC. Now it may be live at 5:00 pm on the West Coast, but not to Alaska and Hawaii; the show will air much later in the evening at 7:00 and 6:00 in their respective states. Can you imagine us being home by 4:00 pm here in Alaska or 3:00 pm in Hawaii to catch the Oscars live? Nah!!
Anyway, as always I'll have my complete thoughts on the big show on Monday; see you then!
Anyway, as always I'll have my complete thoughts on the big show on Monday; see you then!
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