And the Oscar winners will be…
The Carpetbagger has spent months reporting on the awards season. Here, she predicts the Oscar winners. Make your own Oscar picks with this interactive ballot. Excerpts: Supporting Actress This category was locked up from the word go. Viola Davis could have easily run for best actress for her performance in “Fences” – and arguably should […]
The Carpetbagger has spent months reporting on the awards season. Here, she predicts the Oscar winners. Make your own Oscar picks with this interactive ballot. Excerpts:
Supporting Actress
This category was locked up from the word go. Viola Davis could have easily run for best actress for her performance in “Fences” – and arguably should have, given that she won the Tony for a lead role for the same part when “Fences” ran on Broadway. But Ms. Davis is said to have chosen to run for supporting actress, a less competitive category. Regardless, few doubt it is high time that she won an Oscar. This is her third nomination, and she has already landed more than two dozen awards this season. While her fellow competitors have all gamely shown up to support their films, Ms. Davis owns the category.
Supporting Actor
While there are indications of a possible upset – Dev Patel won the Bafta for “Lion” – odds favor Mahershala Ali from “Moonlight.” Though Mr. Ali spent far less time onscreen than some of his fellow nominees – like Jeff Bridges, who dominated much of “Hell or High Water” – his performance as the tenderhearted drug dealer Juan was one of the season’s most talked about. He also brought peerless grace and elegance to his awards-show appearances, which are crucial to any campaign. It is hard to imagine anyone topping Mr. Ali’s heartfelt “I am a Muslim” acceptance speech from the SAG Awards, except, come Sunday, Mr. Ali himself.
Documentary
And the Academy Award for best documentary feature goes to … a nearly eight-hour television mini-series. Though the director Ezra Edelman and his backers at ESPN vigorously insist their virtuoso project “O.J.: Made in America” is genuinely a theatrical film rather than one made for TV, the fact is, it is both. And that has done nothing to stop Mr. Edelman from winning almost every major documentary award this season, among them a Golden Globe and a Producers Guild prize. While some believe the television lineage of “O.J.” will undercut its chances with the academy – and note that the Bafta for best documentary went to Ava DuVernay’s “13th” (“O.J.” wasn’t nominated) – odds are that Mr. Edelman will be collecting an Oscar.
Original Screenplay
“Manchester by the Sea,” a poignant and at times wry tale of a Massachusetts man gripped by grief, made history this year by becoming the first film to land a best picture Oscar nomination for a streaming service (its distributor is Amazon). Yet the film’s best picture chances are slim, thanks to the juggernaut that is “La La Land.” But Kenneth Lonergan, the “Manchester” director, is expected to win the Oscar for best original screenplay. Few match his skills at capturing and conveying onscreen the idiosyncrasies, awkwardness and absurdities of everyday conversation and life. Also bolstering Mr. Lonergan’s chances: His script isn’t up against “Moonlight,” which was deemed an adaptation and has passionate support.
Adapted Screenplay
Whether Barry Jenkins’s screenplay for “Moonlight,” a cinematic tone poem about growing up poor, black and gay, should be considered adapted or original is in the eye of the beholder. The Writers Guild of America and Bafta organizers deemed it original, but the academy decided it was an adaptation of an unproduced stage piece by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who receives story credit. The academy’s designation certainly helped the film’s chances in the adapted category by not pitting it against “Manchester by the Sea,” which took home the original screenplay Bafta. Still, “Moonlight” ended up besting “Manchester” for original screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards. Confusing? Sure. But in the end, it makes the movie the favorite here.
Source: NYtimes.com