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After all the prognosticating, more than a month after the nominees were announced, Oscar Sunday is upon us, and all is right with the world.
The Gurus o’ Gold: the 14 critics predict a Best Picture win for The Departed. Kris Tapley, at In Contention, is calling for Letters From Iwo Jima to pick up the Best Picture prize, while Tom O’ Neill at the L.A. Times’ Gold Derby predicts a sweep for The Departed (will win in every category it’s nominated); Sasha Stone, over at Oscar Watch, is right in step with O’Neill.
USA Today‘s Claudia Puig, the ever thoughtful Jeffrey Wells, the independent-minded James Berardinelli, The Hollywood Reporter’s Anne Thompson, and a host of others also offer their two cents worth.
VanRamblings? Where do we come in? Who, and what, do we feel will win?
Well, even though we’re feeling a little verklempt, not to mention a tad burnt out about this whole Oscar prediction thing, fair’s fair, so …
Best Picture: Babel. Why Babel? Very few have seen Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima. Little Miss Sunshine is too slight (and won last night at the Independent Spirit Awards). The Departed is far from Martin Scorsese’s best. And, The Queen is a warmed-over BBC production.
As to the remaining ‘big’ awards: Helen Mirren is a lock for Best Actress (The Queen). Forest Whitaker is a lock for Best Actor (The Last King of Scotland). Martin Scorsese is a lock for Best Director. Jennifer Hudson is a lock for Best Supporting Actress (Dreamgirls).
The only toss-up: will Eddie Murphy take home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, or will Alan Arkin triumph?
And, oh yeah, Best Foreign Film oughta go to The Lives of Others.
We’ll know soon. Full results will be published below, later tonight.
Update: Perhaps not the most boring Academy Awards in memory (Ellen DeGeneres was fine, if a little unexciting … even if the programme did run long), there were few, if any surprises at the 79th annual Academy Awards.
Nikki Finke snarkily live-blogged the event, as did Greg Kirschling at Entertainment Weekly and L.A.’s Defamer.com.
The New York Times has already published their wrap-up of the ceremony, as has the L.A. Times. Tom Shales at the Washington Post found the ceremony to be “a bore and horror,” while Variety’s Brian Lowry writes the ceremony was “unspectacular bordering on dull.”
So, who won and are out partying while you’re getting ready for bed?
Just as we reported earlier in the day, as critics predicted The Departed won in every category it was nominated (save Mark Wahlberg for Best Supporting Actor), including Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing. Forest Whitaker (Best Actor), Helen Mirren (Best Actress) and Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress) were, as it proved, ‘locks’ indeed, while Alan Arkin proved more popular than Eddie Murphy, taking home his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. And, of course, as we predicted above, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others picked up Best Foreign Film, which oughta improve its box office.
You were thrilled, you were excited, and now it’s all over til next year.
C’mon back later in the week, when VanRamblings will set about to publish the first of two lists on films to be released in 2007 that are likely to gain Oscar recognition come next February 24, 2008.
