Seth MacFarlene presents the 85th Acadamy Awards on Sunday, February 24. Who will walk away with the big awards of the night? The River makes its predictions.
James Garwood
On February 24, the best in film will be rewarded with the Oscars. Who wins the awards is anyone’s guess. With the Academy seen as the most prestigious awarding film body, the competition is fierce. But here’s who The River thinks will claim the all-important awards…
Best Picture seems like the best place to start, it seems to be a two horse race between Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Ben Affleck’s Argo. Considering its success so far at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards (to name a few) the good bet would be Argo. The hard-hitting thriller is Affleck’s best work yet and considering his controversial oversight in the Director category it seems like Argo could scoop the biggest award of the night.
When it comes to Best Actor, it seems like the Golden Globes have predicated the future yet again with Daniel Day Lewis a very, very strong contender to take the crown for this one. His closest rivals would be Bradley Cooper from Silver Linings Playbook and maybe even Hugh Jackman if he and Les Miserables can fight their way through the powerhouse performances from the drama films.
Best actress too close to call
One of the closest awards of the night and one almost too close to call will be the award for Best Actress. Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain and Emmanuelle Riva are in the ultimate three horse race for this one. That’s not too say that Naomi Watts and Quvenzhane Wallis are rank outsiders by any means. When push comes to shove, Jennifer Lawrence might just pip them all to the post in something of a photo finish.
The only award tougher to call than Best Actress is Best Supporting Actor. All of the nominees: Alan Arkin, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Christoph Waltz have won before and can all throw some serious Hollywood heavyweight about the place. They would all be worthy winners and predicting the outcome of this award would probably be easier if someone was to close their eyes and to point at one of them at random. Taking a shot, we’re going with Waltz.
Easiest to call
Going from the most difficult awards of the night to probably the easiest to call. It seems pretty unanimous to most that Anne Hathaway will be walking off with Best Supporting Actress. Her heart wrenching 20 minutes in Les Miserables makes her far from forgettable and her ghostly presence is felt throughout the rest of the film. Over her shoulder Hathaway may just be able to spot Sally Field as her nearest rival for the award. Special mention goes to Amy Adams who may just have to wait that little bit longer for her deserved Oscar.
When it comes to Best Director, Ben Affleck’s absence seems to only extend the likelihood of Steve Spielberg earning himself Oscar number three.
The Best Original Song award is another category with a clear favourite. Adele looks likely to earn herself an Oscar to add to her very impressive awards cabinet. With her performing at the ceremony itself it would be a real shocker if it went any other way. Les Miserables could have had a stronger chance if it had gone with another song such as I Dreamed A Dream or On My Own rather than the slightly forgettable Suddenly. The song Everyone Needs A Best Friend from Ted is also being performed, maybe sneaking in as the dark horse?
With some of the best nominees in recent years, Best Animated Feature is a bit of a tough call. Wreck-it Ralph deserves the award as it’s fantastic writing and originallity manage to pip Brave to the post, but Frankenweenie is also pretty stiff competition.
When it comes to Cinematography, the spectacular Life of Pi deserves it. The 3D film would be the first of it’s kind to win the Best Picture award if it manages to defeat Argo and Lincoln. Chasing its tail in this category is Django Unchained, Skyfall and Anna Karenina. They pose some threats but Ang Lee’s novel adaptation should be able to edge it.
So, that’s the biggest awards and who we think will go home lucky when the Family Guy himself Seth Macfarlene hands them out from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
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