Oscar Predictions 2016

Here is my first attempt to pick the winners of the academy awards this weekend.  

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Bryan Cranston in "Trumbo"
• Matt Damon in "The Martian"

• Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Revenant"

• Michael Fassbender in "Steve Jobs"

• Eddie Redmayne in "The Danish Girl"

This category belongs to Leo. This is his year!

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Christian Bale in "The Big Short"

• Tom Hardy in "The Revenant"

• Mark Ruffalo in "Spotlight"

• Mark Rylance in "Bridge of Spies"

• Sylvester Stallone in "Creed"
Many people believe this will be the academy making up for missing him in the original Rocky. We will see!

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Cate Blanchett in "Carol"

• Brie Larson in "Room"

• Jennifer Lawrence in "Joy"

• Charlotte Rampling in "45 Years"

• Saoirse Ronan in "Brooklyn"
I believe that the range Larson had to take for this film will set her on top of the rest.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Jennifer Jason Leigh in "The Hateful Eight"

• Rooney Mara in "Carol"

• Rachel McAdams in "Spotlight"

• Alicia Vikander in "The Danish Girl"

• Kate Winslet in "Steve Jobs"
Eyes were on Winslet till the SAG awards, were Alicia Vikander took it for "Danish Girl"

Best animated feature film of the year

• "Anomalisa," Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran

• "Boy and the World," Alê Abreu

• "Inside Out," Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera

• "Shaun the Sheep Movie," Mark Burton and Richard Starzak

• "When Marnie Was There," Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura
This category has belonged to "Inside Out" since the very beginning.

Achievement in cinematography

• "Carol," Ed Lachman

• "The Hateful Eight," Robert Richardson

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," John Seale

• "The Revenant," Emmanuel Lubezki

• "Sicario," Roger Deakins
To me what stood out the most for "The Revanent" was the cinematography. It is the best work I have seen in years.

Achievement in costume design

• "Carol," Sandy Powell

• "Cinderella," Sandy Powell

• "The Danish Girl," Paco Delgado

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Jenny Beavan

• "The Revenant," Jacqueline West
This was bit more of a tough category, since all the work is very well done. I believe the 1950's costumes of "Carol" should take it.

Achievement in directing

• "The Big Short," Adam McKay

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," George Miller

• "The Revenant," Alejandro G. Iñárritu

• "Room," Lenny Abrahamson

• "Spotlight," Tom McCarthy
"The Revenant" succeeded on many levels in the technical field and it helps round the picture together with a great director  

Best documentary feature

• "Amy," Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees

• "Cartel Land," Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin

• "The Look of Silence," Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen

• "What Happened, Miss Simone?" Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes

• "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom," Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor
To me, I really have a hard time believing that anything could in fact beat "Amy".

Best documentary short subject

• "Body Team 12," David Darg and Bryn Mooser

• "Chau, beyond the Lines," Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck

• "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah," Adam Benzine

• "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness," Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

• "Last Day of Freedom," Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
This unfortunately is one of those categories were I have seen none of the pictures so this is in fact an educated guess based on what I have read

Achievement in film editing

• "The Big Short," Hank Corwin

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Margaret Sixel

• "The Revenant," Stephen Mirrione

• "Spotlight," Tom McArdle

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
It is really how well the story is told through the shots in film. "big short" should edge everything out with the complexity of the story.

Best foreign-language film of the year

• "Embrace of the Serpent," Colombia

• "Mustang," France

• "Son of Saul," Hungary

• "Theeb," Jordan

• "A War," Denmark
It would be very hard to beat "Son of Saul".

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin

• "The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared," Love Larson and Eva von Bahr

• "The Revenant," Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini
Mad Max should take the win, because in the distopian future, there is vast amount of people with different abnormalities that are done with such precision, which should put it on top.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• "Bridge of Spies," Thomas Newman

• "Carol," Carter Burwell

• "The Hateful Eight," Ennio Morricone

• "Sicario," Jóhann Jóhannsson

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," John Williams
With as many nominations as Enino has had he has never won. It is time! 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• "Earned It" from "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio

• "Manta Ray" from "Racing Extinction"

Music by J. Ralph and Lyric by Antony Hegarty

• "Simple Song #3" from "Youth"

Music and Lyric by David Lang

• "Til It Happens To You" from "The Hunting Ground"

Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga

• "Writing's on the Wall" from "Spectre"

Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Sam Smith should take it, based on the fact that this really is not the strongest category as it has been in recent years. I believe that the commercial success of "Spectre" should edge him out.

Best motion picture of the year

• "The Big Short," Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, producers

• "Bridge of Spies," Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger, producers

• "Brooklyn," Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Doug Mitchell and George Miller, producers

• "The Martian," Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam, producers

• "The Revenant," Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, producers

• "Room," Ed Guiney, producer

• "Spotlight," Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, producers
This category could go in several different ways. Awards so far have gone to "Revanent" , "Big Short", and "Spotlight". My hope is that Spotlight edges them both out.

Achievement in production design

• "Bridge of Spies," production design: Adam Stockhausen; set decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich

• "The Danish Girl," production design: Eve Stewart; set decoration: Michael Standish

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," production design: Colin Gibson; set decoration: Lisa Thompson

• "The Martian," production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Celia Bobak

• "The Revenant," production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Hamish Purdy
I believe in this category the beauty of the degraded world should put it on top.

Best animated short film

• "Bear Story," Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala

• "Prologue," Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton

• "Sanjay's Super Team," Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle

• "We Can't Live without Cosmos," Konstantin Bronzit

• "World of Tomorrow," Don Hertzfeldt
This is the only other category were I have seen none of the nominees. I made my guess based on what I have read online.

Best live-action short film

• "Ave Maria," Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont

• "Day One," Henry Hughes

• "Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)," Patrick Vollrath

• "Shok," Jamie Donoughue

• "Stutterer," Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
I was recently screened all of these and too me this is a close contest. I believe that "Shok" top it, to me based on the emotional impact alone.

Achievement in sound editing

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Mark Mangini and David White

• "The Martian," Oliver Tarney

• "The Revenant," Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender

• "Sicario," Alan Robert Murray

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Matthew Wood and David Acord
It is simple question, can you really beat the roaring of the cars in this film!?

Achievement in sound mixing

• "Bridge of Spies," Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo

• "The Martian," Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth

• "The Revenant," Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
 When it comes to "Revanent" the action scenes are so well blended together, especially the opening battle scenes The only othe thing that could possibly take it is Star Wars. 

Achievement in visual effects

• "Ex Machina," Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett

• "Mad Max: Fury Road," Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams

• "The Martian," Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner

• "The Revenant," Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer

• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
With the combination of incredible car chases and the apocalypse shown so beautifully, it should be able to top "Star Wars"

Adapted screenplay

• "The Big Short," screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay

• "Brooklyn," screenplay by Nick Hornby

• "Carol," screenplay by Phyllis Nagy

• "The Martian," screenplay by Drew Goddard

• "Room," screenplay by Emma Donoghue
This is a very tough category. I believe that "Big Short" will take the edge. On top of the movie being really funny, it is also a deeply haunting look at the housing market collapse, something hard to pull off.

Original screenplay

• "Bridge of Spies," written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

• "Ex Machina," written by Alex Garland

• "Inside Out," screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley; original story by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen

• "Spotlight," written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

• "Straight Outta Compton," screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff
All of these are  very well written. Spotlight holds no puches in telling how the Spotlight team of the Boston globe taking on the Catholic Church.