oscar follow up

Every year once the Oscar telecast is over, I say, "Self, you really must do something else worthwhile with your time."

Then 12 months later here I am blogging my predictions on a Sunday afternoon.

However, I've come to the conclusion that when I am choosing my potential winners in the various Oscar categories, if I write: "watch for ______ to possibly nab this" or "though it could be ______" and "______ would be my 2nd choice" - then whatever "blank" is, that is who I should be listing to take top prize.  Not the other film I've actually put in the winners seat.  Because if I'd done that last night I would have gotten 22 out of 24 categories correct.  Not 18.  18 is nothing to sneeze at, but last year it was 20 and I really hate to go backwards.

Costume/Production Design
The Costume Designers Guild awards in 3 categories: contemporary, period and fantasy film.  Usually the period film goes on to win the Academy award.  The CDG period film winner was 12 Years a Slave.  The Great Gatsby won the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) in both costume and production design.  It also had "period" costumes and Catherine Martin is a previous Oscar winner.  I should have known better.

Animated Short Film
I know nothing about these movies other than Get a Horse! was the short film before Frozen.  I picked it based on Frozen's popularity.

Live Action Short
Again, just randomly guessing here.  After reading some about the films I picked The Voorman Problem as it was the only one not in subtitles.  And people seem to not like films with subtitles.

Documentary Feature
I haven't seen any of these films.  The other Oscar blogs I read from people who get paid for it, split this up between The Act of Killing, The Square and 20 Feet from Stardom.  20 Feet from Stardom was my gut reaction.  Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty won the BAFTA and some other awards.  But I also read that people thought it was boring and had been done before.  Never listen to "people."  Go with the awards.  This was another gut reaction I should have stuck with.


Another trend I noticed last night in these particular categories were winners who had previously won or at least been nominated before, some of them quite a few times.  It's something to remember to check up on next year...