Young Writers Society

Alright, the 2014 Academy Awards will take place in less the three weeks. The past year has had a lot of great films, and it's time to pick some favorites.

Even if you haven't seen all of the nominees, or even just some of them, feel free to list your choices.

Then we'll reconvene here again in a few weeks, and whoever made the best predictions wins....honor!


Btw, how do we feel about Ellen DeGeneres as the host?
Tbh, I like her sometimes, but a lot of the time she just annoys me.

(Bring back Seth McFarlane)

Awesome topic mate, here are my predictions:

Best Picture

Will Win - 12 Years a Slave
Should Win - 12 Years a Slave

(The only nominee I haven't seen yet is Gravity. Missed it in the theaters, will see it on projector, can't ruin the experience.)

Though I haven't seen it, Gravity is the only one who can threaten it. Maybe American Hustle as well, but I don't think so. If The Wolf of Wall Street wins, I will punch pandas.Yes, I will track down pandas.

If 12 Years a Slave wins, there is also an added bonus: Brad Pitt finally gets an oscar!

Best Director

Will Win - Alfonso Cuarón
Should Win - Alfonso Cuarón

Maybe Alexander Payne could win though?

Best Actor

Will Win - Chiwetel/DiCaprio/McConaughey
Should Win - Chiwetel Ejiofor

Chiwetel Ejifor is hands down the best performance of the year. In a year with a lot of good performances, he is still quite a bit above any other nominees.

However, from the looks of it McConaughey is the front runner. If he does win, I'll be okay with it, as I'm actually quite happy for him. Rumours also say Leo could finally get his win. Well, he definately deserves an oscar, but not for this role. It's one of his absolute worst.

Best Actress

Will Win - Amy Adams
Should Win - Cate Blanchett

I'll be really happy if Miss Blanchett wins.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win - Jared Leto
Should Win - Daniel Bruhl

..........Wait, it occurs to me that Daniel Bruhl was omitted completely. Well, I guess Leto has no other real competition then

In my mind, where I am president of the world, I rudely kick Bradley Cooper off this list.

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win - Lupita Nyong'o
Should Win - Lupita Nyong'o

Anything else would be a shock. And I love her. But not as much as I love Jennifer Lawrence.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win - Her, by Spike Jonze
Should Win - Her, by Spike Jonze

I can't praise this enough.

(Also, Woody Allen is a perv.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win - 12 Years a Slave, by John Ridley
Should Win - 12 Years a Slave, by John Ridley

Best Animated Feature

Will Win - Frozen
Should Win - Frozen

It's the only one of the list I have seen. Yet, I don't see any others managing to beat it out. It would be cool if they gave it to Miyazaki one more time, but I doubt it.

Best Foreign Language Film

Will Win - ?
Should Win - ?

I have only seen one of these as well. That is the Danish film Jagten (The Hunt), and it was amazing. I placed it as my 5th favorite of the year, it was fantastic. However, not seen any of the others, so I don't know. The Italian one is getting lots of buzz.

Best Original Score

Will Win - The Book Thief, by John Williams
Should Win - Her, by William Butler and Owen Pallett

John Williams truly is a legend. It is amazing how he can still create such great pieces while at this age. I'd totally be okay with him winning another one. 5th or 6th one now?

Best Original Song

Will Win - Let it Go, Frozen
Should Win - Let it Go, Frozen/Happy, Despicable Me 2

I'm split here. Both songs are amazing. Happy is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs though. But I haven't seen Despicable Me 2 though, or the 1st one, so I don't know how well it was integrated. Let it Go was definately integrated well, so I guess it should win.

I know Happy will be on Pharrell's upcoming album though, so lets give him some grammies for it?

A bunch of technical categories

I don't know. Or care too much.

Gravity will win a lot. And hey, lets give some to The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, because it was amazing.

Am I done? I think so....geez.

Hey Birkhoff, I needed to rethink my predictions, so my newly revised guesses are here. Also, I find your small text hilarious

Best Picture:
Will Win: 12 Years A Slave/American Hustle
Should Win: American Hustle/Her.
Honestly, I think 12 Years is just Oscar bait.

Best Director: No need to say who it is, it's a land slide.

Best Actor:
Will Win: Ejiofor/Matthew
Should Win: Matthew or Dern.
I felt Matthew gave a deep,emotional role. I wasn't a big fan of 12 Years (Great movie, though) and I feel that film wasn't for one actor. DBC had two actors that carried it all the way through, and I think he deserves it. Dern did great in Nebraska, too bad he won't win. Leo did great, but he doesn't deserve it for this role

Best Actress:
Will Win: Cate Blanchett
Should Win: Cate Blanchett
Amy Adams, I loved her in American Hustle. She doesn't deserve it this year. Cate did magnificent this year, and will hopefully take it home.

Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win: Leto
Should Win: Leto
Should Be Nominated: Bruhl, Will Forte.
Nothing said.

Best Supporting Actress:
Will Win: Lupita Nyong'o
Should Win: June Squibb, Julia Roberts.
Lupita did great, but I think Squibb did better. Julia Roberts basically carried Osage County. Jennifer Lawrence is still amazingly attractive.

Best Original Screenplay:
Will Win: It's freaking obvious.
Should Win: No one else except for Her.

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Will win: 12 Years
Should Win: The Wolf of Wall Street, though the book is way better than the film and the movie is crap compared to the novel.

Best Animated Feature:
Will Win: Frozen
Should Win: Frozen
I saw Frozen for the first time the other day, and I loved it.

Best Foreign Language Film:
Will Win: I never seen any of the films, but if I were to guess a film, it should be The Great Beauty.
Should Win: Gloria
Oh yeah, I forgot. Gloria wasn't nominated.

Original Score:
Will Win: Hans Zimmer: 12 Years a Slave
Should Win: Whoever did Her.

Best Original Song:
Will Win: Frozen-Let It Go
Should Win: The Moon Song-Her or Let It Go, both great songs.

And technical categories I don't know how to judge. I will flip out if Bad Grandpa gets it though

My thoughts on last years. This year is same story different titles. I loath the academy. http://matthewvonprince.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-oscar-nominations.html

EmmVeePi wrote:My thoughts on last years. This year is same story different titles. I loath the academy. http://matthewvonprince.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-oscar-nominations.html

Probably because movies like The Avengers, The Hunger Games, and the Dark Knight Rises were all crappy movies. Just like every superhero-esque movie.

The award goes to the BEST Picture. Best. What does best mean exactly? No, it does not mean the most entertaining. Jackass is entertaining. Is that Best Picture material? Is it a feat of storytelling, a feat of incredible characters, casting, and acting? Do you leave the theater feeling like a different man, having learned something?

Absolutely not.

I loathe superhero movies and do not understand society's obsession with them. They're simply stupid. The same, stagnant, awful plot line, every time. The same, awfully static and boring characters. Every time. The same (if any) boring meaning and theme. Every. Time. These films don't make you think. These films don't open your eyes. These films do nothing but appeal to childish dreams of "bad-asserry".

The Oscar for Best Picture is meant for films that actually matter.

Now, for my own predictions.

BEST PICTURE

Will win: 12 Years a Slave
Should win: The Wolf of Wall Street

Why? Because it's brilliantly well done. Yes. It is. It's deep and meaningful theme is subtly incorporated into a handful of amazingly well done scenes. Unfortunately, movie audiences these days are used to their meaning being spoon fed to them through blatant dialogue and actions. Life isn't like that. Neither is The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie actually requires people to think. I've watched the whole thing three times so far, and every time I pick up this new tidbit of meaning that's so casually thrown in that it really makes the whole thing feel as though it is from the perspective of someone who doesn't understand what his own actions really mean. That's left up to the audience to decipher. Too bad most of us seem to be incapable.

On a side note, Nebraska was my favourite film of the year. Yeah, it doesn't deserve best picture, nor best original screenplay. That goes to Her.

BEST ACTOR

Sill win: DiCaprio
Should win: DiCaprio

I never thought of DiCaprio as an Oscar-worthy actor till The Wolf of Wall Street. He was brilliant.

BEST ACTRESS

Can't really say as I haven't seen Blue Jasmine, but I though Amy Adams was pretty damn good.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Leto all the way.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence probably. Squibb I thoroughly enjoyed, but it wasn't quite Oscar-worthy I'm afraid.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Her. Second runner-up and personal fav being Nebraska.

NON-ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

12 Years a Slave. The dialogue was superbly written. Old English and everything.

BTubz wrote:The Oscar for Best Picture is meant for films that actually matter.

What is "Matter"? As I stated is art not entertainment? Therefore shouldnt the most entertaining film be the best pic? And for the record I loath super hero flicks.

Alright, so that was the 2014 Academy Awards. Personally I loved it!

Ellen Degeneres actually surprised me, she was a lot better than I thought she would. That record breaking selfie was also mega awesome.

Something really funny, I noticed John Travolta said a completely different name when he introduced Idina Menzel, haha. She's not so good live though.

As for the awards themselves, I'm pretty satisfied. I actually don't think I've been closer with my predictions. I actually submitted my picks to a contest back home and I only missed a few.

Those were the two which The Great Gatsby won (stupid), the short film (I voted The Voorman problem...it stars Martin Freeman ), best documentary and lastly: Best actor.

I'm okay with McConaughey winning, cause I really like him, but Chewey should have won this.

So all in all 19/24. Not too shabby.

Lupita had an amazing speech, Jim Carrey was funny (poking fun of the fact the he has never been nominated, because the Academy is stupid) and Bill Murray even honored Ramis.

Good year.

Birkhoff wrote:Ellen Degeneres actually surprised me, she was a lot better than I thought she would. That record breaking selfie was also mega awesome.

Can't say I'm surprised. I adore Ellen and thought she was incredibly hilarious, as per usual. My mom thought she was a bit boring, but I totally disagree. And that opening monologue? Priceless! (Especially because I live in California and know the storm she's talking about... they made a huge deal about it on every news station, but it's just a little rain!)

Something really funny, I noticed John Travolta said a completely different name when he introduced Idina Menzel, haha. She's not so good live though.

If I remember correctly, I believe John Travolta also mispronounced "Les Miserables" at the Oscars or the Golden Globes last year (or the year before? can't remember). Guess he has trouble with exotic names. XD

Oh, and Idina Menzel was on Broadway. She does great live. I'm not sure what went wrong during her Oscars performance or why she was a little shaky, but she's always done amazing during live performances in the past.

Overall, I thought the show was great! I loathed last year's Oscars host (don't even get me started), so I was quite pleased to have Ellen come and shake things up (though Billy Crystal would have also been fantastic).

Loved the Frozen composers' (I forget their names... the married couple) speech! It was adorable and charming, one of my favorite speeches of the night.

The selfie was awesome, and the gag with the pizza (though a little long) was also pretty hilarious. The interaction between Ellen and the nominees was so cute! Really fun to watch.

Awesome Academy Awards. Can't wait till next year's.

Idina Menzel was the original Elphaba. When she performed Defying Gravity, she was gasping for air, but she forced herself through it. And upon hearing her voice crack in her live performance of Let it Go...oh, I felt terrible.

I was a little more than irritated that Gravity won two thirds of the awards. Good effects, sure. Good acting, sure. But best soundtrack? It was basically her breathing the whole time!

(Btw, John Travolta pronounced her name "Adele Dazeem" XD.)