2012 Oscar Picks, part the second

{predicted winners in bold}

Best Music, Original Score

Nominees:

• The Adventures of Tintin
• The Artist
• Hugo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• War Horse

Worth mentioning: John Williams another double nominee for Tintin & War Horse, marking the 11th time he’s had two scores nominated for award in the same year, and 47 total nominations if you add in the few Original Song nods he’s garnered. If he picks it up this year I’ll be a little surprised. Despite the flap about recycling a portion of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score during a crucial scene, I think The Artist still walks away with it. The rest of the score is vital and vibrant.

Best Music, Original Song

Nominees:

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets 
• “Real in Rio” from Rio 
• ...and that’s it.

I can dig the Sergio Mendes thing, the music was one of the few saving graces of Rio, but I find it awesomely awesome that Bret McKenzie might win an Oscar for writing a faux power ballad for The Muppets. Coincidentally, the best song from Rio was really “Pretty Bird,” co-written and performed by his "Flight of the Conchords" cohort, Jemaine Clement. The Academy missed a golden opportunity for a killer contest...that only nerds like me would care about. 

Best Makeup

Nominees:

• Albert Nobbs
• Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 2
• The Iron Lady

I mentioned a few weeks ago when the nominations were announced that I was a little surprised that HPDH2 missed out on the tenth Best Picture nomination. The entire series has made more money than God and been consistently quality, but despite a handful of nominations in categories ranging from Art Direction to Cinematography to Original Score, it has taken home exactly ZERO Oscar statuettes. I think that’ll change this year. I just don’t see enough wow in the other two nominees.

Best Art Direction

Nominees: 

• The Artist
• Harry Potter, DH2
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• War Horse

My initial thought was that HP would pick up hardware in all three of its categories based on a Lord of the Rings: Return of the King scenario, achievement of the series as a whole and all that, but looking over the nominees here I decided to hedge off that a bit. It’s a really tough call; I could understand any of these films winning. The storybook farmhouse and windmill sets from War Horse were the highlights of an otherwise melodramatic piece, The Artist and Midnight in Paris delivered stellar period settings, and HP continued the high caliber of design from the rest of the series. But ultimately I feel like all four were a little thin in spots compared to the immersive detail of Hugo.

Best Visual Effects

Nominees:

• Harry Potter, DH2
• Hugo
• Real Steel
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I’ve seen all of these, and again I’m sliding away from HP in favor of Hugo. The best use of 3D I’ve seen yet. I just don’t think the other three did anything as regularly jaw-dropping. I guess maybe I’m a little jaded in this CGI age, but there were moments in Transformers when the simple effects were unconvincing, the Kennedy stuff at the beginning, for example, and that detracted from the great work on the bots.

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Nominees:

• Anonymous
• The Artist
• Hugo
• Jane Eyre
• W./E.

Period period period period period end of sentence mark

Best Sound Mixing

Nominees:

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Moneyball
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

Best Sound Editing

Nominees:

• Drive
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

Possibly a win for Drive or War Horse here, but I’m giving it to the grindy, clashy, blowy-uppy flick instead. I can foresee a time in the not-too-distant future where these two categories get shuffled off of the big broadcast & stuffed with the technical awards. They’re crucial, but I don’t think the Oscar audience will care that much.

Predictions on the big awards still to come!