Time for the Oscars!

It’s time once again for the Oscars and, as usual, I am going to share my opinions on the nominations, my projections for the winners, and our menu for viewing. First, the menu … As I mentioned last year, our household turned vegetarian sometime after the 2012 Oscars, so putthing a film inspired menu together is a bit of a challenge. This year, the food was all over the place, and it’s just three of us, so we opted to make it an all day menu. ( Actually, our diets are all a little different - Terri is pescatarian, Becky vegetarian, and I am mostly vegan but I eat cheese and eggs occasionally - but we wanted food we would all eat today. For breakfast, we had omelettes in honor of Philomena. For lunch, we had baked beans in honor of Captain Phillips, a native of bean town. We found a great recipe online for squash, spinach, and feta samosas, but we didn’t have then energy to put those together. We have one movie to watch yet, so we are having popcorn in honor of Nebraska - and we cooked it in the science oven in honor of American Hustle. For dinner we will have Mac and Cheese in honor of Her - something we imagine a bachelor might have for dinner. We are pretty sick of pizza and we love making cupcakes, but not eathing them so much. :) Snacks and dessert for the show - Texas Caviar ( Dallas Buyers Club ), Moon Pies ( Gravity ), Creampuffs ( The Wolf of Wall Street ), and Blackberry Cobbler ( 12 Years a Slave - in honor of his blackberry ink ). Meat eaters might want to add steak ( Dallas Buyers Club ), clams casino ( American Hustle ), and Lobster ( The Wolf of Wall Street ). For those of you that drink, you might want to include the following ( click on each if you can’t guess what movie they match ). Pabst Blue Ribbon Nebraska Champagne The Wolf of Wall Street Coffee Captain Phillips Guinness Philomena Proseco American Hustle Red Wine 12 Years a Slave Russian Vodka Gravity Strawberry Daquiri Her Whiskey and Coke Dallas Buyers Club The Nominations I thought there were a few surprises this year. There was a lot of talk about Jennifer Lawrence being a bogus nomination, but I disagree. I know I’m biased, loving Lawrence like I do, but I saw the film twice and I think her performace was worthy of a nomination. I actually think she might win. Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, and Robert Redford turned in fantastic acting performances this year. I’m not sure if their performances warrant bumping someone out of nominations, but they deserve notice. Julie Delpy should have been nominated. This is a hard category, but I think her perfomance was as good as any of the nominees. If I had to drop someone, it would be Meryl Streep ( and not just because I love Amy and Sandy ). I also thought Before Midnight deserved more than the single nomination it received. I was sorry to see ZERO nominations for Fruitvale Station. The movie had some flaws, but it deserved notice. I didn’t see Inside Llewyn Davis, but people who did seem surprised it wasn’t nominated. I’ve listed some other possible snubs below. The Winners I saw American Hustle twice and I think it could be the big winner this year. I think the Academy might be ready to give the high honors to a fun film for a change. Click on the categories below to see my choices and preditions. The order is based on someone else’s predictions. I’ve listed the ratio of seen/unseen for all the categories. Actor in a Supporting Role - 4/5 I really like Cooper and Hill, but I didn’t see Hill’s performance and I feel like I’ve seen Cooper do this before. My choice - Jared Leto Prediction - Jared Lito The other two were fantastic. Animated Short Film This is the first year in many that I’ve actually liked all five. I also liked the highly commended choices. I thought it was interested that all of these were about isolation on some level. My Choice - Mr. Hublot Prediction - Get a Horse Possessions was brilliant too! Animated Feature Film - 2/5 I’ve only seen two of these, and I don’t typically like the Disney movies, but I think Frozen was fantastic. My Choice - Frozen Prediction - Frozen Cinematography - 2/5 I’ve only seen two of these - Gravity and Nebraska. My Choice - Nebraska Prediction - Gravity Snub? - 12 Years a Slave Visual Effects - 4/5 My Choice - Gravity Prediction - Gravity Costume Design - 2/5 My Choice - American Hustle Prediction - American Hustle Make Up and Hair Styling - 2/3 Jackass seems to be the favorite and I didn’t see it, so my choice has to be Dallas Buyers Club. My Choice - Dallas Buyers Club Prediction - Jackass Snub? - American Hustle Live Action Short Film I liked all of these very much for very different reasons, but one of them was an almost perfect short film. My Choice - Just Before Losing Everything Prediction - The Voorman Problem To be clear, my choice is the perfect one. :) Documentary Short Subject All of the animated films were about isolation. All of these were about forgiveness in some way. And they were all very powerful films. My Choice - The Lady in Number 6 Prediction - The Lady in Number 6 Sound Mixing - 3/5 My Choice - Gravity Prediction - Gravity Sound Editing - 4/5 My Choice - Gravity Prediction - Gravity Actress in a Supporting Role - 5/5 All of these were fantastic performances, but one of them was certainly the best. My Choice - Lupita Nyong’o Prediction - Lupita Nyong’o Film Editing - 5/5 American Hustle had many technical flaws, and editing was the worst. In my opinion, it should not have been nominated. Any of the others could win. My Choice - Gravity Prediction - Gravity Production Design - 3/5 My Choice - American Hustle Prediction - Gasby Original Score - 3/5 My Choice - Gravity Prediction - Gravity Original Song - 4/4 My Choice - Let it Go Prediction - Let it Go Adapted Screenplay - 4/5 My Choice - Before Midnight Prediction - 12 Years a Slave I still disagree with sequels being considered adapted. Original Screenplay - 4/5 My Choice - Her Directing - 4/5 My Choice - Steve McQueen Prediction - Cuaroin Actress in a Leading Role - 5/5 My Choice - Adams Prediction - Blanchet Actor in a Leading Role - 4/5 This is a tough one for me. When I first saw Bale in Hustle I had a hard time thinking anyone could have done better, but they were all fantastic this year. My Choice - McConaughey Prediction - McConaughey Best Picture - 7/9 Tough category this year. I saw seven of these and most deserve a win. And I’m sure the other two are contenders. My Choice - 12 Years a Slave ( though I would be thrilled if American Hustle wins ) Prediction - Gravity