Emp's Early Predictions for Oscar Noms 2009

[Emperor]

Yes, yes... I do love guessing about the movies that are must sees in regards of Oscar nods.  Below is my listing for Best Picture.

 

Best Picture:

 

1 Revolutionary Road

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

 

April and Frank Wheeler are a young, thriving couple living with their two children in a Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. Their self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy.

 

2 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton

 

The movie features Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, as old man who physically ages backward. He is born an old man and ages in reverse until he becomes a baby and then finally vanishes from the earth. At age 50, he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman, Blanchett. And then must come to terms with the relationship as they literally grow in opposite directions.

 

3 Changeling

 

Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in a provocative thriller based on actual events: Changeling. In the film, Christine Collins' (Jolie) prayers are met when her kidnapped son is returned. But amidst the frenzy of the photo-op reunion, she realizes this child is not hers. Facing corrupt police and a skeptical public, she desperately hunts for answers, only to be confronted by a truth that will change her forever.

 

 

 

4 Blindness

Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo

 

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hording the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is however one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble. Their voyage is fraught with danger, yet their survival and ultimate redemption reflect the tenacity and depth of the human spirit

 

5 Milk

Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco

 

Academy Award nominee Gus Van Sant directs Academy Award winner Sean Penn as gay-rights icon Harvey Milk. Mr. Milk (1930-1978) was an activist and politician, and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America; in 1977, he was voted to the city supervisors board of San Francisco. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor Dan White. Mr. Milk was previously the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary feature, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); but Milk (2008) is the first non-documentary feature to explore the man's private life and career. Milk was filmed on location in San Francisco.

 

 

Other Chances:

Australia

The Reader

Doubt

Synecdoche, New York

Brothers

Frost/Nixon

Defiance

Body of Lies

Appaloosa

Burn After Reading

 

 

 

 

[SinisterDeath]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, looks like the best movie on the list imo.

[Guest Far Dareis Mai]

I think Burn after Reading has some potential as well. Written by the same guys who did "O Brother Where Art Thou", it has Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Don't remember the particulars, just that I bought stock in it. ;)

[Emperor]

The Coen Brothers involvement in a movie is a good bet for Oscar nods. I hadn't heard of that one before.

[Mendorah]

I can't wait for the Changeling, but the Benjamin Button movie sounds really interesting.

[SinisterDeath]

wait till you see the preview. :P

[Emperor]

Bumping this thread and making updated predictions.

 

Best Picture

The Wrestler

Milk

Slumdog Millionaire

Revolutionary Road

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

 

Others:

Doubt

The Road

The Dark Knight

Frost/Nixon

Australia

Slumdog Millionaire

The Visitor

Changeling

 

Best Actor:

 

Sean Penn - Milk

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor

Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon

Viggo Mortensen - The Road

 

Others:

Brad Pitt, Leo, Will Smith, Greg Kinnear

 

Best Actress:

 

Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married

Kate Winslett - The Reader or Revolutionary Road

Keira Knightly - The Duchess

Meryl Streep - Doubt

Tilda Swinson - Curious Case

 

 

Other: Angelina Jolie, Emma Thompson, Nicole Kidman, Sally Hopkins, Kristin Scott Thomas

[Majsju]

If I were to bet on the Oscars (which I am not) I would be leaning heavily towards revolutionary Road, just because it puts Leo and Kate back together, something a great many people have been waiting for.

[Verbal32]

If I could vote, which I can't, but if I could, I would vote for The Changeling.  And not just because Angelina Jolie is in it.  Ok, that's the reason.

 

And I'm taking a page out of JD's book and signing this post.

 

-Verbal

Going steady with Angelina since 1993

[Cadsuane]

Sooooo... does that make you Brad, or Billy Bob? *g*

[Verbal32]

Neither.  Angie and I have a secret love affair.  Problem is, it might be so secret that she doesn't even know about it.  :-\

[Dunbar]

Gran torino not on best movie list!?

 

I want it there, despite it not being out or anything o_o

 

I love CLint Eastwood. He is undoubdetly my favourite person in the film industry, ever.

[Emperor]

That movie could get a best actor nod from what I heard since Clint says this is his last movie.  But from what I hear Sean Penn is the early strong favorite. 

[Dunbar]

I hate how nothing gets to Norway before months after everywhere else :(

[ChronoCrosS]

I hate how nothing gets to Norway before months after everywhere else :(

 

Oh well, more hype for Norway.  :D

[Lythnia Roylin]

I saw Australia today...awesome movie. Not gonna lie, I hope that little kid gets nominated for something. Never had an acting lesson in his life apparently, and he was awesome.