Geoff's Oscar Nominations

Read my previous post about my picks for best movies of the year. My list does not include four of the Oscar Best Picture nominations, Argo, Amour, Les Miz, and Django Unchained. These are all good movies and Argo is likely to win for Best Picture. But, they didn't quite make my Top Ten.

In this post, I list what would be the Oscar nominations for the acting categories if it were up to me. My pick for the Oscar is number one in the list for each category. In two of the categories, there is no real competition for number One. For Best Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis blew away the opposition with his portrayal of Lincoln. It was nothing short of amazing. But the other four actors in the category were all fabulous too. In any other year, they could have won the Oscar. Denzel Washington is the only one in a movie that is not in my Top Ten. Flight is very good and Washington, as usual, is excellent as an airline pilot who saves his passengers in a plane crash that leads to the revelation of his many personal problems.

The second category that is already sewn up is Best Supporting Actress. Anne Hathaway didn't have much screen time in Les Miz before she died, but she made the most of it, particularly when she took advantage of the extreme closeups and live singing to deliver a memorable version of "I Dreamed a Dream." I have included three actresses who are not on the Oscar list. Emily Blunt had two nice movies last year, the sweet, quirky, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and the classic Indie movie, Your Sister's Sister. Olivia Thirlby had a breakout role in another little seen film, Being Flynn, which starred Robert De Niro and Paul Dano. And Judi Dench is, well, Judi Dench.

The Best Actress category is wide open. In the actual Oscar nominations, I think four of the five actresses have a chance to win, Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). This year, they have the youngest (Wallis) and oldest (Riva) Oscar nominees in history. They both, deservedly, have a good chance of winning. The only one I think who is out of the running is Naomi Watts, who gave her usual great performance in The Impossible. In another year, she might have won too. I have included two actresses not on the Oscar list, Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone), and Helen Mirren (Hitchcock). These performances are both fantastic but almost no one has seen these movies. Put them on your Netflix list. I pick Jessica Chastain as my winner for her portrayal of the very intense, obsessed Maya in Zero Dark Thirty.

The last category, Best Supporting Actor, is also wide open. All five of the Oscar nominees are former winners. I have only included two of them on my list. I nominated John Goodman instead of Alan Arkin for Argo, just because he also had two other memorable roles last year, in Flight as Denzel Washington's friend and drug source, and in Trouble with the Curve as an old baseball man. But I do love Alan Arkin too. It was nice to see Christopher Walken do his thing in A Late Quartet, where any of the other three musicians, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Mark Ivanir, could have been nominated as well. Tom Hardy had a breakout year in Dark Knight Rising (although we never saw his face), and in Lawless with Jessica Chastain. But, I pick Christolph Waltz for Django Unchained. He was completely unknown to me before he stole every scene in Inglourious Basterds and won Best Supporting Actor in 2010. He is at it again in Django Unchained, where he steals every scene he is in. Waltz is amazing.

Best Picture:

1. Zero Dark Thirty

2. Silver Linings Playbook

3. Lincoln

4. The Avengers

5. Life of Pi

Director:

1. Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

2. David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

3. Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

4. Joss Whedon (The Avengers)

5. Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Actor:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2. Denzel Washington (Flight, Safe House)

3. Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

4. John Hawkes (The Sessions)

5. Anthony Hopkins (Hitchcock)

Honorable Mentions: Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Impossible), Robert Downey Jr. (The Avengers), Tom Hanks (Cloud Atlas), Bill Murray (Hyde Park on the Hudson), Jean-Louis Trintignant (Amour)

Actress:
1. Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Lawless)

2. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games)

3. Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone)

4. Helen Mirren (Hitchcock)

5. Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Honorable Mentions: Naomi Watts (The Impossible), Emma Watson (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Greta Gerwig (To Rome with  Love, Damsels in Distress, Lola Versus), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

Supporting Actor:

1. Christolph Waltz (Django Unchained)

2. John Goodman (Argo, Flight, Trouble With the Curve)

3. Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)

4. Christopher Walken (A Late Quartet)

5. Tom Hardy (Lawless, The Dark Knight Rises)

Honorable Mentions: Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe, Magic Mike, Bernie, The Paperboy), Edward Norton (Moonrise Kingdom), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (A Late Quartet, The Master), Mark Duplass (Your Sister's Sister, Safety Not Guaranteed), Alan Arkin (Argo)

Supporting Actress:

1. Anne Hathaway (Les Miz, The Dark Knight Rises)

2. Emily Blunt (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Your Sister's Sister)

3. Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

4. Judi Dench (Skyfall, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)

5. Olivia Thirlby (Being Flynn)

Honorable Mentions: Scarlet Johansson (The Avengers, Hitchcock), Amy Adams (The Master, The Trouble with the Curve), Frances McDormand (Moonrise Kingdom, Promised Land), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)