2011 Academy Award Predictions

It's 6pm, the evening before the 2011 Oscars, and I'm finally done watching all the Oscar nominated films & docs (except 4 of the 5 foreign films). I wish I could get an invite to become a member of the Academy and vote. It's sad to know that many who can vote don't even watch all the films before voting. Before I give you my picks, do you know how the best film is chosen? Ok, let me try to explain.

So, after the whole The Dark Knight-not-getting-a-nomination debacle, something had to be done. That something resulted to 10 film best feature film nominations in the proceeding years. However, It's no longer who get's the most votes but rather who is higher on everyone's preference.

So, let's say 10 of us vote. Each person lists the best picture in order of preference. For me it's

The Social Network
The Fighter
Inception
Black Swan
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Kids Are Alright
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Now, for a film to win, it has to garner 50% of the votes. So if the Social Network is not voted by 5 out of 10 of us, one film that ranks at the bottom needs to get the boot. So if Winter's Bone is ranked lowest on most of the 10 ballots, it get's booted and its votes redistributed based on popularity. So, if The Social Network, Inception and The Fighter was ranked highly amongst the remaining 9 ballots, then they'll get most of the redistributed votes. This continues until we arrive at the final film. So, it's possible that although I rank the Social Network highly on my ballot, it may get surpassed in number of votes if the other ballots don't rank it as highly. So, you can find the King's Speech or Inception beating it come Oscar night. Hope that makes sense.

As for the rest of my picks, they are as follows:

Best Director:
It's hard to pick which way the Academy will go. Tom Hooper won the Director's Guild Award for directing The King's Speech. However, The Social Network is also a strong contender thus so is David Fincher. I'm going with Tom Hooper.

Best Actress:
Natalie Portman in Black Swan. I love Annette Bening. However, Natalie owns the role and you just get lost in her. Unless the Academy wishes to overlook this and award Annette for losing to Hilary Swank twice, it's Natalie Portman's statuette to lose.

Best Actor:
This was tough for me. Jesse Eisenberg truly annoyed the sh*t out of me as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. James Franco also made 127 Hours truly riveting to watch as the only cast member for most of the film. However, Colin Firth in The King's Speech has the edge this year. And I dare ANYONE to say otherwise!

Best Supporting Actress:
This is hard. It really can go either way between Melissa Leo in The Fighter or Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. The Academy does love kid actors and first time nominees in best supporting female categories tend to win. See Ana Paquin, Tatum O'neil, Jennifer Hudson and Marlee Matlin to name a few. But, despite history, I give this one to Melissa Leo.

Best Supporting Actor:
There's no competition here - Christian Bale in The Fighter - moving on.

Animated Feature Film:
This is a tie between Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist. The Academy loves Pixar film and Sylvain Chomet (the Illusionist) won this category the last time he was nominated for The Triplets of Belleville (I loved it!). But I'm going with Toy Story 3.

Best Documentary:
I've only watched 4 out of the 5 due to availability. My sister and I truly feel Restrepo should win. However, I think the Academy will go with Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Adapted Screenplay:
The Social Network will edge out Toy Story 3

Original Screenplay:
Inception should and will win.

What are your picks? Make sure you tune in to ABC come Oscar night, Sunday February 27th at 8pm EST.

The Oscars Are Coming!

Ah, what a wonderful way to get back to this blog. The Oscars were announced this morning and if you ask me, yes you did!, The Town and Ben Affleck were ROBBED! Here's a few of the nominations

Best Picture
127 Hours
Inception
Winter's Bone
Black Swan
The Fighter - Yay Mark Wahlberg!!!!!!
The Kids Are Alright
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3 - Overrated in my opinion
True Grit

Best Actor
James Franco - 127 Hrs
Javier Bardem - Biutiful - I knew it! I just knew it! There was no way he would be left out.
Jeff Bridges - True Grit - Oscar loves to invite winners back
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network - Still have no desire to watch this film....don't know why
Colin Firth - The King's Speech - Swoon!

Best Supporting Actor
Jeremy Renner - The Town - much deserved
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are Alright
Geoffrey Rush -The King's Speech
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
Christian Bale - The Fighter - this could be his year unless Oscar remembers previous winner Mr. Rush

Best Actress
Annette Bening - The Kids Are Alright - can she finally get her Oscar. Natalie Portman may be her Hilary Swank this year...But no Julianne Moore...my bff
Natalie Portman - The Swan
Nicole Kidman- Rabbit Hole - The face moved...it moved!!!
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine -Yay! This makes up for Ryan Gosling
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

Best Supporting Actress
Melissa Leo - The Fighter - welcome back!
Amy Adams - The Fighter - welcome back!
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom - apparently, I need to watch this movie
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3 - I say if you are in Best picture, you cannot be in this category!
How To Train Your Dragon - I don't get it
The Illusionist - must have taken the place of DESPICABLE ME!!!!!

Best Director
Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky
True Grit - Joel and Ethan Coen - took the place of Christopher Nolan for Inception.
The King's Speech - Tom Hooper
The Social Network - David Fincher
The Fighter - David O. Russell

Best Documentary
Restrepo - My fave...just heart breaking!
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Inside Job
Gasland
Waste Land

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful - Mexico
Incedies - Yah Canuck! (That's Canada eh)
In a Better World - Denmark
Dogtooth - Greece
Outside the Law - Yay Algeria!

Best Original Screenplay
The King's Speech
Inception
The Kid's Are Alright
Another Year
The Fighter

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Fun tidbit - Dido can now be known as an Oscar Nominee - Best Original Song for 127 Hours!

You can view the remaining categories here. Tune in to ABC on Sunday February 27th at 8pm EST. Good luck to all the nominees!

New Adele

Adele is back! The first single off her new album, 21, has dropped. Rolling in the deep makes me believe that she will not suffer the best new artist Grammy curse. Oh, do you not know about that? Ok, then. I will write you a little article about that.

But back to your scheduled programming.

Adele's sophomore cd is co-produced by Rick Rubin. Yes, Def Jam's Rick Rubin who did a great job on hip hop acts and the last cd by the Dixie Chicks, Taking The Long Way Home Her soulful voice is perfectly laden with anger and rage needed for this revenge-filled ballad. Amen to seeing the light and being a strong woman; that lover will wish he never met her! Adele fans will not be disappointed and she will definitely make new fans off of this track. Looking forward to February 22nd.

There Is No Emmy god

As we all know, you can't always get what you want and at this years Emmys, I sure walked away with a lot less than I wanted. However, I was pleased to see a lot of newcomers get recognized this year. The show also made me think that I may finally have to watch Breaking Bad on AMC. Really?! Three times in a row for Bryan Cranston?! But there are so many tv shows on my plate! Ricky Gervais should host every awards show on tv. I love that guy! The non-alcoholic beer was a great touch! Then again, I am biased when it comes to the British.


I have to get something off my chest though; well a few things. First, we are in a recession but I don't think the Emmys, or better yet, AMPAS got that memo. Wow, everything was just...shiny...for lack of a better word. All I could think of was "That's $50,000 spent on showing full size shots of the nominees, on tv screens, on stage. I could use that to send my siblings to college." I sure hope many folks were employed.

Lastly, every year I gripe about this, and I know next year, I'll be back at it again. Why are some great tv personalities omitted every year from the farewell tribute? Some are such glaring omissions you can't use the usual "not enough time in the program/in error" excuse. David Mills and Alaina Reed Hall. How do you miss these two? For The Wire alone, David Mills should have been included. He also produced/wrote for The Corner and NYPD Blue, to name a few more. Who did not watch Sesame Street growing up? How do you not include Alaina Reed Hall. She was great in 227 as Rose.

Check out the full list of winners here.

Throwback

Jam of the day is specially dedicated to my brother. He's visiting London for the first time ever and wondering what took him so long. This is for the bad bwoi in a London courtesy of Kano and Craig David. Enjoy!

Hair Line, Where Art Thou?

Man, am I glad I stopped wearing weaves! I saw a picture of Naomi Campbell on the daily mail today and I was super shocked. Naomi, even though you have a weave, why is your hair so nappy? Especially your kitchen! Plus, she's very rich. She can afford a lace front at least...Not a good look Naomi, not a good look. To read the story, click here

Jam of The Day

This 21 year old South London MC,Tinie Tempah, has been on the music scene since 2005. His claim to fame was a YouTube video he shot for his underground hit Wifey. Five years later, MTV has nominated him as an artist to watch for MTV's 10 for 2010. He is set to release his first studio album, The Disc-Overy, this August. Pass Out is his first single and is already a UK number 1 hit. His second single, Frisky, is sitting stead at no. 2; right behind England's World Cup anthem, Shout by rapper Dizzee Rascal and. actor James Corden of Gavin and Stacey fame.

Jam of The Day

British singer Estelle is back! Freak ft. Kardinal Offishall was to be the first single. However, that is no longer the case. Too bad; I am loving it better than Fall in love.

Is It a Wonderful Afterlife?

I love Gurinder Chadha films. She of the Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice fame. It was therefore a no brainer that I had to watch her latest film, "It's A Wonderful Afterlife". What's the film about?



In short, Indian parents and their quest to marry their children. Something that I'm familiar with since some of closest friends are Indian. In this case, we have Roopi. She's a regular girl, doing great work and not in a rush to marry. But her mother, will not rest (in more ways than one) until Roopi marries. I see how great Roopi is but to her suitors parents, they only see her as fat and unattractive. This really hurts her mother (and me!). So as not to give the story away, I'll get to a thought I had. I know that that there's a huge pressure for my Indian girlfriends to be married. One is in her mid-twenties but she's already considered an old maid. I find her beautiful externally and internally.

Like Roopi, my girlfriend loves her job, she is independent yet respects traditional customs and her parents wishes. But how do reconcile your independent self with an arranged marriage? Especially one where you do not have the luxury to date for a year or two before marriage. Is this why Roopi has a hard time when she meets her potential husband? Although time was of the essence for Roopi, a fact she was not aware of until the end, she was able to date her guy for sometime. Is this better for the couple? On a last note, although Roopi's weight was an issue to seemingly everyone (mind you, she didn't look bigger than a size 12), her eventual boyfriend, played by the HAWT Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes, did not even seem to notice. This only seems to happen in the movies but I digress. Sis?