Oscar Time: Here Are Our Predictions!

The big day is finally here!  The show starts in an hour.  Here are the correct answers to use for your Oscar pool if you want to win.  We also include Ryan’s picks for novelty purposes only…

Best Picture:

•  “American Sniper”
•  “Birdman”
•  “Boyhood”
•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “The Imitation Game”
•  “Selma”
•  “The Theory of Everything”
•  “Whiplash”

WATSON PICK: Birdman.  It’s a split year and Birdman gets this half of the glory.

RYAN PICK: Watson, you ignorant slut. It is a split year but you’ve got it completely backwards. Boyhood wins the big prize.

Best Director:

•  Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
•  Alejandro González Iñárritu,”Birdman”
•  Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
•  Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”

WATSON PICK: Linklater.  This is the other half of the split.  Boyhood was all Linklater.

RYAN PICK: Linklater doesn’t have a single accent or funny letter in his name. Alejandro González Iñárritu has three. THREE. Hè wînš.

Best Actor:

•  Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
•  Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
•  Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
•  Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
•  Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”

WATSON PICK: Redmayne edges out Keaton but I wouldn’t be unhappy if I was wrong.  Definitely a two man race.  

RYAN PICK: Definitely a two-man race. Agree with Redmayne.

Best Actress:

•  Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”
•  Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
•  Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
•  Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
•  Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

WATSON PICK:Julianne Moore takes this one, but I still loved Pike.  This was a strong year for this category.  

RYAN PICK: Also a two-man race. But Moore wins. She should have won an Oscar years ago–if not for that oversight Pike would’ve taken it.

Best Supporting Actor:

•  Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
•  Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
•  Edward Norton, “Birdman”
•  Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
•  J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

WATSON PICK: J.K. Simmons wins this hands down.  Biggest no brainer ever.  

RYAN PICK: Watson, you ignorant slut. You’re right. I just want to say that a lot.

Best Supporting Actress:

•  Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
•  Laura Dern, “Wild”
•  Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
•  Emma Stone, “Birdman”
•  Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”

WATSON PICK:  J.K. Simmons.  Just kidding.  Arquette wins in a weak year.

RYAN PICK: A weak year for supporting actress? Oh, so it’s a year ending in a number? Agreed, Arquette.

Best Foreign Language Film:

•  “Ida” (Poland)
•  “Leviathan” (Russia)
•  “Tangerines” (Estonia)
•  “Timbuktu” (Mauritania)
•  “Wild Tales,” (Argentina)

WATSON PICK:Ida was the worst movie I saw last year, but it will win.  Only Leviathan can knock Ida out.

RYAN PICK: Watson, you ignorant slut. Of course it’s Ida.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

•  “American Sniper” – Jason Hall
•  “The Imitation Game” – Graham Moore
•  “Inherent Vice” – Paul Thomas Anderson
•  “The Theory of Everything” – Anthony McCarten
•  “Whiplash” – Damien Chazelle

WATSON PICK: Imitation Game wins here so it doesn’t go home empty handed.  Whiplash is my dark horse, but if it wins they should send J.K. Simmons to accept it.

RYAN PICK: Watson, YIS. Imitation Game wins because it takes a bigger splash to win adapted when it was adapted from a shorter version of the same film (Sling Blade).

Best Original Screenplay:

•  “Birdman” – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
•  “Boyhood” – Richard Linklater
•  “Foxcatcher” – E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman
•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness
•  “Nightcrawler” – Dan Gilroy

WATSON PICK:Grand Budapest is original no matter what joke Ryan makes below.  It wins and deservedly so.  

RYAN PICK: So original! You totally can’t take a scene from Budapest Hotel and plug it into any other Wes Anderson film. Nope. So different from the others. I say he wins for being the most unoriginal original script this year.

Best Animated Feature Film:

•  “Big Hero 6”
•  “The Boxtrolls”
•  “How to Train Your Dragon 2”
•  “Song of the Sea”
•  “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”

WATSON PICK: Not a great year for the category.  Good opportunity to go artsy and give it to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

RYAN PICK: Dragon has been winning everything so this won’t change. I wish it was Big Hero 6 though.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

•  “Foxcatcher”
•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “Guardians of the Galaxy”

WATSON PICK: Foxcatcher for making Steve Carrel unrecognizable.  

RYAN PICK: Grand Budapest Hotel for coating the script with a thick layer of perceived originality.

Best Cinematography:

•  “Birdman”
•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “Ida”
•  “Mr. Turner”
•  “Unbroken”

WATSON PICK: Birdman wins here.  It was so amazing.  The only reason I hope it doesn’t win is because if Mr. Turner wins, I have another week’s worth of Dick Poop jokes.

RYAN PICK: You don’t have a week’s worth of jokes–you have one joke you’ll tell for a week. Different stuff. Thank goodness Birdman takes it.

Best Costume Design:

•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “Inherent Vice”
•  “Into the Woods”
•  “Maleficent”
•  “Mr. Turner”

WATSON PICK:  Grand Budapest wins here too because the costumes looked nothing like those in Royal Tenenbaums!

RYAN PICK: WYIS. Damn you for stealing my joke. Yes it wins.

Best Film Editing:

•  “American Sniper”
•  “Boyhood”
•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “The Imitation Game”
•  “Whiplash”

WATSON PICK: Boyhood strung together 12 years of footage into a consistent narrative.  Probably deserves an award for that…

RYAN PICK: Boyhood. Sure. Why not? This award has been a joke since T2 lost to Unforgiven in 91.

Best Original Score:

•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “The Imitation Game”
•  “Interstellar”
•  “Mr. Turner”
•  “The Theory of Everything”

WATSON PICK: The Theory of Everything really let the music tell part of the story.  Well used and effective score!

RYAN PICK: Oh, I totally agree because I’m totally into music and can tell the difference between the scores!

Best Original Song:

•  “Lost Stars” (from “Begin Again”)
•  “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” (from “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”)
•  “Everything Is Awesome” (from “The Lego Movie”)
•  “Glory” (from “Selma”)
•  “Grateful” (from “Beyond the Lights”)

WATSON PICK:I think Selma wins here with Glory.  I really want Lost Stars to win, but it probably won’t.  Adam Levine will have to go back to being a handsome rock star, I guess.  

RYAN PICK: Selma wins. Slight chance for Lego to win as a protest vote.

Best Production Design:

•  “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
•  “The Imitation Game”
•  “Interstellar”
•  “Into the Woods”
•  “Mr. Turner”

WATSON PICK: Grand Budapest team for making the set of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou look like early 20th century Budapest…

RYAN PICK: Goddammit, I’m suing you for stealing my bit. Yes, Hotel wins. Interesting note: nobody knows what this award is for. Nobody.

Best Sound Mixing:

•  “American Sniper”
•  “Birdman”
•  “Interstellar”
•  “Unbroken”
•  “Whiplash”

WATSON PICK: Everything I know about Sound Mixing tells me Whiplash wins Best Sound Mixing.

RYAN PICK: WYIS. Whiplash.

Best Sound Editing:

•  “American Sniper”
•  “Birdman”
•  “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five
• Armies”
•  “Interstellar”
•  “Unbroken”

WATSON PICK:  Everything I know about Sound Mixing tells me American Sniper wins Best Sound Editing.  

RYAN PICK: Everything Goldderby.com tells me Sniper will win as well.

Best Visual Effects

•  “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
•  “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
•  “Guardians of the Galaxy”
•  “Interstellar”
•  “X-Men: Days of Future Past”

WATSON PICK:  Apes.  On Horses.  Firing Machine Guns.  NOT A GIGGLE!  Planet of the Apes wins handily.  Now Ryan will bore you with his answer…

RYAN PICK: Interstellar, bitches. That too boring for you?

Best Documentary – Feature:

•  “CitizenFour”
•  “Finding Vivian Maier”
•  “Last Days in Vietnam”
•  “The Salt of the Earth”
•  “Virunga”

WATSON PICK: Documentary is often a wild card, so I am going with Finding Vivian Maier.  Not just because the adult punch at my party is called “Blinding Vivian Maier”…

RYAN PICK: The NSA has already confirmed that Citizenfour already has enough votes to win.

Best Documentary – Short Subject:

•  “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”
•  “Joanna”
•  “Our Curse”
•  “The Reaper (La Parka)”
•  “White Earth”

WATSON PICK: Crisis Hotline with not much commentary to back that up.

RYAN PICK: WYIS. Crisis Hotline is the best documentary short subject since Breathing Lessons totally DOMINATED the 96 awards.

Best Animated Short Film:

•  “The Bigger Picture”
•  “The Dam Keeper”
•  “Feast”
•  “Me and My Moulton”
•  “A Single Life”

WATSON PICK: Feast was the most delightful short I’ve seen in years.  Great style and mood.  Loved it.

RYAN PICK: Feast wins. It’s the only one anybody saw.

Best Live Action Short Film:

•  “Aya”
•  “Boogaloo and Graham”
•  “Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak)”
•  “Parvaneh”
•  “The Phone Call”

WATSON PICK: Boogaloo and Graham….because I want to type Boogaloo and Graham.

RYAN PICK: It’s The Phone Call, dummy.