82nd Annual Academy Award Predictions

My life goals involve sustaining an acting and writing career – I will write more on this when I move to Los Angeles later this year, but for now I would  like to touch on the 2010 award show season.

I am an open award show-junkie. I find winning awards to be very satisfying, and what could possibly feel better than being handed a heavy 24 carat gold statuette with your name engraved on it? Not every actor will be lucky enough to win an Oscar – the Oscar is perhaps the most recognized award in the world. I famously told a friend that I would rather win an Oscar over a Nobel Peace Prize. He scoffed and said I was shallow, I was just being realistic and considering my talents. (But perhaps I am a little shallow.)

2009 was very strange for actors and films. Hollywood is currently caught in a transition in which agencies are consolidating and celebrity is becoming increasingly democratized. It has become impossible to read a celebrity gossip rag or watch a celebrity news show without scratching your head at least a few times and thinking, “Who the hell is that?”  The golden age of Hollywood is tarnished by reality television and famewhoring (see: Heidi and Spencer Pratt).

There appears to be a lack of one great film to stand as the biggest achievement of  2009. In my opinion, that film could potentially be Inglourious Basterds, but its reception so far at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards do not lend to my hopes that Quentin Tarantino will win either Best Director or Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Instead, it seems that Avatar, a film that I have avoided entirely, will take top awards.

Here are my predictions for the top Oscar prizes:

Best Picture: Avatar

Best Director: James “Asshat” Cameron for Avatar

Best Actress: This is a tough call. I do not consider Sandra Bullock Oscar-worthy, but I will say it’s between Bullock for The Blind Side and Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia

Best Actor: Jeff “The Dude” Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious (I will complement her on campaigning for an Oscar on her own talk show. Slick.)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (I will forgive him for his nonsensical acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. He had said something about how the Hollywood Foreign Press had taken his dream and “transformed it into a golden orb”. He’s not American, so it’s an automatic forgiven misstep. He delivered the best performance I saw all last year.)

I’ll add on more predictions if I feel like it, damnit.

Tags: Academy Awards, Avatar, Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds, James Cameron, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, Oscars, Sandra Bullock