ReasonForOurHope

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Sunday Best: Oscar Night 2025 - Predictions and Last Chance for Oscar Game

   


Tonight are the Oscars.  

This used to be my yearly Super Bowl.  And while the bloom is off the rose, I still watch every year.

Once again, there are not many movies to root for.  Wicked got some nominations, but most of the popular films as well as the movies I thought were good did not get a lot of love from the Academy.  So this year we do not have Christopher Nolan and Oppenheimer to cheer on.

What is interesting is that the race is in a constant state of flux.  Emilia Perez was nominated for the most awards.  But all of the controversy surrounding it could make its chances diminish.  Looking to the other awards shows as predictors (the Golden Globes, BAFTAS, Screen Actors Guild, etc), there have been so many inconsistencies that I honestly do not know what is going to happen for most awards.  This should add some novelty to the evening.

But, as has been the case for the past few years, most people haven't seen most of the movies nominated.  I usually try to see most of the nominees for best picture, but not this year.  In fact, I've only seen the five movies mentioned above.  Some of the other nominees sound interesting, but I could not bring myself to commit the time.   And I only watched Conclave because my dad saw it an wanted to talk to me about it.  I did see Emila Perez because I wanted to be able to write about it cogently and I wanted to see if it was as bad as everyone was saying (It's not.  It's much, much worse).

Here are some of my main predictions:

Best Picture: Conclave

With Emilia Perez receding, I think Conclave comes out on top.  It has a top-notch cast and it views the Catholic Church through a modern left-leaning political lens.  It is one of those movies that people who don't know anything about Catholicism can watch and feel smart.  If the Academy is feeling very much of an independent movie vibe, then I think Anora will win.  But, from what I understand, The Brutalist was the most pretentious, so that may win.


Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown


All the smart money is saying Adrian Brody will win for The Brutalist.  I am going with my gut, though.  Not only did I think Chalamet gave the best performance this year, but it is very hard to win two Oscars for Best Actor.  If Brody did this, he would enter the ranks of only 9 actors to do this, including Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando, and Dustin Hoffman


Best Actress: Demi Moore

Hollywood loves a comeback story, and this is a good one.  She would have a better shot if this was a supporting actor category, where that award is often given as a result of a body of work.  But I think Moore has a great shot at this tonight.

Best Supporting Actor/Actress:  Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana

These are categories where I think there will be no surprises.  These actors have cleaned up all throughout the awards season.  I got around to seeing A Real Pain and Culkin does a great job of playing a character of such contradictions.  Saldana was terrible in Emilia Perez, but that really wasn't her fault as the movie was a disaster.  But she will probably win.


This is also the last chance to enter the Oscar Game.  Just fill out the chart below.  The winner will get bragging rights and a mention on this blog.  And just to keep everything above board, I am publishing my votes for tonight as well.

Good luck and enjoy the Oscars tonight!

Click the link below to play the game.
Link







Here are my choices so far:

Name
BEST PICTURE - MY CHOICE"Wicked"
BEST PICTURE - MY PREDICTION"Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers)"
BEST DIRECTOR - MY CHOICEJames Mangold, A Complete Unknown
BEST DIRECTOR - MY PREDICTIONSean Baker, Anora
BEST ACTOR - MY CHOICETimothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
BEST ACTOR - MY PREDICTIONTimothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
BEST ACTRESS - MY CHOICECynthia Erivo, Wicked
BEST ACTRESS - MY PREDICTIONDemi Moore, The Substance
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - MY CHOICEKieran Culkin, A Real Pain
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - MY PREDICTIONKieran Culkin, A Real Pain
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - MY CHOICEMonica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - MY PREDICTIONZoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - MY CHOICEA Complete Unknown (Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - MY PREDICTIONConclave (Screenplay by Peter Straughan)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - MY CHOICEA Real Pain (Written by Jesse Eisenberg)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - MY PREDICTIONA Real Pain (Written by Jesse Eisenberg)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MY CHOICEWicked (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MY PREDICTIONThe Brutalist (Daniel Blumberg)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MY CHOICE“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard) *THE LEAST WORST CHOICE
BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MY PREDICTION“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM - MY CHOICEInside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM - MY PREDICTIONThe Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - MY CHOICEDune: Part Two (Greig Fraser)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - MY PREDICTIONThe Brutalist (Lol Crawley)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN - MY CHOICEWicked (Paul Tazewell)
BEST COSTUME DESIGN - MY PREDICTIONWicked (Paul Tazewell)
BEST FILM EDITING - MY CHOICEConclave (Nick Emerson)
BEST FILM EDITING - MY PREDICTIONConclave (Nick Emerson)
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING - MY CHOICEWicked (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth)
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING - MY PREDICTIONWicked (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth)
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - MY CHOICEWicked (Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - MY PREDICTIONWicked (Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)
BEST SOUND - MY CHOICEDune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
BEST SOUND - MY PREDICTIONDune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS - MY CHOICEDune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS - MY PREDICTIONDune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM - MY PREDICTIONI’m Still Here (Brazil)
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - MY PREDICTIONNo Other Land (Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham)
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT - MY PREDICTIONIncident (Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven)
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM- MY PREDICTIONMagic Candies (Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio)
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM- MY PREDICTIONA Lien (Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz)

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