2016 Oscars

[Benny B]

The only thing that scares me about the Oscar Nominee list this year is that Matt Damon has a damn good chance of winning Best Actor.  And I hate to say it, but he actually deserves it.  Though I wouldn't be surprised if Bryan Cranston wins... after all, there's nothing Hollywood loves more than movies about itself (see: Birdman, 2015).

"Two-Time Oscar Winner Matt Damon"... ugh. What is this world coming to?


Benny's Oscar Lock: Best Animated Picture goes to Shaun the Sheep.  As much acclaim that Inside Out and Boy and the World received last year, the beauty and artistry of stop-motion will carry the day.  So it's a two-horse (sheep) race between Shaun and Anomalisa, and, considering that only a handful of films without any dialogue have been nominated (in the post-silent-movie-era) for an Oscar in a category other than Best Short or Best Foreign Language Film with the last, as far as I can tell, one - The Red Balloon, 1956 - having won, it's hard to bet against Nick Park going home with his fifth Oscar in seven nominations.

[🏀]

Best Animated Picture rarely goes to the favorite. Lego Movie got robbed.

[CTWarrior]

I don't think he has much of a chance, but Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies was fantastic in a true supporting role.  I would guess that Sylvester Stallone or Christian Bale will win.  Stallone was excellent in Creed and I haven't seen the Big Short yet but will soon, and Bale is always great in everything.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Leonardo will lose out to eddie redmane because transgender is in in Hollywood

[mu03eng]

Leonardo will lose out to eddie redmane because transgender is in in Hollywood

Not with the old, white cabal that controls the Oscars

[Benny B]

Best Animated Picture rarely goes to the favorite. Lego Movie got robbed.

The Academy rarely rewards feature-length commercials with anything other than in the "technical" categories.  If someone other than Lego had produced the exact same movie about a generic highly sophisticated interlocking brick system, it would have been a shoe-in for a best picture nomination (at least).

Which is a shame considering that Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, etc. all capitalize bigtime on merchandising post-release, but I suppose the argument there is that the tail isn't wagging the dog like it is with the Lego and Transformer movies.

[StillAWarrior]

Marquette grad Adam Stockhausen is nominated again for Production Design for Bridge of Spies.  He won last year for The Grand Budapest Hotel, and also was nominated in 2014 for 12 Years a Slave.  Third year in a row with a nomination...he's certainly at the top of his profession right now.