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Oscars 2017: Who Will Win?
By Timothy McManus February 10, 2017
This year there is no mystery as to which movie is going to be the big winner on Oscar night, as La La Land is sure to dominate. That movie earned a record tying 14 nominations and will undoubtedly win Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. The question now becomes just how many of those nominations will turn into wins. I do not think it's going to break the record for most wins (which is currently at 11 held by Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Return of the King). Tying the record is certainly possible, but I think 10 wins sounds about right. To see a complete list of nominees, click here.
Here are my predictions with analysis on some of the major categories:
Best Picture: La La Land
There's nothing to analyze here - La La Land is going to win.
Best Actor: Denzel Washington, Fences
This is probably the toughest category to predict and it's down to either Denzel Washington or Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea. Affleck was the presumed frontrunner for most of award season until Washington beat him for the SAG Award. It's been 13 years since the SAG winner did not repeat at the Oscars, which is why I am predicting him for now.
Best Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land
I'm pretty confident it's going to be Stone. Her biggest competition is Isabelle Huppert, but performances in foreign language films very rarely win. Still Best Picture and Best Actress have not gone to the same movie since Million Dollar Baby and no Best Actress has won for a musical since Liza Minnelli in Cabaret.
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Although he surprisingly lost the Golden Globe, Ali has won pretty much every award in existence for Moonlight. No reason to think he won't win the Oscar, especially since the Globe winner, Aaron Taylor Johnson, was not nominated by the Academy.
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
Another easy category to call. Everybody is talking about how it's time for Viola Davis to finally win an Oscar, even if her placement in the Supporting Actress category has been called into question by some.
Best Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea
If La La Land is going to to tie the record for most wins, it'll do so by winning this category. It's possible, but I just cannot fathom a world where Manchester by the Sea doesn't win a single Oscar.
Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Best Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight
Best Original Score: La La Land
Best Original Song: "City of Stars," La La Land
Best Sound Mixing: La La Land
Best Sound Editing: Hacksaw Ridge
Best Cinematography: La La Land
Best Costume Design: La La Land
Best Production Design: La La Land
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Star Trek Beyond
Best Film Editing: La La Land
Best Visual Effects: The Jungle Book
Best Animated Film: Zootopia
Best Documentary Feature: OJ: Made in America
Best Foreign Film: Toni Edrmann
Best Animated Short: Piper
Best Documentary Short: The White Helmets
Best Live Action Short: Ennemis Interieurs
The Oscars air February 26 on ABC. Let me know who you are predicting to win in the comments below!
award predictions
Labels: award predictions
The Ten Best Films of 2020
By Timothy McManus January 07, 2021
2020 was an odd year for movies. Many of the ones scheduled to come out in 2020 were delayed due to movie theaters closures brought on by the pandemic. And many of the ones that did actually come out were released digitally. In 2019, I saw 44 films in a movie theater. In 2020, I saw only 11, all during the first two and a half months of the year. While watching movies at home on my laptop or TV is far from the ideal cinematic experience, I still saw a number of great films. Here are 10 of them. 10. I'm Your Woman It took a few days after watching this crime drama, directed by Julia Hart, for me to really appreciate the sly magic it worked. Starring Rachel Brosnahan as the wife of a criminal in the 1970s who, after her husband goes missing, learns more about the criminal world in which he lived. It finds a unique perspective on a generic story and upends the tropes of the genre by focusing on the moments that would happen offscreen in a typical crime drama. Available to watch on P
Every Julie London Album Ranked
Last month, for school I had to write a long research paper about 17th century Flemish flower paintings, which was a bit outside my comfort zone. So, I needed writing music and a lot of it. After listening a bit to Amazon Music's playlist "Big Band Christmas", I came across the song "Warm in December" by Julie London. It was a name I'd heard before, but I knew next to nothing about her. But the song was good enough to send me to Wikipedia, where I learned that London released 30 albums in the 14 years between 1955 and 1969. Most of the material she recorded was standards, the kind I spent most of 2020 listening to, so I decided that listening to London's entire discography (in order) would be perfect for writing my paper. Now, the paper's done ( I got an A), and I'm left with many, many thoughts about Julie London. A film actress before releasing her first album, Julie is Her Name , in 1955, London had a mega-hit single with "Cry Me a River
The Ten Best TV Shows of 2020
Was 2020 an unusually great year for television, or did I just watch more things than I usually do? Probably the latter, but I had an exceptionally hard time choosing just ten shows to spotlight for this list. So, before I get into my picks, here are a few that I wish I could have included as well: I May Destroy You, A Teacher, The Great Pottery Throw Down, Dead to Me, Never Have I Ever, Love Victor, The Masked Singer, Love Life, B Positive and Search Party. 10. The Undoing (HBO)/Big Sky (ABC) David E. Kelley has had a pretty busy fall, between miniseries The Undoing and his new drama Big Sky . I can't really say whether I find Big Sky to be a particularly good show, but I've seen every episode so far and haven't given up yet. The two shows are actually kind of inverses of each other; one a prestige premium cable miniseries with movie stars that turned out to be pretty pulpy, the other a lowly network show that's slowly letting more and more substance seep in. From
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Timothy McManus
I'm a writer and student at Loyola Marymount University (graduating 2021). Fan of movies, my cat, and General Hospital. Follow me on twitter (@TimothyMcManus4) and on letterboxd (@TimothyMcManus).
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