By AARON HOLMES – Junior Copy Editor
The 2012 film season was one widely-regarded as a revolutionary year for movies. Curveball independent films like Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild surprised us with their emotional depth, and big-time, epic blockbusters such as Zero Dark Thirty and Argo held us on the edge of our seats. On Feb. 24, the much-anticipated Academy Awards will select the best of the best. But for now, we’re picking the winners.
BEST PICTURE
The nominees:
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
As highly-discussed and highly-anticipated the best picture award is every year, this year’s are unique in that so many of them display top-notch quality in every category. Nearly every film nominated for the award possesses outstanding casts, directors, and screenplays. Additionally, every film displays a unique specialty. The cast of Les Miserables sings each number live, in one take, straight to the camera. In Life of Pi, method acting and stunning digital effects merge seamlessly. Amour takes place almost entirely within a single tiny apartment, but the setting feels undeniably real to the audience. When the stakes are as high as they have become this year, the weight is shifted to the actors. At this year’s academy awards, the film whose cast displays the best chemistry will be the Best Picture.
Winner: Lincoln
Alternate: Argo
Dark Horse: Silver Linings Playbook
BEST ACTOR
The nominees:
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
This year’s best actor nominees came from a wide range of genres. However, most of their roles had many things in common.While these characters included Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, a french ex-con and Bradley Cooper as a writer overcoming bipolar disorder, almost every leading role included some sort of dark internal conflict. The award will, inevitably, go to whomever best translates these brooding emotions on to the silver screen– he whose slight gestures hold the most gravitas will be the victor.
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis
Alternate: Joaquin Phoenix
Dark Horse: Hugh Jackman
BEST ACTRESS
The nominees:
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
This year’s Best Actress list is diverse in many aspects. Surprise newcomers (9-year-old Wallis, Lawrence) and weathered experts (Riva, Watts) are in the running, and the race will be close. In the end, the award will default to the most invigorating role. After all, everyone loves an actress who best pulls off climatic suspense.
Winner: Emmanuelle Riva
Alternate: Jessica Chastain
Dark Horse: Quvenzhané Wallis
BEST DIRECTOR
The nominees:
Michael Haneke, Amour
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Of the five nominees for Best Director, three have been nominated in the past. The competition this year will be as close as ever– Lee and Spielberg both hold reputations as being nothing short of unbeatable, and newcomer directors such as Zeitlin and Russell have been racking up awards since the releases of their respective films. In the end, the winner will be the director whose film best ties together acting and screenplay and does so in a seamless fashion.
Winner: Ang Lee
Alternate: Steven Spielberg
Dark Horse: David O. Russell
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The nominees:
Amour
Django Unchained
Flight
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty
Although directors and leading actors often receive the majority of the credit for a film’s success, their work would be nothing without the creative genius of the film’s original screenwriter. The genres of this year’s nominee pool differ greatly: Wes Anderson’s stylized and charming Moonrise Kingdom and Quentin Tarantino’s sardonic thrill ride Django Unchained are literary polar opposites. However, many screenplays possess consistent traits: main characters that fall hopelessly in love, and those stricken by the isolation of death, to name a few. When comparing the films, this similarity becomes increasingly apparent. There’s less disparity than one would think between the melancholy that Amour’s Georges Laurent (Jean-Louis Trintignant) feels as his wife fades away before his eyes and the longing Moonrise Kingdom’s Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) experiences when confronted by the memory of his deceased parents. Even the action flicks get their share of raw emotion. Zero Dark Thirty’s “Seal Team 6” would never have been successful were it not for the passionate Maya (Jessica Chastain), and Django (Jamie Foxx) wouldn’t have led a violent campaign of justice were it not for his undying loyalty to his wife, Broomhilda.
Winner: Zero Dark Thirty
Alternate: Django Unchained
Dark Horse: Moonrise Kingdom
