Oscar Predictions

[CorkySt.Clair]

Just got back from seeing all the nominated short films, here are my picks:
Documentary: Heaven...405 or Heroin(e), both of which looked st their subjects with grace and humanity. Traffic Stop was also powerful.
Live Action: What a field. My first year seeing these, and I was absolutely blown away. My pick is The Silent Child by a hair-I would be happy for any of them.
Animation: a bit disappointing this year (perhaps I am just spoiled from 2016, when every nominee was beautiful and poignant). My gut wants to say Dear Basketball or Garden Party, but my favorite was probably Negative Space. I love that brand of dry humor.
Anyone else have picks? Only a few hours to go!!

[ErikJ972]

Very happy The Shape Of Water walked away with Best Picture. Even happier 3 Billboards did not.

Also really happy to see Get Out win for screenplay.

Show seemed longer than ever this year.

[Musical Master]

I am so happy that The Shape of Water won for Best Picture, Director, Score and Production Design. That film deserved them and much more.

[LYLS3637]

I was not at all thrilled with The Shape of Water or Gary Oldman winning, but at least it wasn't Phantom Thread and Allison Janney and James Ivory are now Oscar winners! 

 

[javero]

The Shape of Water wasn't exactly my cup of tea but the multiple wins were well-earned, especially for Best Picture.

[bwaylyric]

The show ran over 3.5 hours, and that's without 9 segments giving an overview of each Best Picture nominee.  Can you imagine?

This gets discussed every year, but they should take a page from the Tonys and present some awards during the commercial breaks, particularly the docs and animated shorts.

[javero]

I think it's time to ditch the performances of songs nominated in the Best Song category.  To me, the performances feel rushed and the singers are rarely on song vocally, no pun intended.  I don't mind the on-air presentations of the non-acting/directing awards but the planners, host, and presenters need to speed the plow.  I actually DVR'd a portion of the telecast so that I could tune into latest episode of HOMELAND and sync back up with the Oscars later.

[spiderdj82]

If they got rid of that "Let's surprise people at the movie theater" segment - as well as the "Isn't Hollywood great" previews............it would have ran smoother. 

[CorkySt.Clair]

Is it just me, or did the songs seem very short as well? It sounded like a couple had some pretty major cuts (along with the awkward is-it-over-yet right before it cut to commercial). I love the movie montages on their own, but it seemed like the time could have been allotted more meaningfully to songs and speeches

[Broadway Joe]

I didn't bother watching, just looked up the winners online last night. The Tony awards are the only awards show I bother watching. The ratings were down big time too so seems like a lot of people skipped it as well.

I only have seen get out and the shape of water and I'm glad shape of water won. I enjoy most of Del Toro's movies. Nothing else looked interesting to me this year so I didn't bother.

[222disneyland]

LYLS3637 said: "I was not at all thrilled with The Shape of Water or Gary Oldman winning, but at least it wasn't Phantom Thread and Allison Janney and James Ivory are now Oscar winners!

"

I loved the shape of water. Thought it was better than all the other previous winners. Gary was fine but Tom Hanks was much more believable . Shape of Water talks about the environment (about how we take creatures and use them as test subjects), racism, prejudice , treatment of a disability, lgbt (a bit) I enjoyed it

[dunebuddy]

IMO The way to keep the show within a reasonable time is to chuck all the fluff.  Crashing the movie audience next door was such a waste of time.  Last year they had a studio tour group come on stage.  Helen delivered pizzas and did the selfie seen around the world.  Cut it out already.  Another beef I have is the stupid bantering between the presenters.  Get to the point already.  "The nominees are...... The Oscar goes to...."  We at home will still have plenty of time to see the pretty gowns.  Why do they seat so many of the nominees so far back in the auditorium?  If you're nominated you deserve to sit up front so you can make a quick leap to the stage.  More than one winner in a category?  Draw straws to pick one speaker.  I like having the nominated songs presented.  A few years back they did medley of the nominated songs.  That was dumb.  It might be cool to highlight the songs  as they're presented in the films.  That's my opinion.

[javero]

Just watched Three Billboards.  Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell were perfectly cast. The movie's salvation was that it was a dark comedy.  That fact allowed me to overlook the facile treatment of the more sensitive topics that arguably were little more than plot devices, e.g class warfare, regional stereotypes, homo-hate, negro-hate, dwarf-hate, woman-hate, etc.  Without the subtle comedic elements, the movie could have easily turned into the Trump-land version of another much lauded yet contentious movie that was up for the Best Picture award a few years ago, Precious.

[sabrelady]

I was surprised but pleased with The Shape of Water's win. Maybe this means the membership is really becoming more open to something more than conventional programming. One can hope.

Also Peele's win was satisfying to me  maybe OscarsNotSoWhite

Oh and I thought McDormand might have been having a stroke w that laugh!

[javero]

3 Billboards had so much potential.  It just couldn't escape the trappings of its low budget.  And imho, writer/director Martin McDonagh didn't pick up on some of the nuances of life in the most rural parts of the Confederated Red States of America.  The movie was filmed in the mountain town of Sylva, North Carolina which is next to a Cherokee reservation and less than an hour's drive from very progressive Asheville.  If you're not familiar with the area trust me when I write that Asheville is an oasis in the middle of Cooterville, USA.  For some perspective, Sylva, NC is the county seat of Jackson County in which Trump scored victories in both the primary and general elections and Hillary lost in both contests.

[javero]

I played hooky from work today so that I could watch I, Tonya which I found more entertaining than any of the recent Best Picture nominees.  Allison Janney so deserved that Oscar.  Two things would have made the movie perfection...a larger budget and 15 extra pounds on Margot Robbie.

At the height of her powers, Tonya was quite short and compactly built, even for a figure skater.  She was described back then by some sport writers as "thunder thighs".  Her music, costumes, and choreography were all wrong on several levels.  She never had the "lines" of Nancy Kerrigan, Kristi Yamaguchi, and her wafer-thin European rivals.

On screen, Margot Robbie didn't quite look the part of a dumpy skater sporting clown makeup and ill-fitting costumes.  Even though Kristi Yamaguchi was noticeably shorter than Tonya, she was tiny with slender arms that fit the bill of what was then considered the epitome of femininity.  Tonya's other American rival Nancy Kerrigan couldn't deliver a clean program in the free skate if her life depended on it but she always looked like Kate Hepburn on ice. 

[LYLS3637]

I'm with you javero. With the exception of Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk, and Three Billboards, I thought I Tonya was more enjoyable than the other nominated movies. 

[Mister Matt]

Maybe this means the membership is really becoming more open to something more than conventional programming. 

I didn't really consider The Artist, Birdman or Moonlight to be that "conventional".  The Shape of Water was pretty and cute, but at the end of the day, it was a variation on Beauty and the Beast (completel with ballroom scene).  I enjoyed it, but I thought it was going to be something more than it was.