MUSINGS: BET YOU CAN'T BEAT MY PICKS FOR OSCARS...WANNA TRY YOUR LUCK?

The 86th Annual Oscar Awards Will Be Shown On March 2, 2014 — Host: Ellen DeGeneres

Hey…here’s your opportunity to display your cinephile expertise…can you beat my guesses? in the COMMENT box, type the number and then your choice 

i think it will be fun because i am totally not into going to the movies but this year i saw more than i have ever seen previously…and that’s the truth—C’MON…YOU CAN BEAT ME

1.  BEST PICTURE

• 12 Years a Slave — i just have to say the winner is most likely going to be"12 Years a Slave"....before i saw this film, i would have said "Captain Phillips" or maybe "Her"...but then, i also liked "All Is Lost" and it wasn't even nominated, sooo i could be totally wrong with this pick
• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• The Wolf of Wall Street

2.  ACTOR

• Christian Bale (American Hustle)
• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (Wolf of Wall Street)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)— i'm going to say the winner's going to be Matthew McConaughey right? right? right!

3.  ACTRESS

• Amy Adams (American Hustle)
• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)— i just have to pick Cate Blanchett as the winner...After winning every prize leading up to the Oscars, i can't believe academy will shun her just because of headlines about Woody Allen
• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
• Judi Dench (Philomena)
• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

4.  SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
• Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)— i think i'm going to surprise you all and say the winner will be Jared Leto 

5.  SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)— another surprise from me...maybe...but i just have to go with Lupita Nyong’o as the winner in this category...i just believe she’s really deserving
• Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
• June Squibb (Nebraska)
• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

6.  DIRECTOR

• Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• David O. Russell (American Hustle)
• Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)— i think the winner will beAlfonso Cuarón for "Gravity"
• Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
• Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) 

7.  BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)— i have no idea, but i guess the winner could be “12 Years a Slave”
• Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater (Before Midnight
)
• Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)
• Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)

8.  BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)— this one's hard...really hard, but i think the academy will decide the winner will be "American Hustle" even though its major challenge in this category is going to come from "Her" (which is a beautiful robot-human Love-Story type of love story— well, okay, a beautiful OS-human and i'm a sucker for a tear-jerker romance...aren't you?); however, i just believe it isn't counterintuitive for the voters to love "Hustle" enough to reward it with the most nominations (along with "Gravity") and then shut it out completely—but, i could be wrong...i hope i'm wrong...but, who knows; right? maybe it could be a tie?
• Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
• Spike Jonze (Her)
• Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

  9.  BEST FOREIGN FILM

• Denmark, The Hunt
• Belgium, The Broken Circle Breakdown
• Italy, The Great Beauty—i only saw 2 of the nominated films but the winner has to be "The Great Beauty” i mean, it is really good and it did get a Golden Globe win — i like how it seemed to be in the fashion of a Fellini film, too
• Palestine, Omar
• Cambodia, The Missing Picture

10. BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• The Wind Rises
• Frozen— well, since i didn't see Ernest & Celestine or The Wind Rises, from what i did see i think “Frozen" will be the winner
• Despicable Me 2
• The Croods
• Ernest & Celestine

11. BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• "Alone Yet Not Alone" (Alone Yet Not Alone)
• "Happy" (Despicable Me 2)
• "Let It Go" (Frozen)— this is really a guess but i will choose "Let It Go" as the winner because, well, there isn’t a sing-along version of “Mandela,” is there?
• "The Moon Song" (Her)
• "Ordinary Love" (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

12. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• John Williams (The Book Thief)
• Steven Price (Gravity)— when they say music adds a lot to a movie, it's true and "Gravity"'s musical score was prominant...just plain excellent, sooo, i would give Stephen Price a well-deserved Oscar
• Alexandre Desplat (Philomena)
• Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)
• William Butler and Owen Pallett (Her)

13. BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster)
• Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)— all you cinephiles can rejoice...i think "Gravity" is gonna walk away with Oscar for the kind of computer-generated spectacle that probably (MOST SURELY) angered all purists voting this category
• Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis)
• Roger Deakins (Prisoners)
• Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)

14. COSTUME DESIGN

• American Hustle
• The Grandmaster
• The Great Gatsby—OMG! how could the winner not be “Gatsby” with all that flash and fabric ?
• The Invisible Woman
• 12 Years A Slave

15. PRODUCTION DESIGN

• American Hustle
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby—like i used to do when my daddy would take us to the Kentucky Derby when we were young and i'd pick the winner based on just a hunch, i'm choosing the winner for an Oscar the same way and picking Catherine Martin -- just for the razzle-dazzle of Gatsby
• Her
• 12 Years a Slave

16. VISUAL EFFECTS

• Gravity— i really liked The Lone Ranger, BUT, wow...i really think "GRAVITY" had such seamless effects how could any other movie win against it? sooo, the winner will be “Gravity"
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• The Lone Ranger
• Star Trek Into Darkness

17. ANIMATED SHORT FILM

• Feral
• Get a Horse!— well, DUH! why wouldn't i choose "Get A Horse" as the winner?
• Mr. Hublot
• Possessions
• Room on the Broom 

any categories not shown here were eliminated by me only because i don't have a clue.