AAN: Oscar Predictions - The 'Bests' and the Visuals

Welcome to part two of my official Oscar predictions, the big one that this 2013 series of Annual Awards Nerdism has come down to. Tonight, I'll be looking at the 'Bests' (Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, Best Documentary - Features) and the Visuals (Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Visual Effects). NOTE: I'm not going to attempt the awards for the Shorts because I'll end up looking like a fool.
PAST PREDICTIONS: Sound and Design

The 'Bests' Awards

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Brave / Frankenweenie / Paranorman / The Pirates! Band of Misfits / Wreck-It Ralph

Looks like this will be another Pixar year, even if every man and his dog is intent on calling Brave a bad film because it isn't as good as every other Pixar film. To be honest, this is still one of my absolute favourite films of 2012, mainly because it has a better message than most other animated films. And yeah, that's all I have to say about that. I'll be a little surprised if Brave loses. Plus, it'll be exciting when it does because then Brenda Chapman will be the first woman to win the award. Exciting!

AAN: Oscar Predictions: Sound and Design

Welcome to part one of my official Oscar predictions, which is what this season of Annual Awards Nerdism has boiled down to. In the five nights leading up to the Oscars, I will break down each of the categories with my predictions (and there'll be some poetry down the line). Tonight, I will be dealing with the sound (Best Achievement in Sound Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Song, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures - Original Score) and design awards (Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Make-Up, Best Achievement in Costume Design).

As per usual, I will be using Sparkling Silva, 'Overjoyed' David and Loopy Looper to help me make my predictions. Here's what they code for:
Sparkling Silva - Who I'd be happy to see win.
'Overjoyed' David - My official prediction - who is likely to win.
Loopy Looper - The long shot.

Sound Awards.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Argo / Django Unchained / Life of Pi / Skyfall / Zero Dark Thirty

I could offer up something really smart here but I know literally zilch about sound editing. Django Unchained, Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty were all pretty intense in the sound. I guess Zero Dark Thirty had a lot of sound to deal with, especially in the final scenes. And the 'zero' part of the title pretty much goes with my knowledge of this topic.

The Most Beautiful Movie of the Year - Which is Also a Bond Movie

Skyfall (2012) / UK / Out in cinemas now / Directed by Sam Mendes / Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan / Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw / 143 mins

First off, I'll have to admit that I'm no Bond expert. To be honest, the only reason I ever gave Bond a second thought was because I saw a poster of Casino Royale and fell in love with Daniel Craig. I was 11, then, and I thought that Casino Royale was the sexiest film I'd ever seen. Since then I've only bothered to see Quantum of Solace, so really, I don't qualify to be giving Skyfall a review on its James Bond merits. However, this is a different kind of Bond film. It doesn't really live up to the womanizing, slick agent, gadget powered thing that I've pretty much always recognised Bond films as being. This is a film directed by Sam Mendes - who has built a name for himself by directing such drama powerhouses as American Beauty and Revolutionary Road - and most importantly, it is shot by Roger Deakins, who can make anything look beautiful. What we have here is James Bond on the brink of physical collapse, terrorist plots, and mostly an existential drama. However, it still has the familiar tropes of a James Bond films, which makes it one of the more intriguing projects of the year.

Skyfall takes on a whole different branch to the previous blonde Bond outings, instead 'killing off' Bond in the opening scene. However, while Bond manages to survive this 'death' and live off the grid for a while, he is brought back into the spy game when M (Judi Dench) and MI6 begin receiving threats - and the MI6 headquarters get bombed. Bond is launched into trying to find a stolen hard-drive which could break MI6's operations, which leads him to former agent Silva (Javier Bardem), who is bent on taking down M.