BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Outside of the expected commentary after Lincoln‘s first screening, the most unexpected was the amount of love and adulation given to Tommy Lee Jones for his performance as Thaddeus Stevens.
Jones won an Oscar back in 1994 for his performance in The Fugitive and while it would be very easy to move him from the 20th position to #1 in what is a rather weak field this year, I am going to wait a little while longer to make sure others echo the early sentiments before placing him above Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master).
I have included the top five in order directly below and you can check out the full field right here.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, (The Master)
- Tommy Lee Jones, (Lincoln)
- Alan Arkin, (Argo)
- Robert De Niro, (Silver Linings Playbook)
- Russell Crowe, (Les Miserables)
BEST DIRECTOR
I had Steven Spielberg on the outside looking in at the sixth position with my initial predictions, but after the positive buzz on Lincoln it feels safe to move him into the top five. However, this means someone must go and that someone in this case was David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, a film, I feel, stands up more for its performances than anything else. However, this is a category that still has a lot of potential movement as only two of the top contenders — Argo and The Master — have been seen by the majority of critics. There’s a lot that can still happen here.
I have included my current top five in order directly below and you can check out the full field right here.
- Ben Affleck, (Argo)
- Tom Hooper, (Les Miserables)
- Paul Thomas Anderson, (The Master)
- Ang Lee, (Life of Pi)
- Steven Spielberg, (Lincoln)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
I had to shuffle the Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay category a little after my original predictions as I had Ben Lewin’s screenplay for The Sessions wrongly in the Original category, but now comes a little more shuffling around as Tony Kushner, John Logan and Paul Webb’s screenplay for Lincoln has also been added to the top five, though this category seems incredibly volatile.
The only prediction I feel safe with at the moment is the one at the top for Chris Terrio and Argo as the rest could change at any minute with contenders such as Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin’s screenplay for Beasts of the Southern Wild and David Magee’s for Life of Pi being easy substitutes for any of the positions 2-5. Obviously I still need to see Lincoln, Les Miserables and Life of Pi for this choice to get any easier so for now I offer the following.
Just below is my current top five in order directly and you can check out the full field right here.
- Chris Terrio, (Argo)
- David O. Russell, (Silver Linings Playbook)
- Ben Lewin, (The Sessions)
- Tony Kushner, John Logan and Paul Webb, (Lincoln)
- William Nicholson, (Les Miserables)
For a look at all of my current Oscar predictions click here and stay tuned as they will continue to update throughout the season.
