Snap Judgments & Predictions of The 88th Academy Awards

Articles | Feb 16th, 2016

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The 88th Academy Awards will be held on February 28th on ABC and be hosted by Chris Rock. Adam and Bryan managed to write up some snap judgments & predictions for this year’s Oscars. Like every year, we’re mostly wrong so don’t bet on any Oscar polls based on our predictions.

Best motion picture of the year

“The Big Short” Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
“Bridge of Spies” Steven Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
“Brooklyn” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Doug Mitchell and George Miller, Producers
“The Martian” Simon Kinberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer and Mark Huffam, Producers
“The Revenant” Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Keith Redmon, Producers
“Room” Ed Guiney, Producer
“Spotlight” Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, Producers

Adam: I’m rooting for Room in the hopes that it will cause accidental sales of that other Room. “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!!!!”
Bryan: My favorite out of this bunch was Mad Max: Fury Road but think The Revenant will win.

Achievement in directing

“The Big Short” Adam McKay
“Mad Max: Fury Road” George Miller
“The Revenant” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
“Room” Lenny Abrahamson
“Spotlight” Tom McCarthy

Adam: It’s hard to make the desert look interesting after two hours, and Mad Max succeeded. That movie was way more beautiful than it needed to be.
Bryan: It’s baffling that Adam Mckay went from the pile of shit Anchorman 2 to The Big Short.

Best animated feature film of the year

“Anomalisa” Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson and Rosa Tran
“Boy and the World” Alê Abreu
“Inside Out” Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
“Shaun the Sheep Movie” Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
“When Marnie Was There” Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Yoshiaki Nishimura

Adam: Whichever one is Pixar. Why do the others even bother showing up?
Bryan: Two words: Bing Bong

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Bryan Cranston in “Trumbo”
Matt Damon in “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Revenant”
Michael Fassbender in “Steve Jobs”
Eddie Redmayne in “The Danish Girl”

Adam: Matt Damon is an Earthling playing a Martian. That took guts.
Bryan: Leonardo will win just because people will have pity on him for having to spend all that time in Canada to film a movie

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Christian Bale in “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy in “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo in “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies”
Sylvester Stallone in “Creed”

Adam: Did Tom Hardy play the bear that humps Leo? That took guts.
Bryan: I really hope there are subtitles when Stallone wins.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Cate Blanchett in “Carol”
Brie Larson in “Room”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling in “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn”

Adam: I want Saoirse Ronan to win so I can hear John Travolta mangle her name.
Bryan: This category is so white, attendees will be provided with sunglasses during the announcement.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Jennifer Jason Leigh in “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara in “Carol”
Rachel McAdams in “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander in “The Danish Girl”
Kate Winslet in “Steve Jobs”

Adam: JJL. Trivia, trivia – The Hateful Eight is an anagram for “Uh, That Feet, Leigh!” Oh Quentin and his foot fetishes!
Bryan: BB-8 was so snubbed!

Adapted screenplay

“The Big Short” Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
“Brooklyn” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
“Carol” Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy
“The Martian” Screenplay by Drew Goddard
“Room” Screenplay by Emma Donoghue

Adam: Brooklyn, for being based on a receipt from a free-trade, locally-sourced handcrafted mayonnaise and beard tonic shop.
Bryan: I don’t know why The Martian was nominated since it’s just the script to Castaway. Find and replace every “island” word with “Mars.”

Original screenplay

“Bridge of Spies” Written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
“Ex Machina” Written by Alex Garland
“Inside Out” Screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen
“Spotlight” Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy
“Straight Outta Compton” Screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff; Story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff

Adam: Ex Machina because I always have to root for the token sci-fi movie.
Bryan: Straight Outta Compton will win simply because the Academy will try to correct their fuck-up.

Achievement in cinematography

“Carol” Ed Lachman
“The Hateful Eight” Robert Richardson
“Mad Max: Fury Road” John Seale
“The Revenant” Emmanuel Lubezki
“Sicario” Roger Deakins

Adam: Sicario is an achievement because none of the crew were killed while shooting the film in Juarez.
Bryan: The Hateful Eight was filmed in 70mm so that will probably win. Even though it’s a 3 hour movie of people killing each other in the same location.

Achievement in costume design

“Carol” Sandy Powell
“Cinderella” Sandy Powell
“The Danish Girl” Paco Delgado
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Jenny Beavan
“The Revenant” Jacqueline West

Adam: Mad Max, especially the breast-less shirt for that dude with the moobs.
Bryan: That attractive woman that starred in the Danish Girl had a lot of pretty outfits.

Best documentary feature

“Amy” Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees
“Cartel Land” Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin
“The Look of Silence” Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
“What Happened, Miss Simone?” Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby and Justin Wilkes
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” Evgeny Afineevsky and Den Tolmor

Adam: Tell you what, Reader’s Choice!
Bryan: The one that was a documentary will definitely win

Best documentary short subject

“Body Team 12” David Darg and Bryn Mooser
“Chau, beyond the Lines” Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
“Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah” Adam Benzine
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“Last Day of Freedom” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

Adam: Body Team 12, although I haven’t seen Body Team 1-11 yet.
Bryan: Has there ever been a documentary short about shorts?

Achievement in film editing

“The Big Short” Hank Corwin
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Margaret Sixel
“The Revenant” Stephen Mirrione
“Spotlight” Tom McArdle
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey

Adam: Star Wars because it has those cool wipe edits that are so new and fresh! I mean, besides being used in the original Star Wars movies. And in Akira Kurosawa’s movies from the 1950s.
Bryan: A movie that is almost 3 hours shouldn’t win for film editing

Best foreign language film of the year

“Embrace of the Serpent” Colombia
“Mustang” France
“Son of Saul” Hungary
“Theeb” Jordan
“A War” Denmark

Adam: I’ll let Bryan make the obvious serpent-penis joke. Sometimes, you have to let someone else pick the low-hanging fruit.
Bryan: Adam, I will not spit out some lame penis joke. There’s just too much to swallow to come up with a good joke.

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

“Mad Max: Fury Road” Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
“The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared” Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
“The Revenant” Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman and Robert Pandini

Adam: Mad Max. Those pale guys sure needed a lot of makeup.
Bryan: Was The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared directed by the director who did An Englishman who went up a hill and came down a mountain and from the writer who wrote Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood?

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“Bridge of Spies” Thomas Newman
“Carol” Carter Burwell
“The Hateful Eight” Ennio Morricone
“Sicario” Jóhann Jóhannsson
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” John Williams

Adam: Ennio!
Bryan: Ennio Morricone vs John Williams. They won’t be in attendance because a Matlock rerun will be on the picture box.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Music and Lyric by Abel Tesfaye, Ahmad Balshe, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Stephan Moccio
“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
Music by J. Ralph and Lyric by Antony Hegarty
“Simple Song #3” from “Youth”
Music and Lyric by David Lang
“Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga
“Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre”
Music and Lyric by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith

Adam: Holy shit, 50 Shades of Grey is up for an Oscar? Who did they tie up and sensually whip for that one?
Bryan: Academy Award nominated Lady Gaga, who wore a meat dress 5 years ago.

Achievement in production design

“Bridge of Spies” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo and Bernhard Henrich
“The Danish Girl” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Michael Standish
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Production Design: Colin Gibson; Set Decoration: Lisa Thompson
“The Martian” Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Celia Bobak
“The Revenant” Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Hamish Purdy

Adam: C’mon, this isn’t really a category, is it?
Bryan: The Martian will win because it must have been so hard to make Arizona look like Mars.

Best animated short film

“Bear Story” Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
“Prologue” Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
“Sanjay’s Super Team” Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
“We Can’t Live without Cosmos” Konstantin Bronzit
“World of Tomorrow” Don Hertzfeldt

Adam: Don’t care, but speaking of bears, I love that cartoon We Bare Bears.
Bryan: Which one is the Pixar one?

Best live action short film

“Ave Maria” Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
“Day One” Henry Hughes
“Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)” Patrick Vollrath
“Shok” Jamie Donoughue
“Stutterer” Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage

Adam: I think my favorite is Ice Bear. But Panda is cute too.
Bryan: Someone made a movie about the guy from Howard Stern show?

Achievement in sound editing

“Mad Max: Fury Road” Mark Mangini and David White
“The Martian” Oliver Tarney
“The Revenant” Martin Hernandez and Lon Bender
“Sicario” Alan Robert Murray
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Matthew Wood and David Acord

Adam: Seriously, y’all should be watching We Bare Bears.
Bryan: A sound editor had to take out all the cursing of Leo getting raped by a CGI bear. That took skill!

Achievement in sound mixing

“Bridge of Spies” Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Drew Kunin
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
“The Martian” Paul Massey, Mark Taylor and Mac Ruth
“The Revenant” Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom and Chris Duesterdiek
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson

Adam: DJ Jazzy Who-Gives-A-Shit
Bryan: Mad Max: Fury Road was the best in sound mixing because someone had to spend months trying to make Tom Hardy sound audible.

Achievement in visual effects

“Ex Machina” Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
“Mad Max: Fury Road” Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver and Andy Williams
“The Martian” Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Chris Lawrence and Steven Warner
“The Revenant” Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith and Cameron Waldbauer
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Adam: We Bare Bears.
Bryan: Star Wars will have a bone thrown at them and win one.

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