My 2013 Oscar Nominations

I love cooking up this list every year. The game is simple: if I was the sole member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, here’s who I would nominate in each of the major Oscar categories. Winners are in bold, and although it’s a bit of a Rust and Bone lovefest, if gives you a good idea of who’d I’d love to see win come Oscar night. Enjoy!

PICTURE

Amour

Compliance

Django Unchained

Flight

Rust and Bone

I had the chance to see Rust and Bone in the theater again recently and everything I felt about it before – my ceaseless admiration, my profound love of its pain – was only amplified  It knocked the wind out of me all over again.

DIRECTOR

Jacques Audiard – Rust and Bone

Michael Haneke – Amour

Ang Lee – Life of Pi

Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained

Joachim Trier – Oslo, August 31^st

Everyone involved in Rust and Bone seemed shocked that Audiard would even consider making a film about love. And upon seeing the movie, it’s so obvious that only a man as refined and unique as Audiard could craft a love story like this one.

ACTOR

Anders Danielsen Lie – Oslo, August 31^st

Denis Lavant – Holy Motors

Joaquin Phoenix – The Master

Matthias Schoenaerts – Rust and Bone

Denzel Washington – Flight

I really wish Denzel had a fighting chance for the Oscar this year, but it’s Daniel Day’s show. No argument from me.

ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty

Marion Cotillard – Rust and Bone

Emmanuelle Riva – Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts – The Impossible

Strong year for women (it almost seems cruel to not include Jennifer Lawrence here), but Cotillard’s got my vote. Always and forever.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook

Leonardo DiCaprio – Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master

Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike

Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

Here’s a great example of Want vs. Should. Of all the Best Supporting Actors this year (and there were so many great ones), Waltz was my favorite. I’d love it if he won, but my heart is with De Niro. He made me laugh, he made me cry, and, above all, he proved that he’s still got it.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams – The Master

Ann Dowd – Compliance

Isabelle Huppert – Amour

Dreama Walker – Compliance

Kerry Washington – Django Unchained

Easily the category in which I venture from the Academy’s picks the most. And although no Best Supporting Actress this year can stop the Hathaway train, it’s Dowd’s confused, antagonistic demeanor I’ll remember for years to come.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Compliance – Craig Zobel

Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino

Holy Motors – Leos Carax

The Master – Paul Thomas Anderson

Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal

This is probably the Oscar I’m gunning for most this year, and, given the immense controversy surrounding Zero Dark Thirty, I don’t think a QT win is too much of a long shot, right?

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Beasts of the Southern Wild – Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin

Killer Joe – Tracy Letts

Oslo, August 31^st – Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt

Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain & Craig Davidson

Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell

There’s a scene late in this film in which Marion Cotillard’s character tells Matthias Schoenaerts that in order for them to continue their relationship, there needs to be a level of decency involved. “We can’t go around behaving like animals,” she tells him.

It’s a brief but telling moment concerning a love unlike any I’ve ever seen.

DOCUMENTARY

The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns & David McMahon

The House I Live In – Eugene Jarecki

How To Survive a Plague – David France

The Imposter – Bart Layton

Searching for Sugar Man – Malik Bendjelloul

I’m still shocked that The Central Park Five didn’t get nominated. Don’t get me wrong, of the four current Best Documentary films I’ve seen, all are great. But damn, Burns and Co. killed it here.

FOREIGN FILM

Alps

Amour

Holy Motors

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Rust and Bone

If I gave Best Picture to Rust and Bone, I suppose it’d be nice to spread the love around a tad, huh?

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Life of Pi – Claudio Miranda

The Master – Mihai Malaimare Jr.

Rust and Bone – Stéphane Fontaine

Skyfall – Roger Deakins

Zero Dark Thirty – Greig Fraser

I don’t know how much Fontaine rehearsed with Audiard and the actors involved, but Fontaine’s camera was always just… there. And in focus. When it never seemed like it would be. (Also, I love how this film proved a subject does not need to be fully lit and shot head on in order for a story to be told.)

EDITING

Django Unchained – Fred Raskin

Holy Motors – Nelly Quettier

The Master – Leslie Jones & Peter McNulty

Rust and Bone – Juliette Welfling

Zero Dark Thirty – Willian Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor

Paul Thomas Anderson has a great instinct for knowing precisely when to cut, and how long to hold a shot, and what narrative to tell at any given time. An instinct Jones and McNulty seamlessly brought to life.

SCORE

The Dark Knight Rises – Hans Zimmer

The Master – Jonny Greenwood

Rust and Bone – Alexandre Desplat

Skyfall – Thomas Newman

Zero Dark Thirty – Alexandre Desplat

Greenwood did it again. And while his work here isn’t as iconic as his There Will Be Blood score, it’s quiet, gentle tones were perfect for The Master’s world.