Oscar Picks

Award season is often vastly overrated. Any award based on subjectivity is open to scrutiny (see Bowl Championship Series). Worst among the major award shows are the music honors. The Grammys only bother to nominate what's popular so people will watch. The Academy Awards, on the other hand, usually make honorable nominations. The top-grossing movies often get passed over; last year's top grosser "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (an abyssmal waste of time) was nominated for only four "lesser" awards: sound mixing, sound editing, art direction and visual effects. Smaller grossing films such as "The Queen" and "Little Miss Sunshine" often rate higher with voters not because they are small, but because they are better made. I'd like to think that thinking is what drives all of the nominations, but several categories lead me to believe otherwise.

Each year I like to make my own Oscar picks. I love movies and go to the theater roughly 30 times a year to see the ones that really draw my interest. Each year after the nominations are announced I like to see what's nominated to inform my opinion. However, I won't pay to see a movie I know will not interest me. I am at a bit of a disadvantage this year as a lot of films that have been nominated I won't watch. This has happened in years past, but I still do reasonably well on my guesses because I have a decent feel for the industry's pulse. It also helps to keep up with professional handicappers and entertainment reporters.

There are 24 categories that make up the Academy Awards. The big four are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. Next for me, in order of importance, are Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Foreign Film. Next are the supporting actor awards, cinematography and film editing. Animated feature and original score round out my top awards, the rest are just filler (OK, original song's all right). I won't bother with editing, score or any of the other "lesser" awards.


Best Picture
Nominees: Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen
I've seen: The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima and Little Miss Sunshine
Slights: Apocalypto and Children of Men

The worst years for this category in my lifetime were 1998 (Titanic beat out L.A. Confidential) and 1999 (Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan and The Think Red Line). Many handicappers are picking Babel to win this year, but I think The Departed will get a boost in the end.

Will Win: The Departed (incredible, but crass, return to form)
Should Win: Letters from Iwo Jima (100x better than Flags of our Fathers)

Best Director
Nominees: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Martin Scorcese (The Departed), Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima), Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Paul Greengrass (United 93)
I've Seen: The Departed and Letters from Iwo Jima
Slights: Mel Gibson (Apocalypto), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth)
Will Win: Scorcese (but it's a close one)
Should Win: Letters from Iwo Jima (After seeing Flags of our Fathers, I doubted Eastwood's ability to shoot a war flick. I won't make the same mistake again.)

Best Actor
Nominees: Leo Dicaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
I've Seen: Blood Diamond and The Pursuit of Happyness
Slights: DiCaprio (The Departed), Christian Bale (The Prestige), Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Clive Owen (Children of Men)
Will Win: Whitaker (hands down)
Should Win: Tie: DiCaprio (I know some South Africans, and DiCaprio had this difficult accent down to a science. Plus, he manages to make you believe he could really be physically imposing.) and Smith (The final scenes in Happyness are some of the best acting I've seen in years.)

Best Actress
Nominees: Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) and Kate Winslet (Little Children)
I've Seen: None
Slights: Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth)
Will Win: Mirren (hands down)
Should Win: N/A

Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls) and Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)
I've Seen: Sunshine, Diamond and Departed.
Slights: Danny Huston (The Proposition), Michael Caine (Children of Men, The Presitge), Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Alec Baldwin (The Departed), Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
Will Win: Many pick Murphy, but I think Wahlberg will take it.
Should Win: (Tie) Wahlberg and Hounsou (too hard)

Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)
I've Seen: Little Miss Sunshine
Slights: Thandie Newton (The Pursuit of Happyness)
Will Win: Hudson
Should Win: Breslin is great. She reminds me of my sister when she was younger.

Best Original Screenplay
Nominees: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth and The Queen
I've Seen: Letters, Sunshine and Pan's Labyrinth
Slights: Apocalypto (You can watch this movie without words, brilliant). Brick (Chinatown for the college set. Very cool)
Will Win: Babel
Should Win: Pan's Labyrinth (Wildly inventive)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees: Borat, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children and Notes on a Scandal.
I've Seen: Borat (half), Children of Men and The Departed.
Slights: The Prestige and The Illusionist.
Will Win: (Toughest category this year) The Departed (though Children of Men makes a strong case)
Should Win: The Departed (so much to keep track of, yet it doesn't spin out of control)

Best Foreign Film
Nominees: After the Wedding, Days of Glory, The Lives of Others, Pan's Labyrinth and Water.
I've Seen: Pan's Labyrinth
Slights: L'Enfant and Curse of the Golden Flower
Will Win: Pan's Labyrinth
Should Win: Pan's Labyrinth

Best Animated Feature
Nominees: Cars, Happy Feet and Monster House
I've Seen: Cars and Monster House
Slights: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Will Win: Cars
Should Win: Cars

Cinematography
Nominees: The Black Dahlia, Children of Men, The Illusionist, Pan's Lanyrinth and The Presitige.
I've Seen: Children of Men, Illusionist, Pan's Labyrinth and Prestige.
Slights: Letters from Iwo Jima and Apocalypto (two of the biggest slights in this year's awards)
Will Win: Children of Men (Voters will recall the scene at the immigrant compound that features one long hand-held cut with blood on the camera. This may be the best-shot movie since Saving Private Ryan.)
Should Win: Children of Men (However, The Illusionist definitely earned its nomination. The old photograph look was inspired.)

Beauchamp's Top Films of 2006
1. Letters from Iwo Jima
2. Apocalypto
3. The Departed
4. The Prestige
5. Children of Men
6. The Proposition
7. Pan's Labyrinth
8. Blood Diamond
9. Brick
10. Curse of the Golden Flower
HM. L'Enfant, The Ilusionist, The Pursuit of Happyness and Cars.