Oscar Winner Predictions

So my boyfriend and I decided to predict the Oscars… More or less all of our answers were the same, so eventually we had to compromise on some so we had a clear winner by the end of it (whoever gets the most right wins chocolate).
We’re both massive Gravity fans, so neither of us were willing to change our answers for Best Picture or Best Director.
We also took a sweepstake at school, but looking again at the nominations, I’ve decided I’m not happy with the answers I gave for that, swapping Judi Dench for Cate Blanchett.

I’m actually really looking forward to the Oscars tonight, particularly because they’re being hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who is just brilliant.

Best Picture:
Lauren: Gravity
Sam: Gravity
Winner: 12 Years a Slave

Best Director:
Lauren: Alfonso Cuarón
Sam: Alfonso Cuarón
Winner: Alfonso Cuarón

Best Lead Actor:
Lauren: Leonardo DiCaprio (he deserves one by now!)
Sam: Leonardo DiCaprio
Winner: Matthew McConaughey

Best Lead Actress:
Lauren: Cate Blanchett
Sam: Sandra Bullock
Winner: Cate Blanchett

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Lauren: Jared Leto
Sam: Barkhad Abdi
Winner: Jared Leto

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Lauren: Jennifer Lawrence
Sam: Julia Roberts
Winner: Lupita Nyong’o

Best Animated Feature Film:
Lauren: Frozen
Sam: Despicable Me 2
Winner: Frozen

Achievement in Cinematography:
Lauren: Emmanuel Lubezki
Sam: Emmanuel Lubezki
Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki

Achievement in Costume Design:
Lauren: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Sam: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Winner: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)

Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score):
Lauren: Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)
Sam: Gravity (Steven Price)
Winner: Gravity (Steven Price)

Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song):
Lauren: Frozen (Let It Go)
Sam: Despicable Me 2 (Happy)
Winner: Frozen (Let It Go)

Achievement in Visual Effects:
Lauren: Gravity
Sam: Star Trek Into Darkness
Winner: Gravity

(This Oscars selfie made history by becoming the most retweeted photograph ever;
by the end of the ceremony the figure stood at 2,070,132)

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

I first saw Children of Men a couple of years ago in English, and it stuck with me for a long time. It came into my head randomly a few days back, so I decided to rewatch it, and it’s still just as good as I remember it being.

Based in 2027, in a world of infertility and chaos, Theo Faron meets a pregnant young West African refugee named Kee. He promises to accompany her to ‘the Human Project’, a scientific group who are dedicated to curing infertility. However, a group named ‘the Fishes’ discover Kee’s secret and attempt to use the baby as a political tool in the upcoming revolution. Theo, realising the danger, tries even harder to get Kee to safety. Eventually, after a long struggle, Theo gets Kee to the harbour where the boat, the Tomorrow, approaches them. However, Theo announces that he was shot in the fighting, and slumps forward. Kee tells him she will name her baby Dylan, after Theo’s son who died of pandemic flu, making for a very emotional ending. It is uncertain though, whether or not she gets on the boat, and whether or not ‘the Human Project’ even exists.

I actually loved this film, it’s hard to get across how much I love the plot and the whole idea of it… The film is based on a book by P. D. James, who should clearly get the credit for the idea. However, Alfonso Cuarón, one of my favourite directors, takes the book and puts it on the screen perfectly. Cuarón has recently directed a new film called Gravity, which I can’t wait to see!

The cinematography in this is brilliant; at one point, some ‘blood’ lands on the camera.
It makes you feel so much more involved, and almost scared, as suddenly the action is so much more ‘real’. This was the first time I’d come across this technique and I thought it was great – since then I’ve seen it a couple of times, but I always think of Children of Men when I see it.

The attention to detail was probably my favourite thing about it though. Since I originally watched it as part of an English lesson, I had to watch a clip several times, and every single time I watched it, I noticed something new.