Matt vs. the Academy

Don't forget to vote for which year you would like Matt vs. the Academy to look at next. The poll is on the right. Meanwhile, less than a week to go before the Oscar nominations are announced. Clearly, I'm not going to have a chance to discuss every category, so let me speed up the process by opining about a few categories today. Firstly, the Supporting Actress award. Here's another category with a clear frontrunner, and that is Mo'Nique for her powerful portrayal of a very troubled mother in Precious. Also expect citations for two ladies from Up In The Air, namely Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga. The final two spots are a little trickier, but I'm pegging Julianne Moore to be recognised for A Single Man and fresh from her win in this category last year, Penelope Cruz should get a nomination for her role in Nine. I have about four or five other names that could take the place of either Moore or Cruz, but I'll hold my tongue for the moment. Now, for the men. The le...

More of my Oscar predictions. Let's take a look at the race for the two Screenplay awards. The frontrunner for Adapted Screenplay is clearly Up In The Air, having recently taken a Golden Globe for its script. The buzz around the film is waning slightly (very slightly), but even if it doesn't take out Best Picture, I suspect it will take this category comfortably. Precious seems to be the only other film that has a strong "Oscar nominee" vibe about it. For the other three spots, there are several films that could be contenders, including, believe it or not, Star Trek, which recently picked up a nomination from the Writer's Guild. I'm not sure the Academy will go for it, so I'm going to predict An Education, District 9 and Fantastic Mr. Fox to round out the Adapted Screenplay shortlist. Its cousin, Best Original Screenplay, proves to be a tougher nut to crack. The Hurt Locker is perhaps the strongest contender for a nomination. Tarantino's script for Ing...

With the not-as-irreverent-as-usual Golden Globes in the past and this year's Oscar nominations only a couple of weeks away, it is time now to delve into the impossible world of awards prediction. For today, I'll devote my thoughts to a relatively easy race, that of the Best Animated Feature. It seems increasingly clear that Pixar 's justified domination of this category will probably continue. In the last five years, their films have won four trophies, and I expect that the utterly delightful Up will make it five out of six. In all, twenty animated films are eligible for this year's award and, according to Academy rules, that means the nomination shortlist can contain up to five features. So, joining Up will most likely be four films all based on previous material: Wes Anderson's unique retelling of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox ; the cute adaptation of the classic children's book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ; the horror-fantasy stop-motion film ...

As promised, I'm going to experiment with a little reader interaction by introducing a poll for you to vote on which awards year I should tackle next. So, during the review of 1964's Best Picture nominees, I will keep said poll on the sidebar to the right and when the time comes to move on, whichever year has the most votes will be selected as the next year of review. (As if you didn't understand how polls work.) To begin with, I've selected five Best Picture races from the 1980s, so choose your favourite and maybe you'll see that race on Matt vs. the Academy in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, the review of the 1964 race began with a viewing of Best Picture nominee... Zorba the Greek Director : Michael Cacoyannis Screenplay : Michael Cacoyannis (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis) Starring : Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, Sotiris Moustakas Academy Awards : 7 nominations 3 wins, including Best Supporting Actress (Lila Kedrova) Responsi...

With very little doubt, 1999 brought with it a slew of incredible films. Personally, I consider it to be the finest year for cinema in recent decades, primarily due to the pictures' originality. Whether it was a portal into John Malkovich's brain , a red pill that reveals the truth , frogs raining from the sky or a club for men to punch the crap out of each other , it's hard to deny that 1999 left an indelible mark. The five pictures nominated for that year's Best Picture Oscar were no exception and I immensely enjoyed revisiting them for this project. The nominees for Best Picture of 1999 are: American Beauty The Cider House Rules The Green Mile The Insider The Sixth Sense Since this is a year I hold in great esteem, I've had occasion to ponder my favourite nominee several times before, so it was somewhat of a foregone conclusion which film I would pick. Nonetheless, I shall go through the motions and contemplate all the contenders. The surprising thing about thes...