Entertainment
Oscars
The glamor, the stars, the suspense. The 2011 Oscars are Sunday, February 27 and Serendipity has geared up for this year's star-studded celebration by making our predictions for who will go home with an iconic golden statute. By Connor Ryan
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
While 2010 offered some exciting blockbusters that drew people out of their homes into theaters, more importantly it showed us the caliber of acting that is possible in Hollywood today is quite amazing. And while there were many greats, no film of the year could match the precision and artistry of The King’s Speech. The combined talents of director Tom Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler create a beautifully designed environment to explore the talents of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Despite how clever and well-casted The Social Network was – it doesn’t have the endurance to be a Best Picture winner.
Best Actor
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
No doubt that Colin Firth will walk away with this award as he seamlessly embodied every characteristic that went along with portraying King George VI in The King’s Speech. Firth has proven with this role that he is truly capable of complete mastery — a rather unique quality found only in a few actors today; he will be rewarded for it.
Best Actress
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Natalie Portman gives us a unique, absolutely real and yet wonderfully fantastical look into the twisted culture of American ballet in Black Swan. Portman portrays a ballerina who finds her darkest side while dancing the title character of Swan Lake. She begins to break down before our eyes, inspired by delusional obsessions and paranoia. It is that decay that warrants her recognition for the best actress of the year. The film was perfect.
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Christian Bale brilliantly portrays the self-destructive, drug-addicted brother of professional boxer, Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), in The Fighter. Bale not only had to lose a substantial amount of weight (so much so that his character looks dangerously slim on-screen), but he also had to develop a Boston-meets-trailer-park dialect. It is the transformation from the crime-fighting hero into this wonderfully delusional character that will earn him an award.
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Melissa Leo has been doing well so far this awards season. She has won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award in the Supporting Actor category for her work as Alice Ward in The Fighter. Even though the critics have said that her co-star Amy Adams and, 15-year-old, Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) have given her competition — the Academy will go for Leo. Her role in this film proves to be one of her finest as she redefines what it means to be a mother.
Directing
Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
David O. Russell for The Fighter
Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
David Fincher for The Social Network
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for True Grit
No one can beat the eye of David Fincher — the mastermind behind the visually fascinating, The Social Network. While Fincher was not successful with his last critically acclaimed film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it’s pretty safe to say that his stylistic eye will earn him a gold statuette this go around.
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy for 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network
Michael Arndt for Toy Story 3
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen for True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for Winter’s Bone
The controversial founding of the social network giant, now commonly called Facebook, has provided Sorkin with the inspiration he needed to create a captivating narrative. His visionary creativity allowed him to pen three stories all brilliantly intertwined into one. His quick dialogue and apropos pace makes this West Wing founder, a certain winner in this category.
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Mike Leigh for Another Year
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson for The Fighter
Christopher Nolan for Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg for The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler for The King’s Speech
This category is not as easy to predict as some of the others. Christopher Nolan created a huge, thought-provoking blockbuster this summer and attracted thousands to the theater when he created Inception. However, David Seidler’s look into the intimate, behind-the-scenes relationship between King George VI and his speech therapist, may have the intellectual spin that the Academy often looks for. It also helps that The King’s Speech is the favorite to win Best Picture.
Right on target
If you watched the Academy Awards last night then you know that we were right on target with our early winner predictions. Out of the eight categories that we predicted, only one did not go our way (Tom Hooper won for directing and not David Fincher). As we move forward, we hope you can fully rely on Serendipity for always getting it right.
In case you missed the awards show, we have posted all of the winners below.
Full List of Winners
Actor — Colin Firth
Supporting Actor — Christian Bale
Actress — Natalie Portman
Supporting Actress — Melissa Leo
Animated Feature — Toy Story 3
Art Direction — Alice in Wonderland
Cinematography — Inception
Costume Design — Alice in Wonderland
Directing — Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Documentary Feature — Inside Job
Documentary Short — Strangers No More
Film Editing — The Social Network
Foreign Language — In a Better World
Makeup — The Wolfman
Original Score — The Social Network
Original Song — We Belong Together
Animated Short Film — The Loft Thing
Live Action Short Film — God of Love
Sound Editing — Inception
Sound Mixing — Inception
Visual Effects — Inception
Adapted Screenplay — Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Original Screenplay — David Seidler (The King’s Speech)
Picture — The King’s Speech