Oscar Predictions Part 2 - The Technical Categories

In Part II, I'll go into all the technical categories - which is pretty much everything that isn't for Picture, Director, Acting or Writing. It's hear where you really win, or lose, your Oscar pool.

Cinematography
The Nominees
Changeling - Tom Stern
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight - Wally Pfister
The Reader - Chris Menges, Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire - Anthony Dod Mantle

Will Win: This is a really tight race - I could see it going to any one of four films (sorry Changeling, you're the odd man out). So, when in doubt, you go with the Oscar frontrunner, which is Slumdog. It doesn't hurt that it has the pretty scenery that they often go for, even if it is offset by some terribly dark stuff as well.

Should Win: The Dark Knight is clearly the best, but considering they didn’t nominate it for picture, perhaps they don’t realize it.

Film Editing
The Nominees
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire. They’ve gone for fast editing quite a lot in the past few years, and no film did that better this year than this one did.

Should Win: For me, The Dark Knight had the best editing, keeping a long, dense movie moving along very quickly, and handling the action scenes well, and not just editing to show off.

Art Direction
The Nominees
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Since it got 13 nominations, they’ll want to give it a few prizes, and this is one of the more obvious ones to give it.

Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It spans 80 years, and its art direction is impressive throughout each era. The other nominees, while all strong, just cannot compete.


Costume Design
The Nominees
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

Will Win: The Duchess. They often don’t care how unpopular the movie is in this category, they just like to give it a movie with a lot of pretty dresses. And no film had prettier dresses than The Duchess.

Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher does something quite bold with the costume design in this film – he uses it as a storytelling device, often marking the passage of time with subtle changes in clothing.

Original Score
The Nominees
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Alexandre Desplat
Defiance - James Newton Howard
Milk - Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
WALL-E - Thomas Newman

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire. The music is a constant in the film, and out of the nominees it is probably the most memorable. Since I think its not winning song, they’ll want to give something to Rahman, who was nominated three times this year.

Should Win: Wall-E. No film this year depended more on its score to evoke mood, and time and place, than Wall-E did. It is also wonderful.

Original Song
Slumdog Millionaire - Jai Ho
Slumdog Millionaire - O Saya
WALL-E - Down to Earth

Will Win: Wall-E – Down to Earth. They like to give this prize to stars, and Peter Gabriel is a star (or at least he was 20 years ago), and with the only other nominees being from Slumdog, they may split the vote. Also, it’s a good way to finally give Thomas Newman an Oscar.

Should Win: Slumdog Millionaire – O Saya. Jai Ho is more memorable from the movie itself, as it’s the one with the dance number at the end, but listen to it on its own, and its fairly weak. The same can be said for Down to Earth. But Rahman’s collaboration with M.I.A. is simply amazing. Out of the three performances at the Oscars this year, this is the only one I actually look forward to seeing. (And, oh yeah, why was Bruce Springsteen nominated for The Wrestler? It was not only by favorite song from a movie in 2008, it was my favorite song of the year).

Sound Mixing
The Nominees
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire. Call it a hunch, but I think Slumdog wins this one too. They’re going to give a bunch, and this one seems like a good fit.

Should Win: Wall-E. Was the sound work more impressive on any film this year besides Wall-E? I think not.

Sound Effects Editing
The Nominees
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

Will Win: Wall-E. It certainly has the most noticable sound effects of the year, and there is a real love for the film, so they’ll want to give it a few.

Should Win: Wall-E. Best of the year. Period.

Makeup
The Nominees
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. They often go with realistic makeup here, and they did a good job with the makeup here making people look older and younger than they are – even if it was touched up by CGI.

Should Win: The Dark Knight. Is there any make-up work more iconic this year than on the Joker? It’s not just the slathered on look, but also the scars. This was my favorite.

Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The film moved visual effects work into the next generation with its work on that weird old Brad Pitt in the films first act. Beside that, they other two look like old news.

Should Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. You don’t see the real Brad Pitt for almost an hour, but the work is so good, you can’t tell.