Alright, you know the drill. Here’s our Oscar 2009 nomination predictions for the technical categories. We’re not necessarily experts in this field, or at least, it seems to have mystified us a little bit more than usual this year, but here they are.
Best Costume
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Changeling”
“The Duchess”
“The Other Boleyn Girl”
“Revolutionary Road”
Alternate: “Milk”
Underdog: “Sex & The City”
Wishful Thinking: “The Dark Knight”
Don’t underestimate the costume design categories adoration for pomp and pageantry. Subtle doesn’t usually cut it here (“Milk”) and period era spectacle almost always takes precedence.
Best Art Direction
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Changeling”
“Doubt”
“Milk”
“Frost/Nixon”
Alternate: “Revolutionary Road”
Underdog: “The Dark Knight”
Wishful Thinking: “Australia,” “The Wrestler”
‘Button’ looks like an overwhelming favorite in many of these categories. What the film lacks in emotional impact it makes up for in technical proficiency. It’s visuals are amazing and will likely be recognized as such. “Milk” would seem like the most serious challenger in this bracket, bringing an authentic 70’s San Francisco to life. But don’t underestimate “Changeling” in the costume and art direction categories.
Best Makeup
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Synechdoche, New York”
“Tropic Thunder”
Alternate: “The Reader”
Underdog: “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
Wishful Thinking: “The Dark Night”
Yes, the makeup in ‘Ben Button’ is not perfect and often its hard to tell where the effects are taking precedence (maybe when its making Brad and Cate look like androids from “A.I.”?), but they are great in spots particularly with Queenie. Makeup age effects are generally awarded for looking largely believable rather than totally convincing.
Best Score
James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer (“The Dark Knight”)
A. R Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Thomas Newman (“WALL-E”)
Nico Muhly (“The Reader”)
Alexandre Desplat (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”)
Alternate: James Newton Howard (“Defiance”)
Underdog: Danny Elfman (“Milk”), Ramin Djawadi (“Iron Man”)
Wishful Thinking: Alberto Iglesias (“Che”), Thomas Newman (“Revolutionary Road”)
Don’t scoff at “Iron Man’s inclusion in the Underdog section, its rock-centric score has been lauded all year with nominations including the IFMCA, it could sneak in there. ‘Dark Knight,’ ‘Ben Button’ and “Wall-E” seems like the sure bets, but after that who knows. The academy also loves John Williams beyond belief, but hopefully his ‘Indy 4’ score can’t squeak in here. It seems to similar to merit nomination.
Best Song
“The Wrestler” from “The Wrestler – Bruce Springsteen
“Gran Torino” from “Gran Torino” – Clint Eastwood, Jamie Cullum, Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens
“I Thought I Lost You” from “Bolt – Miley Cyrus, Jeffrey Steele
“Once in a Lifetime” from “Cadillac Records” – Beyoncé Knowles, Amanda Ghost, Scott McFarnon, Ian Dench, James Dring, Jody Street
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” – Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman
Alternate: “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” – M.I.A. and A.R Rahman or “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” – A.R Rahman and others
Underdog: “The Story” from “My Blueberry Nights” – Norah Jones
Wishful Thinking: “Little Person” – Jon Brion (‘Synecdoche’), anything by Munchausen By Proxy: Zooey Deschanel and Von Iva (“Yes Man”), “Another Way to Die” from “Quantum of Solace” (Jack White and Alicia Keys),
We’re playing it conservative with the song category cause that’s how Oscar votes. Jon Brion (‘Synecdoche’) and ‘Slumdog’ songs are too left field. We should have probably included more “Bolt” or ‘High School Musical’ picks. Remember last year “Enchanted” dominated this nomination field even though “Once” took it in the end.
Best Foreign Language Film
“Waltz With Bashir”
“Everlasting Moments”
“Three Monkeys”
“The Class”
“Der Baader Meinhof Komplex”
Alternate: “Revanche”
Underdog: “The Necessities of Life”
Wishful Thinking: “Gommorah,” “I’ve Love You So Long” or “Let The Right One In” (snubbed, not selected by their country, and eligible next year, respectively – 😉
Not that hard to predict considering we know the shortlist of nine films already. The smart money is on “Waltz With Bashir” to win, but then again this category acts pretty funny. ‘Baader’ might even be too rock n roll to make the cut, but this committee is suffering from the humiliation of excluding “Gomorrah” so they might want to make sure the populist names get in their so they’re not raked over the coals again by the press.
Best Documentary Film
“Man on Wire”
“Trouble the Water”
“Standard Operating Procedure”
“Encounters at the End of the World”
“At the Death House Door”
Alternate: “Dear Zachary”
Underdog: In a Dream,” “The Order Of Myths”
Wishful Thinking: “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” “My Winnipeg,” “Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired” (we think this one is ineligible),
“Man on Wire” is a mesmerizing film that should be honored here; 2008 was a pretty strong year for documentaries. “Trouble the Water” is a mirror to a Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, while “Standard Operating Procedure” pulls the curtain back on torture at Abu-Ghraib. However, it’s difficult to see the Academy being down with such hardcore subject matter. We were thoroughly captivated by Warner Herzog’s beautiful “Encounters at the End of the World”and the challenging, deeply personal “In a Dream”, an inspiring story about the nature of art.
Note: “Dear Zachary” and “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” were mysteriously absent from the PGA noms, but were some of the best docs we saw this year.
Cinematography
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Claudio Miranda)
“The Dark Knight” (Wally Pfister)
“The Reader” (Roger Deakins and Chris Menges)
“Revolutionary Road” (Roger Deakins)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Anthony Dod Mantle)
Alternate: Eduardo Serra (“The Defiance”), Harris Savides (“Milk”)
Underdog: Colin Watkinson (“The Fall”)
Wishful Thinking: Christopher Doyle (“Paranoid Park”), Darius Khondi (“My Blueberry Nights”), Maryse Alberti, (“The Wrestler”), Sean Bobbitt (“Hunger”)
Again, ‘Ben Button’ probably has the upper hand here, although no cinematographer had a better 2008 resume than Roger Deakins. The mis-en-scene in ‘Button’ is incredible, creating believable and ornate frames in multiple time periods and locations. Even if we felt the camera movement was boxy and upright, at least compared to Mantle’s frantic Mumbai street scenes, it’s still the likely winner. We questioned Harris Savides absence from the guild noms, his work in creating grains and textures was instrumental to “Milk.”
Best Animated Film
“Wall-E”
“Bolt”
“Kung Fu Panda”
No Alternates or Underdogs. These are pretty locked in and there will be no substitutes or changes here unless hell all of a sudden freezes over.
Best Film Editing
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Milk”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
Alternate: “Revolutionary Road”
Underdog: “Doubt”
Wishful Thinking: “Che,” “Iron Man,” “The Wrestler,” “Rachel Getting Married”
9 out of 10 times the editing awards go to the final five and since we already know the final five… (basically anyhow; anyone betting against these five likes to play fast and loose with their money)
Best Sound Editing
“The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
“Cloverfield”
“Quantum Of Solace”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
We have a hunch “Iron Man” is going to sweep the this section of tech awards, but there always “Quantum of Solace” and ‘Dark Knight’ to contend with. “Cloverfield” feels too rough and coarse to be probably score multiple nominations, but were including it here just in case and because the guilds gave it some love.
Best Sound Mixing
The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
“Wall-E”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Quantum of Solace”
Alternate/Underdog: “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls”
Best Visual Effects
“Iron Man”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Chronicles Of Narnia – Prince Caspian”
Alternate: “Hellboy II”
Underdog: “The Dark Knight”
Wishful Thinking: “Cloverfield,” “Indiana Jones 4”
We won’t pretend to pose like we know anything about the documentary short, short animation or short live-action films, so we won’t even bother trying to predict those.
– David Benjamin & Rodrigo Perez