BEST PICTURE
Who Will Win: "The Social Network"
Who Should Win: "The Social Network". Challenging, relevant, cutting edge and forcefully infectious as pop art. Its place as a "generation-defining" film is yet to be determined, but as a personal drama, a story of a business venture, a portrait of singular vision and its repercussions (both wonderful and tragic), "The Social Network" is the best picture of this year, and one of the best of any other.
BEST DIRECTOR
Who Will Win: David Fincher for "The Social Network"
Who Should Win: Fincher is one of the best directors working today - in anyone else's hands, the masterpiece "The Social Network" is could have been overly didactic or romanticized with Aaron Sorkin's meaty script. He's been previously overlooked for "Zodiac" and passed over for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," so it'd only be right that his finest complete work to date is acknowledged.
BEST ACTOR
Who Will Win: Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
Who Should Win: Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"
Eisenberg's cold, calculating portrayal of Facebook's CEO may seem obsessed with trivial things. Some have even likened him to having Asperger's Syndrome. But it's the defiance in him that makes Mark Zuckerberg so compelling, along with his constant struggle with one idea and the toll it may take on the rest of his life. Eisenberg's richly nuanced performance shows us a young man doomed to be misunderstood, yet never backing down from raging against the academic, advertisement, or social machine.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Who Will Win: Christian Bale in "The Fighter"
Who Should Win: Bale is deserving of this award for his chameleon-like method approach to Dicky Eklund's mannerisms and frenetic intensity. He gives us moments of humanity when we're almost certain all his roads lead to failure, never once losing himself in the chance to make the character overly sensational.
BEST ACTRESS
Who Will Win: Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Who Should Win: Portman has earned her spot in horror immortality in the twisted psyche of Nina Sayers. Her performance is at once calm and composed and wildly insecure and out of control, both sides colliding in perverse and extravagant beauty at the film's final bow.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Who Will Win: Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"
Who Should Win: Amy Adams in "The Fighter"
From her down-home look, to her vernacular, to her foolish, painful love for Whalberg's Micky Ward, Adams gets just about everything right as Charlene Fleming. Charlene's constant tug of war with Micky's volatile blood relative inner-circle for his attention and trust makes for "The Fighter"'s most emotionally charged and dangerous component.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Who Will Win: David Seidler for "The King's Speech"
Who Should Win: Christopher Nolan for "Inception".
Nolan's absence from the Best Director category is a sham; the least that can be done is for the Academy to recognize the achievement of his bizarre and unique vision on paper.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Who Will and Should Win: Aaron Sorkin for "The Social Network"
On the surface it's a John Hughes movie by way of "Rashomon," beneath it's a timeless tale of universal resonance, in addition to raising its own very material-specific issues. Despite its being about a world of computer programmers and rich, entitled white males, "The Social Network" somehow manages to feel as massive as a gangster epic. With his witticism-a-minute linguistics, Sorkin demonstrates masterfully how to fictionalize true events in wholly immersive and uniquely relatable cinema.
On the surface it's a John Hughes movie by way of "Rashomon," beneath it's a timeless tale of universal resonance, in addition to raising its own very material-specific issues. Despite its being about a world of computer programmers and rich, entitled white males, "The Social Network" somehow manages to feel as massive as a gangster epic. With his witticism-a-minute linguistics, Sorkin demonstrates masterfully how to fictionalize true events in wholly immersive and uniquely relatable cinema.
Who Will Win: "Toy Story 3"
Who Should Win: What other film but Pixar's manages to pull off themes of existential crisis while still being sweet, warm, funny and exciting at the same time? A perfect finale to Disney's classic trilogy.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Who Will Win: Roger Deakins for "True Grit"
Who Should Win: Wally Pfister for "Inception"
Though Deakins' work in "True Grit" is superb and will finally be rewarded after many years of overlooked collaborations with the Coen Brothers, Wally Pfister's in "Inception" has given us imprinting cinematic images that will hold up with time, and deserves to be recognized. Still, this is a very strong category that gives some nods to some terrific art-house flair (Matthew Libatique, "Black Swan"), as well as one that came unexpected (Jeff Cronenweth, "The Social Network") but would be completely justified with consideration.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Who Will Win: "The King's Speech"
This will inevitably take the category that holds two requirements: 1.) Film in question must be a period piece, having to do with Kings/Queens, and/or a British monarchy drama. 2.) Film in question should be poised for a big night.
Who Should Win: "I Am Love"
Antonella Cannarozzi's simple and elegant pieces offset the film's soothing palette and meticulous set composition, while resisting the urge to commit to a gimmicky use of "period" costumes.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Who Will Win: "Exit Through The Gift Shop"
Who Should Win: "Gift Shop" is a fascinating and brilliant first film from one engima of a street artist, Banksy, whom I doubt the Academy will miss the chance to give reason to attend.
BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Who Will Win: "Poster Girl"
BEST FILM EDITING
Who Will Win: "The Social Network"
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Who Will Win: "Incendies". It's shocking enough that the magnificent "Dogtooth" from Greece was even nominated. This is the favorite.
BEST MAKEUP
Who Will Win: Rick Baker for "The Wolfman"
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Who Will and Should Win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for "The Social Network".
Right around when Eduardo (Andrew Garfield) enters the room and Mark (Jesse Eisenberg) demands the algorithm he uses to rank chess players for the purposes of publicly humiliating Harvard's entire female student body, Reznor and Atticus's gnashing electro-synths kick in and we know we're in for something bold, punk rock and subversive. Other moments hold equally as powerful, some sexy, some haunting, some fierce, all moving with propulsive grandeur.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Who Will Win: "We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3"
BEST SHORT FILM ANIMATED
Who Will Win: "Day & Night"
BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Who Will Win: "Wish 143"
BEST SOUND EDITING
Who Will Win: "Inception"
BEST SOUND MIXING
Who Will Win: "The Social Network"
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Who Will Win: "Inception"
BEST ART DIRECTION
Who Will Win: "Inception"
