Ali A. Rizvi's Oscar 2013 Predictions

Here it is. Last year I got all but three right. Don't know if I can
top that this year. Add your own predictions in the comments section.

BEST PICTURE: Argo
Um, Hollywood saves Americans from Ayat-o-Lulla Khomeini's Iran. How does this NOT win Best Picture? Ben Affleck notably didn't get a Best Director nomination, but has since won most of the other awards, Golden Globe included. Argo will get Best Picture to compensate for the Director snub. Roger Ebert revised his prediction from Argo to Silver Linings Playbook, but I'm betting he had it right the first time.

BEST DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Argo winning Picture (instead of Lincoln) clears the way for Spielberg
to get Best Director - though this really should have gone to Ang Lee
for Life of Pi, for directing a seemingly unfilmable book with kids,
animals, water, and CGI - and all that IN 3D. But the Oscar's still
going to Spielberg. 

BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
The most predictable and obvious category, along with Best Foreign
Film (Amour).

BEST ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
May go to Jessica Chastain, but I'm betting on JL. Roger Ebert changed his prediction to Emmanuelle Riva for Amour, but again, betting he was right the first time.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Well-deserved, and he'll get it. Wouldn't be surprised if De Niro got
it for Silver Linings, though. Or Philip Seymour Hoffman. Or Christoph
Waltz for Django. Okay, admittedly this is the most wide open,
difficult to predict category, but I'm going with TLJ. Either way, it
won't be Alan Arkin.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Really should go to Sally Field for Lincoln, but you'd be crazy to bet
against Anne Hathaway.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Wreck-It Ralph
Haven't seen it, so this is the least educated guess on this list.
It's either this or Brave.

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Paperman
Head Over Heels was way better, more real, and creatively brilliant.
But everyone just seems to love Paperman. This is also one of those 'should win' (HOH) vs 'will win' (PM) things. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Searching for Sugar Man
Not as depressing and serious as most Oscar-winning docs, but most
likely to win.

BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT: Open Heart

BEST FOREIGN FILM: Amour
Duh.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Life of Pi
Pretty easy, this one.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Anna Karenina
It's a tossup between this and Les Misérables.

BEST MAKEUP: The Hobbit

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Les Misérables

BEST EDITING: Zero Dark Thirty
I'm going to be wrong on this one - it'll probably go to Argo. But the
sequence leading up to them finding Al-Kuwaiti, plus the brilliance of
the raid at the end totally biased in favor of ZDT - truly awesome.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Life of Pi
I've never figured out what the Academy's formula is for this category.
But I have noticed that they seem to love Indian-flavored music (who
doesn't?), since even before AR Rahman won both music categories for
Slumdog Millionaire a few years ago. So play it safe and bet on LoP.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Skyfall, Adele
I can't stand Adele's music (I know I know), but this
song is awesome - and not just because it's so heavily influenced by
Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name' from Casino Royale - a much better
song.

BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION: Curfew
Haven't seen any of them. Wild guess.

BEST SOUND EDITING: Zero Dark Thirty
Anything with 'Editing' in the category title should go to ZDT because
of those two perfect sequences - chasing down Al Kuwaiti, plus that
raid at the end.

BEST SOUND MIXING: Les Misérables
This typically goes to the film that gets the sound editing Oscar, but
Lés Mis is a musical, and is absent from the sound editing category.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Life of Pi
I'll officially change my name to Mike Lee Taurus if this film doesn't
win this category.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Zero Dark Thirty
It's not just the screenplay in this case - it's also all the research
that went into writing it. If enough people are upset about the
pseudo-controversy about torture in ZDT, Tarantino could win for
Django. But that wouldn't be fair. Mark Boal deserves this award.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Argo
Come on. Canada and the CIA exploit the world's love of Hollywood to
trick Iran and save lives? AND it's based on a true story? How is the
Academy not going to totally love that?