By Sean van der Heijden
Here are my official Oscar predictions for the 2014-2015 season. Last year I only got one wrong, but this year’s way harder. It’s basically come down to Birdman vs. Boyhood for both Best Picture and Best Director, so those categories are a complete toss-up. As for the acting categories, I’m judging based on on-screen performance alone. I’ll try to be as unbiased as possible.
That being said, in addition to who I think will win (WW), I’ve occasionally included two subjective categories of who I think should win (SW), and who I think should have been nominated (SN). If you want to check out the full list of nominations, click here.
BEST PICTURE
WW: Boyhood
SW: The Grand Budapest Hotel
SN: Gone Girl; Interstellar
BEST ACTOR:
WW: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
SW: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
SN: Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler; Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ACTRESS:
WW: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
SW: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
SN: Scarlett Johansson, Under The Skin
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WW: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
SW: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
SN: Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WW: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
SW: Laura Dern, Wild
SN: Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
BEST DIRECTOR:
WW: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
SW: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
SN: Pawel Pawlikowski, Ida; James Marsh, The Theory of Everything
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WW: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness
SW: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WW: The Imitation Game, Graham Moore
SW: Whiplash, Damien Chazelle
SN: Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WW: Birdman, Emmanual Lubezki,
SW: Ida, Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski
SN: Selma, Bradford Young; Under the Skin, Daniel Landin
BEST EDITING:
WW: Boyhood, Sandra Adair
SW: Whiplash, Tom Cross
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST SOUND EDITING: American Sniper
BEST SOUND MIXING: Whiplash
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Interstellar
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
WW: The Grand Budapest Hotel
SW: Guardians of the Galaxy
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
WW: The Theory of Everything, Jóhann Jóhannsson,
SW: Interstellar, Hans Zimmer,
SN: Gone Girl Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross; Under the Skin, Mica Levi
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
WW: “Glory,” Selma
SW: “Lost Stars,” Begin Again
SN: “Big Eyes,” Big Eyes
BEST DOCUMENTARY
WW: CITIZENFOUR
SW: CITIZENFOUR
SN: Life Itself
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WW: Ida
SW: Ida
SN: Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night)
BEST ANIMATED FILM: How to Train Your Dragon 2
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Feast
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: The Phone Call