Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Sound

Best Sound Editing
American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Sound editing rewards mainly the creation of new or nonexistent sounds for a film. I'm pretty sure Interstellar will sweep these technical categories, but who knows?  No reason for American Sniper or Unbroken to be nominated in these categories. If you replaced the names Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie on their posters, these would've certainly been forgotten come Oscar time.

My Ballot:
Interstellar
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies
Unbroken
American Sniper

My Pick to Win:
Interstellar

Shamefully Snubbed:
Earth to Echo



Best Sound Mixing
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

Sound mixing refers to correcting or enhancing the levels of the sounds in the movie. Once again, I expect Interstellar to prevail here, but I would be a little less surprised to see a Birdman upset in this category. Whiplash was certainly a welcome surprise, but the exclusion of the meticulous mixing that went on in Into the Woods is simply inexcusable.

My Ballot:
Whiplash
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
American Sniper

My Pick to Win:
Interstellar

Shamefully Snubbed:
Into the Woods

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Supporting Actress

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Laura Dern - Wild
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Emma Stone - Birdman
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

This is one of the very few stone cold locks we have for Oscar night. This little bald man already has a place reserved on Ms. Arquette's mantle. In Boyhood, Ellar Coltraine is the subject, Ethan Hawke is the heart, but Patricia Arquette is the film's center. The movie rests on her ability to sell the emotional roller-coaster that her little family goes through over twelve years. Her performance had to be consistent, empathetic, and, most of all, believable, and she nailed it. As for the other performances here, I truly feel Emma Stone's is the only other one worthy of a nomination. Knightley was overshadowed by the jaw-dropping performance from Benedict Cumberbatch, Laura Dern didn't really have to do much in Wild (with her story told entirely in flashbacks), and Meryl Streep was simply the worst part of Into the Woods (Emily Blunt and Tracey Ullman were both more deserving of supporting recognition from the film).

My Ballot:
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Emma Stone - Birdman
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Laura Dern - Wild
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

My Pick to Win:
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood

Shamefully Snubbed:
Imelda Staunton - Pride

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Visual Effects

Best Visual Effects
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past

This is a tough category.  All of the films have great visual effects, none of them have "Life of Pi"- style effects (you know, the ones that are obviously special effects), and all of them (except X-Men) are very good films on their own. Unfortunately, I missed Interstellar in the theater, so I don't really feel qualified to comment on its effects since my computer screen leaves a little to be desired. Still, this is the safest pick for the Academy because they usually shy away from sequels and superheroes in this category.

My Ballot:
Guardians of the Galaxy
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
X-Men: Days of Future Past

My Pick to Win:
Interstellar

Shamefully Snubbed:
The Signal

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Original Song

Best Original Song
"Everything is Awesome" - The Lego Movie
"Glory" - Selma
"Grateful" - Beyond the Lights
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" - Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
"Lost Stars" - Begin Again

As beautifully touching as Glen Campbell's song is, this is a two horse race between the otherwise ultra-snubbed Lego Movie's song and the otherwise ultra-snubbed Selma's song. Pretty sure this is Common's Oscar for three reasons: 1. The Academy wants some color on stage after being reamed for the past month over snubbing the actors and director of Selma 2. Even though it is a "credits song" it is integral to the flow of the film (the audience I watched the film with stayed throughout the credits), and performed by an actor from the film (Common portrayed Selma activist James Bevel) AND 3. It's simply the best song of the five.

My Ballot:
"Glory" - Selma
"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" - Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
"Everything is Awesome" - The Lego Movie
" Lost Stars" - Begin Again
"Grateful" - Beyond the Lights

My Pick to Win:
"Glory" - Selma

Shamefully Snubbed:
"The Hanging Tree" - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay
American Sniper
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

It was pretty shocking that both Gone Girl and Wild (popular novels that got turned into critically acclaimed films) were snubbed here. This is especially true when you consider the inclusion of American Sniper (which with all its appeal, screenwriting certainly isn't its forte'), Inherent Vice (a nonsensical mess that almost no one has really seen, and even less claim to understand), and Whiplash (a last minute addition to this category as it was deemed "adapted" from the director's previous attempt to make the film....). That leaves the two British biopics. Both driven by young actors turning in career-making performances, neither of these films would surprise me with a victory on Oscar night. Alan Turing's tale was a bit less "by-the-numbers" than Hawking's so I'm leaning that Cumberbatch and company will take this one.

My Ballot:
The Imitation Game
Whiplash
The Theory of Everything
Inherent Vice
American Sniper

My Pick to Win:
The Imitation Game

Shamefully Snubbed:
Wild

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

Three very deserving nominees.  Foxcatcher's makeup team transformed Steve Carell into John DuPont. The hairstylists of Grand Budapest were completely original with their designs in a way that kept up with Wes Anderson's whimsical masterpiece. Still, they don't really come close to the overwhelming job done by those working on (with apologies to The Avengers) the best comic book movie of all time. In a day where movie-makers simply throw CGI at a problem, James Gunn and company used the perfect mix of digital (Rocket) and real characters. Compare the realism of Gamora and Drax to the disconnect felt with characters like the Na'vi aliens in avatar or (heaven forbid) Jar-Jar Binks.  Unfortunately, I think the Academy is gonna fill up the GB Hotel with awards in the technical categories, so I think they win here.  I wouldn't really be disappointed if any of these films went home with the Oscar, but it's pretty clear who deserves it.

My Ballot:
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Foxcatcher

My Pick to Win:
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Shamefully Snubbed:
The Theory of Everything

Countdown to Oscar Night: Best Film Editing

Over the next 19 days I will breakdown 19 of the 24 Oscar categories as we prepare for the big night on February 22nd.  I am not handicapping the documentary category this year because I don't have the ability to see ANY of them, which stinks.  The foreign language category is also being left behind as I have only seen one of the five films.  The other three categories are the "shorts" categories which I truly believe should either be revamped with some kind of youtube release or eliminated because I always want to see the films but simply cannot.  I am only ten films short of seeing every other nominated film so I may actually be able to pull it off this year!  Here we go:

Best Film Editing
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

I found the nominees very puzzling here as I feel only two of the five films are even worthy of mentioning for their editing alone (Boyhood & Whiplash).  There isn't much I DID like about American Sniper, Wes Anderson's magnum opus (Grand Budapest) relies on production, writing, and acting instead of slick editing, and The Imitation Game's editing was nearly bad enough to be distracting from its awe-inspiring story and performances.  How Birdman got left out here blows my mind. As much as I love Boyhood, I feel Inarritu's cinematic experiment was much more dependent on the work of its editor, and may have been the best pure editing in any film in years.  Oh well....

In each category I will cast my ballot (ranking from favorite to least), make my pick to win, and list a notable snub:
My Ballot:
Boyhood
Whiplash
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
American Sniper

My Pick to Win:
Boyhood

Shamefully Snubbed:
Birdman