2nd Burt Awards & Top 10 of 2014

       Tonight we will find out what the most prestigious voting body in the world thinks. But here is something I'd like to think as a recap of the last year. It's nice to sit down and see what you liked and maybe loved. The choices are sometimes controversial, so were they last year. I got some people wondering why I chose Judi Dench as my best actress. I choose what I liked the most, don't give a damn how it looks or sounds. If I feel good about my picks, then I give out the awards, otherwise I might just wait till tomorrow and copy the Academy's choices. It's about being fair to your taste.

   So here they are, my picks, some of them will overlap with the Academy (a lot I hope), and some aren't even nominated. Here they are. The 2nd Annual Burt Awards with the Top Ten movies of the year 2014.

1. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2. Whiplash

3. Boyhood

4. The Grand Budapest Hotel

5. Nightcrawler

6. Selma

7. Gone Girl

8. Edge of Tomorrow

9. Inherent Vice

10. Interstellar

   I was really debating whether 10 should be Interstellar or Into the Woods. I liked both, but in the end the spectacular vision of Christopher Nolan prevailed. 

   What I liked was that many films (each of the above) started a discussion. Gone Girl must've been the most talked about movie of the year. The problems it tackled, the themes it portrayed. Birdman and its open for interpretation ending was something to be talked about. Whiplash and the character of Fletcher, and by extension the ending sequence. Boyhood enchanted me. It felt so real, the story was so incredibly honest, and sometimes gripping. Edge of Tomorrow was the most awesome movie of the year, being the best blockbuster action film. Amazing. Each of them offered something, and each will stay with me. 

    Birdman, however, was the one that I knew would be No1 or 2 right after I saw it. It blew my mind, it's something that every filmmaker wants to achieve. Everything about it was so damn perfect. It was that or Whiplash, but Birdman prevailed having its strength in the screenplay, the sole tiny flaw that Whiplash had. Birdman is a film I will surely come back to in years to come.

    Having announced my Best Picture of the year, here are the remaining categories.

    The winners are in YELLOW & BOLD  and below are the runners-up in alphabetical order.

BEST DIRECTOR

Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman)

Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Ava DuVernay (Selma)

David Fincher (Gone Girl)

Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

Why: The way the amazing idea was executed was stunning and how it all worked together like a perfect puzzle made it impossible not to choose Innaritu. DuVernay directed one of the most thrilling and breath taking scenes I've seen all year. Linklater made something so honest that it just moved you. The scene at the table when the drunk husband slams dishes was so powerful. I mentioned him here because of the quality of his work, not the commitment that shamefully appears to be the reason for his frequent votes (as we found out from Scott Feinberg's "Brutally Honest Oscar Ballots".

BEST ACTOR

Jake Gylenhaal (Nightcrawler)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

David Oyelowo (Selma)

Why: Gylenhaal just gave me the chills. He was so scary that I literally was debating whether or not to shit my pants. That eventually came with Steve Carell, but that's not in this category. The chemistry between Gylenhaal and Russo was amazing. They both wanted more, only he had a plan and was organized and she blindly and greedily demanded more just to please herself. They both were crazy, and for showing us in such a powerful way Gylenhaal deserves to be here. I couldn't go without mentioning my second favorite of the year - Ralph Fiennes. So funny and good. Oyelowo - electrifying and charismatic. Keaton - satirically funny and profound. Cumberbatch - touching and breath taking.

BEST ACTRESS

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Jennifer Aniston (Cake)

Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Why: Well there just was no other option. This was Pike from the very beginning. I walked out of the theatre knowing she would be the one I'd choose. I thought about it once more when I saw Cotillard, she was my No2. Back to Pike though, she was equally as scary as Gylenhaal, so very convincing. There was no showy performance, it was just raw and blood chilling life. "That's marriage" she said, which had to be the best scene of hers in the movie. She was the best and if you think she wasn't, well... "No way, baby. I'm it."

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Edward Norton (Birdman)

Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice)

Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

Marco Perella (Boyhood)

J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

It could have gone three ways for me. Carell, Norton or Simmons. They are were great. Carell and Simmons scared the shit out of me. Carell creeped it out more, and Simmons... well he haunted me for some time. "Not quite my tempo". But Norton playing the celebrity, the sum of everything I always loved about him. There is one line that absolutely won me over. "Play with my balls". Perfect and amusing.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)

Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)

Emma Stone (Birdman)

Naomi Watts (Birdman)

As I said before the chemistry with Gylenhaal, which is best seen in the restaurant scene, was the best thing about the film and it's thanks to Rene Russo too. As for her performance solely, the "killer moment" was when she scream at Lou Bloom for not getting her the footage she wanted. She is so addicted from information and lives on a basis of ratings that she explodes when someone fails, and by extent she does. The two ladies from Birdman are both phenomenal in their own ways. Stone is perfect in her monologue (shoutologue, really) but her best moment is on the roof when Norton tells her that Keaton hit him in the face. "Oh my God. Are you fucking kidding me?". Watts is very delicate and subtle, beautifully capturing the fragile soul behind a debuting Broadway actress' ego.

BEST SCREENPLAY

Birdman

Gone Girl

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Nightcrawler

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Birdman

Foxcatcher

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ida

Nightcrawler

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Interstellar (Hans Zimmer)

Birdman (Antonio Sanchez)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat)

Gone Girl (Atticus Ross & Trent Reznor)

The Theory of Everything (Johann Johannsson)

BEST ENSEMBLE

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Gone Girl

That's all. We shall see who wins tonight, I hope my picks at least to some extent overlap with the Academy's (although some categories are locked). Good luck to whoever you're rooting for! Thanks for a great and unpredictable season, see you after the big night.

BURT mizaki

Final Oscar Predictions

      The big moment is here. The moment when couple months of work goes down the drain. We all worked to figure out the logic in al of this and for what? Did we get anything right? Is the Best Picture race really that close? Or was Birdman, or whoever ends up winning, supposed to win by a wide margin, so wide that it had no threats? We don't know what happens behind the scenes, we only get a small two (sometimes three) word hint at what the Academy thought. A single name. No numbers. We need to speculate, guess, predict. And we all have something to do, thankfully.
      This is arguably the most exciting moment in a pundit's or blogger's "Oscar season". Deciding on who will win. We get to feel the masters of the Academy, because our predictions hold such power, that until the names are actually read out, whatever we predict is the winner for us. Then comes the ceremony. And all goes to hell. All of the work. We get it right, we get it wrong, we have to wait for another 12 months. The excitement level is so high (for some) that it might feel like an actual high. Then the bubble bursts and the anticipation grows slowly for 12 months. Of course we get to live our lives in the meantime, but if you look at the calendar shutting life out, and counting the movie days, the premiers and awards.
       A whole year lead up to this, and I am ready to screw up and go down below 20 correct. Last year I scored a good 21 out of 24, but to my unfortunate surprise I found out that I was among the 90% of predictors to get that exact score. But 2013 was a year that saw no upsets. All the frontrunners won and I got 2 wrong just because I predicted a surprise. This year, however, is a completely different story. There are so many uncertain categories that the predictions below probably went through a lot of editing before finally being published.
     And I have waited a long time to see a Best Picture race like this. Thank you for the guilds! And director too! And actor! And screenplays! And sound! And editing! Thank you! I'll probably tai that back if I get all those wrong. Anyways predicting this year has been a privilege with the highlight of my accuracy being the 4th best user on Gold Derby to predict the Golden Globe nominees. Oh shut up and let me enjoy my little success. Baby steps.
    Also I would like to say that preceding the Oscar ceremony I will post the 2nd Burt Awards along with my Top 10 of the Year 2014.

   Here are my final (!) predictions for this year. Let's take a look (and by let's I mean me too, because I have no idea what I'm gonna write in as winners):




 BEST PICTURE: 


Will win: Birdman
Could win: Boyhood
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Boyhood
Should win: Birdman
Should have been here: Gone Girl


 BEST DIRECTOR: 

Will win: Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman)
Could win: Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Richard Linklater
Should win: Alejandro G. Innaritu
Should have been here: Ava DuVernay (Selma)


 BEST ACTOR: 

Will win: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Could win: Michael Keaton (Birdman)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: A tie between those two
Should win: Michael Keaton (Birdman)
Should have been nominated: Jake Gylenhaal (Nightcrawler)


 BEST ACTRESS: 

Will win: Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Could win: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Julianne Moore
Should win: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Should have been nominated: Jennifer Aniston (Cake)


 BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 

Will win: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Could win: Edward Norton (Birdman)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: J.K. Simmons
Should win: Both are worthy
Should have been nominated: Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice)


 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 

Will win: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Could win: Emma Stone (Birdman)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Patricia Arquette
Should win: Both are worthy
Should have been nominated: Rene Russo (Nightcrawler)


 BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: 

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Could win: Birdman
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Birdman
Should win: Again, both, but really all of them (Foxcatcher maybe the least for me)
Should have been nominated: Selma


 BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: 

Will win: Whiplash
Could win: The Imitation Game 
My 'Oscar Race' winner: The Imitation Game
Should win: Whiplash or Inherent Vice
Should have been nominated: Gone Girl


 BEST FILM EDITING: 

Will win: Boyhood
Could win: Whiplash
Should win: Whiplash
Should have been nominated: Edge of Tomorrow


 BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: 

Will win: Birdman (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Could win: Ida (Lukasz Zal & Ryszard Lenczewski)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: Birdman
Should win: Birdman, Ida or Mr. Turner
Should have been nominated: Selma


 BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: 

Will win: The Theory of Everything (Johann Johannsson)
Could win: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat)
My 'Oscar Race' winner: The Theory of Everything
Should win: Interstellar (Hans Zimmer)
Should have been nominated: Birdman


 BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: 

Will win: Ida (Poland)
Could win: Leviathan (Russia)
Should win: Ida
Should have been nominated: Two Days, One Night


 BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: 

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Could win: Mr. Turner
Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Should have been nominated: Birdman


 BEST COSTUME DESIGN: 

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Could win: Into the Woods
Should win: Into the Woods


 BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: 

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Could win: Guardians of the Galaxy
Should win: Both are worthy
Should have been nominated: Into the Woods


 BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: 

Will win: Interstellar
Could win: Guardians of the Galaxy
Should win: Interstellar
Should have been nominated: Edge of Tomorrow


 BEST SOUND MIXING: 

Will win: Whiplash
Could win: American Sniper
Should win:  Birdman


 BEST SOUND EDITING: 

Will win: American Sniper
Could win: Birdman
Should win: Birdman
Should have been nominated: Whiplash


 BEST ORIGINAL SONG: 

Will win: "Glory" from Selma
Could win: "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell... I'll Be Me
Should win: "Glory"
Should have been nominated: "Yellow Flicker Beat"


 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: 

Will win: Citizenfour
Could win: Virunga


 BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: 

Will win: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Could win: Big Hero 6
Should have been nominated: The LEGO Movie


 BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: 

Will win: Parvaneh
Could win: The Phone Call


 BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: 

Will win: Crisis Hotline Vets: Press 1
Could win: Joanna


 BEST ANIMATED SHORT: 

Will win: Feast
Could win: The Dam Keeper





So that's it! Some of them are ballsy, but hey it's an unpredictable year, the most unpredictable in my Oscar watching career. Good luck with your predictions and have a nice Oscar Sunday!

See you tomorrow for the 2nd Burt Awards.

                            Burt MIZAKI                         




   

A Look at the Actors. Is Keaton 2012's Streep?

     Only four days to go and the only precursors left are the below-the-line guilds and the Spirits on Saturday. Will the 4 acting winners repeat themselves on Oscar night like last year? That would require Michael Keaton taking the Oscar. I'm not predicting it to happen but I sure would like it too.

      Remember in January 2012 when Meryl Streep was the frontrunner for the Oscar because it's a major biopic and she is so overdue (btw it's kind of amazing to reach a point in your career when you're a two time Oscar winner and be overdue. Congrats)? Then she beat Viola Davis at the Globes and solidified her status. But then she lost two major precursors in a row, the BFCA and, more importantly, the SAG. And Viola became the frontrunner. But then Meryl won the BAFTA and some thought it might be a sign. Most of the pundits, however, took it as rewarding a British figure biopic (the screenplay and supporting actor were nominated too). In the end almost all of them ended up predicting Viola Davis for the win. I however stayed with Meryl and it paid off. A similar scenario seems to be unfolding here with Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne. Although it was Keaton who took the BFCA and Redmayne who won the BAFTA, they switched places around the same time Streep and Davis had. Another difference is that people are actually cheering for Keaton here, whereas three years ago, Viola was the favorite. Both british figures were neglected by the American pundit society. This time one is the frontrunner. So I ask myself: Should I go back to Keaton? 

    The reason I probably went with Streep back then, was that I didn't follow the race too much, and wasn't all that aware that Davis was going to win. I just rooted for Streep because, well, one year someone had to wait for their turn for Streep to get her third Oscar. It's just a damn shame it wasn't Sandra Bullock in 2010. Good God Streep was great as Julia Child. And Bullock's presence among the nominees was arguably enough. If not too much. But back to why I predicted Streep. It was the unexpected virtue of ignorance, I guess. 

     What makes Keaton and Streep so close too? Their veterans. Such a win carries the weight of a whole career. 

       So who should I choose? Who will I choose? Who will be chosen? 

       I should choose Keaton, and I know it. I will probably go with Redmayne, but it kills me. Will be chosen? God damn it. Probably Redmayne, but if Keaton is, and I don't end up predicting him, I'm gonna go crazy probably. Is there any movie with Meryl Streep and Michael Keaton?

      To relish on the sweet ignorance that rose my predictor's pride above others', I'll wait until Saturday, when I put up my final predictions. For now, I'll stay the boring predictor who just goes with the frontrunner. But hey, I might end up predicting Keaton. If they are giving Best Pic to Birdman, they might as well go all the way. And if I do predict him and Redmayne wins AND Boyhood takes top 2 prizes.... then I'm fucked. And this year will mark the worst prediction score of mine ever. It would be funny though, to get all the rest right.

Without further ado, here are my "4 days left" predictions:

BEST PICTURE:

1. Birdman (Alejandro G. Innaritu)

2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

4. The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum)

5. Selma (Ava DuVernay)

6. American Sniper (Clint Eastwood)

7. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)

8. The Theory of Everything (James Marsh)

BEST DIRECTOR:

1. Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman)

2. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

3. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

4. Bennet Miller (Foxcatcher)

5. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

BEST ACTOR:

1. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

2. Michael Keaton (Birdman)

3. Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)

4. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imiation Game)

5. Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

BEST ACTRESS:

1. Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

2. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

3. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

4. Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

5. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

2. Edward Norton (Birdman)

3. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

4. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

5. Robert Duvall (The Judge)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

2. Emma Stone (Birdman)

3. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

4. Laura Dern (Wild)

5. Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

2. Birdman

3. Boyhood

4. Nightcrawler

5. Foxcatcher

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

1. Whiplash

2. The Imitation Game

3. Inherent Vice

4. American Sniper

5. The Theory of Everything

That's all for now. All the categories by Friday and finals on Saturday. This season flew by like a rocket, eh? Nothing boring about it now. It was for a moment though.

BURT mizaki

Birdhood in for Boyman

   So it did happen, Birdman DID win the DGA award. That there was a clear signal "Birdman has just knocked Boyhood out of its way". But then came the BAFTAs and it appeared that Boyhood hadn't fallen out quite. It was still dangling there. And then came a blow for Birdman. We all realized it won only 1 award. One that it was sure to win anyway. Yet somehow Birdman survived the attack on its status as the new frontrunner. Oh those Brits...
   So who is the frontrunner? It's Birdman ladies and gentlemen. But don't go cheering (or crying) just yet. Boyhood is very much in the race. Like in my last post Boyhood had "the smallest of edges", Birdman has now the same kind of advantage. The smallest one. Both films can win.
   Birdman is the film that I finally feel relaxed to predict as the winner. Because it's not just speculation. The Guilds are very very reliable precursors. Especially PGA. And apart from the fact that I'd prefer Birdman to win, I feel relaxed because while Boyhood was the frontrunner I had this feeling as if it wasn't solidified as such. I was left waiting for something to happen, and just when I gave up, it did. I come back from winter vacation, I start to catch up on a full week of Twitter (had no internet), and BOOOM! Birdman had won the PGA, the SAG and was the new frontrunner. Alas so was Redmayne, but let's leave that delicate subject aside.
   Let's just go back in time for a minute here, folks. Back in spring 2014 after the last Oscars, we looked into this year's Oscars. And we had a hard time figuring out Boyhood's case. What I thought was that it was too small to go all the way to the Oscars, but if it actually did, then it would win. If it managed to hold on for a full year, then it would be "12 Years a Slave's" successor as the Best Picture winner. But now I feel I was wrong about it all. Sure, it can still win, in a "the small indie that could" kind of way, it won the BAFTA, the Globe. But Birdman's sweep overlaps with the Academy's membership largely. On the other side, though, BAFTA is the group similar to the Academy in size.
   Oh what the hell I'm just gonna post predictions, write something more sophisticated and profound during the weekend.
Here they are, the predictions, with only 11 days left to the Oscars.




BEST PICTURE:

1. Birdman (Alejandro G. Innaritu)
2. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
4. The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum)
5. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
6. American Sniper (Clint Eastwood)
7. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
8. The Theory of Everything (James Marsh)



BEST DIRECTOR:

1. Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman)
2. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
3. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
4. Bennet Miller (Foxcatcher)
5. Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)



BEST ACTOR:

1. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
2. Michael Keaton (Birdman)
3. Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
4. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
5. Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)



BEST ACTRESS:

1. Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
2. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
3. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
4. Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
5. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
2. Edward Norton (Birdman)
3. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
4. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
5. Robert Duvall (The Judge)



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
2. Emma Stone (Birdman)
3. Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
4. Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)
5. Laura Dern (Wild)



BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

1. Birdman
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. Boyhood
4. Nightcrawler
5. Foxcatcher



BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

1. Whiplash
2. The Imitation Game
3. American Sniper
4. Inherent Vice
5. The Theory of Everything



That's it for now,

 BURT  MIZAKI