Predictions for the 84th Academy Awards

Very soon, it's going to be time to invite a man named Oscar into your house. With his presence comes the celebration of last year's achievements in motion pictures. It's the night in Hollywood that everyone in show business eagerly anticipates, and said anticipation gets amped up as those in attendance wait to hear what names will be called from the envelopes. This year, the night and excitement will be delivered by the master of ceremonies, Billy Crystal. This will be his ninth year hosting this event.

This year, the movies brought us a collection of stories that were very diverse in regards to their material. Among them, we had a return to silent film, a group of bridesmaids engaged in uproariously funny shenanigans, a young boy's adventures through a Parisian train station, an experimental look at the meaning of life and magical midnights in the City of Lights.

There are some big questions we're waiting to have answered: Can Viola Davis beat Meryl Streep for Best Actress? Will Christopher Plummer finally win an Oscar? Will French actor Jean Dujardin win Best Actor over George Clooney? And how many awards will be won by each of the two most nominated films of the year, which are Hugo with 11 nominations and The Artist with 10 nominations?

Here are my thoughts of who will win and who should win in the eight major categories.


Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants, Hugo, The Ides of March, Moneyball and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Will Win: Moneyball - This baseball drama is refreshingly barren of cliches that usually go with the sports genre. I normally find the game boring to watch, but this film easily drew me in. The film reveals that it's not always about what happens on the field, but what happens behind the scenes, concentrating on the process of scouting and the mathematical methods of picking players. Just like many screenplays by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, Moneyball lives on intelligent and inspired dialogue to tell its story, and it's one of the film's several grand-slam aspects.

Should Win: Hugo - John Logan's screenplay is adapted from Brian Selznick's 2007 children's novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Despite the intended audience for the book, the film has reached a wide range of filmgoers. The way it delves into the history of early filmmaking and mixes it with the story of an orphan boy's adventures through a Parisian train station made the film one of 2011's most cinematically magical journeys. Watching the unraveling of film history that I learned earlier in my Language of Film Analysis class was one of the highest delights I had at the movies this year. Hugo is an observance of the limitless wonder and power of movies.


Best Original Screenplay: The Artist, Bridesmaids, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris and A Separation

Will Win and Should Win: Midnight in Paris - The first few minutes of this film just consist of picturesque images of Paris. What followed was an unexpected Summer treat in the middle of big-budget blockbusters. Woody Allen's time-travel comedy follows an aspiring novelist, played by Owen Wilson, who longs to live in 1920s Paris, which he considers to be its Golden Age. That's exactly what he gets every night when the clock strikes 12. Every time Wilson's character meets one of his literary role models, we are just as excited as he is. It's a story about being influenced by past artistic achievements, while also learning to be inspired by and appreciate the beauty that your own era has to offer. The film is a festive and romantic view of a city that flourishes in its bountiful art. It also helps that Woody Allen has been nominated in this category 14 other times, and won twice. This year could be his third.


Best Supporting Actress: Berenice Bejo for The Artist, Jessica Chastain for The Help, Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids, Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs and Octavia Spencer for The Help

Will Win and Should Win: Octavia Spencer for The Help - Spencer has been winning award after award for 2011's most-talked-about breakout performance. As a maid in 1960s Georgia who isn't afraid to speak her mind or cause some trouble to send society a message, Octavia Spencer hasn't lost any steam since she started picking up awards buzz during the film's release. After receiving wins at the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, I think we can count on Octavia being called on stage on Oscar night.


Best Supporting Actor: Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn, Jonah Hill for Moneyball, Nick Nolte for Warrior, Christopher Plummer for Beginners and Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Will Win and Should Win: Christopher Plummer for Beginners - Plummer is one of today's most celebrated actors, having a marvelous talent that has resulted in a few Emmy Awards and Tony Awards. Surprisingly, this is only his second Oscar nomination in his highly impressive career. In Beginners, Plummer gives a bold performance as an elderly man who comes out as a homosexual, and Ewan McGregor is his son who tries to come to terms with this revelation. Plummer has fared very well on the awards circuit so far this Oscar season, so expect the Academy to finally give him the recognition he's long overdue for.


Best Actress: Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis for The Help, Rooney Mara for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

Will Win and Should Win: Viola Davis for The Help - So far, this has been a tight race between Davis and Streep, with each winning their share of distinguished awards. It could be an honor, and yet intimidating, to be going up against one of the greatest actresses to ever work in film. But this could very well be Viola's year, who plays a courageous and strong-minded maid in The Help. She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination back in 2009 for her work in Doubt, where she turned her 12 minutes of screen time into a knockout performance. If Davis could manage a nomination with showing up for only one scene in Doubt, then she has a genuine shot at coming out on top in one of this year's closest races.


Best Actor: Demian Bichir for A Better Life, George Clooney for The Descendants, Jean Dujardin for The Artist, Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Will Win and Should Win: Jean Dujardin for The Artist - George Clooney tends to be a favorite amongst the voters at the Academy, and was the frontrunner at first. Now, Dujardin is starting to catch up, after recently winning Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Clooney is superb in The Descendants, but there's the chance that the voters could be siding with the most surprising performance in this category. Dujardin plays a silent film actor in 1920s Hollywood, who then loses everything when he refuses to work in talkies. His performance is a dedication to the classic silent films stars, who all proved that expressions and gestures can be just as successfully communicative as talking. His performance absorbs the audience into a lost world of filmmaking that has the chance to live again after all of these decades.


Best Director: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, Alexander Payne for The Descendants and Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Will Win and Should Win: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist - It's a great deal of work for a director to tell his cast and crew what to do, especially the cast members, since they are the ones who we're mainly watching. Since The Artist is a silent film, Hazanavicius has to make sure that every actor and actress has their gestures and expressions down pat, because they can't rely on dialogue to move the story forward. The director always needs his cast to follow his instructions for how to interpret what's happening on screen. Hazanavicius does such magnificent work with making that happen, and has made a silent film appeal to generations that have been without such films. That's a movie miracle.


Best Picture: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse

Will Win and Should Win: The Artist - This film was a risky project from the start: a silent, black-and-white film with unfamiliar stars, except for a couple of recognizable faces in supporting roles. The most important question was, "will this find an audience?" As of now, it has earned close to $25 million domestically. While that's not enough to be considered a hit, it's still a respectable amount, given that it has only been released in around 900 theaters. It was the most nominated film at the Golden Globes, winning three of the six awards it was up for; and with 10 Oscar nominations, it's the movie to beat. It's a celebratory return to a classier time in Hollywood when the magical accomplishments in the movies were continuing to grow, and when this form of storytelling became the ultimate escapist dream. Seeing a silent film on the big screen offers an excitingly new experience for all viewers. The two leads are mesmeric and deserve the brightest of futures. The Artist is a golden example of being able to say so much with so little.


Although many of the major categories have predictable winners, there are still a few chances for a surprise here and there, like last year when The King's Speech won Best Picture over The Social Network. 2011 brought many fine films that deserve much recognition; but come Oscar night, the envelopes will reveal who are the favorites. So be sure to catch the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday February 26 at 7:00pm on ABC.