Will “The Revenant” sweep the board at this year’s Academy Awards, or will Leonardo DiCaprio fall prey to another snub? Will Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander emerge victorious from hotly contested Actress categories? With the 2016 Oscars fast approaching, Daily Bruin A&E predicts the winners for six of the major categories.
Best Picture: “The Revenant”
Revenge has never been sweeter. With 12 nominations, the chronicles of frontiersman Hugh Glass’s quest for vengeance, “The Revenant,” is the most nominated film at this year’s Academy Awards. If the past is any indication, this fact alone gives it a higher chance of winning best picture.
“The Revenant” has already won best motion picture drama at the Golden Globe Awards and best film at the EE British Academy Film Awards. What’s more, director Alejandro González Iñárritu is the front-runner in the best director category, which is more often than not in sync with best picture.
However, the possibility of another nominee upsetting “The Revenant” is still viable. Some of the year’s other major awards went to different recipients, making the Oscar predictions murky. The Hollywood Foreign Press awarded “The Martian” best motion picture musical or comedy while the Producers Guild of America awarded outstanding producer of theatrical motion pictures to “The Big Short” and BAFTA awarded outstanding British film to “Brooklyn.” Even so, these wins are not momentous enough to take the spotlight away from Oscar favorite, “The Revenant.”
– Sadia Khalid
Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu is on an Oscar roll. After winning the Academy Award for best director last year, he didn’t squander any time basking in the glory. He has already won best director for his film, “The Revenant,” at all of the major awards so far this season, including the Golden Globes, BAFTA and Directors Guild of America Awards. Everything points towards a probable Oscar win.
Even though George Miller, director of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and Lenny Abrahamson, director of “Room,” have both received critical acclaim for originality, neither of their films are typical Oscar material. That leaves Adam McKay director of “The Big Short” and Tom McCarthy, director of “Spotlight,” who were speculated to score more wins this year than they have done so far.
Furthermore, the director of the best picture generally wins best director, with only two exceptions in the last ten years, in 2013 and 2014. It seems most likely Iñárritu will join the ranks of John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the only two directors to ever receive two best director Oscars back to back.
– Sadia Khalid
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio
Best actor is very likely the most locked-in category of this year’s ceremony. Leonardo DiCaprio is going to win his first Oscar on Sunday for his overbearing role as gruffy, highly unfortunate explorer Hugh Glass in “The Revenant.”
The entire world will let out a collective sigh of relief that DiCaprio’s decades-long struggle for a golden statuette is finally over. Every single person in the Dolby Theatre will stand up and collectively clap their hands off. After likely giving the most practiced Oscar speech of all time, DiCaprio will walk off stage to the Academy press room, where he will finally reach the next stage of his life: unequivocal tranquility.
No longer will DiCaprio need to eat bison liver to impress the masses. No longer will he bleed vigorously on camera for Quentin Tarantino, or crawl down flights of stairs for Martin Scorsese. He will be able to live the rest of his life in Oscar-winning peace and serenity.
As DiCaprio looks onto the crowd, a single tear will fall from his eye onto the Oscar he grips so tightly in his hands.
– Sebastian Torrelio
Best Actress: Brie Larson
By all means, Brie Larson should have won this award two years ago for her masterfully restrained performance as Grace, a supervisor for troubled youths, in “Short Term 12.” Her acclaimed performance this year, as Joy Newsome in “Room,” hits many of the same notes.
Joy’s closed-off personality reflects not only the hellish circumstances the audience bears witness to, but the years of personal torture she has endured off screen. Her only job for most of the film is to hide the trauma from her son by conjuring weary glimmers of hope, which she barely has herself.
In “Short Term 12,” Larson played the identifiable, brave heroine: an embodiment of the everyday workforce and the belligerent teenager at the same time. In “Room,” the same stability gets overshadowed by the devastating cracks in her psyche that bleed through, each fascinating to watch.
Is there any chance of Larson losing? With the exception of compulsory nominee Jennifer Lawrence, the women that make up this year’s best actress category easily trump the nominees of every other acting category. But Larson has too much momentum at this point to conceivably miss out on her first Academy Award. Just don’t call it a breakthrough performance – she has been outstanding for too long to warrant that title.
– Sebastian Torrelio
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy
There’s something about John Fitzgerald that maliciously rips apart the seams of humanity. Maybe it’s the frigid gleam in his eyes as he abandons Hugh Glass on his snowy deathbed, or his heartless means of attaining his share of the fur trapping riches. Either way, frostbitten fingers and a disheveled beard are only the surface features of a villain brought to life by Tom Hardy. His epic performance begs a deafening question to viewers: Will you choose to be loyal or to survive?
There’s no doubt that 2016 is the year of “The Revenant.” The film is nominated in 12 categories. All eyes may be on DiCaprio, but Hardy is one of the leading contenders in the best supporting actor category – not too shabby for his first Oscar nomination.
If all goes as planned, don’t expect tears, bear hugs or a cry of celebration from Hardy. He has made it clear he’s in the entertainment industry solely for the art of acting. Both Fitzgerald and Hardy are men totally committed to their goals above all else – hopefully, the academy can recognize this quality come Sunday.
– Lena Schipper
Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander
The most assured thing about this year’s supporting actress race is that it’s ridiculous. The best performance among the lot, Rooney Mara’s in “Carol,” is in the entirely wrong category. Mara, giving the most emotionally tempered showcase of her career, carries the film even more than Cate Blanchett’s titular character does.
Kate Winslet’s understated ability to match Michael Fassbender’s Steve Jobs from the bottom of his divine pedestal should be receiving more buzz, but it isn’t. And Jennifer Jason Leigh’s extravagant role in “The Hateful Eight” was designed to perfectly pantomime Quentin Tarantino’s insane vision: to not appeal to the appropriate demographics.
Alicia Vikander, then, represents the perfectly safe option, minimal boundary pushing required. Compared to her roles in both “Ex Machina” and “Testament of Youth” last year, Vikander’s character in “The Danish Girl” is disappointedly unworthy of the talents that are making her one of the biggest rising stars on the planet, but it isn’t completely without purpose.
As Gerda, the wife of a transgender woman trying to find her place in society, Vikander carefully depicts the difficulty of reconciling love with the change in her lover’s identity. Through an Oscar win Sunday, audiences will be exposed to Vikander’s remarkably swelling filmography, and the world will be a better place for it.
– Sebastian Torrelio