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"Top Tens", and others Movies

My predictions for the 95th Academy Awards

Welp, here we go again. I am coming in at the 11th hour, but my predictions are ready. Sadly, I did not get to seeing all I wanted to in time, but such is life.

True, last year I lucked out in going 21/23 (my best to date), but perhaps I am being too modest in saying you should take that with a grain of salt. The only true prediction I know for sure is that Will Smith won’t be there.

Note: As always, I know nothing about the idea of betting odds or anything, so don’t come yelling at me if you lose money.

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"Top Tens", and others Movies

The 94th Academy Awards: My take on the Good, the Bad, and…well, you know what moment.

In the words of Ron Burgundy, “That escalated quickly!”.

The 94th Academy Awards had more than its fair share of failures (one we will get to), but it is important to remember that it had some good moments as well. Great moments, in fact, that are worth remembering.

In no particular order…

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"Top Tens", and others Movies

The 94th Academy Awards: Who will win, who should win, and why you should not underestimate the Power of the (under) dog

This may be a bad analogy, but making my predictions this year has been akin to playing Candy Land, possibly the worst kids board game of all time. If the goal is to simply make the predictions at a reasonable time, I am still feeling stuck on that black dot space, or I keep drawing that stupid muffin guy or whatever that brings me back to the start.

Either way, after hours of personal research (including looking at multiple anonymous Oscar voter revelations) here are my predictions, as well as what I think should win. I was also on a podcast with an old High School friend as we discussed the nominations (thanks again Mike!). That was split into two episodes.

NOTE: Not all the predictions I made on the podcast are the same here. What I have typed out are my final predictions.

And, of course, I feel all the categories are important, and should be on TV. So we will start with the lesser known categories…

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"Top Tens", and others Movies

My Predictions for the 93rd Academy Awards (expect some history to go down)

When Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture last year, it was truly one of the only great moments of 2020 (the lockdown was only a couple weeks away). Now, nearly 14 months later, the next Academy Awards is occurring (and, more importantly, the hopeful end of this horrible pandemic).

I will try my best in my predictions to answer all the questions that are on the table before Hollywood’s big night: As always, you need to guess in every one of the 23 categories (they meshed sound mixing and sound editing) if you have a pool you are participating in, so here are my predictions.

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"Top Tens", and others Movies

May I have the (pushed) envelope, please? My response to the Academy’s new change for future contenders

“Well, I could be wrong, but I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.”

– Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell)

This Anchorman quote would be followed by Ron’s boss Ed (the late great Fred Willard) making sure Ron knew what the word actually meant, that times are changing. This indeed was the message sent to the world by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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5 Stars Movies Vintage

The Searchers (1956)

At the 92nd Academy Awards, when Bong Joon Ho was accepting his Oscar for Best Director (for Parasite), he paid tributes to each of his fellow nominees. The first (and most memorable) was toward Martin Scorsese, which prompted an unexpected standing ovation. It was clear that Bong Joon Ho was paying tribute to a mentor.

In the filming industry, perhaps no other career is more vocal of paying tribute to mentors than that of a director. Most (if not all) have stated they have been in total admiration of a certain director that came before them, often rewatching their films almost to a degree of pure obsession. Certain names come to mind: Hitchcock, Kubrick, Welles, Kurosawa, Spielberg, Scorsese, Eastwood, Coppola, Lucas, Tarantino, and Spike Lee, to name a few. However, all the big named directors seem to have one person they all agree on that had influenced their career. That name is John Ford. Famously, when Orson Welles was asked the directors he admired most, he said, “John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.”

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5 Stars Movies Vintage

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Relatable characters are one of the main ingredients for any movie to work on an audience, and the more flawed they are is a plus. Some of the portrayels are so iconic that we can’t imagine anyone else playing them. There is no Taxi Driver (1976) without Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle,or (for contemporary audiences) no Pirates of the Carribean if Jack Sparrow is not played by Johnny Depp. Both of the forementioned characters (and countless others) are in totally different situations (let alone genres), but we relate to them because of their flaws. In short, they are anti-heroes.

This brings us to Cool Hand Luke Jackson, which is a role that is forever immortalized by screen legend Paul Newman.