Oscars 2017

I'm not able to do my usual Oscars' predictions this year - I simply haven't seen enough of the movies to have an educated guess at what will happen.  But here is what I hope will happen!

I would have to guess that Emma Stone is going to win Best Actress for La La Land, and she was very very good and appealing in it so I wouldn't mind.  But it will be a shame for Natalie Portman who I hear is fantastic in Jackie (haven't seen).

You can't even make a dollar on betting that Casey Affleck is going to win Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea.  Again I haven't seen any in this category except La La Land and Ryan Gosling is not going to win for that.  Shame for Denzel and Andrew Garfield who I hear are both fantastic as well.

For Best Picture, it's probably a two horse race between Moonlight and La La Land.  The favourite doesn't always win this category so I really hope Moonlight wins!  It was excellent and much more of the traditional Oscar Best Picture type of thing.  La La Land was enjoyable but if it wins it just really shows how shallow and self-obsessed Hollywood is.  Like we didn't know that anyway, but this will just put the nail in the coffin.  Hidden Figures would also be a worthy winner but far too light and breezy of a crowd pleaser to stand a chance.

Jeff Bridges probably has Best Supporting Actor sewn up (one I have seen) but don't discount the dark horse of Michael Shannon in Nocturnal Animals (haven't seen it).  Mahershala Ali was good but the role was pretty small.

Best Supporting Actress is a really tight race by all accounts.  I have only seen 2 out of 5 but I think I would have to predict that it will be either Viola Davis or Michelle Williams, but most likely Viola Davis?

What I would love to see win in the other big categories:
Cinematography: Arrival
Costume Design: Jackie, although Fantastic Beasts was excellent, one of the things I commented on
Directing: Damian Chazelle - while I don't find the movie worthy of winning, I thought the directing was excellent - some really bold choices
Music (original): Audition from La La Land - Emma Stone's piece was really affecting.  Not as catchy as the other one but was really touchingly fragile.
Visual Effects: Dr Strange for the win here.  Blew me away! Some really new stuff here.
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Arrival.  Fantastic script and structure.
Writing (Original Screenplay): Tough to choose. My guess would be Manchester by the Sea from this group.