Oscars 2013 - My predictions

Here is a look at my predictions for some of the main categories at the Academy Awards this year.
I have not watched all the films in contention. So, the predictions will be more of 'What will win' rather than 'What should win'.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

My pick: Argo - It has always been a front runner ever since the movie's release. Later it became a 3 way race with Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty being the other two. But seeing how Ben Affleck won the Directors Guild Award and Argo winning both Producers Guild Award and the Golden Globes, I wonder if there is anything at all that stands between Argo and the coveted prize.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix for The Master
Denzel Washington for Flight

My pick: Daniel Day-Lewis. He has had rave reviews all over for his performance as the 16th President of the United States. He has also already won the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Globes

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva for Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts for The Impossible



My pick: It's a two way race between Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain both having won fair share of awards leading to the Oscars. But the former might have a slight edge having won both SAG and Globes.

Best Achievement in Directing

Michael Haneke for Amour
Ang Lee for Life of Pi 
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild

My pick: It was really crazy on the part of the Academy that they had not nominated Ben Affleck or Kathryn Bigelow or Quentin Tarantino! I have no clue who would win. It could either be Michael Haneke or Steven Spielberg.

Best Animated Film of the Year

Brave
Frankenweenie 
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

My pick: My favorite part! The only category where I've watched all the films and my favorite was Wreck-It Ralph. Such a cute little movie which was colorful and lovely. I want it to win. Tim Burton's Frankenweenie has an outside chance. Being a big Pixar fan boy, I found the magic missing in Brave. But having already won the Globes and BAFTA, it could very well have the last laugh.

Few other categories which I feel some of the contenders have a very strong case of winning:
Cinematography, Visual Effects, Production Design - Life of Pi
Original Screenplay - Django Unchained
Costume Design - Anna Karenina
Foreign Language Film - Amour
Makeup & Hairstyling - Les Misérables
Original Score - Skyfall

I haven't discussed the Supporting actors category but am pretty sure Anne Hathaway will be winning in the Actress category for her terrific performance in the musical Les Misérables. You will also be convinced after watching her 'For your consideration' video:

What do you think of the nominees and the probable winners? Pls mention in the comments below.

Indie Game: The Movie

I ain't much of a gamer. The most I play are some light-weight PC games when am bored. I stumbled upon this movie only when I saw it being rated as the best movie of 2012 by Mihir Fadnavis. Initially I was put off that it was a documentary and that it could be boring. But later decided to check out anyway. The movie talks about independent game developers, the struggles they face during the process of developing a game and then releasing it.

The film caught my attention in the initial few minutes when Tommy Refenes says this in the movie "I'm not going to go work at 'EA' or 'Epic'. That sounds horrible. That sounds like Hell to me. So, if it (the game) comes out and people hate it, it doesn't make a difference because even though it's a game that people are supposed to buy it's not a game that I made 'for people'.... I made it for myself"
Wow! The passion, the one thing that was common to every Indie developer in this movie. How they wanted to express themselves through the games and not just make some well-polished and marketed 'crap' (Tommy also goes on to say that 'Modern Warfare' or 'Halo Reach' are sh*t and that he hates them).

The movie revolves around interviews of developers of 3 of the most popular Indie games. Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes who developed Super Meat Boy, Phil Fish of Fez and Jonathan Blow who created Braid. It talks about their early struggles without any big corporate backing, tight deadlines, public pressure (Fez was in the making for almost 5 years after it was announced in 2007). Also the games they conceptualized and developed were something personal and might not appeal to the masses. So there is always the risk of investing a lot of time and money on something but then it could become a total failure. But all of them have successfully managed to break those barriers and released their games on various platforms and earned critical success. Most people know about the game factories like EA, EPIC etc but these people are rarely in the limelight. So, I liked the way this movie talked about these master minds who work single-handed (or in pairs) and make such beautiful creations!

P.S. There were some nice recommendations of indie games when they discussed a few in the back drop. Thought of making a list so as to check out later:
Super Meat Boy, Fez,  Braid, World of Goo, Castle crashers, Osmos, Limbo, Journey, Minecraft, Sword and Sorcerer, Overgrowth.