Oscar Recap- Argo Wins Best Picture While Life of Pi Lands the Most Awards

Ben Affleck got the last laugh after being snubbed by the Academy in the Best Director category when his film, Argo, won the award for Best Picture. However, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi landed the most Oscars overall, four, including an upset of Spielberg for director. \

The only other major surprise arrived at the outset of the telecast when Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor (Django Unchained) in a race thought to be between Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook) and (Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln). As for this critic’s prognostications, I got 15 of 21 correct, including Argo (Click here for all the predictions).

Much of the pre-Oscar buzz had been about Seth MacFarlane’s hosting the Oscars, and how his irreverent brand of humor would be received by the crowd. Although he didn’t take many potshots at Hollywood royalty, his monologue, performances and banter did reflect a disappointing coarsening of the culture.

Whether invoking the name of porn star Ron Jeremy or doing a song and dance celebrating nude scenes “We Saw Your Boobs”, MacFarlane frequently resorted to racy material inappropriate for children. He also took a few jabs at Jews, implying that claiming to be at least half-Jewish or a big supporter of Israel was a prerequisite to making it in show business.

But he leveled the lion’s share of his acerbic barbs at African-Americans. For example, in a skit inspired by Denzel Washington’s film Flight, he had a black, hand puppet drinking alcohol and snorting coke. Then there was his shockingly-pedophilic sexualizing of 9 year-old Best Actress nominee Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) by speculating about when she’d be too old to date George Clooney. And he made light of domestic abuse when he suggested that Chris Brown and Rihanna considered Django Unchained a date movie because it was about a man trying to get back a woman who’s been subjected to unspeakable violence.

Seth also quipped that it’s okay for Quentin Tarantino to use the N-word “because he thinks he’s black,” and he wondered whether Daniel Day-Lewis might’ve tried to free Don Cheadle had he bumped into him on the studio lot while still in character.

The offensive fare revolving around race was ultimately offset somewhat when they had First Lady Michelle Obama open the envelope for Best Picture from the White House. Still, this Oscar show was anything but a family affair.

The Envelope Please: Who Will Win, Who Deserves to Win, and Who Will be Snubbed
by Kam Williams

Lincoln (2012) Movie Poster Lincoln opened the awards season as the odds-on favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Picture by virtue of its landing the most nominations. But the snub of Ben Affleck in the Best Director category made his movie, Argo, the sentimental favorite of the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild, and the momentum of that sympathy vote is likely to carry over to Oscar night.

While Lincoln won’t take home the top prize, it will nevertheless win the most awards (5), followed by Les Miserables (3), and then by a number of films taking 2 apiece: Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, Skyfall and Django Unchained. A quintet of Oscars sans Best Picture won’t exactly be a sweep, but it’s a far better fate than that of Zero Dark Thirty, whose hopes were torpedoed by political blowback even before it had a chance to open in theaters.

Besides forecasting the winners below, I also indicate which among the nominees in the major categories are actually the most deserving. And because some great performances are invariably snubbed by the Academy, I also point out a few I feel were overlooked entirely.

The 85th Academy Awards was broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, February 24th at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, and was hosted by Seth MacFarlane.

Kam's predictions are shown below. Winners are highligted in yellow.

Best Picture

Will Win: Argo
Deserves to Win: Zero Dark Thirty
Overlooked: Looper

Best Director

Will Win: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)
Deserves to Win: David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Overlooked: Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Ben Affleck (Argo) and Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Completely missed pick :Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Best Actor

Will Win: Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)
Deserves to Win: Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)
Overlooked: John Hawkes (The Sessions) and Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi)

Best Actress

Will Win: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
Deserves to Win: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
Overlooked: Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea) and Ann Dowd (Compliance)

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
Deserves to Win: Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
Overlooked: Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) and Matthew McConaughey (Magic Mike)

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Ann Hathaway (Les Miserables)
Deserves to Win: Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
Overlooked: Emily Blunt (Looper)

Best Original Screenplay:

Will Win: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)
Deserves to Win: Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)
Overlooked: Rian Johnson (Looper)

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Will Win: Tony Kushner (Lincoln)
Deserves to Win: David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Overlooked: Ben Lewin (The Sessions)

Completely missed pick :Chris Terrio (Argo)

Predictions for Secondary Categories

Animated Feature: Brave
Foreign Language Film: Amour
Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugarman
Cinematography: Life of Pi
Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Production Design: Les Miserables Lincoln
Film Editing: Argo
Makeup and Hairstyling: The Hobbit Les Miserables
Original Score: Lincoln Life of Pi
Original Song: Skyfall
Sound Editing: Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall
Sound Mixing: Les Miserables
Visual Effects: Life of Pi