French writer/director Michel Hazanavicius has admitted that seven or eight years ago, he fantasised about making a silent film.
The Artist will prevail with anything between five and eight awards- Paula Fleri-Soler
Each time he mentioned it, he’d only get an amused reaction. Nobody took him seriously... except for his producer Thomas Langmann. And so they made The Artist – a silent film in black and white. A French film, to boot, about the end of the silent era in Hollywood.
Those naysayers must be kicking themselves as tonight, Hazanavicius and Langmann will in all likelihood walk away with the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars at the 84th Academy Awards – only the second time a silent film would have won the coveted award in Oscar history.
It will be a remarkable fairytale ending for a film which debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and which slowly but surely has been wholeheartedly embraced the world over, culminating in the 10 nominations it carries into the ceremony tonight, leaving the other eight Best Picture nominees in its wake.
Speaking of which: have you, like me, wondered why there are just nine Best Picture nominees this year? Well, two years after trumpeting its decision to open the field to 10 nominees to better celebrate great films, the Academy has once again changed the rules governing this category.
To receive a nomination, a film has to garner at least five per cent of first-place votes during the initial nominating process. This year, evidently only nine films made it past five per cent on the first ballot. If you ask me, nine is a silly number, apart from the fact that this mathematical obstacle means the likes of Drive, Bridesmaids and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy didn’t make the cut.
Anyway, back to tonight. The Artist will prevail with anything between five and eight awards, including Best Actor for its charismatic star, Jean Dujardin and Best Original Screenplay (lack of dialogue notwithstanding) for Hazanavicius.
Poor George Clooney was very close to walking away with the Best Actor award for his delightful role in The Descendants; but I think the wave of love for The Artist will also carry Dujardin to Oscar glory.
No-one would even dare suggest, least of all I, that anyone other than Meryl Streep will walk away with the Best Actress award, because great as the other nominees are, no-one can come close to the powerhouse performance she delivered as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
Unless there are any major surprises, the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards will go to Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer respectively. Plummer has already walked away with over a dozen critics’ societies and other awards for his role as an elderly man who admits he is gay after the death of his wife in Beginners; while Octavia Spencer has also amassed kudos for her role of sassy maid Minny Jackson in popular ensemble drama The Help.
I believe the Best Animated Feature film is the Spanish-UK co-production Chico and Rita. This may be a bit of an odd choice, but there is no obvious winner à la Toy Story 3 last year, and this one has been getting quite a bit of buzz and may cause an upset over more popular entries Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots; while the weird and wonderful Rango may prove to be, in fact, too weird and wonderful for Academy voters.
Seeing that it’s already won myriad international awards to date, I would bet that the Iranian entry A Separation will go home with the Best Foreign Film award.
The Artist should add to its total tally with Best Original Score for its composer Ludovic Bource; and it will slug it out with Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese, in many of the technical categories.
Hugo is that other magical film that reverently pays homage to the early days of cinema.
It is bad luck that Scorsese has to contend with the French flavour of the month – nay, year – as in any other year his film would be the one to beat. As it is, Hugo will have to be content with a couple awards in the design or effects categories.
I would have thought Hugo was a shoo-in for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the competition is tough, with The Descendants, The Ides of March, Moneyball and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also vying for the prize.
My money is on the latter, and Peter Straughan will collect the Oscar on his and his co-screenwriter’s behalf – his wife Bridget O’Connor who sadly passed away in 2010.
The Oscars will be handed out tonight.
Tomorrow, I will re-read this piece to see where I went horribly wrong...
My predictions for the main categories
Best Film: The Artist
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Best Actress: Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer – The Help
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Best Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Best Animated Feature: Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal - Chico and Rita
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation – Iran
Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource – The Artist
Best Original Song: Bret McKenzie for Man or Muppet – The Muppets