The Olympics for filmmakers film fans has arrived. The Academy Awards air Sunday on ABC, as the Academy of Motion Picture and Film will announce the winners of the highest honors in the film industry and hand out the famous gold statuettes.
Oscar movies do not always stay in theaters long, and they may be out of theatres once the nominees are announced. For uninformed movie fans, here is a crash course on the Oscars and the nominated films.
The Oscar race for Best Picture is tight this year. Nine films were nominated: “12 Years a Slave,” “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Gravity,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But, “12 Years a Slave,” “American Hustle” and “Gravity” comprise the three-horse race for the title this year. Each film has taken a share of other top film awards, and “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” unexpectedly tied for Best Picture at the Producer’s Guild Awards, which typically predicts the Best Picture winner. “American Hustle” took home the most Golden Globes.
Alfonso Cuarón, director of “Gravity,” is picked to win Best Director. The acclaim he already received at other awards shows places him in the front seat to win the title of Best Director. Peter Sobezynski, a writer for Roger Ebert’s website, raved about the work of Cuarón.
“With ‘Gravity,’ Alfonso Cuarón accomplishes any number of things in spectacular fashion but its most astonishing achievement may be the way that it restored sense of genuine excitement and wonder to the moviegoing experience,” he said.
Best Director is Cuaron’s race to lose.
Although the Academy Awards will celebrate its 86th ceremony, this year is a big year of firsts and potential firsts.
This year’s Oscars features a slew of first-time performers. Idina Menzel, from the movie “Frozen,” will be perform the juggernaut hit, “Let it Go.” Other first-time performers include Pink, Pharrell Williams, U2 and Tony and Oscar winner, Bette Midler.
For the first time, Best Director could go to non-white directors. Steve McQueen, a black director, is nominated for “12 Years A Slave.” Cuarón, a Latino director, is nominated for “Gravity.” Both men join the minute number of non-white nominees.
Leonardo DiCaprio might finally win his first Oscar for his performance in the “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But once awards started going out, Matthew McConaughey raced into the lead for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club.” “Time” magazine’s Megan Gibson predicted the race to fall to McConaughey.
“Matthew McConaughey has a lock on the Best Actor Award,” she said.
Gibson said the Academy is known to give this award to performers based on whether they deserved it in the past rather than an individual performance. Some would argue this is why McConaughey will win, but Gibson also said DiCaprio’s longevity can give him an advantage.
“(DiCaprio) has been acting in critically-acclaimed films for 20 years now … when will it be Leo’s turn?” she said.
Will Leo finally win? Will we all “Let It Go” one last time? Will the category of Best Director make groundbreaking strides? Tune in at 6 p.m. Sunday to watch Ellen DeGeneres host film’s biggest night.
