Last year, I walked out of “Lincoln” having a pretty good feeling that Daniel Day-Lewis was going to walk away with every Best Actor award. Check! After watching “Silver Linings Playbook”, I predicted Jennifer Lawrence would be the year’s Oscars darling. Check! And practically everyone could see that Anne Hathaway’s Best Supporting Actress dream would come true after witnessing her gut-wrenching performance in “Les Miserables”.
But the remaining acting category: Best Supporting Actor, was clearly up for grabs, and resulted in multiple winners over the course of Awards Season. Phillip Seymour Hoffman won the Critics Choice for “The Master”, Tommy Lee Jones took the SAG for “Lincoln”, and Christoph Waltz won the BAFTA and Golden Globe for “Django Unchained”. So, come Oscar night, the statue could’ve easily gone to any of the five nominees, and it was Waltz starting off the show with the somewhat surprise victory.
As we get deeper into this Awards Season it’s appearing that every major category will be up for grabs. I’ve already seen several amazing films and performances (with, hopefully, a few more to come), but in my mind there are no clear-cut favorites (no Daniel Day-Lewis’ this year). There’s strong Best Picture buzz surrounding “12 Years a Slave”, “Gravity”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, and New York Film Critics Circle selection “American Hustle”.
Could Tom Hanks take home two Oscars (one for “Banks” and one for “Captain Phillips”)? The Best Actress category is packed , with A-listers Amy Adams (“Hustle”), Sandra Bullock (“Gravity”), Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”), Judi Dench (“Philomena”), Meryl Streep (“August: Osage County”), and Emma Thompson (“Banks”).
What about Supporting Actor? Will the late James Gandolfini be honored for his performance in “Enough Said”? How about Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) or newcomer Barkhad Abdi (“Captain Phillips”)? And Supporting Actress is wide-open too: Will Jennifer Lawrence be the Golden Girl again – or do veteran heavyweights Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey have a shot?
As often happens, one contender could get hot and on a roll, with the Globes, Critics Choice, and SAG Awards all in the same week this year (Jan 12, 16, and 18). Or there’s a good chance the honors could be spread out. And with such a large gap this season between all the other Awards shows and the March 2 Oscars, anything could change.
Here’s a prediction I’m confident in: this will be the most unpredictable Awards Season ever.