And the Oscar Goes To...

My super talented, brilliant writer of a brother AJ has supplied us with his Oscar predictions yet again this year. He brings up some great points, so enjoy!

Something big is happening in Hollywood. For an industry built on the noise and chaos of hype, illusion and celebrity, it seems almost contradictory that this small revolution within the film industry has arisen from a silent battle cry. Eighty-four years after the last silent film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, The Artist has positioned itself as the front runner to claim the golden statuette on February 26. Whatever you have to say about the film’s flaws (inconsistent tone, flat characters, its gimmick factor) pales in comparison to the fact that a silent film has achieved such critical and commercial success in an society that craves the conventional and demands instant gratification.

I had a feeling that this year’s Academy Awards were going to be unique after Clint Eastwood’s sprawling biopic J. Edgar was met with a quiet apathy by both critics and moviegoers back in October. In the past, Eastwood’s films have been greeted with lavish praise and numerous awards from the Academy. He has received the Best Director award twice in his career and four of his films have received Best Picture nominations. With an A-list cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, and Judi Dench and a big studio budget, J. Edgar seemed like an obvious shoo-in for this year’s Best Picture race. That is, until no one showed up to see this snooze fest. The result: 0 Oscar nominations.

America’s silent treatment towards Eastwood’s films is a refreshingly rebellious act. Think of it as a middle finger to the old-fashioned Hollywood regime that thought they could release the same conventional schlock every year and that the audience was too stupid to notice or care.

It wasn’t just Eastwood who was pushed out of the pop cultural lexicon this year. Most all of the major studio Oscar bait failed big time with critics and audiences in the winter months. War Horse, Super 8 and Cars 2  all failed to live up to lofty expectations. Instead, the Best Picture list is dominated by small budget, intellectual fare (Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, The Artist, The Descendants). Average moviegoers started to talk more about Dujardin, Payne, Bejo and Malick and less about industry giants like Spielberg, Eastwood and DiCaprio.

When The Artist claims its prize for Best Picture of the Year next Sunday, that split second of silence before the applause is the sound of a resounding shakeup in the film world. The independent film has become mainstream.

My 2012 Oscar Picks

Best Picture: The Artist

Spoiler: Hugo

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Spoiler: Michel Hazanivicius, The Artist

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Spoiler: George Clooney, The Descendants

Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Spoiler: Viola Davis, The Help

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Spoiler: Nick Nolte, Warrior

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help

Spoiler: Bérénice Bejo, The Artist

Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Spoiler: Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, The Descendants

Spoiler: Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life

Spoiler: The Artist