Nothing quite like leaving things to the last minute.
Here I am sitting in the lobby of the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the exact place in fact where the very first Oscars were held in 1929, and I am finally submitting my Oscars Picks! I guess I just needed to be in the perfect Oscar's frame of mind.
Best Picture nominees:
AMERICAN SNIPER
BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)
BOYHOOD
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
THE IMITATION GAME
SELMA
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
WHIPLASH
There's so much talk around the Best Picture race this year as we watched the golden pendulum swing back and forth between Birdman and Boyhood all awards season.
It's an amazing duel, and even more amazing to see such ground-breaking, innovative, intimate and rewarding independent cinema get the buzz and the attention it deserves on Hollywood's biggest stage.
- READ MORE: Full list of 2015 Oscar nominations
But how on earth do we compare them, and chose just one for them for the coveted Best Picture?
Jenelle Rily from Variety wrote an excellent piece on this very issue and how regardless of the result we must rejoice in either winning, as they both - for entirely different reasons - deserve to.
As with most things cinematic, I will eventually be led by my heart, and my heart belongs to Boyhood. Birdman was no question an exhilarating, hilarious and singular experience - I loved it.
But Mason and his parents just stole me away; their story, their lives, so universal, so enduring, and ultimately so incredibly nourishing, that Boyhood - perhaps against the Oscar odds - must be my pick.
Best Director:
BIRDMAN - ALEJANDRO G. IÑÁRRITU
BOYHOOD - RICHARD LINKLATER
FOXCATCHER - BENNETT MILLER
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL - WES ANDERSON
THE IMITATION GAME - MORTEN TYLDUM
So how will the Best Director category unfold bearing all that in mind? Here I am hoping for a world where both Richard Linklater and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu could both be clutching a Best Director Oscar at the end of the night - they are both entirely worthy of one!
My pick, if I must? Richard Linklater for Boyhood, even if Birdman wins Best Picture.
Supporting Actress:
PATRICIA ARQUETTE - BOYHOOD
LAURA DERN - WILD
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY - THE IMITATION GAME
EMMA STONE - BIRDMAN
MERYL STREEP - INTO THE WOODS
The supporting categories are being called locks and rightly so.
Some great performances are nominated; in fact I loved Laura Dern in Wild, but Patricia Arquette in Boyhood? What a masterclass in open vulnerability, as she clearly surrenders herself to her flawed and fabulous character, and to her director Richard Linklater. She will win the Oscar.
Supporting Actor:
ROBERT DUVALL – THE JUDGE
ETHAN HAWKE - BOYHOOD
EDWARD NORTON - BIRDMAN
MARK RUFFALO - FOXCATCHER
J.K. SIMMONS - WHIPLASH
J.K. Simmons similarly dominates the Supporting Actor category as much as he dominates the screen in Whiplash.
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and the wonderful Ethan Hawke feature here, and in any other year could have taken it. Simmons should and will win the Oscar.
Best Actress:
MARION COTILLARD - TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
FELICITY JONES - THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
JULIANNE MOORE - STILL ALICE
ROSAMUND PIKE - GONE GIRL
REESE WITHERSPOON – WILD
Julianne Moore already!
She has come so deservedly close to Oscar too many times (Far from Heaven anybody?), this is her fifth nomination, and when we talk about locks, she certainly qualifies!
Her much-lauded performance in Still Alice, her character battling early-onset Alzheimer's Disease, has garnered her every award she's been nominated for this season - should the Oscar not come her way would be an enormous upset. Moore is my pick.
Best Actor:
STEVE CARELL - FOXCATCHER
BRADLEY COOPER - AMERICAN SNIPER
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH - THE IMITATION GAME
MICHAEL KEATON - BIRDMAN
EDDIE REDMAYNE - THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Best Actor is only slightly more limber - an on-going face-off between Michael Keaton, the early season favourite for his brilliant outing in Birdman, and rising British star Eddie Redmayne, for his quite incredible performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
Keaton took home the Independent Spirit Award this weekend, but Redmayne wasn't on the card - as his film didn't qualify.
Redmayne won the Globe, and he won on home turf at the BAFTAs. He's my pick for Best Actor, for giving everything to such a physically demanding role.
...
So there you go - my picks set in stone! Here's hoping the Weta crew win for their incredible Visual Effects work on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Happy Oscars Day!
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