Weekender Academy Award predictions

With the Academy Awards fast approaching, Weekender put together our own predictions for the crème de la crème of Hollywood

We’re only a month into 2015, and the movie world is already buzzing with brilliant masterpieces. We just couldn’t wait for the 87th Academy Awards on Feb 22, so Weekender went ahead and voted the films we think deserve the trophies.

Check back with us after the Awards and see how many we got right!

Best Picture: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Pulling off both absurd comedy and realism, Birdman explores the mental state and duress of a washed-up Hollywood star (played by Michael Keaton, also a washed-up actor who acted as Batman)

The media has been rife with buzz about satire Birdman — The media has been rife with buzz about Birdman, said to be a dig at classic superhero films like Batman

With a host of marvellous contenders this year – from biopics like The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything to dark horse Whiplash – it’s a tight fight for first place. But Birdman has been praised as beautifully meta, a feat that not many modern works have achieved.

Best Actress: Julianne Moore in Still Alice

STILL ALICE eposter_with date

I want so badly for genius Rosamund Pike, who plays Amazing A-hole Amy in Gone Girl, to win this one. But I think the Academy’s a sucker for a character who fights for life in the face of imminent mortality, and Julianne Moore does a fantastic job of it in Still Alice.

Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

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Hands-down, no question. He made you feel for Stephen Hawking, even though Hawking cheated on his wife. Redmayne’s acting is so good that you forget he’s contorting his own face. Hawking himself approved of Redmayne, and that’s as good as handing him the Oscar.

Best Animated Feature Film: Big Hero 6

BIG HERO 6

Call me biased, but Big Hero 6 hit all the sweet notes of an award-winning animation: tears and wailing all around, whether from laughter or heartbreak. If they franchised Baymax healthcare units, directors Don Hall and Chris Williams may be taking home a Nobel prize for improving world healthcare too.

Best Music (Original Score): Interstellar

No contention for this one either in our books. Rivalled only by the movie’s interplanetary visual spectacle and mind-bending story, the score for Interstellar had audiences gripped way after the show stopped screening. Someone should tell director Christopher Nolan that repeating his killer combo with composer Hans Zimmer is just cheating!

By Pamela Chow