How ironic it is that the one year where I'm prepared to do my absolute worst in terms of predicting the Oscars turns out to be my best year yet. There were only three categories I missed, making a total of 21/24 correct guesses. Looking around the land, that's a better score than many of the so-called experts who make it their living to predict this stuff. That makes me feel good.
In terms of what I did miss, two of them were highly contested categories. Best Supporting Actor had arguments to be made in the favor of all the nominees, and I ended up betting that Silver Linings Playbook was going to be much more well received than it ended up being (it only won a single award). The signs were definitely in favor for Christoph Waltz, especially since he won everything he was nominated for. He has now been twice nominated and twice won, fitting that it happens the same night Sally Field loses that honor. As for the other category, Production Design, I knew Lincoln was a contender, but couldn't bring myself to predict it. Bravo to those that did.
As for the last category I got wrong, it has now proven to me that Best Live Action Short is my worst category. I'm never able to predict that one correctly.
Everyone seems to be ganging up on Seth MacFarlane for his hosting duties, but I rather liked him. I don't think I ever need to see him come back, but I found his sense of humor just edgy enough to warrant relevance in this day in age while also trying to pay homage to those in the room. But as he even joked about during his opening monologue, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't when it comes to hosting the Oscars. In truth, it doesn't matter what you do. They'll end up hating for it anyway.
So the book closes on another Oscar season. Argo defied its initial odds and won Best Picture without Affleck being nominated for Director. However, in his stead we got Ang Lee, a win that made me very happy. I didn't love Life of Pi, but I like it when such a strong directorial achievement is rewarded. Jennifer Lawrence also managed to fight off the Emmanuelle Riva surge of support and win Best Actress (I knew people were overestimating the support for Amour, as also evidenced by Tarantino's victory in Original Screenplay). Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway winning were expected. And there it is. Until next time.
And one more little bit of Oscar trivia: This is the first year since 2006 where the top six categories went to different movies. Best Picture: Argo, Best Director: Life of Pi, Best Actor: Lincoln, Best Actress: Silver Linings Playbook, Best Supporting Actor: Django Unchained, Best Supporting Actress: Les Misérables. Coincidentally, the last time this happened, Ang Lee also won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain.
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