Ebert's 2010 Oscar Predictions

Roger Ebert's Website ^ | 2/19/2010 | Roger Ebert

[L.A.Justice]

Picture

Kathryn Bigelow's “The Hurt Locker,” with Jeremy Renner as a bomb-disposal expert in Iraq, opened in July to great praise but was considered a dark horse because of its low budget, lower profile and earlier release date... (cut)

The crucial factors may be “The Hurt Locker's” recent victories in two guild awards: It has been honored for best direction and best production. In many years, the Directors Guild winner is a predictor of the best picture Oscar. Of these three, I'm predicting “The Hurt Locker.” If one of the other seven wins, let's say I'll be very surprised.

Actor

Jeff Bridges for “Crazy Heart.” The movie opened late in December and moved out more widely in January. But the distributor, Fox Searchlight, made a wise move: They screened it extensively in advance for movie critics and sent out lots of screeners. Bridges' great performance swept the critics' awards, won a Golden Globe, a SAG award and now looks like the winner. Jeremy Renner or George Clooney could win, but Bridges has the momentum.

Actress

Few people saw this one coming, especially in a year where her two earlier pictures bombed, but Sandra Bullock's comeback in “The Blind Side” was dazzling, and she also collected a lot of year-end awards...

Supporting actor

Christoph Waltz, a relative unknown, won the best actor award at Cannes in May 2009 for “Inglourious Basterds” and has never looked back...

Supporting actress

Here again, what looks like a sure thing: Mo'Nique, for her powerful performance as the mother in “Precious.” ...

Director

If you vote against Kathryn Bigelow of “The Hurt Locker,” you'll be going against years of precedent that say the winner of the Directors Guild Award will win the Oscar.

[L.A.Justice]

Your predictions?

I watched many films nominated for BEST PICTURE category:

THE BLIND SIDE, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, PRECIOUS, UP IN THE AIR, AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER

I am positive that I don't want to see INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS again...The film was just too slow at times...The plot was...Let's say that it was interesting...However, Waltz should win the OSCAR...

I did like UP IN THE AIR...Clooney was good in the film...

I hope that Sandra Bullock will win...

Should AVATAR win? It is a big hit like TITANIC (1997)... My guess is that people are more familiar with AVATAR...

[preacher]

I predict I won’t care which leftist, hate America films win.

[TChad]

Why on earth would you post a link Roger Ebert's website on Free Republic? Ebert has gone off the deep end with loathing for conservatives.

Just one example:

http://pajamasmedia.com/eddriscoll/2010/02/09/beneath-the-valley-of-the-ultra-tweeters/

[Berlin_Freeper]

I predict not giving a crap.

[Berlin_Freeper]

haha - I should peruse the thread first - sorry.

[max americana]

F’ that leftist toad Ebert. He already lost his jaw and he still doesn;t know he’s lost half his brain.

[ChiMark]

I recall Ebert at a film festival in Charlottsville VA.
proclaiming that European electorate was superior.
Americans were ignorant, reactionary and racist.

I have lost respect for his opinions.

Medved has been my choice since.

[Wallop the Cat]

Gotta agree that Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds deserves the O for Supporting Actor. His performance, in three languages, was eerily wonderful.

[freekitty]

The Oscars are no fun. They are bought and paid for and polirical; much like our Congress.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Jeff Bridges for “Crazy Heart.”

Haven't seen "Crazy Heart" yet, but based on Bridges' work in "The Fisher King", "The Fabulous Baker Boys", "Tucker: The Man And His Dream", "Starman" and, of course, "The Big Lebowski", I'll be rooting for him.

[blues_guitarist]

Any Russ Meyer films in his list?

[NeelyO]

A little surprised by how vitriolic many of these posts are, because I have seen these movies and the only one that seems to have an overtly “leftist, anti-American” agenda is Avatar. Certainly not The Hurt Locker, which humanizes our soldiers and the dangers and conflicts they face every day IN OUR NAME in Iraq. We should all celebrate the troops who volunteered to take a bullet — or to face explosives — for us and our way of life. It’s one thing to dislike/distrust Ebert, or Hollywood. But it’s another to just blindly slam these movies. Want to see an indictment of the failed welfare state? Try Precious. See how generations have been crippled by that system. Try seeing these movies instead of just dismissing them.

[L.A.Justice]

A little surprised by how vitriolic many of these posts are, because I have seen these movies and the only one that seems to have an overtly “leftist, anti-American” agenda is Avatar. Certainly not The Hurt Locker, which humanizes our soldiers and the dangers and conflicts they face every day IN OUR NAME in Iraq. We should all celebrate the troops who volunteered to take a bullet — or to face explosives — for us and our way of life. It’s one thing to dislike/distrust Ebert, or Hollywood. But it’s another to just blindly slam these movies. Want to see an indictment of the failed welfare state? Try Precious. See how generations have been crippled by that system. Try seeing these movies instead of just dismissing them.

___________________________________

While watching THE HURT LOCKER, I didn’t have to hear from any character critizing George Bush...It was just a great war movie, which happens to be about the Iraq conflict...

Maybe I should have posted a link to some other movie critic...

I will just check the Oscar discussion Sunday night...