Oscar nominations out in Zero Dark Thirty?

It's that time of the year again - Oscar nominations will shortly be announced. This annual event is like Christmas to movie awards watchers like me! Here are my final predictions for the nominations for the 6 major categories of the 85th Annual Academy Awards.



Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Naomi Watts - The Impossible

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
John Hawkes - The Sessions
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
Denzel Washington - Flight

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Fields - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Maggie Smith - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Argo
Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

Best Director
Ben Affleck - Argo
Kathryn Bigelow - Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper - Les Miserables
Ang Lee - Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg - Lincoln

For every category, I can think of other contenders that could very well make it onto the shortlist in place of my predictions but these are my final predictions and I will stick to them! They do not reflect what I think the nominations should be, just what I think they will be. The actual nominations are being announced in less than an hour by Emma Stone and this year's host Seth MacFarlane so I will update this post once they have been released.

Update

My Best Picture nominee predictions lined up with the actual nominees perfectly...except for the fact that the Academy went with nine nominees while I had predicted ten nominees. The only one that I had predicted which ended up being omitted from the Academy's list is 'Moonrise Kingdom'.

We can all look forward to Adele belting out the theme song from 'Skyfall' on the Oscar telecast next month! The Grammy winner is now an Academy Award nominee, as a co-writer of the song.

I didn't think that it would happen but Quvenzhané Wallis has made history as the youngest ever nominee for Best Actress for her debut performance in 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'. At the tender age of 9, Wallis beats the previous record holder Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated in the same category at the age of 13 in 2004 for 'Whale Rider'. She takes the spot that I had predicted was 2008's Best Actress Ocar winner Marion Cotillard's, for her bold performance in 'Rust and Bone'. Cotillard was already a nominee at the Golden Globes, th SAG Awards and the BAFTAs whereas Wallis was not nominated at these other precursor awards at all (although, to be fair, she was not eligible at the SAG since her movie was non-union). This goes to show that the Academy does make these unexpeted, independent choices on their own will.

Another record was broken in the Best Actress category today. At 85, Emmanuelle Riva becomes the oldest Best Actress nominee ever for her performance in Best Picture nominee 'Amour'. Jessica Tandy previously held this record, when she was nominated for playing the title role in 'Driving Miss Daisy' at the age of 80.

Meanwhile, I did pretty badly in the Best Director category, getting only 2 out of 5! The two eventual nominees that I had predicted were Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg. The Academy is usually a fan of actors who emerge as credible directors so it is a bit of a shock that the directors' branch has snubbed Ben Affleck for 'Argo'. Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar in 2010 for 'The Hurt Locker', was also a shock omission considering the level of acclaim the film has garnered. Perhaps, the controversy surrounding the film's torture scenes and the Senate investigation into the filmmakers' acccess to confidential CIA files made some voters uneasy. Tom Hooper, who won this category just two years ago for 'The King's Speech', was also snubbed for his work on 'Les Miserables'. These three directors' loss were the gains of David O. Russell (perhaps, 'Silver Linings Playbook' is the real threat to 'Lincoln' for that Best Picture Oscar!), Michael Haneke (for one of my personal favourites of 2012 'Amour') and Benh Zeitlin for 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'. This nomination, along with the film's nods in Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, goes to show that no matter how small your film's budget, you can still capture the hearts and imagination of even the most discerning of audiences.

For the first time in 31 years, a movie has achieved a nomination in all four acting categories. 'Silver Linings Playbook' sees leads Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence nominated along side supporting players Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver. This is the first time that this has happened since 1982, with Warren Beatty's 'Reds'. This was predicted by some award watchers but it was not a given since De Niro had not been nominated at the Golden Globes or the BAFTAs. Meanwhile, this is the first time that Weaver had been cited by anybody. If you're going to be nominated for just one award, how great that it should be an Academy Award!

Click here to get the full list of nominees!

How many more...

The Executive Vice President of America's National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, held a press conference today, if you could call it that, considering that he gave a prepared speech and refused to take any questions. Mr LaPierre's speech was the first official response to last week's school-shooting tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut from the powerful firearms lobbying group.

He argues that the media should be blamed for this, with their violent films, television and video games. This may be true. However, there was no doubt that this speech was a disingenuous attempt to point the finger elsewhere. It blows my mind to think that there are actually people out there who agrees with Mr LaPierre when he says that this would not have happened had Sandy Hook Elementary School had armed guards and thus, the answer to our problems is more guns, not less. Really? So, the fact that there were armed guards at Columbine is moot? What about the fact that the person that Adam Lanza killed first, his own mother, had a fairly big gun collection? That didn't save her life.

There is no doubt that mental illness played a part in all of this. People with that kind of capacity suffer from a type of emotional detachment that allows them to commit such heinous crimes. What guns allow is the facilitation and manifestation of these people's violent fantasies. Sure, even without guns, people who want to hurt and kill will come up with other ways to hurt and kill but we should not be making it easier for dangerous people to carry out their plans with easy access to firearms. People need to make a change in the world. What would you rather be - to feel more secured through the possession of guns or to feel safer knowing that nobody owns one?

'Amour' is the word...

Today, I took my last exam for the year and it was a nice feeling to be able to breathe again. Whether or not I have passed these two exams that I took this month is for me to worry about another day. The results will come out in February so for now, I will just enjoy the lightness of being that I feel. I decided to celebrate by taking myself to the cinema. What better way to relax and to indulge than seeing a really wonderful movie that will help me to gain some perspective and remove me for my mundane anxieties.

I had been wanting to see Austrian auteur Michael Haneke's 'Amour' for a while now, ever since it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes back in May. The movie awards season has begun and already, the movie has been stacking up on awards. Emmanuelle Riva, the lead actress, has been singled out for her sublime portrait of the distaff half of an elderly couple living in Paris. We initially see her still vital and enjoying her comfortable life with her loving husband but as the movie progress, we witness her character succumb to old age and the emotional toils of this on her devoted and devastated husband. However, the movie is not simply about the inevitable physical decline that we all face should we be lucky enough to reach a certain age but rather, the movie lives up to its title in the way that we see two elderly people who have been in love for a very long time and continue to be in love with each other right up til the end.

Needless to say, the movie moved to tears on more than one occasion. I knew that I would be affected by this film and I think that that might have been why I was so drawn to this movie. I wanted to be overwhelmed and I wanted release; an experience that would remove me from my immediate circumstances.

There is a lot of Oscar buzz for Madame Riva. She has already won best actress awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critic and the European Film Awards. If she gets nominated for an Academy Award next month, she will become the oldest acting nominee ever, at the age of 85. This is all very exciting, especially considering her long, glorious career. After all, she was the leading lady of the 1959 French New Wave classic 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour'. For her to be nominated in over five decades after starring in that cinematic landmark would be a real testament to the view that talent cannot be withered by age. Similarly, the movie's male lead is Jean-Louis Trintignant, the star of such classics as 'And God Created Woman' and 'A Man and A Woman', gives a phenomenal performance that is equally worthy of award recognition. Emotionally rich and intelligent drama does not get much better than this - c'est magnifique!

Queen of Silom Soi 2

Today, my mother and I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with my dear aunt Pah Maliwan and her friend Pah Naruhnee. I have known Pah Naruhnee ever since I was little as she has been best friends with my aunt for decades and I have always known that she was the landlord of a small commercial area in central Bangkok but it was always very vague to me. We dined at Grand San Yord, which is famous in Bangkok for its tender and sweet roast duck, and being the Ah Mahs that they are, both aunties told me to finish the last prawn dumpling.

Pah Naruhnee said 'Eat this and you'll end up with a beautiful wife', to which I replied 'But I don't want a beautiful wife'. Without missing a beat, Pah Maliwan said 'Eat this and you'll end up with a handsome husband'. While I have never really discussed my sexuality with older relatives so much, it has been an open secret for a while now but in that moment, for my mother's elder sister, a woman that I have always been very fond of, to acknowledge, without making a big deal out of it, this part of my identity...well, it really moved me. It confirmed what I have long believed to be true; that my relatives in Bangkok love and accept me unconditionally, just as I am.

After lunch, my mother and I dropped off both aunties. Pah Maliwan was going to her Private Members Club to meet up with my cousins while Pah Naruhnee was heading home. My mother drove us to Silom and as we went past Bangkok's infamous Patpong district, I realised that we were approaching the hub of gay nightlife in Bangkok, Silom Soi 2-4, which turned out to be Pah Naruhnee's turf! She is the landlady for all the bars and clubs patronized by any gay person who has ever lived in or visited Bangkok, locals and expats. As we pulled away, I commented to my mother and aunt that these two alleys owned by their friend are full of bars and clubs. Both of them casually replied, that's correct, gay bars! Good times! Think I might have to visit Pah Naruhnee's hood before I leave Bangkok in a few days. It won't be my first time there and certainly won't be my last!

Madonna goes Gangnam!

Oh, my lord - can Psy's 'Gangnam Style' get any bigger? The answer is yes, apparently! Jumping on the dance pop sensation's bandwagon a few months after it became a viral sensation (the tally for views of the official music video currently stands at over 722 million views and rising!), Madonna had the K-Pop phenom make a surprise appearance at last night's performance of her 'MDNA' tour at Madison Square Garden and it was fucking awesome! Man, all we got at the London Hyde Park show that I went to four months ago was a bit of rain and one half of LMFAO...shaaaaaaaame!!!

Allahu Akbar - Obama wins re-election!!!

I woke up in the middle of the night to check the latest news on the US presidential election. This outcome is so sweet, especially after such a tight race in the popular vote. What is disturbing, but not surprising, to me is that Romney even won as many Electoral College votes as he did! Do the majority of the people who voted for him not realise that he will not look out for their interests? To reference and paraphrase James Carville's strategy for Bill Clinton's campaign back in 1992, 'It's the economy, stupid' and the only economic interests that a victorious Mitt Romney would have served are those of people like himself, the so-called 1 percent. All of these Republicans talking a lot of ignorant bullshit about how they are worried about the state of the economy, unemployment, Obama's 'communist' values (like they know what communism truly is) need to wake the fuck up and re-educate themselves...but that can wait until tomorrow; tonight is the night for all to unite and celebrate the democratic process!

Knee-deep in history

This year, I have taken several day trips, for work, to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Canterbury in Southeastern England. Today was probably my last trip there so I was determined to make the most of it. On previous trips, I would get so busy and snowed under with work that I wouldn't get a chance to visit its most famous attraction - Canterbury Cathedral, home of the head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury. I have been aware of the significance of this monument ever since high school, when I studied Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', which is a series of fables told by various characters, all making their pilgrimage from Southwark to the crypt of Thomas Becket, arguably one of the most famous martyrs in the British history, for the way he clashed with Henry II and his murder at the hands of the king's knights.

My colleague in our Canterbury branch Michelle decided to accompany me there. We told them that we worked in the old city centre and that got us free passes. I wonder if this is not simply out of the goodness of the Church's heart but because we already pay so much in another way that free admission was the least of privileges that they could have rewarded us. After all, the Church is probably our landlord, as there are underground tunnels that connect the Cathedral to all the buildings in the vicinity, including our office. It was genuinely eerie when Michelle and I went to visit the crypt of Thomas Becket, known as the matyrdom, where he fell at the swords of the king's knights. All sounds terribly Da Vinci Code, doesn't it?

It might seem like an obvious realisation that I live in a country with such a rich history and it is all around me. I don't even have to go looking for it. I just have to stop, take a moment, observe and absorb it. Amazing!