Two Tickets For... Predicts the 89th Academy Awards Winners!

Andrew: Hello dear readers! As you may know, the 89th Academy Awards are airing tonight on ABC. You may not know it from our lack of reviews the past year, but we DO still see a ton of movies and we've seen most of the Oscar nominees this season.

So that said, Sarah and I carved out a bit of time this afternoon to go through all of the categories and their nominees, picking who we think will win and who we think should win. For each category we'll list the nominees and then our picks. For some awards we'll write up little blurbs explaining our thought process. Let's see how well we do tonight!

BEST PICTURE
Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Machester by the Sea
Moonlight

Will Win - Sarah: La La Land   Andrew: La La Land
Should Win -  Sarah: Hell or High Water    Andrew: Hell or High Water

Thoughts: It's really  looking like La La Land will wind up running away from the majority of the awards tonight, and it's a fantastic movie no doubt. But Hell or High Water was the film we saw in 2016 that we thought was the best, period. Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges all give career-best (or near career-best) performances, you can cut the tension with a knife throughout the film, and it's a very acute look at the hardships many Americans deal with on a daily basis - with a cinematic approach to how two brothers decide to face their personal hardships. If we had votes they would go towards David Mackenzie & Taylor Sheridan's crime Western. But La La Land is obviously winning.


BEST DIRECTOR
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
Denis Villeneuve, Arrival

Will & Should Win - S: Damien Chazelle   A: Damien Chazelle

Thoughts: The only one of these five films we didn't see was Hacksaw Ridge, and any other year I think there might be a real fight to be had here, but La La Land should be such a steamroller that it'll be a big surprise if Chazelle doesn't walk away the winner. To be fair, 3 out of the last 4 Oscars have seen a Best Picture/Best Director split, but we're confident Chazelle's sharp eye and strong hand over the musical he's worked so long on will be awarded.

Two Ticket's For… Predicts the 87th Academy Awards!

Andrew: Hello dear readers! We're cutting it close to the wire but Sarah and I are here with our official predictions for tonight's 87th Academy Awards! We'll put the meat of the awards (Picture, Directing, the acting categories and screenplay categories) right at the top along with some quick breakdowns of why we made those picks, then we'll have all the technical categories, documentaries, short films and animated films after those without comment. So let's get to it! 


BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jason Hall, American Sniper
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

A: Both of the screenplay categories are tough contests this year with a number of good movies, or movies that at least have a lot of love for them. Starting with Adapted Screenplay, I immediately cross off Inherent Vice, The Theory of Everything and American Sniper. I don't believe any of those have the fervent love of voters to really take this award, whereas The Imitation Game is a strong script that gives its main players plenty to chew on, and Whiplash is just a really strong script that tells a great, fresh story and gives J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller tons to work with. I'm giving the edge to Whiplash primarily because Chazelle pulled double-duty as writer and director for his first true feature film, and I think people will want to recognize a fresh new talent like him.

Sarah: I'm going to have to go with The Imitation Game in this category! While it does come down to those two for me as well, too, I think that most of the love for Whiplash is going toward the supporting actor, not necessarily the screenplay. Tough category but I think I'm definitely sticking with The Imitation Game.

A: Fun fact for anyone who didn't already know this, but Whiplash was placed in the Adapted Screenplay category because of a strange ruling by the Academy. Chazelle originally wrote a full-length version of his screenplay that would become the Oscar-nominated film we know and love. But in order to gain funding for a feature-length version, Chazelle made a short film version based off the original script he wrote, which even won a prize at Sundance two years ago. Because of the short existing, even though the screenplay for what became the full-length version with Teller and Simmons was written first and then adapted into a shorter version, the Academy determined the short to fall under their definition of "previously produced or published material" for the Adapted category. Crazy, huh?

Our picks - S: The Imitation Game  A: Whiplash


BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., & Armando Bo, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)  {Editor's Note: Heretofore, we shall refer to this film simply as Birdman}
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson (screenplay), Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinnes (story), The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler

A: Original Screenplay is the toughest of the two, and maybe one of the toughest categories of the whole night. All five of these movies have legit claims to the award, IMO. But we can probably cross Foxcatcher and Nightcrawler off because they're too dark. The Grand Budapest Hotel could win because voters might finally want to give Wes Anderson an Oscar, but I think this one is down to Boyhood and Birdman. Warranted or not, I think I'm going to cross Boyhood off because some factions of voters could think Richard Linklater had an advantage of writing the movie over the course of 12 years. Birdman also hits the voting bloc right in the sweet spot as it's about actors and gives all the main players great stuff to work with. I'm going with Birdman here.

S: Once again, I agree and think it is between those Boyhood and Birdman as well. We just watched Boyhood last night and while I wasn't impressed with it, I basically don't think that it is really getting the love that Birdman has gotten in this category. The director, Iñárritu, is on fire with the awards season and while we'll touch on his film's chances in other categories later, for now I'll say I think he wins for Original Screenplay.

Our picks - S: Birdman  A: Birdman

Gyllenhaal Gives His Career-Best Performance In This L.A. Thriller: Our Review of "Nightcrawler" (2014)

Directed By: Dan Gilroy 

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed

Rating: R for violence including graphic images, and for language

Run Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes

Synopsis: An eccentric but driven young man named Louis (Gyllenhaal) catches the bug for the freelance life of being a "nightcrawler": videotaping crime scenes and notable accidents around Los Angeles to sell to the local news. After Lou creates a working relationship with a local news director (Russo) and starts his own company, he goes down the rabbit hole - and to some extreme lengths - in an effort to beat his competition (Paxton) and drive his own career as high as it can go.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello dear readers! This Sunday Sarah and I were able to FINALLY catch a movie at our local AMC Theatre that FINALLY reopened after a couple of months of renovations, and we took the opportunity to see this weekend's big new release, Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch).

Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a gaunt coyote of a man who we're introduced to as he's stealing a chain-link fence to sell for scrap metal and beating the crap out of a security guard who tries to stop him. Bloom is an eccentric dude who's obsessed with self-betterment and becoming successful at something as he struggles to find what that is.

That is until Lou comes across a fiery car crash one night and watches with curiosity as a freelance cameraman named Joe (Bill Paxton) jumps out of his van and starts filming the action. Lou discovers that Joe is a "nightcrawler" - a freelance videographer who films news-worthy accidents and crime-related incidents and then sells the footage to the local news stations. Lou falls in love with the idea and jumps right in, starting his own company and going to whatever lengths necessary to become a success at it.

Sarah, this was a film that I'd been hearing great things about for a while now, particularly how great Gyllenhaal was in it. Now that we've seen Nightcrawler, what did you think of the film and particularly Gyllenhaal?

86th Academy Awards Full Predictions!

Andrew: Hello dear readers! Tonight is the big night! The 86th Academy Awards a.k.a. The Oscars are tonight in Hollywood, and for the third year in a row Sarah and I will be competing against one another to see who can correctly predict the most awards.

Sarah: The past five days we've had fun posting articles breaking down a number of the bigger categories and then giving our predictions for them. Today we're posting our full predictions prior to our Live Blog of tonight's show!

A: For reference's sake, last year I correctly predicted 18 out of the 24 categories and Sarah correctly predicted 17 of the 24. Here's to hoping we both do better this year! Check out all of our predictions after the jump!

2014 Oscar Nominations Predictions Results/Reactions

Andrew: Hello readers! So last night I was able to get my predictions for how I thought the 86th Academy Awards nominations would go in the big categories (directing, acting, screenwriting, picture) and overall I didn't fare too poorly! Overall, in the 8 categories I made predictions for, I ended up with 37 out of 44 predictions correct which comes out to about 84.1%. 

Let's see what exactly I got right and what I got wrong. 

Best Picture

My predictions: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Gravity, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips, Her, Dallas Buyers Club, Savings Mr. Banks

Actual nominees: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Gravity, The Wolf of Wall Street, Captain Phillips, Her, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, Philomena

Result: 7 for 9. Of the 8 predictions I made I correctly guessed 7 films. But for the third time in three years since they changed the rules for how many Best Picture nominees there can be, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences nominated 9 films, so technically I got 2 wrong.

Two Tickets For... Live Blogs the 85th Academy Awards!

Andrew: Hello readers! Tonight Sarah and I will be live-blogging the 85th Academy Awards during the telecast on ABC. The show doesn't start until 8:30pm EST but we'll be kicking off our live blog event at 8:00pm EST. Sarah has to work a little late tonight, so she'll be joining me once the show has begun, and maybe we'll even get a visitor or two from some of our fellow movie bloggers! 

So come back tonight at 8:00pm when we start up our running commentary and analysis of tonight's Oscars!

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Picture & Full Predictions!

Andrew: Hello readers! All week long leading up to this Sunday's 85th Academy Awards, Sarah and I have been discussing some of the acting categories, the screenplay categories, the directing category and a couple others, but it's all been leading up to the big one - Best Picture. Remember, four years ago after many people thought Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight got snubbed in this category, the Academy made the drastic change to up the number of nominees to 10. After two years of that, with some thinking the category was too bloated, the Academy changed the rules again so that between five and 10 films could be nominated based on first place votes. Even so, a total of nine films were nominated for Best Picture last year and we have the same number in 2013. 

BEST PICTURE

The nominees for Best Picture are:

- Amour

- Argo

- Beasts of the Southern Wild

- Django Unchained

- Les Miserables

- Life of Pi

- Lincoln

- Silver Linings Playbook

- Zero Dark Thirty

A: Sarah, we saw all of the nominated films except for Amour, and we follow the awards that lead up to the Oscars relatively closely. Taking everything in to account, even though there are a whopping nine nominees, which ones do you think we can whittle it down to that actually have a chance at winning?

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Actor & Best Actress

Andrew: Hello readers! We're back with day four of our analysis and predictions for this Sunday's 85th Academy Awards! Yesterday we discussed the supporting half of the actingcategories, and today we're going to tackle the lead acting categories. Just like yesterday, Sarah, one of these categories is far more of a certainty than the other one is, so let's get that one out of the way first. 

BEST ACTOR

The nominees for Best Actor are:

- Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

- Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

- Denzel Washington, Flight

- Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

- Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

A: Okay, Sarah, it's pretty obvious to people who have been following award season that there's only one nominee here who should be expecting hear his name be read from a card on Sunday. And that is...?

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Supporting Actor & Best Supporting Actress

Andrew: Hello readers! We're back with day three of our analysis and predictions for this Sunday's 85th Academy Awards! Yesterday we covered the two screenplay categories and BestDirector, and today we're going to dip our toes into the acting categories by discussing Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. 

Sarah, one of these categories is 100% more up in the air than the other, so let's start with the one that's more of a sure thing and get it out of the way. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are:

- Amy Adams, The Master

- Sally Field, Lincoln

- Helen Hunt, The Sessions

- Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

- Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

A: Sarah, which one is the shoo-in for the little golden man?

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay & Best Director

Andrew: Hello readers! As you may or may not know, Sarah and I are celebrating the upcoming 85th Academy Awards this week by posting our analysis and predictions of various categories. Yesterday we kicked things off by covering the Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Best VisualEffects categories, and today we are going to discuss the two screenplay categories and the Best Director category. So without further ado… 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:

- Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

- Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino

- Flight, Mark Gatins

- Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola

- Amour, Michael Haneke

A: At first glance this appears to me to be a relatively competitive category, and one that we’re relatively familiar with since we saw all of these films except for Amour, but I personally think it comes down to two candidates for the prize. Can you guess which ones I’m thinking of?

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song & Best Visual Effects

Andrew: Hello readers! It's that time again where Sarah and I finally start breaking down the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards that will be held on Sunday, February 24th! Last year we did it in a pretty basic way and it seemed to go over pretty well, and we really don't want to over-do it this year, so we'll stick to a relatively similar format. 

A difference this year, though, will be the order in which we break down the different categories. Starting with this post, we will break down the Oscar nominees in the following categories on these days:

Monday, February 18th: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects

Tuesday, February 19th: Best Original & Adapted Screenplays, and Best Director

Wednesday, February 20th: Best Supporting Actor & Actress

Thursday, February 21st: Best Actor & Actress

Friday, February 22nd: Best Picture and full list of predictions

So Sarah, let's kick off our analysis and predictions for this year's Oscars, shall we?

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are:

- Brave (Pixar)

- Wreck-It Ralph (Disney Animations)

- Frankenweenie (Disney Animations)

- ParaNorman (Laika)

- The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Aardman Animations)

Around The Web: "Monsters University" trailer, "Finding Nemo 2" casting news, "Argo" Blu-ray feature, & cool Oscars posters!

Andrew: Hello readers! Once again Sarah and I have rounded up some of the new, best and/or cooler things that we've seen around the worldwide web the past week to share with y'all. So let's get right to it!

THE FIRST FULL TRAILER FOR PIXAR'S MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

A: Yesterday found the online release of the first full-length trailer for Monsters University, the prequel to Pixar's 2001 hit Monsters, Inc. It's actually the international version of trailer (from Great Britain to be exact) so it's different than what we'll probably see Stateside in the near future, but take a look and we'll hit up our thoughts on it afterwards!

A: Personally I'm a little divided after watching this trailer. Sarah knows this, but Monsters, Inc. isn't one of my favorite Pixar movies, and in fact ranks in the bottom half of my personal Pixar film rankings, but the original is still funny and enjoyable enough to watch even now. But this trailer just fell flat for me. It was nice to hear Billy Crystal and John Goodman's voices in the roles of Mike Wazowski and Sully again, but you can definitely tell they've aged by a decade because they just don't sound the same. What do you think of the trailer, Sarah?

The 85th Academy Awards Nominees! (How Did Our Predictions Fare?)

Andrew: Hello readers! All week we've been posting our predictions for who we think will be nominated for this year's 85th Academy Awards, and this morning the awesome duo of Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane announced those nominees. 

So...how did our predictions fare? Listed below are all of the nominees that were announced today - nominees that are in italics are the movies that we got CORRECT. (And a reminder that we did not predict the short film categories, so those will not be posted below.)

BEST PICTURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo

BEST DIRECTOR
David O. Russell
Ang Lee
Steven Spielberg
Michael Haneke
Benh Zeitlin

Two Tickets For...'s Oscars Nominations Predictions - Best Picture & Full Predictions

Andrew: Hello readers! So the last few days we've been sharing our predictions for who will be nominated in  the acting categories, the directing category and the screenplay categories for this year's Academy Awards. Today we're going to discuss and share our guesses for which films (and how many) will be nominated in the big one - Best Picture. We will also be posting our picks for ALL the categories (except the short films) because that is what we need to do for the Oscar Nominations Predictions contest being held by Film Actually. 

So, to preface our discussion of the Best Picture nominees, we're briefly going to remind you that the process for voting and determining Best Picture nominees changed last year. Remember in 2009 how the Academy changed the number of nominees from 5 to 10 in large part because Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight didn't get nominated in 2008? Well after two years of having 10 nominees the Academy decided maybe they were watering down the category by letting in a set number of 10.

So last year they changed the process to where there can be anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees in the Best Picture category, but now to get nominated your film MUST receive a minimum of 5% of all first-place votes. That's why last year there were 9 nominees - there weren't that many movies that EVERYONE loved, so a larger amount of films got first-place votes. Could that happen again this year? What do you think, Sarah?

Two Tickets For..'s Oscar Nominations Predictions - Best Director, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay

Sarah: Hello readers! It's been a big day here at Two Tickets For... with our Golden Katz Award! So we're going to continue the awards season predictions with the Academy Award for Best Director. 

I'm going to have to go with the number one spot and that will go to Ben Affleck. His directing in Argo was amazing. He was able to bring enough intrigue ad suspense to a movie that most of the world already knew the ending of. Being able to manipulate the audience to feel real fear for the characters on screen is a feat that few directors have been able to accomplish. I don't typically like Affleck but I do hope that he wins this category this year.

Two Tickets For...'s Oscar Nominations Predictions - Best Actor & Actress

Andrew: Hello readers! Later this week on Thursday morning, Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane will be announcing the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards that will be held on Sunday, February 24th in Los Angeles. As you may or may not know, we happen to love the Oscars, and as such we're going to be posting our predictions for who will have their nominations announced by Mr. MacFarlane and Ms. Stone. We kicked our predictions off yesterday with our guesses for the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories, which you can read here if you'd like. And today we're going to be discussing whom we think will get nominated in the lead acting categories.

So, Sarah, which of the two categories would you like to start with today? Best Actor or Best Actress?

Two Tickets For...'s Oscar Nominations Predictions - Supporting Actor & Actress

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s getting to be that time of year when the awards circuit is moving full-steam ahead. We’ve already had the nominations for the Golden Globes, the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild all announce their awards nominees, plus we’ll have the Directors Guild announcing there’s on Tuesday. 

But we’re not here to talk about them, exactly, no. As you may or may not know, the nominees for the 85^th annual Academy Awards will be announced at 8:30 AM EST on Thursday, January 10^th. With that in mind, Sarah and I are going to be taking part in a Predict the Oscars Nominations Contest that our fellow blogger Squasher88 is hosting over at his blog, Film Actually. Squasher88 is asking all his contest participants to predict the nominees for every category except for the Short Film categories.

So this week, Sarah and I will be posting our Oscar nominations predictions, starting today with our predictions for who will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, and building all the way up to our Best Picture nom predictions and full revelation of the more technical predictions most people have no clue about on Wednesday.

Alright, let’s get down to it Sarah! Today we’re just focusing on the two supporting acting categories. Which one would you like to start with first?

David O. Russell Makes the Right Call With a Phenomenal Cast: Our Review of "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012)

Directed By: David O. Russell (The Fighter) 

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver

Rating: R for language and some sexuality/nudity

Run Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Synopsis: Pat (Cooper) is released from his psychiatric hospital into the care of his parents (De Niro & Weaver), 8 months after beating up his wife's lover. In an attempt to get back together with his wife, Pat tries to become a better person by reading classic books, working out and agreeing to help a new friend, the recently widowed Tiffany (Lawrence), compete in a dance contest.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Earlier this week Sarah and I took a day trip down to New York City to take in some delicious food from some of our favorite food trucks (shout out to Wafles & Dinges [@waffletruck] and Trusty Truck [@trustytruck]!) and to catch a showing of David O. Russell’s latest directorial effort, Silver Linings Playbook! Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, it’s based on the Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel “The Silver Linings Playbook”.

Cooper (The Hangover) plays Pat, a Philadelphia schoolteacher who is brought home by his parents from the psychiatric hospital 8 months after he found his wife cheating on him and had a psychotic breakdown, which included him beating the crap out of his wife’s lover. De Niro (Meet the Parents) plays Pat’s dad, Pat, Sr., who suffers from OCD and who, after having recently retired, has become a bookie to raise money so he can open his own restaurant. And Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) plays Tiffany, sister-in-law to Pat’s best friend and a recent widow, who is also a little crazy and takes a shine to Pat. Basically everyone in this film is just a little bit crazy.

Sarah: Yeah…and there are a lot of other recognizable faces in the movie, like Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour).

A: This is a movie that we've wanted to see for quite some time. We've been hearing a lot of great things about the performances from Cooper, Lawrence and De Niro, but because it’s only in limited release so far we had to go to Manhattan to see it. Now that we HAVE seen Silver Linings Playbook, what did you think of it?

S: I liked it, but I believe that the strength of the movie lies solely in its cast.

Jennifer Lawrence (left) and Bradley Cooper headline a fantastic cast in
David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook Expect Oscar love for them.

Our Analysis/Predictions for the 84th Academy Awards (Part III)!

Andrew: Good evening, readers! We brought you our review of "Wanderlust" earlier today and now we bring you the third and final installment of our Oscars analysis and predictions. Tonight we're going to tackle Best Original/Adapted Screenplay, Best Directing and Best Picture.

Sarah, let's go in that order and start with Best Original Screenplay. The nominees for that category are:

 - Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"

 - Annie Mumolo and Kirsten Wiig, "Bridesmaids"

 - J.C. Chandor, "Margin Call"

 - Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"

 - Asghar Fahadi, "A Separation"

Who ya got, and why?

Sarah: Well, I would have to go with Michel Hazanavicius. "The Artist" is just going to take the cake this year. While it's not technically an “original” thought to have a silent film, it is new to this generation. 

A: The award isn't for "original thoughts" though, babe, it's for original stories. And I'd actually argue that making a silent film in the 21st Century certainly qualifies as an original thought anyways - you just don't see that anymore. Hence why it's been getting so much love. But I digress.

I agree with you that Hazanavicius will win Best Original Screenplay. I know a lot of people will support Woody Allen's most successful film in years with "Midnight in Paris" and everyone except you basically loved “Bridesmaids”, but "The Artist" is a beast, and again - it's a silent film. That's a totally different kind of script.

S: Well then, that's that. Ok so then next is Best Adapted Screenplay:

 - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, & Jim Rash for "The Descendants"

 - John Logan for "Hugo"

 - George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon for "The Ides of March"

 - Steven Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin; story by Stan Chervin for "Moneyball"

 - Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan for " Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

A: Like most years, the screenplay categories are pretty competitive and I think Adapted Screenplay is way tougher to pick than Original Screenplay this year. I could go with any one of them for various reasons but I'll pick "Moneyball" because Zaillian and Sorkin were able to turn a book about baseball statistics and a professional baseball team not many people really care about into one of the best movies/stories of the year.

S: Hmmm well that is interesting. You and I disagree on this one. I think it will go to "The Descendants" for the amazing way it brings this heartbreaking and somehow redeeming story to the big screen. While I do think that "Moneyball" was a great film and after learning that it went though some rough times financially before they could get it off the ground, I give them even more credit. 

A: If it’s not "Moneyball" that wins it, my second choice would have been "The Descendants" for sure. We'll see who ends up being right tomorrow night ;)

Ok! Now we move on to the two biggest awards of the night! First we'll start with Best Directing (and no, I didn't use the wrong word there - I've learned in my reading that the voters' ballots say "Best Directing" not "Director"):

 - Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"

 - Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"

 - Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"

 - Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"

 - Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"

Tell me who ya got, and why?

S: Oh I got Michel Hazanavicius for this one. While I don't think "The Artist" will win ALL the awards it's up for, this one and Best Actor they got in the bag for sure. He took a risk with this movie and it was a homerunner. 

What do you think?

A: It sounds boring but I have to agree with you. Silent film...yada yada yada and so forth...

I'm sure a fair number of voters voted for Woody Allen, and I'm sure Malick got a bunch of votes from the passionate fan base he has in the Academy, but it's the thousands of others who think "The Artist" is the greatest thing since sliced bread that will get him the win. Also, he wrote it, edited it, it's all his.

Alright, let's jump to the biggest award - Best Picture. Their are 9 nominees this year:

 - "The Artist"

 - "Midnight in Paris"

 - "The Descendants"

 - "Moneyball"

 - "War Horse"

 - "Hugo"

 - "The Help"

 - "The Tree of Life"

 - "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Some candidates have a real shot, others are just happy to be here. Who do you have taking the big one?

S: Well it will come to no surprise to any of you that I will have to go with "The Artist!" If it wasn't for this film, I think that the others would have had a much better chance. "The Descendants" and "The Help" will be a close second and third, though. It was a tough year for the movies, some years they all have a fighting chance and other years one stands out amidst all the others.

A: I, too, think "The Artist" walks away as the Best Picture winner. It's rocked all the pre-Oscars award show awards in this area. There's no way it loses. (Though I will say I disagree with you that "The Help" comes in 3rd place in this category, I'd put "Hugo" there, but again I digress.) Do we think "The Artist" IS the best movie of the year? No. But that's for another post to come next week!

Ok, readers! There ya have it! We're going to look into trying to live-blog the Oscars tomorrow night, so if you have an internet connection and want to chat about the Oscars while they're going on, check us out at TwoTicketsFor...! For all of our respective Oscar picks, we've listed them below. Enjoy the show tomorrow, we definitely will!

SARAH’S OSCAR PICKS

Best Picture: THE ARTIST

Leading Actor: Jean Dujardin, THE ARTIST

Leading Actress: Viola Davis, THE HELP

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS

Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, THE HELP

Best Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST

Best Adapted Screenplay: Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne and Jim Rash, THE DESCENDANTS

Best Art Direction: THE ARTIST

Best Cinematography: THE TREE OF LIFE

Best Foreign Film: A SEPARATION

Best Original Score: THE ARTIST

Best Animated Film: RANGO

Best Costume Design: HUGO

Best Visual Effects: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet," THE MUPPETS

Best Film Editing: THE ARTIST

Best Make Up: THE IRON LADY

Best Sound Editing: WAR HORSE

Best Sound Mixing: WAR HORSE

Best Documentary Feature: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY

Best Documentary Short: "Saving Face"

Best Short Film Animated: "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"

Best Short Film Live Action: "Raju"

ANDREW’S OSCAR PICKS

Best Picture: THE ARTIST

Leading Actor: Jean Dujardin, THE ARTIST

Leading Actress: Viola Davis, THE HELP

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS

Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, THE HELP

Best Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, MONEYBALL

Best Art Direction: HUGO

Best Cinematography: THE TREE OF LIFE

Best Foreign Film: A SEPARATION

Best Original Score: THE ARTIST

Best Animated Film: RANGO

Best Costume Design: HUGO

Best Visual Effects: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Best Original Song: "Man or Muppet," THE MUPPETS

Best Film Editing: THE ARTIST

Best Make Up: THE IRON LADY

Best Sound Editing: WAR HORSE

Best Sound Mixing: WAR HORSE

Best Documentary Feature: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY

Best Documentary Short: "Saving Face"

Best Short Film Animated: "A Morning Stroll"

Best Short Film Live Action: "Raju"