Silence Is Golden

Guessing has never been tougher. In a solid year where silent actions and reserve performances take charge, nothing is clear, safe perhaps for the acting categories. The wall above marks another attempt at choosing the right ones among the best ones, and sometimes, the wrong ones usually take home the man with the golden sword. Not in an upsetting way though. Here I would take a plunge, and say with assured voice that the final account will be 17 out of 24. Yet I am readily prepared for a lower fraction. I'll wait artistically in silence, or extremely loud, and see how incredibly close I can get to tally the scores.

The Winners Update (red denotes wrong prediction):

Best Picture: "The Artist"
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants"
Best Original Screenplay: "Midnight In Paris"
Best Art Direction: "Hugo"
Best Cinematography: “Hugo”
Best Costume Design: "The Artist"
Best Film Editing: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"
Best Makeup: "The Iron Lady"
Best Music (Original Score): "The Artist"
Best Music (Original Song): "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets"
Best Sound Editing: "Hugo"
Best Sound Mixing: "Hugo"
Best Visual Effects: "Hugo"
Best Animated Feature Film: "Rango"
Best Foreign Language Film: "A Separation" ~ Iran
Best Documentary Feature: "Undefeated"
Best Documentary Short: "Saving Face"
Best Short Film (Animated): "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"
Best Short Film (Live Action): "The Shore"

Results will be updated live. But not until I find a way to catch it online, because the powers-that-be in Mediacorp has decided to telecast the award show 2 days after it ended. Silly move.

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Update: Final count: 15/24. I was hopeful. Considering that I was unable to catch all the shorts and docus in their entirety, 15 is still a good number. And to predict spot on for all major categories is quite a rare thing to happen. As for the show, meh! Nothing really stands out except Will Ferrel and Zach Galifianakis with cymbals; and Esperanza Spalding, whose soulful voice makes the 'In Memorium' section worth watching. Billy Crystal, on the other hand, handles the night with his old bag of tricks. Sure, he's funny, but the whole vibe feels very late nineties. We want Eddie Murphy. Heck, bring the entire Muppets to host!