2013 Oscar Predictions in July? IndieWire released this week a mid year Oscar Analysis. We will take a look at who they think has a shot so far. Also, with the US celebrating its Independence Day we found a wonderful collection of documentaries celebrating American values selected by ReelPolitik. Happy 4th of July!
SIGNIFICANT STORIES:
- Indie-Wire Mid Year Oscar Analysis
- Celebrating American Values: A Doc Collection
We thought it was a little too soon to make Oscar predictions given Dark Knight and many other films have yet to come out this year. However, here are a few predictions by Indiewire. Do you agree with their analysis?
Indiewire’s Mid-Year Oscar Analysis[1]
Best Picture:
- Safe Bets: None
- Reasonable Maybes: “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Moonrise Kingdom”
- Dark Horses: “Amour,” “The Avengers,” “Ruby Sparks,” “The Sessions”
Best Director
- Safe Bets: None
- Reasonable Maybes: Michael Haneke, “Amour”; Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
- Dark Horses: Wes Anderson, “Moonrise Kingdom”; Ben Lewin, “The Sessions”
Best Actor
- Safe Bets: John Hawkes, “The Sessions”
- Reasonable Maybes: None
- Dark Horses: Paul Dano, “Ruby Sparks”; Jean-Louis Trintignant, “Amour”; Channing Tatum “Magic Mike”
Best Actress
- Safe Bets: None
- Reasonable Maybes: Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; Helen Hunt “Six Sessions”; Marion Cotillard, “Rust and Bone”
- Dark Horses: Zoe Kazan, “Ruby Sparks”; Emmanuelle Riva “Amour”; Rachel Weisz “The Deep Blue Sea”; Michelle Williams “Take This Waltz”; Mary Elizabeth Winstead, “Smashed”
Best Supporting Actor
- Safe Bets: None
- Reasonable Maybes: William H. Macy, “The Sessions”; Matthew McConaughey, “Magic Mike”
- Dark Horses: Michael Fassbender, “Prometheus”; James Gandolfini, “Killing Them Softly”; Dwight Henry “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; Bill Nighty, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
Best Supporting Actress
- Safe Bets: Judi Dench, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
- Reasonable Maybes: Maggie Smith, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”
- Dark Horses: None
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CELEBRATING AMERICAN VALUES: 5 Documentaries on American values selected by ReelPolitik. To read the article in its entirety click here.[2]
Punishment Park (1971)
- Peter Watkins’ landmark faux-doc is an angry cry of rebellion from the Vietnam era and a quasi-sci-fi political parable that has proven remarkably prescient 40 years later.
The Atomic Café (1982)
- A look back at 1950s nuclear naiveté, Jayne Loader and Kevin Rafferty’s found-footage classic is by turns hilarious and horrifying, examining the propaganda behind fall-out shelters and duck-and-cover drills.
The Panama Deception (1992)
- An Oscar winner in 1993, Barbara Trent’s incisive, provocative exposé of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama was a revelation in its time and a potent rebuke against the presidency of Bush I.
The Power of Nightmares (2004)
- Adam Curtis’s monumental 3-hour examination of the War on Terror is one of the most compelling and entertaining documentaries about American hegemony. Scary and funny at the same time, Curtis’s work stands an essential piece of modern counter-propaganda.
Better this World (2011)
- A bracing look at crackdowns on civil disobedience, the ubiquity of surveillance and the injustice of our justice system, Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway’s engrossing docu-thriller couldn’t be more timely in the wake of Occupy crackdowns, drone attacks, and America’s perennial way of suppressing dissent.
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Comic Relief
parisienne
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Open Book
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linkedinhollywood.com 
What I believe many really liked about Indie Wire was it didn’t appear so desperate for Industry approval. IMHO they were also frequently independent, reasonably unbiased and reliably.
That said why do we need 2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS IN JULY?
So many films will open before the academy awards ceremony that will likely make current predictions obscure or obsolete.
I meant reliably “objective.”