Best Actress
As of now, I think there is only one certainty going into the Best Actress race, and that’s Julianne Moore for her brilliant portrayal of a woman dealing with Alzheimer’s in Still Alice. There has been one nominee that we’ve seen pop up over and over again, somewhat unexpectedly, in the first several awards announcements, that being Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant. Given her multiple appearances, I think it’s safe to assume that she will make the SAG cut as well.
Taking a look at the remaining potential nominees, it looks like the bulk of the buzz is behind Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything, Reese Witherspoon for Wild, and Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl. Of these performances, I was very impressed with Jones, moderately impressed by Pike, and not particularly impressed with Witherspoon, but once again, we don’t have very much to go off of at this point, and you can’t deny that the buzz is there.
So, my predictions are as follows:
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night/The Immigrant
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Best Actor
Now we come back to a category where there are many certainties. I believe there are no less than three locks already in place: Michael Keaton for Birdman, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game, and Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything. All three of them give absolutely brilliant performances that would be worthy of a SAG award and an Oscar, but we still have two spaces to fill in, so let’s see who else could take those spots. The long list of potential nominees includes David Oyelowo for Selma, Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner, Steve Carell for Foxcatcher, and Oscar Isaac for A Most Violent Year.
For starters, Oyelowo has been getting enormous praise for his portrayal of Dr. King in Selma, earning a nomination from the D.C. critics and a spot on just about every pundit’s list, making it seem like a near certainty. So who gets that final spot? I think the only nominee that is safe to eliminate is Carell, who, while he was excellent in Foxcatcher, has lost a lot of buzz since the film’s release.
That leaves us with Spall and Isaac, both of whom have a great chance of nabbing that fifth spot. Spall seems to have the most recognition for his great work in Mr. Turner, having won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and receiving it from the NYFCC as well. Isaac has only won the award from the National Board of Review (and even that was a tie with Michael Keaton), whose choices tend to be somewhat different from everyone else’s. Therefore, I believe that Spall has the edge going into these nominations.
Here are my predictions:
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman
David Oyelowo, Selma
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
Best Cast
Again, the only two that appear to be absolute certainties at this point are the top two contenders of the year, Birdman and Boyhood, which leaves us with three spots to fill. When I think ensemble, the first film to come to mind after the top two is Into the Woods, which features an outstanding cast that includes Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Chris Pine, and Johnny Depp. They all do a fantastic job and, given how musicals tend to be just right for this category (Les Miserables, Nine, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, and Chicago), I think it’s a very safe bet that it’ll be one of the five.
A lot of the difficulty in predicting this category is trying to guess what SAG is going to count as an ensemble film and what they’re going to be particularly impressed by, even if the cast isn’t particularly impressive (remember when Argo randomly beat Les Miserables and Lincoln, despite not really being an ensemble film or having that impressive of a cast?).
Looking over the big films of the year, we have a few that pop up as potential candidates. One of the first that catches my eye is Selma, which is unfortunately the one major nominee I have yet to see this year, so I have to judge based on the trailer and cast list alone, but what a cast it has! Aside from Oyelowo, we have Tom Wilkinson, Oprah Winfrey, Tim Roth, Giovanni Ribisi, Martin Sheen, and Cuba Gooding Jr. These performers alone, along with the great reviews the film has been receiving, make it seem almost a certainty to garner one of the five spots.
For that fifth spot, a few potential nominees jump out at me: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Ralph Fiennes, F. Murrray Abraham, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Tony Revolori, and a slew of others), Interstellar (Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine, Mackenzie Foy, Casey Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, etc.), and Gone Girl (Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry). Based on the strengths of these casts alone, I would have to lean towards Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson is well-known for putting together outstanding casts, but he may well have outdone himself with this gathering of thespians. It wouldn’t particularly shock me to see one of the other two take it, but it certainly seems like Anderson’s film has the best chance.
For the grand finale, here’s what I’m thinking:
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Selma
Tell us, what do you think of these predictions? Which nominees do you think we’ll be hearing on Wednesday morning? Be sure to check back then to see the results.