2017 Oscar Predictions: ‘La La Land’ Looks Set to Rob the Coveted Golden Statutes

The planet’s most awaited award function – the 89th Annual Academy Awards, alias the Oscars – is coming up. Creative Yatra has come up with our vision on who can win. Take a look!

Did you miss out on the Super Bowl this February? Well, don’t feel miserable about yourself as the planet’s most awaited award function – the 89th Annual Academy Awards, alias the Oscars – has been scheduled for February 26, 2017. Hollywood’s most prestigious award ceremony, held every year since 1929, is also the most viewed award show across the globe. More than 3,048 Oscars have been distributed cumulatively amongst outstanding cinematic achievers since its inception. But what might feel more grand than walking on that 152-foot long red carpet spread at the gateway of Dolby Theatre? The answer, of course, is holding that golden statuette – popularly called as the Oscar. Weighing 8.5 pounds, the trophy can’t be bought or sold, but only be earned by giving your best performance!

The nominees for the best films of 2016 are declared, but the exact numbers of Oscars being awarded are unpredictable, until the envelopes are opened on the Oscars Night (no one can predict the ties, right?). But why live in mystery when we can predict the winners before they make history! We at CreativeYatra.com have come up with our vision on who can win at the 89th Annual Academy Awards. Take a look!

Best Picture at Oscar 2017 Predictions

Although the ballot called for nine contenders in the Best Picture Category, the real race is between three dynamic films that turned the year 2016 upside down for millions of viewers. On the one hand, we talk about Lionsgate Movies’ musical lovey-dovey tale La La Land, which gave out a jazz-infused Hollywood version of the American Dream. And on the other hand, we deem the think-tank Barry Jenkins-directed dark tale Moonlight a worthy contender for this title! If one had a third hand to applaud, then it would do so for American drama film Manchester by the Sea. All three talkies lend an entirely diverse experience but since La La Land has already bagged the Best Picture recently at the BAFTA, the soaring prediction tingles are shouting its name loudly.

Best Actor in a Leading Role at Oscar 2017 Predictions

Hollywood Walk of Fame must have more than 2600 stars embedded in its sidewalks but there are only six who made it as nominees in the Best Actor category this year, and from these, we only filtered out two on our prediction list. It isn’t necessary that the Best Picture award is dependent on its actor’s nomination in the Best Actor category – I might remind you about the 2009 Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. But if La La Land would have been a three-piece tuxedo, then lead actor Ryan Gosling would be its most sparkling brooch. Gosling, as a protagonist, justified his character and charmingly gingered up the whole story. Ratings by critics and the results of Producer Guild of America Awards, certainly signifies this. But, according to BAFTA, the one who can snatch away this piece of cake from Gosling is actor Casey Affleck for his performance in Manchester by the Sea. So, in general, though the figures suggest Gosling – and even my heart whispers on hearing ‘Gosling’ –history suggests Affleck.

Best Actress In a Leading Role at Oscars 2017 Predictions

The truly stand out performance of the year is Isabelle Huppert’s, in Elle. This got recognised, rightfully so, at the BAFTA. Having said that, the surprising fact is her absence, even as a nominee, in Screen Actors Guild Awards. Incidently, without any surprises, the SAG preferred Emma Stone‘s performance in La La Land, over other contenders. The barometer for acting performance, is how a role is uplifted, irrespective of its written matter, by the sheer brilliance of the performers craft. By that standard – Stone, Huppert and Portman (Jackie) – all three could get the top honours. Since many of the voters at Oscars and SAG are common, and that La La Land is an Oscar favourite (made evident by 14 nominations), Stone may edge out others in this category.

Best Costume Design at Oscar 2017 Predictions

As the trend suggests, ever since this category has been introduced, it has been won about 60 times by a flick also nominated for Best Production Design. So eventually, this year we predict two nominations which naturally feature in both the categories –La La Land and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. La La Land portrayed a contradiction – it depicts the recent era of Los Angeles while also dicing its audience by showcasing a Retro Realistic look wrapped in soothing colour patterns. Designer Mary Zophres believes she has designed clothes for a Romantic Drama that can woo every woman towards Gosling and men towards Emma Stone. But her belief has been vigorously challenged by the three-time Oscar-winning costume craftsperson, Colleen Atwood, a behind the scenes ‘no-maj’ of sorts from Fantastic Beasts. Her whimsical art of cloth-crafting makes wizards of Chicago from the era of the 1920s look relatable, yet miraculous. Sadly, the fact-book suggests that Fantastic Beasts is a Harry Potter prequel and, so far, the Potter series couldn’t grab a single Oscar under its banner. Since the ballot prefers modern day films with higher CGI, it is La La Land that has greater chances of grabbing this title.

Best Director at Oscar 2017 Predictions

The Oscars ceremony is a great deal! It may also be called a double-edged sword as it serves as a scale for producers to review a director’s capability to generate monetary returns and also a supportive decision-making tool to analyse whether to invest in a director’s upcoming movie or not. Motion Picture, as we know it, is a directors medium, it is entirely up to the director, how the written material gets translated into moving imagery. And Oscars being the greatest film recognition pedestal, this award is the pinnacle of achievement for any Film Director in business. For a Hollywood director, the Oscars is much more than just a glittery award function. Implicitly, this year the director in focus is Damien Chazelle for La La Land. In 2015, we all saw Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman grabbing both the Best Picture and the Best Director awards, and the movie is all about a Hollywood actor’s struggle in theatres, which reflects more than a slight glimpse of La La Land’s central theme as well. And since Hollywood always loves to see itself as a space where novice recitalists fulfill their dreamiest thoughts of fame, I think history will repeat itself! What led to Chazelle’s loss in 2015, inspite of a terrific heart-breaking tale of music and passion in Whiplash, might just be his reason for a 2017 win.

Best Original Music Score at Oscar 2017

An actor may exaggerate the plot with his watertight performance, but the catharsis of emotions often streams flawlessly forth pronounced by behind-the-scene music scores. Before letting an Oscar expert predict this season’s best music score, we declare Justin Hurwitz from La La Land as the top scorer of the year. Hurwitz’s music flows like poetry without words in the film – one can just hear and imagine the mystery and excitement of the love thriving between Gosling and Stone. Hurwitz has already scored the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA and there is no doubt that he will nail the big award on the Oscars Night too.

Best Production Design at Oscar 2017

They are the closest comrades to directors and producers. This means that they are the ones who also bear all the real-time stresses of the movie makers. Yes, they are the Production Designers. Previously called as the Best Art Direction Category, till 1966 the Oscars Ballot used to delegate two separate awards within the Best Production Design category – one for black-and-white films and the other for colour films. And this year’s stress-bearers who didn’t lose a single chance to depict perfectly a Technicolour yet retrospective look of Los Angeles city, are David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco from the 14-times Oscar-nominated film La La Land. (To understand more on its winning prediction aspect, please read the introduction paragraph of the Costume Design Category.)

Best Visual Effects

If you wish to give yourself a visual treat, then Doctor Strange would be a complete four-course meal for your imagination. But Oscars has always been biased against the superhero comic book franchises, and thus Doctor Strange seems set to have lost its chance in the Best Visual Effects category. Whereas Star Wars, the fiction space odyssey, has now been overly mystified, to be blunt, it cannot contend with the glorious photorealistic animals of Favreau’s Jungle Book which we expect will lead the way to Oscars this year. The two-time Oscar-winner, visual effects supervisor of Jungle Book Rob Legato, took away the title as soon as the Potential Grizzly Baloo made its appearance in the movie. Favreau’s film has been critically acclaimed and is a tenacious contender in the 89th Academy Awards.

Best Original Screenplay at Oscar 2017

The La La Land fever is getting severe day by day. Some critics’ foresee that it might even break the 11-time Oscar-winning record of Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings. The movie not only serves drooling visuals, groovy music and fancy dance moves, but even a profound literary narrative. Writer-Director Damien Chazelle who has worked on this film will triumph, not because the work is extraordinarily fascinating, but because the writing imbibes a specific regard for literary aspects. Not that the other nominees are weak, but the narrative has a definite ring that is unmatchable. Manchester by the Sea, a film that serves untainted emotions and woozy escapism, in the best of words, may possibly pull back La La Land a little, but it still can’t overcome the song-and-dance charm it has.

The unswerving La La Land has a humongous appetite for the Oscars, but let’s see how the social-message-delivering Moonlight and the poignant drama of Manchester by the Sea can sneak a few statutes from it.

Image Source: Oscars.com