The 89th Academy Awards are premiering tomorrow night, and the question remains: which of Hollywood’s top talents walking down the red carpet will also be strolling up to the podium to receive film’s top honors.
If you’re already a member of MintVine, there’s a good chance you were recently invited to share your opinion on which films and talents will rise to the top. Below, we’ve compiled our Top 5 Insights from this recent survey, conducted through MintVine, where we reached out to you to learn your Oscar predictions. Remember, with MintVine, your opinion matters! If you want to make your voice heard, and get paid to complete online surveys, head on over to MintVine!
Now, without further ado, let’s dig into these results:
1. La La Land is Positioned to Win Big
Without question, our panelists believe that this is the Year of La La Land, predicting that the film praised for “making musicals matter again” will sweep the awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Damien Chazelle), and, somewhat unsurprisingly, Best Original Score.
Writer/director Damien Chazelle is quite familiar with the high praise and accolades of being nominated for, and winning, several Academy Awards after his previous film – 2014’s Whiplash – took home three awards at the 87th Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor – JK Simmons, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing). Whiplash was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay that year, but was beaten out by The Imitation Game.
While his prior film’s awards may not have been as high profile as some of the nominations La La Land is in the running for this year, an Oscar is still an Oscar (and three Oscars are still three Oscars), and it sets an exceptionally impressive precedent for a writer & director with relatively few credits to his name. That said, La La Land is nominated for a jaw dropping 13 Academy Awards, and if it takes home even some of the awards it’s predicted to, Chazelle will certainly be adding a number of opportunities to his IMDB page, and for good reason.
2. Fences’ Talented Duo
Pinnacles of powerful performances, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are a duo in their prime. Fences provides both performers the outlet to showcase their raw, emotionally charged talents through the tumultuous family drama based on an award-winning play by August Wilson. Our panelists have concluded that this has payed off, and placed Denzel to win Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Viola Davis to win Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
So far, the film has been a critical darling, and has made rounds at award shows internationally, with Viola Davis winning for almost all awards she’s been nominated, and staunchly standing as the break-out star of the film. If Denzel wins, it’ll be his third Oscar for acting (one previously for Supporting Actor, and one for Best Actor), and if Viola wins, it will be her first win for acting after three nominations (after previous nods for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively).
3. Fantastic Beasts Has an Award-worthy Fantastic World
Returning to the wondrous world of the Harry Potter universe, albeit in a much early time period (the roarin’ 1920’s), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is poised to be rewarded for its seamless blending of ‘20’s style and the wild wizardry culture established in the initial Harry Potter books and movies.
Our panelists have chosen Fantastic Beasts as the clear winner for both Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, showing the impact created by the film’s bold design choices and highly stylized mis-en-scene. Flashy, bright, and wonderfully fun, Fantastic Beasts wowed viewers, kicking-off what will become the next big franchise in the wizarding world.
If Fantastic Beasts comes away with actual awards to back-up the Academy accolades, it will firmly cement the viability of this Harry Potter spin-off as not just a popular, but also a highly profitable, endeavor, driving home the seemingly thin premise as a good idea: taking a 128-page book, and spreading it across multiple, multi-million dollar budgeted movies.
4. Trolls is poised to be an “Oscar Winning Movie”
This may not be the reality you imagined: Trolls, Academy Award winning movie. Following the opinion of our panelists, however, it is the most likely, determining that Trolls will win the award for Best Original Song for “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake. But let’s check the math, just to be sure:
Big Budget studio film + Multi award winning, quadruple threat, tour-de-force talent + Number 1 Billboard hit (2.4 million units sold) = One Major Award Win
Right, so, the math might be weighted on one end, but when the talent is Justin Timberlake, the adjectives make sense. With multiple Emmy and Grammy wins already under his belt, it’d be no surprise that Timberlake would be awarded once again for his musical prowess, though it may come as a surprise that this is Timberlake’s first Oscar nod.
5. Oscars: Best Viewed Live
While not about the award winning directly, it is interesting to note that those who plan to view the Oscars are still planning to view the awards show live. In the age where catching programs live has become increasingly rare, it takes a particularly notable program to capture viewers interest enough to commit to viewing it during its originally scheduled time.
Also of note, of viewers who will be watching the Oscars and tuned into social media, Facebook is the platform of choice to share up-to-the-second opinions on the live goings-on. Over Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, our panelists have shown their loyalties, but over all the rest, viewers still plan to tune in social media free.
Properly armed with all of these insights, we are officially ready to see who comes out on top during the Oscar’s Sunday night.
If you have any further thoughts on what we’ve found, give us a shout in the comments. If you want to chime in next time we have a fun survey going around, or if you just want creative ways to make money from home by doing surveys, then feel free to visit us at MintVine!