Hello there, Albert here! This is a follow up to Episode 52 of The Stuff & Junk Show, where me, Jiaming, and Kathryn, made our predictions and choices on who / what will win in the 88th Annual Academy Awards; The Oscars! We didn't think it was completely necessary to record a podcast episode of the results, but for those curious as to how right and wrong we were in our choices, here you go...

The Stuff & Junk Show - Episode 52 : 88th Academy Awards - Oscar Picks

Best Supporting Actress
Kathryn's pick : Alicia Vikander (wants Rooney Mara)
Jiaming's pick : Rachel McAdams (wants Jennifer Jason Leigh)
Albert's pick : Alicia Vikander (wants Alicia Vikander)
WINNER : ALICIA VIKANDER

Best Supporting Actor
Kathryn's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Mark Rylance)
Jiaming's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Sylvester Stallone)
Albert's pick : Sylvester Stallone (wants Sylvester Stallone)
WINNER : MARK RYLANCE

Best Actress
Kathryn's pick : Brie Larson (wants Brie Larson)
Jiaming's pick : Brie Larson (wants Saoirse Ronan)
Albert's pick : Brie Larson (wants Brie Larson)
WINNER : BRIE LARSON

Best Actor
Kathryn's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants either DiCaprio or Fassbender)
Jiaming's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants Matt Damon)
Albert's pick : Leonardo DiCaprio (wants Eddie Redmayne)
WINNER : LEONARDO DICAPRIO

Best Adapted Screenplay
Kathryn's pick : The Big Short (wants Brooklyn)
Jiaming's pick : The Big Short (wants The Martian)
Albert's pick : The Big Short (wants Room)
WINNER : THE BIG SHORT

Best Original Screenplay
Kathryn's pick : Inside Out (wants Ex Machina)
Jiaming's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out)
Albert's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out)
WINNER : SPOTLIGHT

Best Animated Feature
Kathryn's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out)
Jiaming's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out)
Albert's pick : Inside Out (wants Inside Out)
WINNER : INSIDE OUT

Best Director
Kathryn's pick : George Miller (wants Inarritu or Miller)
Jiaming's pick : Tom McCarthy (wants George Miller)
Albert's pick : Alejandro Inarritu (wants George Miller)
WINNER : ALEJANDRO INARRITU

Best Picture
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
Jiaming's pick : Spotlight (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
Albert's pick : The Revenant (wants The Martian)
WINNER : SPOTLIGHT

Best Visual Effects
Kathryn's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
Albert's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
WINNER : EX MACHINA

Best Cinematography
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario)
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario)
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Sicario)
WINNER : THE REVENANT

Best Production Design
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant
Jiaming's pick : The Revenant
Albert's pick : The Martian (wants The Revenant)
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Best Film Editing
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Best Sound Editing
Kathryn's pick : The Revenant (wants Sicario)
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens (wants Sicario)
Albert's pick : The Revenant
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Best Sound Mixing
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Star Wars : The Force Awakens
Albert's pick : The Revenant
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Best Score
Kathryn's pick : The Hateful Eight
Jiaming's pick : The Hateful Eight
Albert's pick : The Hateful Eight
WINNER : THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Best Song
Kathryn's pick : till it happens to you or writings on the wall
Jiaming's pick : writings on the wall
Albert's pick : Simple Song #3
WINNER : WRITING'S ON THE WALL

Best Foreign Film
Kathryn's pick : Son of Saul
Jiaming's pick : Son of Saul
Albert's pick : Theeb
WINNER : SON OF SAUL

Best Short Film Animated
Kathryn's pick : Sanjay Super Team
Jiaming's pick : Sanjay Super Team
Albert's pick : Sanjay Super Team (wants World Of Tomorrow)
WINNER : BEAR STORY

Best Short Film Live-Action
Kathryn's pick : Shook
Jiaming's pick : Day One
Albert's pick : Shook
WINNER : STUTTERER

Best Documentary Short Subject
Kathryn's pick : Spectres of the Schaub
Jiaming's pick : Girl, The River
Albert's pick : Chan, Beyond The Lines
WINNER : A GIRL IN THE RIVER

Best Documentary Feature
Kathryn's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone?
Jiaming's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone?
Albert's pick : What Happened, Miss Simone?
WINNER : AMY

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Jiaming's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Best Costume Design
Kathryn's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants The Danish Girl)
Jiaming's pick : The Revenant (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
Albert's pick : Mad Max : Fury Road (wants Mad Max : Fury Road)
WINNER : MAD MAX : FURY ROAD

Out of the primary 9 categories that we really focused on, I actually got 6 out of the 9 correct, while Kathryn and Jiaming tied at getting 5 correct each. Kathryn even got one of her preferred choices as the actual winner too in the Best Supporting Actor category.

On the other categories however, Kathryn got the most correct with 7 out of 15, Jiaming got 6 right, while I lagged with only 4 good guesses. Jiaming was also able to get one of his preferred choices as the actual winner in the Best Costume Design category.

As for the movies themselves, Mad Max : Fury Road got the most wins with 6, even if it's mostly technical categories. However, in terms of the main categories, it was The Revenant and Spotlight that stood out. In general, it seems the Academy members really wanted to spread the wealth, as many got their 1 award, although there were many that didn't get anything at all.

Biggest surprises for the night are probably Mark Rylance taking it from Sylvester Stallone in supporting actor, Leonardo DiCaprio not getting shut out again in the acting category, Alejandro Inarritu getting a Directing award two years in a row, but it's Spotlight that won out in the end as the best picture of the year against favorites like The Revenant, The Big Short, and Mad Max : Fury Road.

The 88th Academy Awards has proven to be a rather exciting year. From the #oscarssowhite controversy, to fact that Mad Max : Fury Road really did have a shot at the Best Picture win. Hopefully the 89th will be a fun one to look forward to as well.

- Albert

So we recently had the 73rd Golden Globe Award, and the nominees for the 88th Academy Awards were also announced. As usual the general public had the typical broad reactions to both events that you hear about every year. The first is about the supposed relevance to how the Golden Globe determines who will win at the Oscars, and the second is how the Academy Awards still don't seem to cater to a wide audience.

First off, you shouldn't take the Golden Globe seriously. This is an awards show that is determined by 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is an organization of journalists and photographers that reports about the US entertainment industry to international markets. These are voters who don't even make movies, and have been known to give awards to studios who essentially bribes them by treating them out to luxurious meetings.

The HFPA may try to make respectable choices, but their decisions are always suspect. As far as whether the winners for the Golden Globe influences the Oscars, well apparently Academy Awards voters had to turn in their votes before the day of the Golden Globe Awards anyway. So there's no significant influence there. But if the studios are trying to sway Golden Globe voters to go one direction, you know they will try to convince the MPAA voters of the same things.

Now it's true that it seems like the Academy Awards always seem to nominate what many people call "Oscar bait films," but I think it undercuts the cinematic value of the films nominated. The voting body of the Motion Picture Association Of America may have an average age of about 60+ something year olds, and are predominantly Caucasian, which does question why they would choose certain movies over others. However it's important to know that these voters are at least film makers in one way or the other, in at least one point in time of their career. So all the nominees were voted by their peers, which is how respectable awards should go.

I myself have seen all 8 films that are nominated for Best Picture of the Year, and I don't necessarily disagree with them on why the MPAA chose those movies. Remember that they nominate films that are suppose to be well made and elevate the art of story telling via a moving picture format. It can be easily argued that each of those movies actually fits that description, more so than other films. Look at the highest grossing films of 2015, and honestly think about whether some of those deserves to truly replace the nominees (maybe 3-5 of them could). If all the people criticizing the Academy just wanted "popular" movies, then they are looking at the wrong awards show. There's the People's Choice Awards for that, and just take a look at who won there.

Albert Patrick
- movie reviewer and podcaster -
http://whowhatwhereswhy.com

P.S. As I said on the final episode of the "Movies, Movies, and Movies" podcast, I will start doing my opinion pieces in either a written format (like this exact entry), or in an audio format over at the Stuff & Junk show (keep an eye for that).

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