Oscar Predictions: Lead Actor and Actress

As we vault into the final stretch of Oscar week, I'm starting to feel the pressure to fill out my opinions on the rest of the races. The lead acting races have had many frontrunners over the past few months and we seem to have reached a final consensus on who will win. The first actor to get Oscar buzz was Jeremy Renner for his performance in The Hurt Locker. I was at first a little reluctant to let the film in but it really grew on me since my initial viewing last August. In October two well known faces dived head first into the race, with people leaning a little more in favor of George Clooney in Up in the Air than Morgan Freeman in Invictus.

Colin Firth came into the race in November and ground out enough buzz for his role in A Single Man to earn a BAFTA award in his home country of the United Kingdom. The most recent actor to get in on the race was Jeff Bridges who did a great job in his performance from the movie Crazy Heart. There's only one thing that lingers in my mind that would be a significant reason for him not to win. His role in the film was really similar to Mickey Rourke's in last year's The Wrestler. However that hasn't stopped him yet, and I believe that sunday he will recieve his long deserved Oscar statue for his great body of work.
The Best Actress race took a different road because it went a kind of downward direction. Helen Mirren (The Last Station) never had a chance, I'm sorry to say. Meryl Streep got a minimal amount of buzz in august when Julie and Julia came out to much acclaim, and since then it has slowly been gaining momentum. In that time the category was being dominated by two fresh faces, Carey Mulligan from An Education and Gabourey Sidibe from Precious. They were both neck and neck for quite some time, and still would be if it hadn't been for one unforseeable wild card.

Sandra Bullock came into the race late with her performance from The Blind Side and she gained buzz quickly. It frankly doesn't matter that her performance pales in comparison to the rest. Sandra Bullock is the Avatar of the Best Actress race. She's not truly deserving of the award for this role and there are people who have done better, but she propelled a film past the $200 million mark based purely on her own star power. It's been a good year for her, aside from her quick stint in All About Steve. But I'm going to side with Carey Mulligan on this one. I think she has a shot, and am willing to put myself out there for her. I'll be back later tonight with my analysis of the Best Director race and my predictions on Best Foreign Film.