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Day two of The Cricket's predictions for the 86th annual Academy Awards brings the craft categories: Cinematography, production design, costume design and the two music categories - original score and original song.
On Monday, the Cricket predicted the technical categories. The Cricket will discuss the short-film categories (animated, documentary and live-action) on Wednesday, and the specialty features (animated, documentary and foreign-language) on Thursday. The major categories will get their due Friday, on this blog and in the print edition of The Salt Lake Tribune.
The Cricket will be live-tweeting the Oscar ceremony Sunday (the ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. Mountain time, with ABC's red-carpet pre-show starting at 5 p.m.) at @moviecricket.
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Cinematography
The nominees are... • Philippe Le Sourd, "The Grandmaster"; Emmanuel Lubezki, "Gravity"; Bruno Delbonnel, "Inside Llewyn Davis"; Phedon Papamichael, "Nebraska"; Roger A. Deakins, "Prisoners."
Who will win • "Gravity" has this one locked up.
Who should win • Can "Prisoners'" Roger Deakins, who is zero-for-11 nominations before this year, finally win one? Please?
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Production design
The nominees are... • Judy Becker (production design), Heather Loeffler (set decoration), "American Hustle"; Andy Nicholson (production design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (set decoration), "Gravity"; Catherine Martin (production design); Beverley Dunn (set decoration), "The Great Gatsby"; K.K. Barrett (production design); Gene Serdena (set decoration), "Her"; Adam Stockhausen (production design); Alice Baker (set decoration), "12 Years a Slave."
Who will win • This award usually goes to richly detailed historical dramas, which would give the nod to "12 Years a Slave." But Oscar voters also like production design that's in your face, and there was no movie where the sets were the star like "The Great Gatsby."
Who should win • It's subtle, but the warmly futuristic look of Spike Jonze' "Her" is one of the movie's many charms.
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Costume Design
The nominees are... • Michael Wilkinson, "American Hustle"; William Chang Suk Ping, "The Grandmaster"; Catherine Martin, "The Great Gatsby"; Michael O'Connor, "The Invisible Woman"; Patricia Norris, "12 Years a Slave."
Who will win • As with production design, it's the historical vs. the flamboyant — and the flamboyant "Gatsby" wins.
Who should win • The swinging '70s look of "American Hustle," for the engineering feat of giving plunging cleavage to Amy Adams.
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Music - Original Score
The nominees are... • John Williams, "The Book Thief"; Steven Price, "Gravity"; William Butler and Owen Pallett, "Her"; Alexandre Desplat, "Philomena"; Thomas Newman, "Saving Mr. Banks."
Who will win • First-time nominee Steven Price, as part of the "Gravity" sweep.
Who should win • Wouldn't it be cool if Butler, the frontman for Arcade Fire, and Pallett (who has worked with the band) took the Oscar for the uber-cool and uber-sweet "Her"?
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Music - Original Song
The nominees are... • "Happy," from "Despicable Me 2," music and lyric by Pharrell Williams; "Let It Go," from "Frozen," music and lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez; "The Moon Song," from "Her," music by Karen O, lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze; "Ordinary Love," from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," music by Paul Hewson (a k a Bono), Dave Evans (a k a The Edge), Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen (collectively known as U2), lyric by Paul Hewson (a k a Bono).
Who will win • Any other year, U2 would own this one. But "Let It Go," the show-stopper from "Frozen," has been a lock pretty much since Idina Menzel left of the recording studio.
Who should win • "Let It Go," which is both an old-fashioned Broadway hit and a modern anthem for self-empowerment.