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Goldderby.com: Best Actress

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Oscar diva smackdown: Experts clash over Bening vs. Portman

By Tom O’Neil
Nov 10 2010 | 04:07 am

Our first team of 11 experts from various media and our 11 Gold Derby editors disagree strongly about who is ahead in the Best Actress race. Five of the experts have Annette Bening (“The Kids Are All Right”) in the first position while five feel Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) will prevail.

TEAM BENING:
Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood), Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Steve Pond (The Wrap), Sasha Stone (Awards Daily), Bob Tourtellotte (Reuters)

TEAM PORTMAN
Thelma Adams (Us Weekly, Thelmadams.com), Lane Brown (Vulture), Erik Davis (Cinematical), Scott Feinberg (ScottFeinberg.com), Jeff Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere)

TEAM JENNIFER LAWRENCE
Guy Lodge (InContention)

GOLD DERBY RACETRACK ODDS: EXPERTS
1.) Bening – 8/3
2.) Portman – 17/10

Personally, I choose Bening along with two other Gold Derby editors, but most of  our site cohorts disagree. Eight say Portman.

GOLD DERBY RACETRACK ODDS: EDITORS
1.) Portman – 7/4
2.) Bening – 11/5

[Read more…]

Sneak Peak: 1st Oscar predix of the season

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This week, I’m joining Tom O’Neil in his relaunch of Goldderby.com under the auspices of the LA Times on November 4th. I was there at the beginning when Tom first approached me during an Oscar panel to come aboard the newborn Goldderby.com and I returned an emphatic “yes!” And I’m happy to be part of his current crew — even if he is a bit of a diva!

Here, then, are my early predictions in the top five categories. I’ve seen a majority of the movies in contention, but not all (The Fighter, Rabbit Hole, True Grit still to come). Please come back when I link to Tom’s site later in the week, and you can see how my predix align with my esteemed colleagues.

BEST PICTURE

  1. “Black Swan”
  2. “The King’s Speech”
  3. “The Social Network”
  4. “Inception”
  5. “Made in Dagenham”
  6. “The Kids Are All Right”
  7. “127 Hours “
  8. “Toy Story 3”
  9. “True Grit”
  10. “Winter’s Bone”

BEST LEAD ACTOR

  1. Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
  2. Michael Douglas, “Solitary Man”
  3. James Franco, “127 Hours”
  4. Ryan Gosling, “Blue Valentine”
  5. Leonardo DiCaprio, “Inception”

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

  1. Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
  2. Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”
  3. Sally Hawkins, “Made in Dagenham”
  4. Nicole Kidman, “Rabbit Hole”
  5. Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  1. Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
  2. Geoffrey Rush, “The King’s Speech”
  3. Matt Damon, “True Grit”
  4. Mark Ruffalo, “The Kids Are All Right”
  5. Sam Rockwell, “Conviction”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  1. Melissa Leo, “The Fighter”
  2. Miranda Richardson, “Made in Dagenham”
  3. Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”
  4. Dianne Wiest “Rabbit Hole”
  5. Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”