Oscars Tonight!

I'm pretty excited to watch the Oscars tonight, because

1. I'm going to watch them with a bunch of people who are pretty much as excited as I am
2. I've actually seen ALL the Best Picture nominees, for the first time in my life!

I agree with the #OscarsSoWhite campaign to get more diverse people involved in every aspect of movie production, but I also agree that the real issue starts outside the Oscars, with the choices of movie executives and casting directors. In most ways, the Oscars nominees are just reflecting what is being put out there. Even so, I am happy to hear that the Academy is going to push through some apparently aggressive changes in its membership to increase the number of women and people of color. Here's hoping Oscars 2017 has a noticeable increase in diversity, and that it keeps going up from then on.

And now, MY choices for the winners for 2016 Oscars.

Best Picture: 
#1 choice: Spotlight
2. Brooklyn
3. The Big Short
4. Bridge of Spies
5. The Martian
6. Room
7. Mad Max
8. The Revenant - The Revenant is favored to win. Obviously, I am not so supportive of that.

I haven't seen all the performances for the rest of these categories, so I'm just picking based on what I've seen.

Best Actor: Matt Damon?
I don't really have a strong favorite here. I think Leo DiCaprio is great, but doesn't NEED an Oscar the way everyone says he does. It's not like he's close to the end of his career. The guy is 41 for crying out loud! And I am thankful that it looks like Redmayne will not win for The Danish Girl. That performance was not great.

Best Actress: Any of them
Really, I have seen all of these performances, and they are all amazing. I'm happy for any of them.

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance
I REALLY liked him in Bridge of Spies. Apparently Stallone is favored to win from Creed, but I haven't seen that movie yet!

Best Supporting Actress: Rooney Mara
This is the one that I feel most strongly about in the acting awards, because Mara's performance in Carol basically convinced me that she is a good actress (I didn't really like her in previous movies like The Social Network or Side Effects). I don't think she's going to win though; the buzz is mainly for Alicia Vikander. I really like Vikander too! I just liked Mara's performance more.

Edited the day after the Oscars to add: YAY! Two of my top choices (Spotlight and Mark Rylance) won!!! Hooray for minor upsets!!