Oscars 2016: Predictions and is this the year of the female protagonist?
What movies will win at the Oscars this year? Here are our picks. Meanwhile, screenwriter Nick Hornby's movie 'Brooklyn' is the third movie written by him in recent years with a female protagonist that has gotten awards season attention.
'Brooklyn' stars Saoirse Ronan (l.) and Emory Cohen (r.).
Kerry Brown/Fox Searchlight/AP
As the Oscars approach, what movies will be big winners this year?聽
This year, movies such as 鈥淪potlight,鈥� 鈥淭he Big Short,鈥� 鈥淭he Revenant,鈥� and 鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road鈥� are battling it out for some of the top prizes, and the Best Picture race in particular is being called difficult to predict.聽
Fans of actor Leonardo DiCaprio will probably be pleased by the results of the Best Actor Oscar race, as DiCaprio will most likely win the statuette for his work in the movie 鈥淭he Revenant.鈥� In 鈥淩evenant,鈥� DiCaprio portrays real-life trapper Hugh Glass, who is injured by a bear and left behind by his companions. He鈥檚 been nominated four times before for his acting and he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor and the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama, so expect to see him going up onstage at the Oscars on Feb. 28.聽
DiCaprio鈥檚 fellow nominees include Eddie Redmayne for 鈥淭he Danish Girl,鈥� Michael Fassbender for 鈥淪teve Jobs,鈥� Matt Damon for 鈥淭he Martian,鈥� and Bryan Cranston for 鈥淭rumbo.鈥澛�
The Best Actress winner seems similarly assured. Brie Larson, who received her first Oscar nomination for 鈥淩oom,鈥� portrays in the film a woman who is held captive for years with her son. She won both the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actress and the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama as well.聽
Larson is nominated alongside Saoirse Ronan for 鈥淏rooklyn,鈥� Charlotte Rampling for 鈥�45 Years,鈥� Jennifer Lawrence for 鈥淛oy,鈥� and Cate Blanchett for 鈥淐arol.鈥澛�
The best supporting actress prize is a bit tougher to call. Actress Alicia Vikander, who received her first Oscar nomination this year, won the Screen Actors Guild award in the category for her work in 鈥淭he Danish Girl,鈥� in which she plays Gerda Wegener, the wife of one of the first known people to undergo gender reassignment surgery. But previous Oscar winner and nominee Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress for the film 鈥淪teve Jobs鈥� for her role as Apple employee Joanna Hoffman. However, Vikander was in the lead actress category for 鈥淒anish鈥� at the Golden Globes and she should take the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.聽
Vikander and Winslet鈥檚 fellow nominees are Rachel McAdams for 鈥淪potlight,鈥� Rooney Mara for 鈥淐arol,鈥� and Jennifer Jason Leigh for 鈥淭he Hateful Eight.鈥�
For the best supporting actor Oscar, Idris Elba of 鈥淏easts of No Nation鈥� won the Screen Actors Guild award for best supporting actor, but he鈥檚 not nominated for an Oscar. Sylvester Stallone, who has previously been nominated for an Academy Award (for the same role as this year, no less), won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for the 鈥淩ocky鈥� movie 鈥淐reed鈥� and should win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar also.聽
With competition fierce between the nominees for Best Picture, we may see again a split between who wins Best Director and what movie is named as Best Picture.聽
Alejandro G. I帽谩rritu won the Golden Globe for best director and also won the corresponding prize from the Directors Guild of America. The winner of the DGA award very often lines up with the Oscar winner for Best Director. I帽谩rritu won last year for 鈥淏irdman" and should hear his name called again on Oscars night.
The other directors nominated for the award are George Miller for 鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road,鈥� Adam McKay for 鈥淭he Big Short,鈥� Lenny Abrahamson for 鈥淩oom,鈥� and Tom McCarthy for 鈥淪potlight.鈥�
As for Best Picture, 鈥淩evenant鈥� won the best picture 鈥� drama award at the Golden Globes, but perhaps Oscars voters will feel that I帽谩rritu is getting his due with the Best Director Oscar. If so, look for them to give the Best Picture award to the winner of the SAG award for best cast, 鈥淪potlight.鈥�
Meanwhile, a movie written by Nick Hornby is nominated at the Oscars again.聽
Why does this matter? Over the past several years, screenwriter Nick Hornby has gotten attention for adapting books with female protagonists into Oscar-nominated films. Last year saw his film 鈥淲ild,鈥� which starred Reese Witherspoon and was adapted from the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, get nominated in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories for Witherspoon and Laura Dern, respectively.聽
In 2010, the movie 鈥淎n Education,鈥� which was adapted from a book of the same name by Hornby and starred Carey Mulligan, was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress for Mulligan, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hornby.聽
This year, the movie 鈥淏rooklyn,鈥� which was adapted by Hornby from a novel, is nominated for Best Picture and lead actress Ronan is nominated for Best Actress. Hornby is again nominated for best adapted screenplay.聽
鈥淟et鈥檚 say you鈥檙e a Hollywood producer with the rights to a sought-after property with a young, female protagonist,鈥� wrote as 鈥淏rooklyn鈥� got attention. 鈥淲ho do you hire to write the script? The answer, these days, is obviously Nick Hornby鈥� his character-first approach has resulted in deeply-felt depictions of the female experience, none of which filter their characters through the male gaze. As it stands, Hornby may be the best writer of women in Hollywood.鈥澛�
, 鈥淚 only want to write books and movies about women.鈥�
"Brooklyn" stands alongside such fellow Best Picture nominees as "Mad Max: Fury Road," where female character Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) takes center stage for much of the film, and "Room," which centers on an imprisoned mother (Larson) and her son (Jacob Tremblay).
released earlier this month by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found that the amount of female protagonists in the 110 highest-grossing movies in 2015 went up 6 percent from the year before.
Despite the growth of female protagonists, the Center found that there is still not a lot of diversity. In the 110 highest-grossing films last year, black female characters represented 13 percent, Latina characters 4 percent, and Asian female characters 3 percent.聽
鈥淭he numbers were definitely moving in the right direction,鈥� study author Martha Lauzen told Variety about the rise in female main characters. 鈥淲hat is not clear is whether or not 2015 was a bit of an anomaly or whether this is the beginning of a longer-term trend.鈥�