4. Best Original Script - Django Unchained/Amour
If I was the Academy - just me on my own - I'd be torn between 'Django...' and 'Amour' - both are worthy winners in my eyes and it's true that Tarantino's western has done well this season, picking up the Golden Globe, the Critic's Choice and the BAFTA. It obviously has mainstream appeal and the Academy have always been strangely favourable when it comes to Tarantino, particularly with this 'reserved/conservative' reputation they've garnered over the years. Amour is a fantastic effort, a spell-binding and haunting movie, difficult to watch (for me, anyway) with nothing held back. I think Michael Haneke is an extraordinary director who, like Tarantino, never shies away from depicting the truth in whichever style or theme suits the context best. His films are very disturbing (everyone remember 'Hidden'?) and his art-house appeal is something that he's very proud of. That being said, the Academy don't generally award these kinds of movies. It's also incredibly rare that a script not written in English is given the gong in this category (with that in mind, it's a dead cert for Best Foreign Film). No, the winner here will be the script that took home the WGA - 'Zero Dark Thirty'. Not a bad film but, in my opinion, a very underwhelming effort. Many will remember 'The Hurt Locker' taking home Best Original Screenplay a few years ago, another baffling choice considering the structure (or lack of) in the movie and the far superior 'Inglorious Basterds' being nominated in the same category