Should Win: Nightcrawler Will Win: Birdman OR Boyhood Birdman and Boyhood are groundbreaking films; Birdman because it's a week-spanning meta-drama made to appear as one single take, Boyhood because it was filmed intermittently over 12 years, recording the ageing process in real-time better than any picture before it. Both are deserving of the Best Picture Oscar that one of them will inevitably win (providing the popular Republican surge doesn't see American Sniper snatch it). But even though both Birdman and Boyhood have admittedly impressive scripts, no film in the Original Screenplay category quite beats Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler for its precise, savagely written script. Gilroy's debut is a wicked satire on the media and corporate culture, and it gives us one of the most iconic characters of recent times in Jake Gyllenhaal's psychopathic loner Lou Bloom. Working as both a dynamic thriller and a vivid character piece, Nightcrawler is hopefully the first of many films from Dan Gilroy. If he keeps producing scripts at this level, an Oscar win is bound to be on the cards in the future anyway - it's just that, this time, nothing seems likely to stop the two juggernauts from Inarritu and Linklater. Which awards are going to go the wrong way on February 22nd? Have your say down in the comments.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
