Top Five Highlights of the 2016-17 Awards Season

I've vented my biggest frustrations, but the only proper way to put the season to rest is by celebrating those moments which made me most happy.

Top Five Highlights of the 2016-17 Awards Season:

5. Biopic curse broken

We were this close five years ago to having a winning lineup of actors who played four fictional characters, but then Meryl's imitation of Maggie Thatcher thwarted that plan by beating Viola Davis' ordinary hero Aibileen Clark in what we can only speculate was a photo finish. How fitting it then is that Viola is now part of the first winners' circle to feature no real life roles since the class of '97. Chalk it up if you must to a year that was a bit leaner on biopics than usual, but it's still refreshing to see four thespians clutching Oscars for playing the kinds of 'ordinary people' that Viola so passionately celebrated in every acceptance speech this season.

Oscars Post-mortem, Part 4: Favourite Nuggets

You can't catch everything there is to catch at the Oscars in one viewing. Half the joy is going back and putting the telecast under a microscope, looking for all the tiny bemusing details. These are my favourite such nuggets from the show:

Someone from Alessandro Bertolazzi's cheering section records his Oscar speech on a phone with a Suicide Squad Joker skin. How apropos.

One Category at a Time: Best Sound Mixing

I feel like every year it gets harder and harder to predict what the Academy as a whole takes into consideration when voting on Best Sound Mixing. Even among the most avid film enthusiasts, the particulars of this craft can be mysterious and confusing. I sometimes struggle myself to decide what constitutes the finest achievement of the year (especially so this year), so trying to speculate as to what others will decide is next to an impossible task.

It brings me no pride to confess that this is the category with my poorest prediction record (roughly 38%), and even the corresponding industry guild -- the CAS, which announces its winners tomorrow -- hasn't matched up all that often: Only 6 of the last 13 CAS champs repeated with the Academy.

But there is one constant that can usually be counted on to pad your Oscar stats: Best Sound Mixing loves musicals.

Sunday Top Ten - People who need an Oscar... IMMEDIATELY

It's been great to take a nice long break from any Oscar-related discussion. It's mostly a source of negative energy, but I think I've had a sufficient layoff from my awards bitterness to survive an Oscary list. I'll try to put together an Oscar list with a more positive theme one of these days, but this week I'm drawing attention to those poor individuals who, for no good reason, have been unfairly slighted by the Academy a few too many times.

It shouldn't bother me as much as it does. After all, the brilliant work of these people speaks for itself. A rational person shouldn't need the Academy to validate one's admiration of these artists by bestowing on them the title of Academy-Award-winner. But the Oscars are hardly rational themselves, and they certainly bring out the irrational in me. Here, in my irrational opinion, are the ten (or more) people, still working at the top of their game, who need an Oscar IMMEDIATELY.

One Category at a Time: Sound Mixing

In the years I've been doing this I don't believe I've ever guessed both Sound categories correctly (though I've come awfully close). This year has me similarly unsure of myself, as both categories could come down to either of two movies.

The obvious choice in this category, Inception, may actually be less safe than assumed. There's no denying the sophistication of the mix, and the sheer volume of it is all it'll need to convince some voters, but I get the nagging feeling that it's vulnerable to an upset (in both categories) by True Grit. The mixing team (who, in my opinion, should have won this category for No Country for Old Men three years ago) has done a terrific job that's nuanced but noticeable enough to draw votes away from Inception. Love for the film may push it across the finish line here. I'm not ballsy enough to predict it, but I smell a mini-upset in the works.

If it ends up being either The Social Network or The King's Speech, then there's your Best Picture sweeper right there. But those mixes are probably too subtle to register with the Academy at large.

Congrats to Greg P. Russell on his 14th career nomination for Salt. Shame that he's destined to lose yet again. Step up, Academy! Give the man his Oscar. And while you're at it, give one to Kevin O'Connell as well.

Will win: Inception
Runner-up: True Grit

Should win: Inception
Should have been nominated: Black Swan