What research should go into predicting the Oscars successfully?

I think some research is important because by knowing Oscar history, you can get an idea of what kinds of films and performances the Academy gravitates towards. I do think that the Academy loves a transformation on the part of an actor as much as they love the great performance.  So that’s why you see Hilary Swank winning for Boys Don’t Cry. That’s why you see something like even Colin Firth for the King’s Speech—it wasn’t just a great performance but there was that transformation that he had to make into a man who stutters.

So I think that’s one of the reasons why Matthew McConaughey has such a great chance this year because not only did he give a great performance but look what he did to his physical body to play that role. It’s important to do research as far as Oscar history is concerned. It’s also important to research the earlier awards in the awards season because there are so many prizes that do have overlap with the Oscars but then it’s also important to throw research out the window and just try to watch a movie, if you really want to predict it—try to watch a movie as if you were an Oscar voter.

Try to imagine what you would think of it if you were an older, probably white, probably male member of the film industry, what would you think of it then?  So when I watch movies, I definitely watch them with one eye that’s my own and one eye that is this kind of the made up Oscar voter in my head and I try to imagine what that person would think of the movie, too.

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Dave Karger on Quora:

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from Quora http://ift.tt/28oDST9