OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2016: The music and sound categories

Through several editorial features, here is my analysis to formulate my official Academy Award predictions. In this first post, we look at the musical and sound categories that include original score, original song, sound editing, and sound mixing. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool!

2016, Column, EditorialDon ShanahanFebruary 22, 20162016, 2016 Oscars, 2016 Academy Awards, 88th Academy Awards, Oscar hopefuls, Oscar nominations, Oscar surprises, Oscar winners, Oscar bait, Oscar, Oscar Predictions, Oscar snubs, Oscars, Oscar contenders, 88th Oscars, 2016 Oscar Predictions, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Mad Max: Fury Road, Awards Predictions, Academy Award, Academy Awards, Academy Award nominee, Academy Award nominations, Academy Award nominees, Academy Award winner, Awards Talk, Awards Tracker, 2016 Awards Tracker, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, The Revenant, Sicario, Creed, Inside Out, Spectre, Furious 7, See You Again, Lady Gaga, The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone, Stephen Rennicks, Room, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, John Williams, Thomas Newman, Junkie XL, Bridge of Spies, Johann Johannsson, Carter Burwell, Carol, Love and Mercy, Racing Extinction, Fifty Shades of Grey, Sam Smith, Simple Song #3, Youth, Til It Happens to You, The Hunting GroundComment

COLUMN: Who should win/will win the 2016 Golden Globes?

More and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and hosted by Ricky Gervais in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films.

2015, 2016, Editorial, Column, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 8, 2016Best Original Score, Carter Burwell, Carol, Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs, Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, The Revenant, John Williams, Johann Johannsson, Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Elle Goulding, Wiz Khalifa, Brian Wilson, Love and Mercy, Writing's on the Wall, Sam Smith, Spectre, Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo, Youth, Mustang, Son of Saul, The Brand New Testament, The Club, The Fencer, Timbuktu, The Assassin, Best Foreign Language Film, Amour, The Artist, Best Animated Feature, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Good Dinosaur, The Peanuts Movie, Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Disney/Pixar, Emma Donoghue, Room, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight, Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, Charlie Randolph, The Big Short, Quentin Tarantino, Brooklyn, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Dano, Mark Ruffalo, Benecio del Toro, Sicario, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren, Trumbo, Jane Fonda, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Lily Tomlin, Grandma, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Melissa McCarthy, Spy, Maggie Smith, The Lady in the VAn, The Lady in the Van, Amy Schumer, Trainwreck, Teyonah Parris, Chi-Raq, Al Pacino, Danny Collins, Infinitely Polar Bear, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Matt Damon, The Martian, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Suffragette, Far from the Madding Crowd, Will Smith, Concussion, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bryan Cranston, Michael Keaton, Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hanks, The Wolf of Wall Street, Todd Hayne, George Miller, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globes, 73rd Golden Globes, Golden Globe nominees, Golden Globe winners, who will win/should win, Awards Predictions, Awards Tracker, Awards Talk, 88th Academy Awards, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Hateful Eight

It is time to go on record and add another label to the colorful list to describe filmmaker Quentin Tarantino: "acquired taste." Even with his recent success, the auteur's excessive and aestheticized indulgences are catching up to him. Each subsequent film of his may be getting more popular, but they are not getting better and "The Hateful Eight" hammers that point home. Swelled to either a 167-minute straight cut or a 187-minute opus complete with overture and intermission, Tarantino's newest film doesn't know when to quit. It just goes and dies, literally and figuratively.

EDITORIAL: My picks for the greatest movie scores

Here's my official list of my top 10 movie scores with three unbreakable ties. I can't call them the "greatest," but I'll put my list next to anyone's and defend my choices. My friends and followers kind of poked the bear and encouraged me to make and rank my own list. Well, I love a good challenge and I knew this one would be easy. Movie scores and I get along.

SPECIAL, Editorial, 2014, ColumnDon ShanahanNovember 14, 2014Editorial, The Shawshank Redemption, Jaws, Hans Zimmer, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Batman, Interstellar, Ennio Morricone, Gladiator, film music, Dr. Zhivago, Star Wars trilogy, Column, Nino Rota, Elmer Bernstein, Star Wars, The Good Bad and the Ugly, Out of Africa, John Barry, James Bond theme, Rudy, James Horner, Howard Shore, The Dark Knight, Up, Legends of the Fall, John Williams, Superman, Movie music, Michael Giacchino, Gone With the Wind, Vertigo, Bill Conti, Danny Elfman, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Good, Titanic, Braveheart, Bernard Herrmann, The Magnificent Seven, Dances With Wolves, Indiana Jones, Psycho, Schindler's List, Jerry Goldsmith, The Godfather, The Mission, Rocky, Lawrence of Arabia, Itzhak Perlman, Thomas Newman, film scores, The Lord of the Rings Comment

COLUMN: The Ultimate Playlist of Movie Music Lullabies

I hope this big post and 200-song playlist finds you and serves you well. It's been quite the passion project for me to build, on and off, over the last year and a half. Thanks for letting me merge sounding like a parenting blogger and a movie in one post. Please share this column with your friends with kids. It's all not just for babies either. If you like this kind of music, it works great in the car or at the office as well. As a school teacher, I used to play this in my elementary school classes all the time. It's excellent music for creativity and focus for all ages. Enjoy!