Welcome to FilmBuffOnLine’s live blogging of the Academy Awards.
You’ll notice that we never gave any Oscar predictions here. There’s a reason for that- I’m terrible at trying to second guess how the Academy will vote. So rather than look foolish by posting a bunch of predictions that don’t come to pass, I just forgo the entire thing. However, that didn’t stop our Box Office maven Bill Gatevackes from giving it a shot at guessing who will win the coveted golden naked Patrick Stewart statuette over at his own blog- Gates’ Rants.
Right now the Red Carpet pre-show is playing, but I honestly don’t care much about the usual blather about who is wearing what designer, so I’m off to pop some corn.
8:30– Nice opening. Would be great to go through it again at slow-mo to identify all the films that cameoed in the piece.
8:40– “Before we spent four or five hours handing each other gold statues, let’s take a moment to congratulate ourselves.”
“Even Norbit got a nomination, which is good. Too often the Academy ignores films that are no good.”
“Oscar is 80 this year, which automatically makes it the Republican nominee.”
Jon Stewart is doing great. I wonder how much better it would have been if they had wrapped the strike up quicker.
8:45– Best Costume Design
Odd choice for the first award to hand out.
And it goes to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Not surprised, the older period pieces, with the more elaborate wardrobes, seem to get this award.
8:50– “Hi, guys.” Clooney is the King of Casual Cool.
A great Oscar history clip. Hopefully it’ll show up on the Academy’s YouTube channel.
8:55– Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway, stars of the upcoming Get Smart remake.
“They should have come through doors,” says my wife. Any questions why I married her?
How odd/cool is it to see the two Daily Show stalwarts onstage at the Academy Awards!?
Best Animated Feature-
Hope it goes to Persepolis, as much as love Pixar’s output.
And it goes to Ratatouille. Oddly enough, I was watching Brad Bird’s Iron Giant this afternoon.
I can’t believe that they’re playing Brad Bird off!
Best Makeup-
La Vie Un Rose!
Good choice.
And the two winners get played off as well. If two people win, do they have to share the short time allocated for an acceptance speech? That sucks.
9:01– Best Song Nominee Performance- “Happy Working Song”
Will the Academy actually give an Oscar to a song with the word “hairball” in it?
9:07– Why is The Rock here? Didn’t anyone else see his remake of Walking Tall? Oh yeah, that’s right. No one did.
Best Visual Effects-
The Golden Compass wins! (And Michael Bay is pouting right now…)
Art Direction
Tough one- I like both Golden Compass and Sweeney Todd!
And it goes to Sweeney Todd. I guess anyone who gets inside Tim Burton’s head and brings it to life deserves an award!
9:20– “I, John Stewart, am being played by Cate Blanchette…”
Seeing Cuba Gooding Jr. in that montage of Best Supporting Actors only reinforces the horrible choices he’s made since he won his Oscar in 1997.
Best Supporting Actor- Javier Bardem- Not really surprised. Is this the beginning of a sweep for No Country For Old Men? “Thank you for the Coen Brothers for putting the most horrible haircut in history on my head!” Nice of him to switch to Spanish to thank his mom.
9:23– “Oscar’s Salute To Binoculars and Periscopes”
9:28– Best Short Film- Four out of the five nominees are in a foreign language. It’s a shame that there aren’t any real commercial outlets in this country for short films outside of the film festival circuit.
Best Animated Short- Peter And The Wolf wins. It’s nice to see that stop motion animation is still being produced. (And no, I’m not forgetting Nick Park.)
9:40– Best Supporting Actress- Tilda Swinton gets it.
This I didn’t expect (thought that Blanchett had it sewn up, she’ll probably get for Elizabeth: The Golden Age then) and it looks like neither did she.
Ha! Swinton busts Clooney’s chops about Batman & Robin.
Nine categories awarded in about an hour. Will we finish by midnight?
9:47– Best Adapted Screenplay- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men!
This was the first of the many times the movie goes head to head with There Will Be Blood.
And now Sid Ganis will bore us with the rules…
9:51– OK, Sid Ganis will mildly entertain us with how the votes are tabulated.
Miley Cyrus is on before the ten o’clock bed time of her fan base.
Christin Chenowith is wearing platforms and heels to match the height of the rest of the performers.
10:01– “And the baby goes to… Angelina Jolie!”
Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill’s schtick goes on for about two quips too long.
Best Sound Editing- Bourne Ultimatium.
Long time for the orchestra to play before they got to the stage. Do all the tech people, i.e. non-famous faces, have to sit in the back rows?
Best Sound Mixing- Bourne Ultimatum
I think it would be great if one year they would give a demonstration to explain to everyone what the difference is between these two categories.
10:12– Best Actress- Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose
Her tear-eyed happiness is so heartwarming.
Surprised that Blanchett didn’t get it. She was definitely the favorite.
10:19– “Falling Slowly” from Once. What a beautiful song. I think this should be the winner. Let’s see what the Academy thinks.
10:23– Jack has traded his sunglasses for a pair of reading glasses.
How many in the Best Picture montage gave you seen?
Me- 47.
10:28– Renee Zellweger’s short hair looks terrible.
Best Film Editing- Bourne Ultimatum. (Three Oscars for this film?)
Christopher Rouse and his father have both won Oscars.
10:35– An honorary Oscar to Robert Boyle for his seven decades work in production design.
“That’s the nice part of getting old. I don’t recommend the other part.”
10:43– Best Foreign Language Film
Still wish Persepolis had been nominated here instead of Animated Feature.
The Counterfeiters wins.
It’s hard to judge this category as none of the nominated films had even the minimal distribution that the foreign language nominees usually get.
Patrick Dempsey- Who would have guessed he could be on a career comeback?
“So Close”- Not taken by the song but the production number was nicely done.
10:48– Best Song goes to “Falling Slowly” from Once.
Looks like me prediction a half hour ago came true!
I’m not surprised though. Three nominations for Enchanted probably split the vote there fatally.
10:55– Jon Stewart brings back Best Song co-winner Marketa Irglova back out to give her acceptance speech as she was played off before she could when she and Glen Hansard won. What a class act.
10:59– Best cinematography for There Will Be Blood.
11:01– The In Memoriam reel. It always saddens me to see what great talent was lost through the last 12 months.
11:10– Best Musical Score- Atonement.
Eh, the score for this film really didn’t do anything for me, but the last ten minutes of the movie not only ruined the film, but actually made me angry.
11:12– Another all around class acts- Tom Hanks.
Documentary Short Subject- Freeheld. Ironic, a film about gay marriage is announced by a member of our Armed Forces.
11:17– Best Documentary Feature- All the nominees are politically tinted, so expect whoever wins to be pilloried on right wing radio tomorrow.
The winner is Taxi To The Dark Side. Definitely expect the usual “Hollywood liberals hate America” rants from the usual suspects tomorrow.
11:24– Best Original Screenplay- Diablo Cody for Juno!
WOW! She looks as stunned as anyone. And it’s kind of touching to see her cool girl image crack their for a moment as she tears up.
(Oddly enough, this is handed out by the guy who told George Lucas- “George, you can write this s**t, but I got to say it.”)
I really have to finish that review of her latest script- Jennifer’s Body.
11:29– In the clip of Oscar history coming out of commercial, what the hell is Bette Davis wearing on her head?
11:32– Best Actor- Five great performances here. This is Daniel Day-Lewis’s to lose.
But he doesn’t!
“Thank you for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town.”
11:36– And we’re down to just Best Director and Picture. Definitely be wound up before midnight. Given that both Juno and No Country For Old Men have won for their screenplays, it should be interesting to see who nabs Best Picture.
11:45– Best Director- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men! Usually Best Director and Picture go hand in hand. Will it be that way tonight?
11:48– No Country For Old Men!
Some final thoughts-
I’m rather surprised that There Will Be Blood didn’t pull a few more awards. I was totally blown away that Diablo Cody won for Juno.
While this wasn’t the best awards show the Oscars ever had, it held together remarkably well considering the incredible time constraint the writers were under to pull it together.
Congratulations to our own Bill G. who got six out of his eight predictions right.
And hey, we’re done before midnight.
