As some of you who personally know me well, I am a big time movie fan. I'll pretty much watch any movie but also read a couple of great movie magazines made in the U.K. (Total Film and Empire...you can find them in any Borders or Barnes and Noble. Check them out). Anyway, this is one of my favorite nights of the year mainly because it celebrates the movies but you also have the complete stupidity of Hollywood actors and actresses and how way too seriously they take themselves. Sprinkle in some random appearances by old time actors and of course the montage of celebrities who have died this year and you have a great night of comedy gold.
I sadly didn't catch as many of the nominations as I did last year but I caught most of the major movies. Below are my thoughts and predictions on each of the categories. I italicized the movies I saw.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
*
Avatar (2009): James Cameron, Jon Landau
* The Blind Side (2009): Gil Netter, Andrew A.
Kosove, Broderick Johnson
*
District 9 (2009): Peter Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham* An Education (2009):
Finola Dwyer, Amanda
Posey*
The Hurt Locker (2008): Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro*
Inglourious Basterds (2009): Lawrence Bender* Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009): Lee Daniels, Sarah
Siegel-
Magness, Gary
Magness*
A Serious Man (2009): Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
* Up (2009): Jonas Rivera
*
Up in the Air (2009/I): Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman, Jason ReitmanThoughts: This is tough. Avatar completely revolutionized movies forever with the 3D effects and the movie probably holds up well without the 3D. The Hurt Locker was more of a gritty realistic movie and pretty much puts you in downtown
Baghdad in 2004. Inglorious Bastards was also very good and I'd say it could be a dark horse but it ran just a little too long. District 9 was probably the second most original movie (after Avatar) and was my favorite movie of the year but probably has little chance. Up In The Air and A Serious Man were two movies I thought were very overrated with A Serious Man being a
plotless mess. I didn't see Precious but will when it comes out on DVD Tuesday. Up I heard was awesome but an animated movie hasn't been nominated for Best Picture since Beauty And The Beast so it probably won't win. The Blind Side sounded to me like it was a little too sugary and too Hollywood and I heard good things about An Education but didn't how to watch it.
Prediction: I'm pulling for the Hurt Locker but its going to be close. I think Avatar takes it.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:* Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (2009)
*
George Clooney for Up in the Air (2009/I)* Colin Firth for A Single Man (2009)
* Morgan Freeman for
Invictus (2009)
*
Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker (2008)Everything points towards Jeff Bridges winning. He'll always be the Dude to me in the The Big
Lebowski and the creepy villain in the late 90's thriller The Vanishing so I'm happy for him. George
Clooney was good but he didn't stand out THAT much. Jeremy
Renner should win based on the last 15 minutes of the Hurt Locker alone but I have to take the critics word for it that Jeff Bridges put on an amazing performance.
Prediction: Having not seen Crazy Heart, I'd go with
Renner but this seems to be Bridges year.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role* Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (2009)
* Helen
Mirren for The Last Station (2009)
* Carey Mulligan for An Education (2009)
*
Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
*
Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia (2009)I only saw Julia and Julia and I was probably playing
brickbreaker on my phone at the time so I wasn't completely paying attention. Still, I thought she did a good job at playing Julia Child. I hear a lot of talk about Sandra Bullock's
performance and how it could come down to her and Meryl
Streep. I don't know much about the other performances except the rather large Precious actor did a good job. Helen
Mirren is an elder statesman and should be happy to be there. I heard lots of great things about Carey Mulligan but the movie seemed to never play anywhere for anybody. I'll have to check out An Education as some point.
Prediction: I'm pulling for Meryl
Streep and think she'll win. If not, it belongs to Sandra Bullock. She's come a long way since Demolition Man and The Net!
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role* Matt Damon for
Invictus (2009)
* Woody
Harrelson for The Messenger (2009/I)
* Christopher
Plummer for The Last Station (2009)
* Stanley
Tucci for The Lovely Bones (2009)
* Christopher Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009)I only saw Waltz's performance but it was an awesome. His way of slowly breaking the Nazi fighters down is incredible and his laughing fit of hearing how the actress breaks her leg (mountain climbing) shows how crazy but smart his character was. I love the other actors nominated (especially Woody
Harrelson) but Waltz seems to be winning everything else.
Prediction: Waltz...mark it.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
*
Penélope Cruz for Nine (2009)
*
Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air (2009/I)* Maggie
Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart (2009)
*
Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (2009/I)*
Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
Mo'Nique should win this since she's won every other award. I liked the younger girl, Anna Kendrick, in Up In The Air. Vera
Farmiga was annoying in her role and I HATE Maggie
Gyllenhaal (I was sort of happy her
charactered died suddenly in The Dark Knight). Penelope Cruz won last year and Nine sucked a fatty anyway.
Prediction:
Mo'Nique (I'm going to hate having to type her name out tonight...stupid apostrophe).
Best Achievement in Directing*
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)
* James Cameron for Avatar (2009)* Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)
* Jason Reitman for Up in the Air (2009/I)
* Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds (2009)All good movies here. Again, its going to come down to Cameron and
Bigelow, who used to bang each other...cool!, but I'm sort of pulling for Quentin here. Again, its two different type of movies (Cameron created an entire world....
Bigelow puts you in a world of hell).
Prediction:
Bigelow only because I think Avatar is going to win Best Picture and Oscar voters will want to recognize The Hurt Locker in some way.
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen*
The Hurt Locker (2008): Mark Boal
* Inglourious Basterds (2009): Quentin Tarantino
* The Messenger (2009/I): Alessandro
Camon, Oren
Moverman* A Serious Man (2009): Joel
Coen, Ethan
Coen* Up (2009): Bob Peterson, Pete
Docter, Thomas McCarthy
This is interesting. I would think
Inglourious Basterds is more original than The Hurt Locker. If this category is about original stories, I'd say
Tarantino's was a lot more interesting. Plus, I read a couple of days ago that the Hurt Locker writer Mark
Boal is being sued by a guy who said he ripped the story idea off him.
Prediction:
Taratino finally wins his long due Oscar.
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
*
District 9 (2009): Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell* An Education (2009): Nick
Hornby* In the Loop (2009): Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando
Iannucci, Tony Roche
* Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009): Geoffrey Fletcher
*
Up in the Air (2009/I): Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner I really really REALLY want District 9 to win here...what a really cool movie (I'm a sucker for aliens and big guns...but unlike Avatar, some of the aliens are nasty). Still, Up In The Air seems to hit closer to home in our wacky society and economy today. Plus Jason
Reitman's Dad wrote
Ghostbusters so he has friends in Hollywood. He also directed Juno last year so the Academy should like him.
Prediction: Come on District 9! But
Reitman is my pick.
Best Achievement in Cinematography*
Avatar (2009): Mauro Fiore
*
Das weisse Band -
Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009): Christian Berger
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009): Bruno
Delbonnel* The Hurt Locker (2008): Barry Ackroyd
* Inglourious Basterds (2009): Robert RichardsonNow we get into categories that I'm just going to make complete guesses at. Cinematography is about the scenes and visions of what's going on the screen around the actors. If that's really true, you have to go with Avatar.
Prediction: Avatar...though I'm intrigued to see the short clip of
Das weisse Band (goofy name).
Best Achievement in Editing*
Avatar (2009): Stephen E. Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
* District 9 (2009): Julian Clarke
* The Hurt Locker (2008): Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
* Inglourious Basterds (2009): Sally Menke* Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009): Joe
KlotzNot sure how editing plays into a movie but I'd liked the way they cut the action scenes in the four movies I saw. The Hurt Locker might get this but I'll go with Avatar here.
Prediction: Avatar (they should win most of the technical awards tonight).
Best Achievement in Art Direction*
Avatar (2009): Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair* The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009): David Warren, Anastasia
Masaro, Caroline Smith
* Nine (2009): John
Myhre, Gordon Sim
* Sherlock Holmes (2009): Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
* The Young Victoria (2009): Patrice
Vermette, Maggie Gray
I'm going solely by names here. The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was directed by Terry Gilliam who's made some very out there movies (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) and might steal this if Avatar doesn't win this as well.
Prediction:
Imaginarium (going to mix it up here).
Best Achievement in Costume Design* Bright Star (2009): Janet Patterson
* Coco
avant Chanel (2009): Catherine
Leterrier* The
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009): Monique
Prudhomme* Nine (2009): Colleen Atwood
* The Young Victoria (2009): Sandy Powell
I didn't see any of these movies so I'm going with Monique
Prudhomme only because she keeps the spelling of her first name without an apostrophes.
Prediction:
Prudhomme.
Best Achievement in Makeup
*
Il divo (2008): Aldo
Signoretti, Vittorio
Sodano*
Star Trek (2009): Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow* The Young Victoria (2009): John Henry Gordon, Jenny
ShircoreNot sure why Avatar isn't
lisited here but then again
CGI involves no makeup. Have to go with Star Trek here.
Il Divo?
Hmmm...
Prediction: Star Trek
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
*
Avatar (2009): James Horner* Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009): Alexandre
Desplat*
The Hurt Locker (2008): Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders* Sherlock Holmes (2009): Hans
Zimmer* Up (2009): Michael
GiacchinoNo movie scores seemed to stand out and James
Horner was win a few times in the past but then again so has Hans
Zimmer. The song I actually remember the most is the song playing in the supermarket at the end of Hurt Locker.
Prediction: The Avatar train chugs along.
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song* Crazy Heart (2009): T-Bone Burnett, Ryan
Bingham("The Weary Kind")
*
Faubourg 36 (2008): Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas("Loin
de Paname")
* Nine (2009): Maury
Yeston("Take It All")
* The Princess and the Frog (2009): Randy Newman("Almost There")
* The Princess and the Frog (2009): Randy Newman("Down in New Orleans")
It seems that the Crazy Heart song will win but I have a soft spot for Randy Newman if only for the baseball game montage song he did for the Naked Gun AND the basketball game montage in Teen Wolf. Go Randy!
Prediction: Crazy Heart...can't see how it loses.
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
*
Avatar (2009): Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson
* The Hurt Locker (2008): Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett
* Inglourious Basterds (2009): Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, Mark Ulano
* Star Trek (2009): Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Peter J. Devlin
* Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009): Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Geoffrey Patterson Strange in that I saw all five of these movies but the "sound mixing" wasn't something I was paying attention to. Transformers had some pretty cool mechanical sounds but the movie was pretty bad (though not as bad as a non-fan of the old 80's cartoon would say). Avatar's battle scenes was full of sounds going all over the theater. Hurt Locker and Basterds sounds involved guns so they may cancel each other out.
Prediction: Avatar.
Best Achievement in Sound Editing*
Avatar (2009): Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
* The Hurt Locker (2008): Paul N.J. Ottosson
* Inglourious Basterds (2009): Wylie Stateman
* Star Trek (2009): Mark P. Stoeckinger, Alan Rankin* Up (2009): Michael Silvers, Tom Myers
See above, not sure what the difference is but for some reason
Transformers was taken out and Up put in.
Prediction: Hurt Locker only because of the cool name Paul N.J.
Ottosson.
Best Achievement in Visual Effects*
Avatar (2009): Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andy Jones
* District 9 (2009): Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken
* Star Trek (2009): Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt DaltonDistrict 9's aliens seemed like they fit into the movie perfectly but Avatar again created an entire world.
Prediction: Avatar
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year* Coraline (2009): Henry
Selick* Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009): Wes Anderson
* The Princess and the Frog (2009): John
Musker, Ron Clements
* The Secret of
Kells (2009):
Tomm Moore
* Up (2009): Pete
DocterDidn't see any of these but Up is the only one also nominated for Best Picture. I also heard from two strong willed friends of my mine who are in their 30's and they gently wept after watching the montage in the beginning of the movie. That alone gets my vote.
Prediction: Up!
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year*
Ajami (2009)(Israel)
*
Das weisse Band -
Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009)(Germany)
* El
secreto de sus ojos (2009)(Argentina)
*
Un prophète (2009)(France)
* La
teta asustada (2009)(Peru)
Hmmm...I'm going by what country I'd like to visit. Israel seems a bit dangerous these days. Peru and Argentina are too
jungly for me. That leaves France and Germany. Since I like beer, I'm going with Germany.
Prediction:
Das weisse Band...
Victaschnief!
Best Documentary, Features* Burma VJ: Reporter i
et lukket land (2008): Anders
Østergaard, Lise
Lense-
Møller* The Cove (2009): Louie
Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens
* Food, Inc. (2008): Robert
Kenner, Elise
Pearlstein* The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel
Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009): Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
* Which Way Home (2009):
Rebecca CammisaI need to see some of these. I heard great things about The Cove (about how dolphins are killed for their meat) and Food, Inc. (inside look at the food industry). I'm going with a movie that shows the shocking treatment of Flipper.
Prediction: The Cove
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
* China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of
Sichuan Province (2009) (TV): Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill
* The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (2009): Daniel
Junge, Henry
Ansbacher* The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009) (TV): Steven
Bognar, Julia
Reichert*
Królik po berlinsku (2009):
Bartosz Konopka, Anna
Wydra* Music by Prudence (2010): Roger Ross Williams, Elinor
BurkettHmmm...I'm just going by titles here. I'm going to go with the second one. I'm not sure who Booth Gardner was but I like that name...combine with the name of one of the guys who made it,
Junge, and that's my pick.
Prediction: The Booth
Garder flick that
Junge made.
Best Short Film, Animated* French Roast (2008):
Fabrice Joubert* Granny
O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (2008): Nicky
Phelan,
Darragh O'Connell
* La
dama y la
muerte (2009): Javier
Recio Gracia
*
Logorama (2009): Nicolas
Schmerkin* Wallace and
Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' (2008) (TV): Nick Park
Going by names again. I've heard of the Wallace and
Gromit people (they did that movie Chicken Run years ago). That's my pick though I like that Granny
O'Grimm title.
Prediction: Wallace and
Gromit.
Best Short Film, Live Action
* The Door (2008): Juanita Wilson, James Flynn
*Istället för abrakadabra (2008): Patrik Eklund, Mathias Fjällström
* Kavi (2009): Gregg Helvey
* Miracle Fish (2009): Luke Doolan, Drew Bailey
* The New Tenants (2009): Joachim Back, Tivi Magnusson
I'm going for the second one only because I can't wait to see whoever presents this award try to pronounce it.
Prediction: Here's my stab at it..."is-tah-let for ah-bra-cah-dah-bra"
