"And the Oscar Goes To..."
Mar. 8th, 2010 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kamreadsandrecsIt was Oscar Day today, and unfortunately I wasn't able to see the live coverage, mostly because I had class at 9:40 AM today and I have a responsibility to my students to be there, despite my desire to stay home and watch the show.
Fortunately,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeebased and my mom were kind enough to keep an eye out on the whole thing for me, so I was able to get regular updates throughout the course of the day as to who was winning (or losing, as the case may be). On the whole, it was a very, very good day for me.
*cackles*
Anyway, here's my list from the previous entry, with the actual winners marked with an asterisk next to their name. Bold = main bet, underline = dark horse.
BEST PICTURE
Avatar - James Cameron and Jon Landau
The Blind Side - Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson
District 9 - Peter Jackson and Carolyn Cunningham
An Education - Fiona Dwyer and Amanda Posey
*The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
Inglorious Basterds - Lawrence Bender
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness
A Serious Man - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
UP - Jonas Rivera
Up in the Air - Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Coraline - Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog - John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells - Tomm Moore
*UP - Pete Doctor
DIRECTING
Avatar - James Cameron
*The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
Inglorious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
*The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglorious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
UP - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy
CINEMATOGRAPHY
*Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglorious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon - Christian Berger
MUSICAL SCORE
Avatar - James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer
*UP - Michael Giacchino
The Hurt Locker walked away with my personal Grand Trinity for the Oscars: Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. I have to say, though, that was a very satisfying set of wins. The Hurt Locker wasn't nominated for many acting awards, but that all pales in light of the fact that it won the two top prizes, delivering a double-whammy to the face of Avatar and James Cameron, and also proving that a good story, when told well, will always trump box-office earnings and dazzling special effects wizardry.
I am also utterly delighted that Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director. It's about time a woman joined that particular old boys' club, though I kind of wonder if it's because The Hurt Locker, which is, at its core, a war movie and hence a "male" kind of thing, had anything to do with that. While that's a somewhat troubling thought if you're going to inspect this win from a feminist angle, I still do feel that she did an excellent job with her movie, and that while it's tough and gritty, there's a certain sensitivity (is that even the right word for it?) in the way it was told that certainly makes it different from all the other war movies I've seen.
Some of these awards were no-brainers: everyone knew UP was going to win Best Animated Feature, though I have to say, it kind of surprised me that it won Best Musical Score, too. I was kind of expecting that award to go to either Avatar or Sherlock Holmes - Avatar because of its grand, epic sweep (though nothing can ever beat the score for The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion), while the score of Sherlock Holmes seemed just amusing and quirky enough that it might get a pass this time. Well, either way, Michael Giacchino did a fantastic job for the score for UP - though I wonder why his other work wasn't nominated: the score for Star Trek.
Another no-brainer was Avatar raking in all the technical awards, including Best Cinematography. Admittedly, that movie had some spectacular visuals, and you need good cinematography to show all of that to its advantage without going overboard. It also won Best Art Direction, and it certainly deserved that award. Avatar might not have the most original story, but the visuals were absolutely stunning. I have to hand it to the concept artists, in particular: how they made everything just work visually is something a lot of other artists can learn from.
Another surprise was The Hurt Locker taking home Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. I'd assumed these awards would go straight to Avatar but I was wrong. It appears that there just weren't enough explosions in Avatar to warrant this award, though I think there were enough explosions in Star Trek to warrant winning at least one of these awards.
And speaking of Star Trek, it did manage to take one award: Best Makeup. Considering the competition though, I suppose that it would have been a shoo-in. If Avatar counted, though, then there'd have been some stiff competition: do you award the movie with the hawt blue-skinned chick with the tail, or do you give it to the movie with the hawt green-skinned redhead chick? Decisions, decisions...
Can I be honest and say that, despite all my elation that The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow did very well, I feel quite sorry for Tarantino and Inglorious Basterds? When the movie came out everyone knew that Oscar nominations were in the running, but I don't think people were expecting the critical praise that The Hurt Locker garnered, or the visual wow-factor of Avatar. Sure, Christoph Waltz took home a Best Supporting Actor award, but I still feel bad that that was about all it took home. Still, this is just the beginning for Tarantino, I believe. He'll make another movie that will blow our minds, and that one will get another set of nominations, and, most likely, will score a win. Let's see how the next couple of years turns out.
And that's this year's Oscars done, and a new season is opening up. Already there's Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and even at this very early stage people are whispering that it's going to garner its own fair share of Oscar nominations when the time comes (likely on the technical side, though I strongly suspect a nomination for Best Makeup is in the works). In between now and then, though, I'll be scouring around for the nominees for Best Foreign Film, Best Animated Short Film, and the Documentary nominees.
Fortunately,
coffeebased and my mom were kind enough to keep an eye out on the whole thing for me, so I was able to get regular updates throughout the course of the day as to who was winning (or losing, as the case may be). On the whole, it was a very, very good day for me. *cackles*
Anyway, here's my list from the previous entry, with the actual winners marked with an asterisk next to their name. Bold = main bet, underline = dark horse.
BEST PICTURE
Avatar - James Cameron and Jon Landau
The Blind Side - Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson
District 9 - Peter Jackson and Carolyn Cunningham
An Education - Fiona Dwyer and Amanda Posey
*The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
Inglorious Basterds - Lawrence Bender
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness
A Serious Man - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
UP - Jonas Rivera
Up in the Air - Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Coraline - Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog - John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells - Tomm Moore
*UP - Pete Doctor
DIRECTING
Avatar - James Cameron
*The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
Inglorious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Lee Daniels
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
*The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglorious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
UP - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy
CINEMATOGRAPHY
*Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglorious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon - Christian Berger
MUSICAL SCORE
Avatar - James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes - Hans Zimmer
*UP - Michael Giacchino
The Hurt Locker walked away with my personal Grand Trinity for the Oscars: Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. I have to say, though, that was a very satisfying set of wins. The Hurt Locker wasn't nominated for many acting awards, but that all pales in light of the fact that it won the two top prizes, delivering a double-whammy to the face of Avatar and James Cameron, and also proving that a good story, when told well, will always trump box-office earnings and dazzling special effects wizardry.
I am also utterly delighted that Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director. It's about time a woman joined that particular old boys' club, though I kind of wonder if it's because The Hurt Locker, which is, at its core, a war movie and hence a "male" kind of thing, had anything to do with that. While that's a somewhat troubling thought if you're going to inspect this win from a feminist angle, I still do feel that she did an excellent job with her movie, and that while it's tough and gritty, there's a certain sensitivity (is that even the right word for it?) in the way it was told that certainly makes it different from all the other war movies I've seen.
Some of these awards were no-brainers: everyone knew UP was going to win Best Animated Feature, though I have to say, it kind of surprised me that it won Best Musical Score, too. I was kind of expecting that award to go to either Avatar or Sherlock Holmes - Avatar because of its grand, epic sweep (though nothing can ever beat the score for The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion), while the score of Sherlock Holmes seemed just amusing and quirky enough that it might get a pass this time. Well, either way, Michael Giacchino did a fantastic job for the score for UP - though I wonder why his other work wasn't nominated: the score for Star Trek.
Another no-brainer was Avatar raking in all the technical awards, including Best Cinematography. Admittedly, that movie had some spectacular visuals, and you need good cinematography to show all of that to its advantage without going overboard. It also won Best Art Direction, and it certainly deserved that award. Avatar might not have the most original story, but the visuals were absolutely stunning. I have to hand it to the concept artists, in particular: how they made everything just work visually is something a lot of other artists can learn from.
Another surprise was The Hurt Locker taking home Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. I'd assumed these awards would go straight to Avatar but I was wrong. It appears that there just weren't enough explosions in Avatar to warrant this award, though I think there were enough explosions in Star Trek to warrant winning at least one of these awards.
And speaking of Star Trek, it did manage to take one award: Best Makeup. Considering the competition though, I suppose that it would have been a shoo-in. If Avatar counted, though, then there'd have been some stiff competition: do you award the movie with the hawt blue-skinned chick with the tail, or do you give it to the movie with the hawt green-skinned redhead chick? Decisions, decisions...
Can I be honest and say that, despite all my elation that The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow did very well, I feel quite sorry for Tarantino and Inglorious Basterds? When the movie came out everyone knew that Oscar nominations were in the running, but I don't think people were expecting the critical praise that The Hurt Locker garnered, or the visual wow-factor of Avatar. Sure, Christoph Waltz took home a Best Supporting Actor award, but I still feel bad that that was about all it took home. Still, this is just the beginning for Tarantino, I believe. He'll make another movie that will blow our minds, and that one will get another set of nominations, and, most likely, will score a win. Let's see how the next couple of years turns out.
And that's this year's Oscars done, and a new season is opening up. Already there's Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and even at this very early stage people are whispering that it's going to garner its own fair share of Oscar nominations when the time comes (likely on the technical side, though I strongly suspect a nomination for Best Makeup is in the works). In between now and then, though, I'll be scouring around for the nominees for Best Foreign Film, Best Animated Short Film, and the Documentary nominees.
