Month: February 2008

The winner of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar is a surprise. All along I was hearing No End in Sight, No End in Sight, No End in Sight. Hooray for Alex Gibney‘s Taxi to Dark Side, which won, but it’s a surprise is all. Nobody I know called this. That I can think of.

The Best Original Score Oscar should go to Atonement…and it does!

The Oscar for Best Cinematography ( a word that Cameron Diaz can barely pronounce) goes to There Will Be Blood‘s Robert Elswit. This is a surprise. I’m sorry, but the cinematography of Roger Deakins in The Assassination of Jesse James loses? On top of his work in No Country? That doesn’t feel right. At all. I loved Elswit’s work but…I don’t know. Conflicted.

There’s no doubt about the Oscar winner for Best Song. Once‘s Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are the champs…of course! Deserved, fated, ordained. Stewart’s line about Glen — “Wow, that guy is so arrogant!” — is hilarious.

Penelope Cruz presents the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar to…does anyone care? The Academy didn’t even nominate the best film in this category, and I haven’t discerned any real enthusiasm for the nominees that made the cut. It will probably be The Counterfeiters. And the Oscar goes to…The Counterfeiters. Enthusiasm in the room is muted. I’ll rent it down the road.

The third Oscar of the night for The Bourne Ultimatum, this one for editing. Because of the velocity, speed, number of cuts per minute, etc. It’s a beautifully edited film. A honor well deserved.

The Best Actress Oscar presented by Forrest Whitaker. Marion Cotillard! Great! Amazing! Julie Christie almost had it. I don’t know what happened but this was the right call. The Real Geezer vote didn’t materialize as expected. Tom O’Neil or whomever it was who claimed that the Julie Christie thing was the Evolving Big Turn has some explaining to do.

Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen (not Judi Dench or Halle Berry) handing out the Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing Oscars. The Bourne Ultimatum wins the Best Sound Editing Oscar. (HE reader Zay Tonday who predicted No Country to win today at 02:41 PM was wrong! Big mouth!) The Best Sound Mixing Oscar goes to The Bourne Ultimatum again. Mildly surprising. Somewhat.

The Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, presented by James McAvoy and Josh Brolin, is presented to Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men. They’re going to win Best Director also (of course), and of course Best Picture. (Right?) Three Oscars for sure. Those dark horse notions about Clayton or Juno…forget ’em. I think.

Alan Arkin handing out the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Cate Blanchett should get it for I’m Not There, but I’ll be at peace with Michael Clayton‘s Tilda Swinton taking it. And Swinton wins! As predicted over the last four or five days! She didn’t expect it, obviously. Beautiful acceptance speech. Unexpectedly moving. Tony Gilroy‘s eyes were watering over.

The Best Best Live-Action Oscar should go The Substitute, which I’ve seen and praised. But the Oscar has gone to Le Mozart de Pickpockets, the most sentimental of the bunch. Sap sentiment! The Best Animated Short Oscar should go to I Met The Walrus, I believe, and the winner is…Peter and the Wolf! I give up.