Oscar Zone V: I was wrong.

Well, I hope all of you out there are nursing some comforting Oscar Hangovers, but it's time to wrap up Norwegian Morning Wood's really sketchy Academy Awards Coverage. Over the past few days I've looked deeper into some topics, mostly complaining about AVABAR (2009), which ended up losing any important award, so naturally I'm overjoyed.

What follows is a revision of my original predictions. To refresh your memory, RED were nominees that I thought WOULD WIN. In BLUE were the noms that SHOULD HAVE WON. PURPLE means I thought the deserving nominee would win. All these remain on my list but in addition GREEN represents the actual winner. Got it? Nope? Good. I ended up pretty split, 12/24, but I'll note I called every acting, directing and Best Picture, screenplay really rocked my world. I consider that category a total oddball award now, the past three winners include Juno (2007), Milk (2008) and Precious: Blah Blah by Sapphire (2009). Without adieu, here we go:

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)

Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Easy.

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 Docter

Again, no brainer.

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("Down in New Orleans")
The Princess and the Frog (2009): Randy Newman("Almost There")

Nice, I'm 3/3 at this point.

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 was my first indication that The Hurt Locker would have a big night. It wasn't going to be a one-and-go kind of Best Picture, it would sweep or nothing, like Slumdog (2008) before it. Cheating Big Q out of what I thought would be an easy award for him was the first step.

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

The little clip of Logorama shown right before it won pretty much convinced me this was justified. Haha, definitely the first time I had seen any of these films. I mean, c'mon, where am I going to go see fucking French Roast on a Saturday night?

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 Burkett

Cool. I guessed in the dark and failed. Let's move on.

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

Same with Animated Short, the three seconds of The New Tenants was definitely the coolest and I even recognized some actors in it. Should have called this one right with some research. But fuck that, we don't believe in research here at Norwegian Morning Wood.

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 Shircore

I was pumped to see this. Big blockbusters are usually nominated for things like this and lose. It shows that Trek really was a slight level beyond the normal idiotic summer fling. Even if it was just Makeup. I will note at this point that Stiller was the single best moment of the past ten years of Oscar.

Take a break and look at this thing:

 

Boo yah! Ok, let's move on.

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

Probably the most surprising award of the night, this should have been D-9 or Up in the Sky's award outlet but instead Precious snatched it up. It's pretty notable that such a small, crum-riddled film walked away with some significant awards. Then again, when the film has its source material explicitly shown in the awful, sentence long title, I guess comparisons with the source is too inevitable. Or something. I don't know. Hooray for blacks here, they couldn't nab the Director Award.


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)

No shit, this was easy.

Best Achievement in Art Direction

AVABAR (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

Yep, let's keep rolling.

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 was kind of disappointed here, apparently this was that chick's third costume Oscar, apparently she rules. I didn't think The Young Victoria was notable at all beyond any other typical 19th-Century-Whatever, but then again, those kind of flicks always win Costume Design. I probably could have seen this coming, actually.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

AVABAR (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

More on Hurt Lock's roll to the top. The sound timing is sweet I guess, I've never really had the ears to tell what makes one film over another in this one.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

AVABAR (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

Michael Bay will have to bide his time until Transformers 3: Shitfuck Express (2011) to get that Oscar, along with the 16 others he's due.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

AVABAR (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 Richardson

This was probably the only important award that AVABAR won and congradu-fucking-lations, apparently Cinematography is now the Academy's dumping ground for really really good blockbuster-type films that don't really deserve a significant amount of other awards and naturally the 'BAR abides.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

AVABAR (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 Giacchino

This took me for surprise, listening to the montage I found myself really only able to remember Surecock's Score as it was playing, which should be a sign that it was really the only memorable nominee, but whatever. It's a good credit to Animated films both that Fantastic Mr. Fux and Up were nominated and Up won.

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

AVABAR (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 Dalton

Yeah no shit.

Best Documentary, Features

Burma VJ: Reporter i et lukket land (2008): Anders Østergaard, Lise Lense-Møller

The Cove (2009): Nominees to be determined

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 Cammisa

Haha! I don't know how I called this.

Best Achievement in Editing

AVABAR (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 Klotz

The Hurt Locker tended to win every category I thought AVABAR would take but another film deserved. I'm going to take some credit and say I was almost half right, in that AVABAR deserved less than half the awards it was nominated for, but I just missed the film that should have righteously won. Apparently, it was Hurt Lock every time.

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)

Cool.

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)

None of the acting categories were even close, but this one in particular I think could have gone to about anyone. Glad it went to Jeff, though.

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)

She's still not as good as she was in The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down (1994).

Best Achievement in Directing

Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008)

James Cameron for AVABAR (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)

Big event, big award for chick of the year, Kate. Check my thoughts here for Hurk Lock's righteous win.

Best Motion Picture of the Year:

AVABAR (2009): James Cameron, Jon Landau
The Blind Side (2009): Nominees to be determined
District 9 (2009): Peter Jackson, Carolynne Cunningham
An Education (2009): Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey

The Hurt Locker (2008): Nominees to be determined

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 Reitman

YEAH!! S my C and J on my B's, AVABAR!