Oscar Zone Vol. II; Part VI: Live Results!

Hello all those in the wonderful Internet World. Tonight Norwegian Morning Wood decided to do something very special and post some Live Oscar Results and Reactions from my own predictions. We've got about a half-hour until the Ceremony kicks off now so stay tuned for in-depth coverage like you've never read on the Internet before!

So just like last year I'll list my predictions and highlight the actual winner in GREEN. If you recall, I had highlighted in BLUE are the nominees that WOULD WIN. In RED are the noms that SHOULD HAVE WON. PURPLE means I thought the would-be winner was actually deserving.

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland (2010): Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010): Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan

Inception (2010): Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Douglas A. Mowat

The King's Speech (2010): Eve Stewart, Judy Farr

True Grit (2010): Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

Now we get to say Academy Award Winning Film, Alice in Wonderland. This actually went almost as I expected but I thought the Harry Potter blockbuster might have nabbed it instead of the Disney blockbuster. Still waiting to see if the Harry Potter films are ever recognised. Alice in Wonderland is a really fantasmic film that does look nice, tho its content was shit. At this point I'm not worried about The King's Speech, it can still sweep a good amount.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Black Swan (2010): Matthew Libatique

Inception (2010): Wally Pfister

The King's Speech (2010): Danny Cohen
The Social Network (2010): Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit (2010): Roger Deakins

Wally! I'm very excited, he deserved this one. Many pundits were singing True Grit here now I'm glad I called Inception instead of looking like a moron if they had lost. Still holding out that they could have a big night.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams for The Fighter (2010)
Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech (2010)

Melissa Leo for The Fighter (2010)

Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit (2010)

Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom (2010)

Kirk Douglas hitting on Anne Hathaway, wow. What is happening with this guy? Spartacus! Did the Oscar people figure James and Anne wouldn't hold the crowd so they counted on this 94-year old man's ramblings to be a highlight of the night? But as the award goes, this was an interesting category but Melissa's had an edge for the past few weeks, no major surprise here. She does look a lot better than her character and is a lot nicer, too. Nice work, Mel.

Best Short Film, Animated

Day & Night (2010): Teddy Newton

The Gruffalo (2009) (TV): Jakob Schuh, Max Lang
Let's Pollute (2009): Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing (2010): Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, a Journey Diary (2010): Bastien Dubois

I love the jokes that just fall flat. I actually did really enjoy Day & Night and thought it was a very cool little piece of animation but as long as The Gruffalo didn't win I'm excited. That was terrible and leading some polls prior to the night. How does anyone accurately predict categories like this?

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

How to Train Your Dragon (2010): Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
The Illusionist (2010): Sylvain Chomet

Toy Story 3 (2010): Lee Unkrich

Seeing a hand drawn good film in this category was pretty cool but this was a no brainer. There's still the idea that this was the only Animated Film nominated for Best Picture...so surely it's already the Best Animated Film? I'm getting bitter over Pixar, we need more Simpsons episodes to bring them down.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

127 Hours (2010): Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

The Social Network (2010): Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3 (2010): Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
True Grit (2010): Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone (2010): Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini

I liked it better when they read excerpts from the screenplays instead of just showing the usual spread of clips. That tended to highlight screenplays' importance distinct from the visual aspects of movie making. Anyway, Sorkin was another no brainer here, there was no way he wasn't going to win regardless of any politics, this was the best screenplay anybody has written in years.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Another Year (2010): Mike Leigh
The Fighter (2010): Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington

Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan

The Kids Are All Right (2010): Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

The King's Speech (2010): David Seidler

This is more of what I was looking for, showing the lines and beats to demonstrate as best they can the effect of screenwriting. Actually you can really tell what some of the actors (Colin Firth) especially do with these lines. As The King's Speech was picking up steam the past few weeks I could have called this one and switched my pick but I didn't. Because I owe you guys that much integrity. Right. This is a better sign for The King's Speech's chances later in the evening, but since its main Best Picture dual is with The Social Network it's tough to tell from the two film's ownage of these categories alone.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Biutiful (2010): Alejandro González Iñárritu (Mexico)

Dogtooth (2009): Giorgos Lanthimos (Greece)

In a Better World (2010): Susanne Bier (Denmark)
Incendies (2010): Denis Villeneuve (Canada)
Outside the Law (2010): Rachid Bouchareb (Algeria)

This one was also tracking pretty well the past few weeks tho I'm surprised it beat some more high profile films here. Then again, when Biutiful is the highest profile film in your category it's basically up for grabs. I really love calling these tough categories that are full of shit no one's ever seen intelligently. That has not gone well so far.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010)

John Hawkes for Winter's Bone (2010)
Jeremy Renner for The Town (2010)
Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech (2010)

No shit. Moving on. Can we say that Boston is the new New York for gritty crime dramas and outrageous accents? I'm diggin it. Nice beard, Chris, still jobless?

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

127 Hours (2010): A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon (2010): John Powell

Inception (2010): Hans Zimmer

The King's Speech (2010): Alexandre Desplat

The Social Network (2010): Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

NIN has an Academy Award! This was a pretty easy guess tho Hans may have brought some good competition. Ultimately however they don't give out Oscars for BRRRMMMM. Trent and Att nailed this though with a score that worked perfectly throughout the film.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

Inception (2010): Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
The King's Speech (2010): Paul amblin, Martin Jensen, John Midgley
Salt (2010): Jeffrey J. Haboush, William Sarokin, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell

The Social Network (2010): Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Mark Weingarten

True Grit (2010): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland

Inception was getting some momentum going into this and looked like a sure fire win recently. I called The Social Network a month ago, but instead it's looking like its cleaning up a lot of the technical awards and deservedly so.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Inception (2010): Richard King

Toy Story 3 (2010): Tom Myers, Michael Silvers

TRON: Legacy (2010): Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Addison Teague

True Grit (2010): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey
Unstoppable (2010): Mark P. Stoeckinger

Yep. Sweeping the Sound Awards is Inception, no big surprise here. Jeez they blew through those categories fast. How come no one gives a shit about Sound but will sit and wait fifteen minutes for all the actors? Collaborative my ass. I swear I'm not out of line here...

Best Achievement in Makeup

Barney's Version (2010): Adrien Morot

The Way Back (2010): Edouard F. Henriques, Greg Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman (2010): Rick Baker, Dave Elsey

The Wolfman was looking pretty good down the stretch for a while there and I probably should have called that. Despite the crappiness of that film Rick is an accomplished Makeup Artist and definitely deserves to be up there.

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Alice in Wonderland (2010): Colleen Atwood

I Am Love (2009): Antonella Cannarozzi

The King's Speech (2010): Jenny Beavan

The Tempest (2010/II): Sandy Powell

True Grit (2010): Mary Zophres

I genuinely did not see this one coming tho if I recall it was gaining some speed going into the night. This is almost similar to last year, if I had done my research I'd know that Atwood is no stranger to the Academy and had this coming for a while.

Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Killing in the Name (2010): Nominees TBD

Poster Girl (2010): Nominees TBD
Strangers No More (2010): Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up (2010): Jennifer Redfearn, Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang (2010): Ruby Yang, Thomas Lennon

I'll get those Nominees name down pretty soon I swear. Jake nailed the only reason to see these - to better help your Oscar Predictions. This is probably one of the trickiest categories to call, I really tossed up a one in five chance on this one.

Best Short Film, Live Action

The Confession (2010/IV): Tanel Toom

The Crush (2009): Michael Creagh

God of Love (2010): Luke Matheny

Na Wewe (2010): Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 (2009): Ian Barnes, Samantha Waite

I love how they always say that big directors got their start in shorts. Who's the last fucking mainstream director to get his or her start in Short Subjects? Who knows, but I actually called this, these shorts should count double.

Best Documentary, Features

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010): Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz

GasLand (2010): Josh Fox, Trish Adlesic

Inside Job (2010): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs

Restrepo (2010): Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
Waste Land (2010): Lucy Walker, Angus Aynsley

Is it just me or does James Franco just seem high all the time? I was really hoping for a Banksy win here but Inside Job was the much safer bet for the Academy. Damn I really wanted to see an outrageous Banksy moment. At least this dude has a good message. He should team up with The Other Guys (2010).

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland (2010): Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas, Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010): Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz, Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter (2010): Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky, Joe Farrell

Inception (2010): Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin

Iron Man 2 (2010): Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright, Daniel Sudick

Jeez Jude he's right there! Haha you need to bring Downey down, he's so levelheaded now that he can take it pretty well. At least it's better than ripping on Hugh Jackman. Seriously, what the hell was Hugh Jackman even in this year? He's sitting in the front row, why, just because he's a former host? Whatevs - Inception's win here is very cool, I'm glad they awarded a film that utilised mostly practical effects including that spinning hotel which is a true achievement. Again, nothing is stopping Inception from rolling through tons of technical awards.

Best Achievement in Editing

127 Hours (2010): Jon Harris
Black Swan (2010): Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter (2010): Pamela Martin
The King's Speech (2010): Tariq Anwar

The Social Network (2010): Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

I'm glad they played the clip of the rowing scene, that was the film's strongest selling point on how good the editing was. This is also no surprise, the win here is well deserved. I'm beginning to doubt The King's chances at Best Pic by this point.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

127 Hours (2010): A.R. Rahman, Rollo Armstrong, Dido ("If I Rise")
Country Strong (2010): Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges ("Coming Home")

Tangled (2010): Alan Menken, Glenn Slater ("I See the Light")

Toy Story 3 (2010): Randy Newman ("We Belong Together")

Actually I hate Randy Newman. And what, they couldn't get Dido? That Florence chick's stock is rising fast lately after a Grammy performance as well. She just needs to fix her bangs, shit. I'm also curious how Jennifer Hudson's boobs are staying in her dress right now. I was actually reading that "If I Rise" was on track for an upset. I call shenanigans on that, sir. Actually I like Randy's complaints about the number of nominees here. Why not just throw in a throwaway fifth song? I'm thinking something from AC/DC: Iron Man 2 perhaps?

Best Achievement in Directing

Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan (2010)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for True Grit (2010)

David Fincher for The Social Network (2010

Tom Hooper for The King's Speech (2010)
David O. Russell for The Fighter (2010)

Whoa! Maybe The King's Speech will roll through for a Best Picture after all! It'll get down to it, which is very exciting. This was actually a difficult category to guess, the DGA typically matches up very well with the Oscars but after the BAFTAs didn't award Tom I didn't really think he stood a chance. Good for him though, it's not a totally outrageous win. Although Darren's mustache is growing in nicely.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole (2010)
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (2010)

Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010)

Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine (2010)

Wow, what an upset. Totally didn't see that one. Let's move on.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem for Biutiful (2010)
Jeff Bridges for True Grit (2010)
Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network (2010)

Colin Firth for The King's Speech (2010)

James Franco for 127 Hours (2010)

This was again not a big surprise. Colin may well be on his way to becoming one of Hollywood's premier actors. Love that British sensibility.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

127 Hours (2010): Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, John Smithson
Black Swan (2010): Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
The Fighter (2010): David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg
Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
The Kids Are All Right (2010): Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray

The King's Speech (2010): Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

The Social Network (2010): Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Ceán Chaffin

Toy Story 3 (2010): Darla K. Anderson
True Grit (2010): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
Winter's Bone (2010): Anne Rosellini, Alix Madigan

That montage was fantastically well-done. I don't even mind seeing the ends of each Best Film of the Year. If you've been paying attention to NMW you'll remember that I did switch my pick this Friday, but again, I'll take the hit here from my Original Predictions. Both The King's Speech and The Social Network ended up splitting a bunch of the categories, which made for a pretty entertaining evening. James and Anne - nice work after a bit of a shaky start, way to liven it up a bit. Kirk Douglas, Hugh Jackman, what the hell?  Whats up with these kids? Yeesh. Anyway, nice night. I'm not doing this live stuff again. So my final count is 14/24. Not great. Nice job Melissa for dropping the first F-Bomb in Oscar History.

Lastly I'll give a shout-out to that girl from Buffalo I met last night - if you're out there reading this...I forgot your name and I'm sorry. Let's get in touch somehow.