Assessing the Social Network/King's Speech Battle

So you have your Oscar pool voting sheet in front you and can't decide between The King's Speech and The Social Network? I've been thinking about it too.

After the string of Critics’s Awards at the end of 2010, The Social Network was the clear runaway leader in the Best Picture/Best Director race. Other categories such as actor, actress, supporting and all that jazz were still close, but the Fincher/Rudin/Sorkin dream team were flexing their muscle.

Now with Tom Hooper's rather surprising victory over David Fincher at the DGA Awards for Best Director, suddenly The King’s Speech has gained significant ground, and in some opinions might be the odds leader.

This opinion is not unfounded. I think we all know the track record of how the DGA Award has aligned with the Best Director and thus Best Picture Oscars in previous years. The 2000 Gladiator/Traffic year and the 2002 Chicago/Pianist year were the recent anomalies. As well, the Academy has had a history of chosing prestige older-skewing films over younger/edgier material. The 1990 Dances With Wolves triumph of Goodfellas for instance, the 1989 Driving Miss Daisy victory of Born on the Fourth of July, and the 1980 Ordinary People victory over Raging Bull.

These are travesties of justice, which cinephiles still take to heart. Dances With Wolves, Ordinary People and Driving Miss Daisy are all good movies, and maybe back in the day, seemed better movies that those others. But over the course of time their competitors have risen in prestige and timelessness, arguably above and beyond the Oscar victors.

I wholehearted believe this is such a case this year. I can see it now. The King’s Speech is a great movie, right? So is The Social Network? Doesn’t matter which wins right, because both are terrific films? But think 20 years from now, which film will we still be talking about? Which film will represent the zeitgeist of the times? I think this is painfully clear, and yet there may not be anything to do about it.

That said, in recent years, the tastes of Academy have skewed considerably more to the edge than ever before. Victories of the nihlistic No Country For Old Men and The Departed are two of the toughest films the Academy has ever voted as the top dog. So maybe the Academy will swing back to youthful The Social Network.

If Academy wants to even things out, Original Screenplay and Best Actor wins are assured for The King’s Speech, same with Sorkin’s screenplay for The Social Network. Other than the cinematography, music, editing type of awards, the only other high profile categories it has are Best Director and Best Picture.

My office pool vote is still undecided.. and what it will likely come down to, as it does every year, is who I think will win versus who I want to win. While it’s not Sophie’s Choice, it’s heartbreaking still the same.

DFD OSCAR LIVE!

WELCOME TO FIRST ANNUAL DAILY FILM DOSE LIVE OSCAR BLOGGING

Click on this post for frequent updates as all the live drama unfolds


12:00pm: Slumdog Millionaire is the big winner. The show finished before midnight with time to spare to show us some great clips of some new movies for 2009. Great idea.

11:38PM: Remember when Frank Langella played Skeletor in "Masters of the Universe"?

11:22pm: Danny Boyle's body of work is amazing. I can't believe he just won an Oscar. So happy.

11:07: HUGE upset for Best Foreign Language Film - "Departures" from Japan. Wow! Who picked that one?

11:02pm: The Indian crew members of Slumdog seem infinitely more interesting than the dull Britons (except Danny Boyle of course).

11:00pm: Did John Legend just crash A.R. Rahman's song performance? What was that?

10:50pm: Michael Giacchino's conducting the orchestra this year, breaking Bill Conti's long reign.

10:41pm: Eddie Murphy hasn't aged in 25 years.

10:28pm: When one person speaks on behalf of multiple winners they shouldn't be allowed to make personal thanks to their wives, or children. It's not fair.

10:18pm: Year after year the short filmmakers always have the most honest and sincere speeches.

9:57pm: Ouch. Truly painful musical montage.

9:41pm: I love the tradition of getting really really hot actresses to host the Science and Technical Oscars - for a room full of cine-tech-geeks. Last year it was Jessica Alba. Others have been: Scarlett Johanson, Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek

9:35pm: So glad Anthony Dot Mantle won. A digital innovator. His body of work is incredible.

9:14pm: Wow, I guessed the best Short Animated Short Film right. So far batting a thousand!

9:10pm: Kunio Kato must have won some kind of dare. Great stuff.

8:54pm: Steve Martin is hilarious!

8:49pm: Graceful and classy speech from Penelope Cruz

8:41pm: Meryl Streep has 15 nominations, but hasn't won since 1982 - "Sophie's Choice"

8:38pm: Pretty decent old school opening number. Courageous of Jackman to do that.

8:25: Just looked up Marisa Tomei on the IMDB. It says she's born in 1964 - that makes her 44!

8:21pm: I like looking at the ugly people in the background behind the celebs on the red carpet

8:16pm: I love how Tim Gunn says 'thank you very much' while looking at the camera, not his celebrity guest

8:14pm: Viola Davis is awesome. She had an amazing performance in Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris"

7:51: Was that George Takei?!

7:41: I love The Wrestler and Mickey's performance, but I think this whole comeback thing has been a little overblown. He's never stopped working, and specifically his performances in "Sin City" and "Domino" were pretty awesome.

7:37pm: My wife thinks Jessica Biel's hair looks like a birdsnest, I think she's pretty hot

7:35pm: I love Peter Gabriel's integrity for not singing a medley version of his Wall-E song.

7:12pm: Just clicked on the Jonas Bros on Barbara Walters - very boring

7:11pm: Love Mickey Rourke's white suit!

7:00pm: What's with the 80's style camera quality of ABC's coverage?

6:30pm: Just tuned into very advanced coverage of the red carpet. Switching between the Canadian coverage via E-Talk and Ryan Seacrest on E! Can't wait to see Mickey Rooney. Have I missed him? I know he usually shows up really early.

ALAN'S OSCAR PREDICTIONS

Ok. You’re filling out your Oscar pool today. Here’s my picks with some explanation to help you with yours:


Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
It has the magic touch this year. A deserving winner though at least.

Actor: Mickey Rourke
It’s between him and Sean Penn, but Mickey had the better performance and absolutely made that film.

Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger
It’s a sure thing.

Actress: Kate Winslet
Meryl Streep had the best performance, but Winslet will win because of her performance in Revolutionary Road as well

Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz
A last minute zeitgeist consensus

Animated Film: Wall-E
The other sure thing

Art Direction: Curious Case of Benjamin Button
A tough call between that and The Dark Knight, but the technical was the only decent thing about Benjamin Button and the film did look great

Cinematography: The Dark Knight
This will win because of its IMAX innovations

Direction: Danny Boyle
Slumdog is still on fire. He deserves the win as well

Documentary: Man on Wire
A stunning film – suspenseful and entertaining. Dark horse would be Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” or maybe the Katrina film "Trouble the Water"

Documentary Short: The Conscience of Nhem En
My research shows this film about the Khmer Rouge is the best of the bunch. It’s also the first name on the list for voters who choose at random

Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
The pacing and energy of the film was helped by the great editing

Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir
It’s a great film, and the Jewish subject matter always helps. The Palme D’Or winner, “The Class” is a decent second choice.

Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Some of the best makeup work ever. This is a sure thing as well

Music (Score): Slumdog Millionaire
Such a distinct mix of western and Indian rhythms, beats the old standard orchestral sounds from the other nominees

Music (Song): “Down to Earth” Wall-E
Since the other two nominees are from Slumdog they will split the voters. Peter Gabriel will take this one

Short film (animated): La Maison en Petit Cubes
Pixar’s “Presto” would seem the natural winner because it played along with “Wall-E” in theatres. But Pixar has LOST its last four Best Animated Short Oscars. Try “La Maison en Petits Cubes”. My research shows this is a stunning film. You can watch full versions of the nominees yourself HERE:

Short film (live action): Spielzeugland (Toyland)
This Holocaust themed film should take it. Roddy Doyle’s “New Boy” is a close second.

Sound editing: The Dark Knight
Voters give the technical awards to the blockbusters

Sound mixing: The Dark Knight
Same as above

Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Aging Brad Pitt was amazing work

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Slumdog Millionaire
It’ll be part of the Slumdog sweep, but “Doubt” is my dark horse fave here.

Writing (Original Screenplay): Milk
A tough call here, but the voters need to find a place to give this film an Award, and this should be it.

Good luck!

2008 OSCAR NOMINATIONS

It’s one of the most exciting times of the Hollywood calendar. Having just got back from Sundance, watching a new crop of great films, I got home and immediately put my head back into last year’s films. The Golden Globes were handed out two weeks ago, and, like usual, those results will be discarded from everyone’s memory and trumped by the awards that actually count, the Oscars. Click HERE for the full, easy to read list.

Here’s some general impressions:

Gran Torino

Perhaps the most notable omission was “Gran Torino”. The film received no nominations, a surprise considering the box office success it’s had over the past few days and that the Academy loves Clint Eastwood. Ironically Clint’s lesser film “Changeling” received three nominations (Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction). Most likely Eastwood’s Best Acting nod was taken by dark horse Richard Jenkins. Personally I have no complaint with these omissions.

Michael Shannon

The best part of “Revolutionary Road” was Michael Shannon’s entrance at the midway point of the film. The nomination is not only well-deserved, it also brings much needed recognition to one of the best character actors working today. His performances in “Bug”, “Shotgun Stories”, “World Trade Center” and almost anything he does steals his films. Although he has no chance to win against Heath Ledger the nomination is as good as a win for Shannon.

The Wrestler

The biggest disappoint for me personally is the lack of recognition of “The Wrestler”. It’s the most honest and truthful film in a long time. Of course Mickey Rourke’s powerful performance is the strongest part of the film and should be favoured to win, but Hollywood likes comeback stories, and I think Darren Aronofsky’s transformation as director is as compelling as anything behind the scenes of this film.

Frozen River

The inclusion of “Frozen River” on a some key critics' best-of lists helped this Sundance success story score some two huge nominations (Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay). Somewhere Sally Hawkins is cursing the name of Melissa Leo. I haven’t actually seen the film, but now I will definitely seek this one out.

Waltz With Bashir

The fantastic and powerful animated war film (for adults, not kids) ‘Waltz With Bashir’, scored a Best Foreign Language Film nod – yeah! Curiously it didn’t get a nomination for Best Animated Film. Really, who thinks “Bolt” is a better film than ‘Waltz With Bashir’???

Roger Deakins

Eighth time a charm? One of the best cinematographers working today just scored his eighth nomination. He has never won yet. Unfortunately his work on ‘The Reader’ is not his finest work. Expect Anthony Dot Mantle or Wally Pfister to take this one.

Best Directors

This year each Best Picture nomination was matched by a Best Director nomination. So there’s no sour grapes from a ‘wildcard’ addition. And thankfully we won’t have to suffer from that repetitive griping, ‘What? Did the movie direct itself?”

Stephen Daldry

Stephen Daldry (‘The Reader’) has made three feature films and received a Best Director nomination for each film. (‘Billy Elliott’ and ‘The Hours’ are the others).

Werner Herzog

Veteran maverick Werner Herzog scores his first Oscar nomination (Best Documentary ‘Encounters at the End of the World’). Though ‘Man on Wire’ is a better film the thought of Herzog on the stage on Oscar is too exciting not to cheer for him.

Bruce Springsteen

No Boss?? What happened here??

OSCAR RECAP 2008

The hardware has been handed out, and like last year, it was a relatively surprise and drama-free edition. Some would call that ‘boring’. I still enjoy any Oscar ceremony – no matter what the outcome. The ceremony ended prior to midnight, which was a surprise. Only one lifetime achievement award was given out – what happened to the Irving G. Thalberg Award? We haven’t had one since 2001. There was only one “salute to...” montage. In fact Jon Stewart humorously referenced the overproduced and lengthy salutes such as the binocular/periscope salute or the ‘waking up to a bad dream’ salute. Though it didn’t generate as many laughs as it should, but it was a clever send up of itself.

It was Jon Stewart’s second outing as the host. The first-time jitters weren’t there like two years ago, and he assumed the role like a well-worn shoe. He relied less on the comfort-zone of his political jokes, instead weaving them in smoothly when appropriate. There were enough writers jokes to go around, and some of the usual roasting of the celebs. George Clooney, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson graciously took some nice shots. BTW: Remember Sean Penn taking offense to Chris Rock’s stab at Jude Law? Stewart was at his sarcastic best as well – my favourite crack was after Glen Hansard’s heartfelt and humble acceptance speech for Best Song in “Once”. Stewart’s crack, “he’s so arrogant” was a perfectly timed ad-lib.

As for the Awards, the Best Supporting Actress race promised and delivered the most drama. Tilda Swinton won over the slightly more favoured Cate Blanchett, Amy Ryan and Ruby Dee. Though I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Michael Clayton”, Tilda Swinton was the arguably the best part of the film. It’s also a great reward for over 20 years of fine art houses performances.

As has been the common over the past few years, there was an even distribution of Awards. In previous generations we suffered through huge sweeps of categories, especially in the technical categories. Ie, “Titanic” or “LOTR: Return of the King” sweeping categories like editing, art direction, special effects, sound etc etc. Instead we saw a deserving “The Bourne Ultimatum” take home three awards. Here’s breakdown of winners and the new tags they can now slap on their DVD boxes:

No Country For Old Men – 4 awards
The Bourne Ultimatum – 3 awards
There Will Be Blood – 2 awards
La Vie En Rose – 2 Awards
Sweeney Todd – 1 Award
Juno - 1 Award
Atonement - 1 Award
Once - 1 Award
Michael Clayton - 1 Award
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - 1 Award
Golden Compass - 1 Award
Ratatouille - 1 Award
The Counterfeiters - 1 Award
Taxi to the Darkside - 1 Award
Freehold - 1 Award
Peter and the Wolf - 1 Award
Mozart of Pickpockets - 1 Award

That’s 17 films taking home 24 trophies.

As for the Coen Brothers, I remember being so satisfied in 1997 when they won Best Original Screenplay, thinking they would never top “Fargo” and that they got the Oscar monkey off their back early. And so with three more personal trophies last night, that makes four trophies on each of their shelves. Unfortunately my personal favourite, Paul Thomas Anderson was left short again. He was previously nominated for best screenplay for “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia.” But Hollywood has a habit of ignoring daring masterworks in the present – PT, expect a sympathy Oscar later in your career.

Other big news was Daniel Day-Lewis winning his second Best Actor Oscar, becoming the eighth member of the very select Two-Time Lead Actor Winners Club, joining:

Spencer Tracy
Frederic March
Gary Cooper
Marlon Brando
Dustin Hoffman
Jack Nicholson
Tom Hanks

As an aside, other than James Newton Howard, who’s been nominated for 7 Oscars, the Best Music Score nominees which are usually dominated by established veterans were either rookies or second-time nominees - and certainly no household names. No John Williams, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Danny Elfman, Thomas or Randy Newman. As an aside, can anyone remember or hum any of this years' Best Score nominees? Just where have all the great music scores gone to?

One of the most awkward red carpet moments was Ben Mulroney (CTV Canada) interviewing Julian Schnabel. The notoriously difficult director was as unaccommodating as he’s ever been. He contributed to a very long 3 or 4 seconds of dead air when he refused to answer Ben questions.

The second-most awkward moment was Gary Busey’s invasion of Ryan Seacrest’s interview with Jennifer Garner and Laura Linney:



John Travolta was sporting a fur-like black rug of a haircut similar to the Rock and danced on stage before presenting Best Original Song – we get, you can dance!

Best humorous ego-boost: Jon Stewart/John Travolta’s gag about the Boeing 707 with its lights on. You can’t say he won’t poke fun at himself.

I love the fact that the Academy gets a really hot young actress to host the Science and Technical Awards (usually a few days prior). This year it was Jessica Alba, who looked stunning. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable she must have felt hanging out with the techie geeks at the Science/Technical after parties.

The success of “No Country For Old Men” is part of welcomed new trend in mainstream Hollywood cinema. It’s now back-to-back years with the big trophy going to very dark violence nihilistic pessimistic films. And it’s not a coincidence that we are seeing cherished franchises rebooted to be darker, more realistic and gritty. Is this a statement of our current state of affairs, or just the natural ebb and flow of cinema? A bit of both. It’s a good thing, because 15-20 years ago “No Country For Old Men” may never have a nomination.

It was a less entertaining ceremony for Oscar, but a greatly significant year for Hollywood - and year in which Oscar, for the most part, got it right.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS

It was a fun day for film when the Oscar nominations were announced, which then turned into a sad day when it was announced actor Heath Ledger was discovered dead in his apartment. So I approach this celebration with some caution.

The were little surprises in the nominations – the big favorites – “There Will Be Blood”, “Atonement”, “Juno”, “No Country For Old Men” received multiple nominations in the big categories. “Michael Clayton” was the dark house surprise for me. It garnered nominations in virtually all the big categories, edging out the wild card films such as “Eastern Promises”, “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “I’m Not There”.

I was sad to see “Into the Wild” receive very little recognition, except for a deserving Hal Holbrook. I would have replaced “Into the Wild” for “Atonement” or “Michael Clayton”. Though I didn’t see the brilliance of “Clayton” as everyone else did I respected it’s inclusion. “Atonement” is still a head-scratcher for me. It seemed to be made for Oscars and I’m surprised voters didn’t see through this. The film is watchable but has many narrative and inconsistent flaws.

Director Joe Wright was unlucky to suffer the indignation of being the annual displacement in the Best Director’s category. Every year, there seems to be one director whose film gets nominated for Best Picture, but doesn’t get a Best Director nod. And every year, like a broken record, writers write comments like “the film didn’t direct itself” – forgetting that the voting process is not one person sitting at home rolling the dice of chance, but a ballot from a very large votership. Anomalies and inconsistencies like these are going to happen, and adds to the fun of the event.

I’m more than happy to find Julian Schnabel steal Mr. Wright's nomination though, because his vision of “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a phenomenal and risky piece of work.

The most atrocious controversy occurred even before the nominations were announced - the omission of the two most celebrated foreign language films, the Romanian entry "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and France's "Persepolis" from not just the nominations but the 9-film shortlist! This is the same kind of suspicious balloting as the infamous omission of Steve James's "Hoop Dreams" from the Best Documentary category in 1994. In those days the nominations for Documentaries were chosen by documentary filmmakers who often colluded to prevent the clear favourite, like "Hoop Dreams", having a chance to win the award. The voting procedure is different for "Foreign Language" film, so we can only guess that a conservative votership shunned the Cristian Mingiu's tough film on illegal Romanian abortions, or Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's animated coming of age film about an Iranian girl. This is plainly embarassing for the Academy and tarnishes the credibility of the Awards. The most ironic thing though is that "Perseoplis" did get a Best Animated Feature nomination. Unfortunately it's up against the mighty "Ratatoiulle".

Perhaps the most special nomination for me is Josh Raskin's animated short "I Met the Walrus" - a Canadian short visualizing an audio interview of John Lennon by a 16 year old student in 1969. It's a sharp and visually astounding piece of art.

Poor Angelina Jolie, who seemed a shoe-in for a nomination for "A Mighty Heart" six months ago - but the distributors felt the need to release the film in the summer. If the film were released at Christmas like "There Will Be Blood" or "The Savages" Jolie just might be celebrating right now.

There's no point in predicting at this point, because, like a horse-race, it's a long way to the finish. Just try and watch all these films now.

Here's the full list of nominees:

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Best animated feature film of the year
"Persepolis" (Sony Pictures Classics): Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Brad Bird
"Surf's Up" (Sony Pictures Releasing): Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in art direction
"American Gangster" (Universal): Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount): Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.): Roger Deakins
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Seamus McGarvey
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Janusz Kaminski
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Roger Deakins
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design
"Across the Universe" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

Best documentary feature
"No End in Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko" (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance" (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject
"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Achievement in film editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year
"Beaufort" Israel
"The Counterfeiters" Austria
"Katyn" Poland
"Mongol" Kazakhstan
"12" Russia

Achievement in makeup
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics): Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement" (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight) A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best animated short film
"I Met the Walrus" A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski "Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)" (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best live action short film
"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)" (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia Production: Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini" (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman" A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in sound editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Matthew Wood
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate): Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay
"Atonement" (Focus Features), Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
"Away from Her" (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Diablo Cody
"Lars and the Real Girl" (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Written by Tony Gilroy
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
"The Savages" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Tamara Jenkins

OSCAR 2007 RECAP

The Oscars 2007 Recap
By Alan Bacchus

The Oscars were handed out last night. Let’s examine some of the minor stories to come out of the big night. Yes, yes, yes. Martin Scorsese wins finally. Detractors like the Liam Lacey at the Globe & Mail dismiss the win as based on his reputation only. Sure “The Departed” is not on par with “Goodfellas” or “Raging Bull,” but it is his most successful film to date, and standing alone, compared with the other nominees damn right he deserves it. Did he take the award away from anyone else who deserved it more, no, though I’d argue Paul Greengrass, but he’ll get one another day.

Now that we’ve gotten the obvious out of the way, let’s dissect the nitty-gritty. First, congrats to George Miller for winning his first Oscar. Who is George Miller? He won for “Happy Feet,” but he’s also creator of the “Mad Max” films and the “Babe” films. He’s a terrific director who unfortunately over the course of his career has been spartan in his output (usually making a film every 5 years). As a result, he’s like a Terrence Malick or Milos Forman of Australian film. He makes films on his own terms and doesn’t sell out to make a buck. He’s also the grandfather of Australian cinema, and has helped start the careers of Philip Noyce, Chris Noonan, Nicole Kidman and Mel Gibson among others. Good on him.

Poor Guillermo del Toro. His technical team won three Oscars that night before it was his turn to step up to the podium for best foreign language film, until “The Lives of Others” shocked everyone, including Clive Owen the presenter, and won. Though I liked “Lives of Others” better, I really wanted the genre-loving del Toro to win an Oscar. The thought of the director of “Hellboy” winning an Oscar? So sad, sorry Guillermo.

Poor Eddie Murphy. Even more shame that he was featured so prominently on Barbara Walter’s pre-game special. Back to donkeys and fatsuits for Eddie.

For a split second there, I thought the corpse of Peter O’Toole (he looked dead) was going to steal the award from Forest Whitaker. Thank god that didn’t happen. Sorry Peter. You are already cinema royalty for playing Lawrence of Arabia, you don’t need an Oscar.

Oh those Dreamgirls. First not getting nominated for Best Picture, losing Eddie’s award to Alan Arkin and the worst embarrassment, after the 10 minute-3 song medley featuring the reunion of the cast, they lose all three of their Best Song nominations to Melissa Etheridge. There must have been a serious hate-on for Dreamgirls in Hollywood. It’s a pretty good movie, but the hype machine PR just overdosed. A lesson to the studios – don’t show your footage at Cannes and declare the film the Best Picture frontrunner in May.

Gustav Santaoalla (“Babel”) won for best music. If you recognized him, or had a bit of Déjà vu, you’ve probably forgotten he won last year for “Brokeback Mountain”. Also, little do people know his main theme of the film was recycled from “The Insider” in 1999. So perhaps he wasn’t as deserving as people thought. Despite this, he’s now 2 for 2 in music awards. By comparison, John (“Star Wars”) Williams is 5 for 45, and Randy Newman is 1 for 17!

Question: Why do musicals (ie. “Dreamgirls” and “Chicago”) always have to win the Oscar for best sound mixing. Don’t they know the musical portions of the film are looped in post-production and technically fall under the sound editor’s work? Strange

The Cancon moment of the night - “The Danish Poet” (best animated short) for beating the mighty Pixar (“Lifted”). Good work Torvill Kove.

Best speech of the night: Ari Sandel for “West Bank Story”. Sincere, succinct and informative.

See you next year. Here’s some early prognosticating for 2008: David Fincher’s first trip down the red carpet? Todd Haynes for his Bob Dylan film, Michael Winterbottom and the Daniel Pearl story, the return of PT Anderson, Michael Moore, Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster” and Wong Kar Wai’s first English language film. Lots to look out for.