Kyle Kerr

Oscar Recap

02/25/08 | Movies | 0 Comments

The 80th Annual Academy Awards was on last night, and it was… okay.  You could tell that the show was kind of thrown together at the last minute.  Almost every few minutes, it felt like they were showing another clips montage.  I can’t imagine how awful that would have been if the writers HADN’T been there!  Clips galore!  PLUS, they showed these awful montages, yet they were rushing the winners off the stage!  Poor Marketa Irglova (who won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once with Glen Hansard) got cut off right as she was about to speak!  Thankfully, host Jon Stewart was kind enough to bring her back out after the commercial break and let her give her Thank Yous… which was very kind of him!

Also, did anyone notice some things...?  Like, recently deceased actor Brad Renfro was mysteriously absent from the In Memory Of montage?  Also, they seemed to snub Whoopi Goldberg, who they only showed as an Oscar winner… but excluded her from the hosts’ clips, even though she was the first woman host, the first black host, and the first host who was also an Oscar winner… Not cool, guys!

But, in case you missed the show, here are the nominees and winners for each category (*’s are next to the nominees who I THOUGHT should have won!):

PICTURE
Atonement*
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno*
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd*
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age*
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War*
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement*
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody, Juno*
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton, Atonement*
Sarah Polley, Away from Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort, Israel
The Counterfeiters, Austria
Katyn, Poland
Mongol, Kazakhstan
12, Russia

ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille*
Surf’s Up

ORIGINAL SCORE
Dario Marianelli, Atonement*
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard, Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino, Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami, 3:10 to Yuma

ORIGINAL SONG
“Falling Slowly,” Once*
“Happy Working Song,” Enchanted
“Raise It Up,” August Rush
“So Close,” Enchanted
“That’s How You Know,” Enchanted

ART DIRECTION
Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino, American Gangster
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer, Atonement*
Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock, The Golden Compass
Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Sweeney Todd
Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson, There Will Be Blood

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Seamus McGarvey, Atonement*
Janusz Kaminski, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins, No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky, Across the Universe
Jacqueline Durran, Atonement*
Alexandra Byrne, Elizabeth: The Golden Age*
Marit Allen, La Vie en Rose
Colleen Atwood, Sweeney Todd*
(This one was a major tie for me… They all did a great job!)

MAKEUP
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, La Vie en Rose
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji, Norbit
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End*

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

SOUND MIXING
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis, The Bourne Ultimatum*
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane, Ratatouille
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, 3:10 to Yuma
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin, Transformers*
(Both had really great sound mixing.)

SOUND EDITING
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg, The Bourne Ultimatum*
Skip Lievsay, No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers, Ratatouille
Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood, There Will Be Blood
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, Transformers*
(Same as above.)

VISUAL EFFECTS
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, The Golden Compass
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier, Transformers*

FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse, The Bourne Ultimatum
Juliette Welfling, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jay Cassidy, Into the Wild
Roderick Jaynes, No Country for Old Men
Dylan Tichenor, There Will Be Blood

SHORT FILM - ANIMATED
“I Met the Walrus”
“Madame Tutli-Putli”
“Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)”
“Peter & the Wolf”

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION
“At Night”
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)”
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”
“Tanghi Argentini”
“The Tonto Woman”

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“Freeheld”
“La Corona (The Crown)”
“Salim Baba”
“Sari’s Mother”

I was not happy with most of the winners, actually.  I’m sure No Country for Old Men was a good movie, but I didn’t see it.  My vote has always been for Atonement, and they all got gypped.  The movie lost Best Picture, Saoirse lost Best Supporting Actress, Christopher Hampton lost Best Adapted Screenplay, they lost Best Set and Costume Design, and Kiera, James, and director Joe Wright weren’t even nominated for Oscars!  What is wrong with these people?  I swear, when I’m finally part of the Academy, I’m going to make sure the GOOD movies win.  Seriously.

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr