Little Gold Men and the Men & Women who love them!

[Al]

It's Oscar time! Place your bets, folks!

The Major Nominees:

Best Picture

* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Frost/Nixon
* Milk
* The Reader
* Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director

* Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
* Stephen Daldry – The Reader
* David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
* Gus Van Sant – Milk

Best Actor

* Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
* Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
* Sean Penn – Milk
* Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Best Actress

* Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
* Angelina Jolie – Changeling
* Melissa Leo – Frozen River
* Meryl Streep – Doubt
* Kate Winslet – The Reader

Best Supporting Actor

* Josh Brolin – Milk
* Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
* Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
* Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
* Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress

* Amy Adams – Doubt
* Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
* Viola Davis – Doubt
* Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
* Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

Best Original Screenplay

* WALL-E - Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter
* Happy-Go-Lucky - Mike Leigh
* Frozen River - Courtney Hunt
* In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
* Milk - Dustin Lance Black

Best Adapted Screenplay

* The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
* Frost/Nixon - Peter Morgan
* The Reader - David Hare
* Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
* Doubt - John Patrick Shanley

Best Animated Feature

* Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard
* Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
* WALL-E – Andrew Stanton


Best Foreign Language Film

* Revanche (Austria) in German - Götz Spielmann
* The Class (France) in French - Laurent Cantet
* The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany) in German
* Departures (Japan) in Japanese
* Waltz with Bashir (Israel) in Hebrew - Ari Folman

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

These are my guesses...

Best Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
The only one of these I haven't seen is Milk, so unless that was super-amazing-fantastic-great, I think Slumdog is a lock.

Best Director - Danny Boyle (Slumdog)

Best Actor - Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
Everyone's been all "Mickey Rourke, Mickey Rourke!" this year, and he was good in The Wrestler, but I think Frank Langella did a better job. As long as Brad Pitt doesn't win, I'll be happy.

Best Actress - Meryl Streep (Doubt)

Best Supporting Actor - Ledger (The Dark Knight)
This one's kinda one sided this year. If Ledger weren't nominated, I'd be rooting for Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Best Supporting Actress - Amy Adams (Doubt)

Best Original Screenplay - WALL-E

Best Adapted Screenplay - Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Feature - WALL-E
If WALL-E doesn't win, heads are gonna roll through a frozen-over Hell.

And no comment on the Foreign Film category, cause I haven't seen any of them (I heard Waltz With Bashir was good, though).

[Al]

I actually really enjoyed the show this year. Except for the ridiculous number about the return of the musical, I thought it was all pretty tasteful and a lot of fun.


* I'm really happy for Slumdog Millionaire, it absolutely deserved everything it won.

* I'm irritated Sean Penn won Best Actor, but at least he had the decency to admit he's a hard guy to like.

* I'm happy for Kate Winslet and even happier than she managed to hold it together while she gave her speech.

* I'm also glad Heath Ledger got his due and, though I didn't see Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I'm sure Penelope Cruz deserves her statue.

* I would like to have seen WALL-E or In Bruges win for their original screenplays and Doubt win for it's adaptation, but I have no complaints about the winners.

* I didn't like the In Memorial montage this year. Queen Latifah's song was a nice touch, but the swooping cameras made it hard to see everyone they were honoring. Also, they left out George Carlin and Patrick McGoohan.

* I was really, really impressed with Jerry Lewis's speech. It was simple and classy and totally not what I was expecting.

[DarthShady]

I agree, it was a pretty good show. They were definitely experimenting with a few new ideas, but I think it had a nice flow. The musical tribute in the middle of the show was pretty stupid, especially since two musicals were released this year and one of them was High School Musical 3. I also didn't like how they directed the In Memorium bit with the sweeping cameras so you couldn't see the screen half the time (and they also lieft out Eartha Kitt.) The opening number was pretty hilarious, though. That might have been the best opening since Billy Crystal's last hosting gig.

I thought it was pretty cool how except for the Acting and Direction awards the presented everything in production order. And Tina Fey and Steve Martin presenting the awards for Original & Adapted Screenplay was fantastic!

[PoolMan]

Okay, the "I'm Wolveriiiiiiiine!" bit had me absolutely howling. That was awesome. Hugh Jackman struck me as an odd choice to host, but it turns out he's a funny singing and dancing machine!

I liked the Memoriam bit too, I thought a live song was a great idea. Ditto on the camera swoopage, though. Silly.

Although I've already read a lot of complaints about it, I liked the format for the 4 big acting awards. It was a little forced, but having past winners come out and pay a little tribute to the nominees seemed pretty cool to me.

I was glad to see Ledger win the posthumour Oscar, even among such stiff competition. Especially since I haven't seen practically ANY of the nominated movies... no better way to see the Oscars than to go in blind!

[TheLuckyOne]

Wow, all the stuff you guys are talking about almost makes me wish I'd watched it. About all I saw was half of the Beyonce dance number on mute. Thus, the only thing I can report about the Oscars is that I'm 99% sure the girl dancing to Beyonce's left was the actress who played Lilly Kane on Veronica Mars.

-D

[Al]

If nothing else, I recommend you at least check out the opening number.

[StarOpal]

I've been really sick and missed the whole thing.

Thanks for the link, Al. Whenever Hugh Jackman hosts the Tonys I always make a point to watch the opening - So talented.

"The Reader. I haven't seen The Reader." Ha!

[Rett Mikhal]

If Heath Ledger hadn't won best supporting actor, the entire internet would have revolted, found all 5,187 members of the academy and forced them to change it. It would have been bloody but it probably would have made an excellent nominee for the next year's documentary winner.

[PoolMan]

The previous link is now dumped. Here's most of it, although it strips off the end with the awesome "I'm Wolverine!" finale!

[StarOpal]

This one has from the curtain going up to the standing ovation.