In Contention
By Josh Spiegel
March 8, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The winner for Best Supporting Actor was a massive surprise. Coming out of nowhere was...oh, wait, this isn't a parallel universe. The winner was the same man who's won every other award: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. As with his other speeches, Waltz was eloquent and emotional, and strongly deserved. You'll see him next squaring off against Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet, which should be...interesting. The Best Supporting Actress winner was just as unsurprising: Mo'Nique for her work in Precious. If I've been telling you anything over the last three months, it's that Waltz and Mo'Nique would win, and the other nominees would practice their polite smiling and clapping. There were literally no surprises in these two awards.
The Oscar for Best Animated Feature went to Up, another major non-surprise. By the way, in case you weren't aware, get used to that theme, folks. The surprises are few and far between. Up's director, Pete Docter, got his first Oscar, after his past directing effort, Monsters, Inc., lost to Shrek. Yes, that series is now terrible, but at least Shrek was good. Anyway, congratulations to the team at Pixar, for continuing to make me envy them.
The Best Original Song winner was, yes, another big shock (sarcasm intended firmly): The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart. The winners were T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham. The other nominees, while deserving, especially the two songs from The Princess and the Frog, stood no chance against the onslaught of Crazy Heart and the two songwriters. I liked this song, but the other original songs in the film were better and more memorable; still, when Colin Farrell and Jeff Bridges sing a song onscreen, it helps.
Mark Boal took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, for his work in The Hurt Locker. Obviously, this was not as much of a given; Quentin Tarantino's script for Inglourious Basterds was just as possible a winner. What's more, considering all of the recent snafus that The Hurt Locker is running into, this win was pretty solid and important. Boal's work is subtle in the film, but strong and important. It's a well-deserved win, made all the more bittersweet by his announcement during his acceptance speech that his father passed away. Congratulations to Mr. Boal.
The Best Animated Short Oscar went to Logorama, a truly...okay, none of us have seen these shorts (or very few of us have). Still, I'm shocked that A Matter of Loaf and Death, the latest Wallace and Gromit short, didn't win, if only because...well, it's Wallace and Gromit. However, Logorama had Ronald McDonald riding a motorcycle consisting of the title of the movie Grease. I'm on board with that. The Best Documentary Short Subject winner is Music by Prudence; again, I didn't see any of the nominees, but that a documentary about GM failing, timely as ever, didn't win, is surprising. Aside from that, the acceptance speech being hijacked was the most entertaining part of this segment.
The winner for Best Live Action Short is The New Tenants. Again, a movie I didn't see, in a category of movies I didn't see. Frankly, at this time in the show, it's usually time to hit the kitchen for snacks. The only sad thing is that Kavi, a film directed by a guest of the great film podcast Battleship Pretension, didn't win.
The winner for Best Makeup (aside from all of us for being present for the Ben Stiller in Avatar gag - ah, if only) is Star Trek. This was easily one of the oddest categories, featuring only one costume drama, and a sci-fi blockbuster took home the gold. I'm not saying Star Trek doesn't deserve the Oscar, but something felt off about this year's winner, if only because it seems to go against tradition. The Best Art Direction Oscar goes to Avatar; perfect synergy here, as the award was presented by Sigourney Weaver. The winners were Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, and Kim Sinclair. The emotions continued through this acceptance speech, and Avatar itself managed to win an unsurprising award. This honor acknowledged the film's excellent technical prowess, and who's to argue?
The Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar went to Geoffrey Fletcher for his screenplay for the movie Precious. To say that this is a surprise is a bit of an understatement; up until this point, the presumed winner was Up in the Air, co-written and directed by Jason Reitman. Though I'd have loved it if In The Loop or District 9 pulled out a victory, the Precious script won; I'm not the biggest fan of the film, but the script is not the issue I have with the film, or not the most predominant one. So, despite it being a bit unexpected and disappointing, congratulations to Geoffrey Fletcher, for his win and emotional speech.
The award for Best Costume Design went to The Young Victoria and its designer, Sandy Powell. You have to imagine that one of the presenters, Tom Ford, fashion designer and director of A Single Man, was hoping to be nominated in this category, but it wasn't to be. Powell's work was unsurprisingly honored, if only because...well, she worked in a costume drama. These movies always win the awards; it's written in the stars.
The Oscar for Best Sound Editing went to The Hurt Locker; Paul N.J. Ottosson accepted the award for this instantly classic war movie set in Baghdad during the early part of the Iraq War. This award, and the award for Best Sound Mixing, was down to The Hurt Locker and Avatar; it would've been a bigger surprise had neither movie won. Speaking of the award for Best Sound Mixing, that honor went to The Hurt Locker again; Ottosson and Ray Beckett took home this award, effectively destroying any chances Avatar ever had of getting an Oscar sweep in the technical categories. Here also were emotional acceptance speeches; as much as it is frivolous, it's worth noting how much this means for the men and women who win.
The Best Cinematography Oscar, however, did go to Mauro Fiore for his work in Avatar. There was some prevailing thought here that The Hurt Locker would win, with Barry Ackroyd picking up the Oscar. However, it was hard to argue with the visual surprises to be had in Avatar, a movie that doesn't have traditional camerawork, but is still jaw-droppingly amazing. Fiore's work is not exactly stylish, but it's amazing.
The award for Best Original Score went to Michael Giacchino for his brilliant score for the best movie of 2009, in this writer's opinion, Up. It was all the more rewarding, since we had to sit through the agonizing, painful, and disrespectful dance sequence that was put in favor of people singing the Best Original Song nominees. But I'll leave my soapbox rant for another time. Giacchino's score is arguably the best of the five nominees, and one of the more iconic compositions a Pixar film has ever had, so many congratulations to Mr. Giacchino. Now get back to scoring Lost, buddy.
The Best Visual Effects Oscar went to Joe Letteri, Steven Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones for Avatar. Though there were two other nominees - District 9 and Star Trek - there was never any doubt about Avatar taking the award here; if anything else, isn't Avatar just a lot of special effects in sync with each other? I'm a fan of the film, and not against the actors being treated as any other actor, but it's all a bunch of computer-generated imagery.
The Best Documentary Feature Oscar went to The Cove, the harrowing documentary about the disturbing treatment of dolphins in Japan. The film, championed by celebrities such as Ben Stiller, and produced by actor Fisher Stevens (recently on Lost), was a shoo-in to win, though it was apparent that many of the nominees had a lot of love from the audience. Still, The Cove was about an arguably shocking and important subject, and deserved its win.
The Best Film Editing award went to Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for their work on The Hurt Locker, up against movies such as District 9, Precious, and, of course, Avatar. The Hurt Locker is arguably one of the best films of the year, and its editing was crucial, heightening the suspense and atmosphere. This award is definitely well-deserved, so congratulations to the editing team.
The Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film went to The Secret in Their Eyes, from Argentina. I had predicted either A Prophet or The White Ribbon, if only because these two films were more well-known and had already received somewhat wide releases. Also, The White Ribbon received an Oscar nod for Best Cinematography. Shows what I know. This is one of the few categories that was a bit of a crapshoot, but The Secret in Their Eyes had been receiving solid returns and reviews, so congratulations to the filmmakers and the country of Argentina for taking home another Oscar.
The Best Actor Oscar went to you, the viewer, for sitting through the interminable introductions from five co-stars of the nominees. No, wait, sorry, I take that back. You're the moral victor. The actual winner is no surprise at all: Jeff Bridges for his work in Crazy Heart. There's no doubt that the man waited a long time, too long, to get his Oscar, and that his performance was excellent. Would I have liked to see Jeremy Renner or George Clooney take the gold? Sure, but Clooney's already won, and Renner will hopefully get another chance soon. Bridges was, as always, folksy and charming in his acceptance speech, channeling the Dude once more. The Dude - you know where this is going - abides.
The Best Actress Oscar went to Sandra Bullock for her work in The Blind Side; also, we should all get another chunk of the award for sitting through two painful introductions by five actors and actresses. Yikes. But, seriously, this award isn't much of a surprise, even if Bullock kind of hit the nail on the head with the beginning of her speech: did she earn this award, or did she just wear us down? She wore me down, for sure. Either way, her charm has worked wonders on the right people, and the people watching who could be baffled by the dance sequences and Paranormal Activity parody could hold onto Bullock's role in the crowd-pleasing The Blind Side as a major win. There was some skepticism that Bullock might not win tonight, potentially losing to Gabourey Sidibe, but Sandra Bullock was, in some ways, destined to win here. She steamrolled past the competition all throughout the Oscar race.
The Best Director Oscar winner was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. It was more than appropriate for Barbara Streisand to award Bigelow for this great war movie, and even more appropriate that the first person who appeared to stand to give her an ovation was her competitor and ex-husband, James Cameron, a man who firmly appreciated her work, even if their personal lives weren't as solid. Bigelow's win wasn't a surprise, but still an impressive milestone for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, even if that milestone came in the 21st century, instead of sometime during the 1960s or 1970s. That aside, the win was a great step, if only because Kathryn Bigelow absolutely deserved it.
Of course, the biggest award of all was for Best Picture, and there were, as we've gone over many times, ten nominees. Tom Hanks, famed actor and Academy governor, announced, as quickly as a person could, that The Hurt Locker was the winner. First of all, congratulations are in order. Here it is, one of the truly great films, one of the best films of the year, and a movie that managed to take the big prize without making over $700 million at the box office. You have probably not seen The Hurt Locker, or you saw it on DVD. If you remain completely uninitiated, you must do yourself a favor and put this movie on your Netflix queue immediately. Just expect to be waiting for a long time to watch it.