Olly Moss' Oscars

I'm always a fan of Olly Moss' work and I'm a huge a fan of his poster for the Oscars! It's just so damn clever. I'm looking forward to this year's awards! I'm hoping (but not expecting) that Seth MacFarlane can improve on the abysmal hosts of the past few years. Disregarding the fact that I am a massive Hugh Jackman fan, it has been seriously downhill after he hosted. Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin? Awful. Billy Crystal? Disappointing. Anne Hathaway & James Franco? Kill me.

Oscar Picks

Running a bit late on my Oscar picks this year, but better late than never.I do avoid social networking for the majority of the day until the night time broadcast. Can't break tradition; pizza and beer await me.


All that aside, here are my picks this year;


Best Picture - The Artist (2nd Choice - The Descendants)
Best Director - Martin Scorsese, Hugo


Best Actor - George Clooney, The Descendants (2nd Choice - Jean Dujardin, The Artist)
Best Actress - Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady - (2nd Choice - Viola Davis, The Help)


Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer, The Beginners
Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer, The Help


Best Animated Feature - Rango
Best Animated Short - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

Best Original Screenplay - Midnight in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay - The Descendants (2nd Choice - Moneyball)


Best Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Cinematography - Hugo (2nd Choice - Tree of Life)

Best Film Editing - Hugo

Best Art Direction - The Artist (2nd Choice - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2)
Best Costume Design - The Artist

Best Makeup - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Best Sound Editing - Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2nd Choice - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

Best Sound Mixing - Transformers Dark of the Moon (2nd Choice - Hugo)

Best Original Song - Man or Muppet, The Muppets
Best Original Score - Hugo

Twenty*22

The image above aptly describes the 83rd Academy Awards. Did Franco and Hathaway really know what they were doing? It didn't appear that way. The pre-recorded intro video was great, but unfortunately for the young hosts it was all downhill from there. They will be blamed for the failure in it's whole but you cannot deny that that there was alot of poor writing in there as well. Their hosting wasn't bad, it just lacked any substance whatsoever. Gone were the performances or any real segment of any length. Hathaway got a chance to belt out a very short song, but where were the other segments that had been revealed online prior to the broadcast? Summary - James Franco looked half asleep and couldn't even look at his co-host. Anne Hathaway was a gushy teen falling at the feet of Hollywood greats when she has had more recognition from the Academy than some of those names that she was screaming.

The Academy is clearly failing in it's attempt to move from comedian hosts. Last year was a failure. This year was better, but not by much. My thoughts? Jeff Bridges. He owned the Best Actress presentation, let him do the entire show.

Quick summary of the awards;

Best Picture - The King's Speech

I felt this was deserved. I am yet to see the film in it's entirety but from what I have seen it is quite masterful.

Directing - Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Once again, very deserved. From what I have seen of the film the direction seems to be fantastic. But so were so many of the others in the category (Black Swan & True Grit in particular).

Best Actor - Colin Firth

Could not be happier with Firth finally winning an Oscar. He is a fantastic actor and someone of his caliber is deserving of such an honour. I was going to be rather rage-filled if Jesse Eisenberg had won.

Best Actress - Natalie Portman

Like Colin Firth, Portman is very deserving of this honour. Black Swan was phenominal - and it could not have been so without her contributions.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Christian Bale

This came as a suprise. I expected that perhaps Geoffrey Rush would land this one but that proved to be false.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Melissa Leo

Did not pick this one. I felt that there were more deserving nominees. Although dropping an f-bomb at the Academy Awards was quite entertaining.

Best Animated Feature - Toy Story 3

 Predictable. The Illusionist held no hope of getting further than a nomination but I held secret hope for How to Train Your Dragon. Unfortunately the sheer mass of Toy Story 3's characters and environments proved too overwhelming. Pixar has had a continuing upwards journey the past few years, I would say that Cars 2 could very well upset this ride.

Best Animated Short - The Lost Thing

An Aussie film!! Winner!! The film is brilliant, absolutely mind-boggling. If you have not seen it, do so very soon. You can pick up a copy on dvd at JBHIFI! Oh, and to beat out Day & Night?? Well done!

Best Live Action Short - God of Love
Haven't seen any in the category.... Can't really pass judgement at all.

Best Documentary Feature - Inside Job

Having not seen the film I cannot pass judgement, but I was very interested to see what would have occurred if Exit Through the Gift Shop had won.

Best Documentary Short - Strangers No More
Unlike last year there was no upset with producers running up on stage or anything along those lines. I have not seen the film so there's not much I can say.

Best Visual Effects - Inception 

The category that I am perhaps most interested in I find the most difficult to pick. It is hard to determine what they are looking for but I am pleased that Inception landed the award this year. Seamless effects. That's what it's all about.

Best Art Direction - Alice in Wonderland

A tough category, the only film I was confident wouldn't get the award was Harry Potter.

Best Cinematography - Inception
Obvious.

Best Film Editing - The Social Network
Another tough category. All films were deserving.

Best Costume Design - Alice in Wonderland
A suprise. I expected that (as usual) as period piece such as The King's Speech would have won.

Best Makeup - The Wolfman
The stand out in the category, but the unexpected winner. I really enjoyed the film - the art direction was amazing, so it is nice that it has been recognised (in part).

Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing - Inception

Again the one film wins both categories. I had hoped that Tron Legacy would land editing but I can think of no other film that was more deserving that Inception. So much of that film was reliant on the sound, evidence in fact if you youtube the soundtrack you will find hundreds of rehashed films to the soundtrack.

Best Original Song - We Belong Together (Toy Story 3)

Awful. Noone can understand Randy Newman and all his songs sound the damn same. I was not happy with this one whatsoever. Personally I was backing 'I See the Light' & 'If I Rise'.

Best Original Score - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network)
Another tough category. Mind you, whilst the score was brilliant I don't feel that it was deserving. I felt that several of the others were far more compelling than I found The Social Network's score. Hell, I was displeased that Tron Legacy was not nominated for this category as well.

So that's my Oscar's wrap-up for this year! 

Twenty*16

With a few weeks until the Oscars come round again, I'm taking some time to reflect on those greats that are no longer with us.

Eleven*4

Just a quick post about my thoughts on the winners of the 82nd Academy Awards yesterday;

Best Picture - The Hurt Locker
Not having seen the film it is hard to comment, but I will say it was far more deserving than Avatar. Many seemed to think that Avatar was deserving of a clean sweep of the Awards but I disagree - the film was groundbreaking, yes. But in terms of story it was not like it was something unlike many we have seen before (hate to say it), thus when compared to those like The Hurt Locker (based off what I know of the story) it did not carry the comparison well enough to win.

Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow
Once again, not having seen the film it is hard to comment but  I feel as though it was really only between James Cameron and Bigelow - I don't think the others had too much of a chance. Cameron himself said that his ideal outcome for the nomination would be for Bigelow to take it home - he already has one; share the wealth.


Best Actor - Jeff Bridges
One nomination and win that I was very pleased to see. Bridges is a fantastic actor and his devotion to the job is obvious. His heartfelt speech revealed that the award was more for his parents than himself because they 'loved show business' and it obviously meant the world to him to win.


Best Actress - Sandra Bullock
I don't know what to say about this one. It comes down to personal prejudice - I don't like Sandra Bullock. I think she has done some truly rubbish films, but obviously this one must be spectacular.


Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz
Waltz stood out in what was an otherwise dull film for the most part. The thing that irritated me about Inglorious Basterds was it started on a weak point, Waltz's perfomance nearly pulled it through but overall the film was poorly paced and took a good 20 minutes to really start - by which point I was already over it.


Best Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique
Not sure about shortening your name to fit in with the likes of J'Lo, but from what I can tell it was a deserved award. I will investigate this Precious movie at a later date and write something a little more detailed than I can now (not having seen the film).


Best Animated Feature - Up
It was an easy pick really; it was the first Pixar film for me that film more like a film than an animation - which is obvious by its nomination in the Best Picture Category as well. The thing I worry about with Pixar (after winning the Oscar 2 years running) is that Toy Story 3 is going to take them backwards. Wall-e leapt forward for emotional response and Up leapt even more so with its human characters - but is Toy Story 3 going to take Pixar 2 steps back? Possibly.


Best Animated Short - Logorama
I wasn't really a fan of Logorama because of the nature of its topic. Commenting about mass media, monolithic corporations etc is something that has never struck an emotional response from me - it's obvious to everyone, why bother plastering a message all over something that would otherwise been enjoyable (or simply not existed). I would have preferred to see The Lady and the Reaper win.

Best Live Action Short - The New Tenants
Haven't seen any in the category.... Can't really pass judgement at all.


Best Documentary Short - Music by Prudence
The lady who pulled a Kanye West and ruined the acceptance speech was actually the producer on the film and has had a falling out with the director, including a lawsuit! She has not not been invited to any events involving the film apparently and decided that this was the moment to make a statement. I understand there are two sides to every story, but an event like that is absolutely no place to make a petty statement like that. I was absolutely disgusted - though Roger Ross Williams took it well and kept smiling, despite the shock and outrage he must be feeling.


Best Visual Effects - Avatar
An absolute no-brainer, one which I don't need to speak about much. Though I do think that the other 2 films nominated were also very deserving. District 9's achievement was not too disimilar to Avatar's, just on a far smaller scale. Star Trek unfortunately never stood a chance; being a product of ILM and spaceships - it was nice to get an empty nomination. Star Trek out did itself in this respect because  compared to Star Wars Episode 3 (4 years prior) it excelled in both quality and animation of all space related nonsense - which people thought ILM had peaked with Ep3.


Best Art Direction - Avatar
I had hoped that someone other than Avatar would win, but that was a fool's dream that even I did not believe in.

Best Cinematography - Avatar
Obvious.


Best Film Editing - The Hurt Locker
I honestly thought that District had a real look in for this category.


Best Costume Design - Young Victoria
It is a terribly hard category to pick because it's all very similar - all very elaborate. I'm so sick of Victorian-era films winning this category although I thought Sandy Powell made a good point in her acceptance speech - those designers working on the low budget contemporary films do just as good a job - but they're never going to win.

Best Makeup - Star Trek
The stand out in the category, the other nominees really didn't do very much at all - let alone anything groundbreaking. Although I think in their showcase they could have shown a little less of Spock's ears - I understand that it's Star Trek, but come on. There was better things to show.


Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing - The Hurt Locker
Need to see this movie. =p


Best Original Song - The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)


Best Original Score - Michael Giacchino (Up)
Outstanding. Giacchino is very talented, I've been a fan of him ever since I discovered him in 2004 - first with Lost and then The Incredibles. The most appealing thing about his work is that it isn't all the same i.e. John Williams. He comes up with a unique theme AND score for a piece as opposed to Williams who comes up with a fantastic theme and then the rest is much the same.


On another note, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were not the hosts I were hoping for. Neil Patrick Harris' performance was an obvious ploy to play off the success of Hugh Jackman's perfomance last year as host - Channel 9's telecast of his performance was AWFUL - the music completely drowned out his voice so who knows what he was singing about?


And George Clooney looked absolutely miserable and unwilling to play along with Alec and Steve's banter - and all throughout the night he looked almost angry to be there, point at the camera at one point - attempting to direct the cameraman's attention off him and back on stage. Sorry George but there's several cameras covering the stage, several covering the audience. Should have stayed home perhaps.