D. Day...hours before magic time...the 77th Academy Awards

....It's the day at last and i am having a leisurely time before tonight tv marathon
...first the gym, then a light lunch and dinner with dominic

...I might see The Sea Inside(Foreign Film Nominee) from Spain...strongly predicted to win tonight
....Off to Sandra's to start the night....our 15th consecutive Oscar night barring 1(Oscar's 73rd - when we were in Miami in 2001)

The Show....boring and predictable....

...and the winners were.....


BEST PICTURE
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Clint Eastwood, Albert S. Ruddy and Tom Rosenberg


DIRECTING
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
Clint Eastwood

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jamie Foxx
RAY

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Morgan Freeman
MILLION DOLLAR BABY


ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Hilary Swank
MILLION DOLLAR BABY

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett
THE AVIATOR

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
THE INCREDIBLES
Brad Bird

ART DIRECTION
THE AVIATOR
Dante Ferretti (Art Direction); Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE AVIATOR
Robert Richardson

COSTUME DESIGN
THE AVIATOR
Sandy Powell


DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BORN INTO BROTHELS

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
MIGHTY TIMES: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH

FILM EDITING
THE AVIATOR
Thelma Schoonmaker


FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
THE SEA INSIDE
Spain
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

HONORARY AWARD
Roger Mayer

HONORARY AWARD
Sidney Lumet

MAKEUP
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS


MUSIC (SCORE)
FINDING NEVERLAND
Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

MUSIC (SONG)
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
"Al Otro Lado Del Río"
Music and Lyric by Jorge Drexler

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
SIDEWAYS
Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman; Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
RYAN

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
WASP

SOUND EDITING
THE INCREDIBLES

SOUND MIXING
RAY

VISUAL EFFECTS
SPIDER-MAN 2

.1 day to go....... it is almost Oscar day!!

...Went out to Sandra's with Dominic to set up the VCR for tomorrow's Academy Awards Ceremony.

The online consensus is that Million$Baby and Eastwood will take Best Pic and Director but the Print media
are for The Aviator and Scorcese...at least in the UK

.....Am inclined to stick with the UK Media and might change my mind as the ceremony begins...I think I will be convinced Eastwood has the best director in the bag if/when Joel Cox wins Film Editing over the favourite Thelma Schoonmaker (The Aviator)...especially as that will be the first time these two contending films will be up against each other in a proper sense.

There is talk that the biggest upset (like 2002 Adrien Brody's win over favourites, Daniel Day Lewis(GONY) and Jack Nicholson(About Schmidt) will be for Jamie Foxx to lose the best actor race to Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda)...I could live with that, especially as Cheadle has a much better body of work than Foxx...Furthermore the Oscar will probably benefit Cheadle more, than Foxx....however, the chances of that happening are quite slim...all indications point to a Foxx victory tomorrow night

...Still viewing Sayonara on dvd .....will do a brief view of Oscar 73 before bed tonight

.....5 days to Oscar night

...It really is reading like Billion$Baby will win Best Picture but Marty might
get the director's ...I guess to right previous wrongs

Though not a strong Baby supporter, I could live with that result.

Apart from liking his direction on The Aviator, I am getting tired of the almost annual campaign for Marty's Oscar...we need to move on to other overdue directors...like Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, etc

.....I will try to see The Sea Inside (Nominee for Foreign Film....strong likelihood of a win too)
before Oscar night - probably on Sunday

.............13 days to Oscar night

...Collateral...after days of being on the waiting list at the dvd store, I am finally viewing Collateral ( 2 nominations, Best Supp Actor and Best Film editing)

...............15 days to Oscar night

Completed Midnight Cowboy......

Tonight is BAFTA on BBC1 at 8.10pm...hosted by Stephen Fry
BAFTA has become an interesting precurser in recent years, since the same nominees
are more or less on Oscar's shortlist and it is now held two weeks before the Oscars

In 2002, BAFTA awarded the best director to Roman Polanski, who was also a oscar contender
but was getting bad press for his 1970s flight from US law......Academy voters then decided
it was ok to vote for Polanski and he won the oscar two weeks later

The Aviator is a major contender tonight with 14 nominations so also is Vera Drake with 11
Million Dollar Baby (a major contender at the Oscars) is not represented due to a screener problem
The Aviator fading buzz will be enormously helped by wins at BAFTA tonight.....

Screening Bad Education, directed by Pedro Almodovar on my DVD list right now.....

.................17 days to Oscar night

........Still enjoying my read of this month's VF...finished the article on Brando...and now on the Midnight Cowboy piece...I have decided to make Cowboy my next viewing blog.

There is a huge furore from oscarwatchers about the intended change in format in this year's ceremony...amongst other things, Gil Cates (the show's producer) has indicated that some winners(probably the technical ones) will be handed their awards sitted in the audience, some nominees will be onstage whilst the winners are announced,and so on...seems like a very bad idea...

Firstly, every winner deserves their 30 seconds of fame not matter how unglamourous their category is......

it will be very embarassing and humiliating for Cates to expect the losers on stage - perform/pretend to be excited by their recent loses..
Even the winners will be embarassed....this might ultimately affect nominees attendeance at future Awards...imagine Sean Penn onstage with his fellow nominees?..he hates the perceived competition as it it!

...................19 days to Oscar night

Post SAG reactions continue with Baby getting very good Press...I hope Oscar night has some surprises

Got the Vanity Fair Hollywood edition...like last year, it is completely out of date with the Oscar nominations
one would think with the nomination date moved forward for the second year running, VF will have their act together by now...pity..Not yet...I wonder why?
Contents?...looks very good...the usual pictures of up and coming stars + established stars...but why is "it girl" Sienna Miller on the front cover with the rest?...she has no film career and is well known by being the girlfriend(now fiancee) of the overrated Jude Law!
Good articles on Brando, Kubrick, James dean,etc

Nominees Luncheon yesterday, nice to see Sophie Okonedo among the mix....