Official 81st Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) Thread

[hotatlboi]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Id like to know prior to, say 1985, how many awards were given to movies/people outside the USA? Seems to me the academy awards should be a celebration of movies from the US... Im not trying to be closed minded but I get so upset sometimes that small budget/lesser films always seem to win when just maybe they truly arent the "best" film.

What does it matter what the films budget was? The award should go to the best film period.

And since it was distributed by an American studio and filmed in English I certainly think that makes it eligible.

 

[toomuchfun]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Id like to know prior to, say 1985, how many awards were given to movies/people outside the USA? Seems to me the academy awards should be a celebration of movies from the US... Im not trying to be closed minded but I get so upset sometimes that small budget/lesser films always seem to win when just maybe they truly arent the "best" film.

I do agree with you in that they have a category for best foreign film yet the more money a foreign film brings in it leaps from Best Foreign film category to best picture category. If that is is the case you might as well just drop the foreign film category altogether.
I will admit I saw Slumdog Mil. and it was very good.

 

[shinero]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I have to hand it to the people that put this show together, I thought this was one of the best Oscars I have seen since I have been watching them.

 

[justndav]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

What does it matter what the films budget was? The award should go to the best film period.

And since it was distributed by an American studio and filmed in English I certainly think that makes it eligible.

Yeah "slumdog" was eligible absolutely, but in my opinion it wasnt the best movie but thats just me. It really disappoints me that it focused on characters in India, and I get tired of seeing movies relating back to WWII as well- we've had enough of them give us a break please and come up with some original ideas Hollywood. I just didnt feel like Slumdog was the best picture, not by a long shot. I actually thought three of the movies nominated for best picture were not deserving... Benjamin Buttom, Slumdog, and The Reader- no thank you. Frost/Nixon in my opinion didnt even deserve to be nominated, we've also rehashed Nixon enough too. I think Doubt should have been nominated in Frost/Nixons place. Milk, yeah, I got into that but Im gay so... I think had Doubt been nominated it should have won. But cant win if you are not nominated.

What I was getting at in the post above was movies like "Love is Beautiful" do you want me to believe that most Americans thought that was the best picture that year? I dont think so... it was basically a foreign movie and I refuse to sit through a movie with subtitles.

 

[luminum]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I have to hand it to the people that put this show together, I thought this was one of the best Oscars I have seen since I have been watching them.

I agree. I thought the design and the intimacy/interactivity of the stage and audience was really well put together.

And hurray for Sean Penn and Harvey Milk for the Best Actor!

I was hoping that Meryl would win, but apparently Kate had it in the bag. And what a sweep for Slumdog.

A friend of mine and I did a live-blog of the Oscars for a grad school blog we started. It was much more of a snarky undertaking than we expected.

 

[falconfan]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

OK so here's my post-Oscar thoughts.

A) Overall I am very pleased with the new look/feel of the awards. I really liked the montages and the way they introduced the actor/actress awards. I liked having all the songs in a row as apposed to throughout and I like that they didn't do that announcing the best picture noms throughout. I liked both of Hugh Jackman's numbers and found the first one to be rather clever/Crystalesque

B) I'm less than pleased with the Slumdog more or less sweep. Now realistically I'm not that upset because I liked Slumdog but I don't think it deserved all those wins. I think it didn't deserve editing or score. And to be honest I don't know the difference between sound mixing and sound editing but the sound in Wall-E was BRILLIANT and I really think it should've won.

C) I really would've seen much more wins for Wall-E in general. Had it been a Best Pic nom and lost everything I'd be fine with that but it was just so brilliant and beautiful in so many areas it should've won more and definitely should've taken Screenplay. I feel like it got punished for minimal dialogue and that's just the thing it should've gotten lauded for. Making such a sweeping tale with such minimal dialogue takes real talent and creativity.

D) I also was not OK with the Dark Knight's near shut out. I don't think Benjamin Button really deserved the technical awards it got. But the visual effects awards are really a bit of a joke because the movies that do make use of effects and make up and crazy costuming are just the type that the Academy turns it's nose up at in the first place.

E) I was pleasantly surprised by Sean Penn's win. Thought for shore Rourke had it.

All and all it was enjoyable and while I would've made some different choice the field was strong enough that it didn't matter that much to me.

Also WTF happened to Sophia Loren... she looked like that crazy catwoman. And did anyone watch teh E! preshow my GOD Ryan Seacrest and Debbie Matenopoulos are the most inapprorpiate interviewers ever and E! "Startracker" fucking in advertently hilarious.

 

[syntax]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Wow, A.R. Rahman won!!!

I don't know why they were pronouncing his name incorrectly though.

My guess is that the presenters were told that his name is Arabic and is pronounced "Rakkkkhman."

Although Sean did give a tour-de-force immersive performance in "Milk" whereas Mickey Rourke's performance in "The Wrestler" was more about his so called comeback and his struggles in real life than the actual role itself.

Sean Penn is a punk. His performance in "Milk" was advanced play acting. Mickey Rourke is a champion. His performance in "The Wrestler" was majestic. He was robbed of an Oscar tonight, but he joins a long line of great actors who were as well.

 

[glo-unit]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Is Stephen Daldry still gay? I know he married a woman a couple of years ago, but they just showed him and there was no ring on his finger.

He says he still considers himself gay. Yeah, when they showed him and showed that instead of a women sitting next to him there is a fairly large slightly fey seeming black man I couldn't help but wonder "I know he hasn't gave major specifics about his marriage but way to make it look like your still fucking guys."

 

[wastingmymind]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Best moments/parts of the Oscars:
- Kate's redemption and very sweet and genuine moment when she finds her dad in the crowd.
- The best picture montage may inspire a lot of film masters theses.
- In Memoriam montage with multiple screens. I know that that was practically Paul Newman's, but a new format works.
- Tina Fey.

Worst:
- Milk and Mel Gibson in the same montage.
- Bill Maher.
- Hugh Jackman.
- Will Smith.
- MIA couldn't perform.
- Blanchett and Paltrow in the same montage.

 

[hotatlboi]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I do agree with you in that they have a category for best foreign film yet the more money a foreign film brings in it leaps from Best Foreign film category to best picture category. If that is is the case you might as well just drop the foreign film category altogether.

You have a misunderstanding. That category is best Foreign Language film. Since slumdog was filmed in Engllish, it was not eligible for that category anyway.

 

[hotatlboi]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

It really disappoints me that it focused on characters in India

I can understand if you simply didn't feel it was the best film, but this makes no sense to me at all, and it strikes me as a rather arrogant attitude, no offense. America is not the only country in the world. There's no reason that films shown here have to be all about subjects from here.

 

[wastingmymind]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Oh yeah, speaking which, I need a web version of In Memoriam so I know which classic movies to download.

 

[falconfan]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I can understand if you simply didn't feel it was the best film, but this makes no sense to me at all, and it strikes me as a rather arrogant attitude, no offense. America is not the only country in the world. There's no reason that films shown here have to be all about subjects from here.

Yes well the American viewpoint always baffle me. People all aroudn the world watch films made here but American's feel the need to remake anything from another country that's good. We just can't seem to accept that things produced outside of the US and not centered on Americans can be just as good if not better than Hollywood fluff. It's sad really.

 

[justndav]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I can understand if you simply didn't feel it was the best film, but this makes no sense to me at all, and it strikes me as a rather arrogant attitude, no offense. America is not the only country in the world. There's no reason that films shown here have to be all about subjects from here.

I guess I worded it incorrectly. This is how I think of it, while its nice to know something about another country and be cultured Im an American. I wouldnt want to watch a film about say Etheopian history, I would want something more important to me as an American. American interest slants will always draw in more Americans. If that sounds arrogant then so be it. Now there are films about the histories of other countries that are important to America yes. But, on the same level I didnt like it when Braveheart won best picture that in my opinion was a horrible choice as well. I guess I just like movies with an American slant or topics that are important to American history.

BTW if you want a good movie about WWII and the holocaust.... watch "The Hiding Place" excellent movie. That is the type of oscar deserving movie I like. I think the hiding place came out in the 70s I believe.

 

[pikespeak]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

Slumdog winning was good, but we all knew that was gonna happen, so let's not lose track of the real story which is that for the first time in EONS the Oscar show itself was pretty fucking amazing!! It clocked in before midnight, categories were appropriately lumped together and given out in a timely fashion, there was a great opening number that made reference to the economic crisis, there was a shortage of boring montages etc and even the ones they had made thematic sense and blended in well with the show, they actually celebrated the nominees, particularly the actors with that wonderful addition of having a generation of 5 past winners say something about each of the current nominees (I wish they had done this for Best Director as well), the look, the feel, the set design, the MUSIC (they played cool music clips between each cut-away, including Aimee Mann's "Momentum")...wow, I seriously have not been impressed with an awards show as an actual SHOW until now.

Seriously. Best award show in my lifetime.

They should have Bill Condon produce this shit every year!

I completely agree. It was one of the best Oscars I've seen in years--YEARS.

That's being said, I'm Slumdogged out LOL

Bill Condon as a producer was a great decision by the Academy. All the changes worked. I loved the set, Hugh, and the tone of the show.

In the future--they should keep the format of how they present the acting awards, and include directing in that format. It's more intense, yet genuinely sincere.

 

[hotatlboi]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I guess I just like movies with an American slant or topics that are important to American history.

I guess that is the difference in perception then. When I go to the movies, I'm usually not looking for a history lesson, I'm looking to be entertained. If a film set in another place does that better, that's just fine imo.

 

[falconfan]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

And I'm one of the few people who thinks The Dark Knight is horribly overrated. I would have been fine with just Heath Ledger winning and nothing else for the film. The fact that it got an Editing nomination is ridiculous since it's cut badly and most of the action sequences are difficult to comprehend. The Sound Editing award that Dark Knight won should have gone to WALL-E, and despite my non-love for Benjamin Button, I think it thoroughly deserved Art Direction and Visual Effects, which it did win over Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight won sound editing because of Ledgers death. I'm under the impression that he died before editing was complete and they were unable to have him return and repeat certain lines etc. It made their task muhc more difficult.

As far as Art Direction I'm fine with. It was very beautifully shot and it deserved that. But things like make-up and visual effects I would dispute. Realistically out of the three nominees Hellboy had the most intricate and impressive makeup but there was no way in hell they were giving an Oscar to hell boy. Likewise I found the visual effects of Dark Knight and Iron man superior to Benjamin Button and would've been pleased had either won.

What I think happened is what happened every year. Nominations are made by members within a field but the winners are determined by EVERYONE in the academy. This needs to stop. Just because you're in the academy for knowing how to construct a score doesn't mean you know shit about art direction... you know? Like I know someone who has written a book which was adapted and received some Oscar nominations and as a result he gets to vote but I mean he's a writer so he's more than qualified to judge writing but he's no more qualified than a lay man to judge score or editing or any of that. What happens is these people don't know what the fuck sound editing or sound mixing is and they don't bother to think about it. They say "I liked Slumdog Millionaire best" so they go down the list checking the box whenever it's applicable (Slumdog won all it's nominations except for Sound Editing). And when they could check Slumdog it was "Benjamin Button was my second favorite" so they defaulted to that not considering make-up or visuals, realistically I'd bet the majority of the academy never popped in the DVD to watch Hellboy.

As for the score I understand where some would say Slumdog. I think it deserved best song. But I think Newman managed to make a score that both captured the emotion of the film and had the approriate light, fun, futuristic vibe to it.

 

[luminum]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I thought Hugh Jackman did a fine job hosting. Perhaps he wasn't the most natural selection, but he was able to keep things entertaining and fun and he owned his position.

I think the previous winners speaking about each new nominee was fantastic. There was a great sense of the award being for the craft and the appreciation of the individuals and their accomplishments.

 

[falconfan]

Re: 81st Annual Academy Awards Thread

I also want to add that considering so much of Wall-E was done without any dialogue, the score was a very important element to the film.

 

[belamy]

Re: Academy Awards, Oscar Winners LEAKED!

I just learned than the Best Supporting Actress award will be the first one of the ceremony: now it's definitely clear who won http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraji_P._Henson

....