Can Sandy Win the Oscar?
Or can the Academy live with themselves if she wins the Oscar the day after she wins the Razzie, for which she’s almost guaranteed to win for All About Steve.
Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
Here’s a look at the Best Picture nominees and how many Oscars they’re up for:
- Avatar – 9
- The Blind Side – 2
- District 9 – 4
- An Education – 3
- The Hurt Locker – 9
- Inglourious Basterds – 8
- Precious – 6
- A Serious Man – 2
- Up – 5
- Up In The Air – 6
I’m really excited about this tie of noms between The Hurt Locker and Avatar. I really hope The Hurt Locker kicks that film’s ass.
Oscar Nominations Announced!
Really the biggest shocks are in Supporting Actress with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Penelope Cruz over Diane Kruger or Julianne Moore. Also The Blind Side but no Star Trek or The Hangover for Best Picture. I’ll write another post in just a second with my thoughts.
Best Motion Picture of the Year:
- Avatar
- The Blind Side
- District 9
- An Education
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious
- A Serious Man
- Up
- Up In The Air
My Oscar Nominations Predictions
The Academy Award nominations will be announced at 5:30AM PST tomorrow, February 2nd. I’ve got predictions for 10 of the 24 categories. I’m also going to supply some alternates. I love being able to predict what the nominations will be, but at the same time, it would be nice for some surprises to sneak in there too!
Best Picture:
- (500) Days of Summer
- An Education
- Avatar
- District 9
- The Hangover
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious
- Star Trek
- Up In The Air
(Alternates: Up, Invictus, A Serious Man)
5 Awesome Uses of Music in Film 2009
There were a lot of wonderful soundtracks and scores this year, as I mentioned in an earlier post. This time I’d like to talk about 5 instances where filmmakers used a song to enhance a scene.
Inglourious Basterds – Cat People (Putting Out The Fire With Gasoline) by David Bowie
Bigelow Wins DGA
KATHRYN WON YOU GUYS. SHE WON. I am so happy about this. SO HAPPY.
So what does this mean for Oscar? Well, the winner of the DGA has gone on to win Best Director at the Academy Awards 58 of the last 60 years. This is one of the few precursors that tend to accurately predict how Oscar will go.
Avatar – Visually Stunning, But Ultimately Boring and Predictable
I really did go into this film with an open mind. After about 30 minutes I was pretty sure I knew how I’d feel about the rest of the film. Why? Because I could see exactly how it was going to play out and all I really wanted was for it to end.
Avatar – The Matrix 2.0?
What I’m saying is Avatar is a special effects-driven film, like The Matrix, that is critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. Both films pushed boundaries of film visual effects and created new technologies.
Miramax Offices Close – The End of An Era
I hear on the grapevine though that the Weinsteins, who were bought out of Miramax years ago and started their own company – The Weinstein Company, are still trying to get the name back. I hope they do.
All through the 90s and early 00s Miramax, under the Weinsteins, pretty much dominated the Academy Awards.
the diary of a film history fanatic 
