Oscar Night

This was a great Oscar year, right up the alley of DLP. With a Coen brothers movie up against a Paul Thomas Anderson movie with lots of great performances, this is a rare year that I appreciate. I thought Jon Stewart did a great job. Loved 'Falling Slowly'. Go here for clips and montages. Below are the winners and comments on the bigger categories.

Best Motion Picture
WINNER: "No Country for Old Men"
· "Atonement"
· "Juno"
· "Michael Clayton"
· "There Will Be Blood"
Happy with this win, as NCFOM is one of the best movies of the last 10 years. I still think, however, that There Will be Blood is the best movie, and the one that will be seen as a classic in 20 years. Once and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead should've been nominated.

Click below for the rest of the list and comments.

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"
· George Clooney in "Michael Clayton"
· Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
· Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah"
· Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises"
Great, yeah. DDL is my favorite actor and he was the best in a strong year. Savoring this one.

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role
WINNER: Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"
· Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
· Julie Christie in "Away From Her"
· Laura Linney in "The Savages"
· Ellen Page in "Juno"
Absolutely agree. Watched this Friday night and loved it (B+). So tragic, and she handles each of the phases of Edith Piaf's life with aplomb.

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role
WINNER: Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"
· Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
· Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"
· Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild"
· Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton"
Duh. This was a tough category, since every one of them was great, and Tommy Lee Jones (NCFOM), Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn), Henry Fonda (3:10 to Yuma) weren't even nominated. Anton Chigurh is already a legend.

Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role
WINNER: Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton"
· Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"
· Ruby Dee in "American Gangster"
· Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement"
· Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"
My happiest surprise of the night. I wanted her to win and she should have. Cate was greatness in I'm Not There, but Tilda nailed this one with her 'balance' speech.

Achievement In Directing
WINNER: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men"
· Julian Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
· Jason Reitman for "Juno"
· Tony Gilroy for "Michael Clayton"
· Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood"
Can't argue with this one, but I was holding out hope for a PTA sneak attack (so was he, judging by the look on his face at the moment of truth) for a Scorsese/PTA moment. The Coen's looked less than thrilled, very self-assured and almost as if the moment meant nothing to them. Weird. Well deserved.

Adapted ScreenplayWINNER: "No Country for Old Men" by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
· "Atonement" by Christopher Hampton
· "Away From Her" by Sarah Polley
· "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by Ronald Harwood
· "There Will Be Blood" by Paul Thomas Anderson
Duh. Agree. Diving Bell sucks.

Original Screenplay
WINNER: "Juno" by Diablo Cody
· "Lars and the Real Girl" by Nancy Oliver
· "Michael Clayton" by Tony Gilroy
· "Ratatouille" by Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco
· "The Savages" by Tamara Jenkins
I'd prefer Lars or Clayton, but this was good. Mrs. Cool started crying in her speech, which was a shocker.

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Song)
WINNER: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for "Falling Slowly" from "Once"
· Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for "Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted"
· Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas for "Raise It Up" from "August Rush"
· Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for "So Close" from "Enchanted"
· Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted"
Second happiest surprise of the night. Greatest performance in many years, and love the speeches from Glen and Marketa. A great song and a great movie.

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures (Original Score)
WINNER: Dario Marianelli for "Atonement"
· Alberto Iglesias for "The Kite Runner"
· James Newton Howard for "Michael Clayton"
· Michael Giacchino for "Ratatouille"
· Marco Beltrami for "3:10 to Yuma"
Fine.

Achievement In Cinematography
WINNER: Robert Elswit for "There Will Be Blood"
· Roger Deakins for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
· Seamus McGarvey for "Atonement"
· Janusz Kaminski for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
· Roger Deakins for "No Country for Old Men"
Happy with Elswit, but would've given it to Deakins for Assassination since he also did NCFOM. A great year for this category. Diving Bell sucks.

Achievement In Film Editing
WINNER: Christopher Rouse for "The Bourne Ultimatum"
· Juliette Welfling for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
· Jay Cassidy for "Into the Wild"
· Roderick Jaynes for "No Country for Old Men"
· Dylan Tichenor for "There Will Be Blood"
Fine.

Achievement In Costume Design
WINNER: Alexandra Byrne for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
· Albert Wolsky for "Across the Universe"
· Jacqueline Durran for "Atonement"
· Marit Allen for "La Vie en Rose"
· Colleen Atwood for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Fine.

Achievement In Art Direction
WINNER: Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
· Arthur Max and Beth A. Rubino for "American Gangster"
· Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for "Atonement"
· Dennis Gassner and Anna Pinnock for "The Golden Compass"
· Jack Fisk and Jim Erickson for "There Will Be Blood"
Begrudgingly, fine. I wanted TWBB.

Best Animated Feature Film
WINNER: "Ratatouille"
· "Persepolis"
· "Surf's Up"
??

Best Animated Short Film
WINNER: "Peter & the Wolf"
· "I Met the Walrus"
· "Madame Tutli-Putli"
· "Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)"
· "My Love (Moya Lyubov)"
??

Best Live Action Short Film
WINNER: "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)"
· "At Night"
· "Il Supplente (The Substitute)"
· "Tanghi Argentini"
· "The Tonto Woman"
??

Best Documentary Feature
WINNER: "Taxi to the Dark Side"
· "No End in Sight"
· "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience"
· "Sicko"
· "War/Dance"
Not sure. I've only seen 2 of these, although Operation is next in my queue.

Best Documentary Short Subject
WINNER: "Freeheld"
· "La Corona (The Crown)"
· "Salim Baba"
· "Sari's Mother"
??

Best Foreign Language Film
WINNER: "The Counterfeiters" (Austria)
· "Beaufort" (Israel)
· "Katyn" (Poland)
· "Mongol" (Kazakhstan)
· "12" (Russia)
Everybody's mad that 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days wasn't nominated in this category. I'll have to rent both it and the Counterfeiters.

Achievement In Visual Effects
WINNER: Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood for "The Golden Compass"
· John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
· Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier for "Transformers"
??

Achievement In Makeup
WINNER: Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald for "La Vie en Rose"
· Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji for "Norbit"
· Ve Neill and Martin Samuel for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
Agreed.

Achievement In Sound Editing
WINNER: Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg for "The Bourne Ultimatum"
· Skip Lievsay for "No Country for Old Men"
· Randy Thom and Michael Silvers for "Ratatouille"
· Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood for "There Will Be Blood"
· Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins for "Transformers"
??

Achievement In Sound Mixing
WINNER: Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for "The Bourne Ultimatum"
· Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland for "No Country for Old Men"
· Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kanefor "Ratatouille"
· Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe for "3:10 to Yuma"
· Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin for "Transformers"
??