Oscar Thoughts

Well, that's it, another year over and done. I managed to correctly predict 13 of the 21 categories I ventured guesses for and even though that means there were 8 categories I got wrong, only one of those wins truly surprised me and that was Meryl Streep's. To be honest, I actually gasped when Colin Firth read her name because it seemed like Viola Davis had it in the bag (and, also, it makes me kind of sad that Meryl won her 3rd Oscar for a performance in such a complete mess of a movie).

Anyway, a few stray thoughts on tonight's big show:

* I can't believe that in 2012 and in a year when The Help, a movie designed to make white people feel good about race relations, is one of the major nominees, a performer would appear in black face (and in the first minute, at that). But maybe we can chalk that up to the "old Hollywood throwback" theme they were going for.

* Next year maybe they should hire this year's sound winners to work on the ceremony. The sound quality was so bad the ceremony sounded like a youtube video filmed in someone's garage.

* Dean Pelton has an Oscar! Now let's all watch Community when it comes back.

* Favourite speech is a toss up between Christopher Plummer and Asghar Farhadi.

* Favourite presenter: Colin Firth. "Mama Mia. We were in Greece. We danced. I was gay and we were happy."

* The "In Memoriam" segment almost always gets justly criticized but this year they managed to get it right, letting the tribute montage play from beginning to end without cutting to the singer every couple of seconds, and muting the in-house audience so that we don't have the "applause-o-meter" effect to indicate the relative popularity of each of the departed.

* If there was a point to that first montage, it was completely lost on me as it looked like a random assembly of movies, some of which won Oscars and some of which just made money. There was no time to hear the two nominated songs, but there was time to spare for that mess?

Oscar Winner Predictions

Picture: The Artist

Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Actress: Viola Davis, The Help

Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Original Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight In Paris

Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, The Descendants

Guide to Oscar: Best Picture

The big prize, the Best Picture category is the one that defines the ceremony every year. In the first year there were two Best Picture awards, one for "Best Picture, Production" and one for "Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production." In every year since there's only been one Best Picture award.

This year's nominees:

Review: Pina (2011)

* * *
Director: Wim Wenders

The special committees that determine the nominees for Oscar's foreign language and documentary categories are often rightly derided for their middle of the road, unchallenging choices. More often than not, the truly groundbreaking, truly great films are left out in the cold, inspiring handwringing and angry rants from Oscar watchers, while the actual nominees inspire little mor than a shrug. Although this year saw the snubbing of a number of critically loved documentaries, you've got to hand it to AMPAS for nominating a film as outside the box and different as Pina. Helmed by German master filmmaker Wim Wenders, this narrativeless 3D celebration of choreographer Pina Bausch is not what you'd expect from the typically staid Academy.

Guide to Oscar: Best Director

The Best Director category is one of the original Oscar categories. In the first year of the award there were two Best Director categories, one to recognize work on drama films and one to recognize work on comedies. In every year since the first, there has only been one Best Director award given out.

This year's nominees:

Review: If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman

Films as balanced as Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman's If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front are rare, particularly when they deal with such emotionally and politically charged subject matter. Although the film at first seems as if its sympathies lie with Daniel McGowan and his environmental activist group, as the film progresses the point-of-view gets a bit murkier and more complex. Ultimately this is not a film that advocates for one side or the other, but tells its story from multiple viewpoints, asking important questions and not necessarily taking sides.

Guide to Oscar: Best Actor

Like Best Actress, the Best Actor category is one of the original categories, although in the Oscar's first year the actors were rewarded for their body of work during a year, rather than for a single performance. In every year since actors have only been eligible for recognition for one film in any given year.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Actress

The Best Actress category is one of the original categories, although in the Oscar's first year the actors were rewarded for their body of work during a year, rather than for a single performance. In every year since actors have only been eligible for recognition for one film in any given year.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Supporting Actress

As with the Supporting Actor category, the Supporting Actress category was introduced in 1936. Until 1943 the Supporting Actress winners received a plaque rather than an actual Oscar statue.

This year's nominees:

Review: Terri (2011)

* * *
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Starring: Jacob Wysocki, John C. Reilly

Azazel Jacobs' Terri is in many ways a quintessential indie movie. It's a little bit weird, more slowly paced than a studio film, and can't be easily classified as either drama or comedy, possessing a delicate mixture of both. This template isn't always successful, of course, but in the hands of a filmmaker who knows what he or she is doing, it can be. Terri is a successful film, one which demonstrates craft on the part of Jacobs and screenwriter Patrick DeWitt.

Friday's Top 5... Worst Post-Oscar Careers (Director Edition)

#5: Robert Zemeckis

Won for: Forrest Gump. Prior to winning the Oscar, Robert Zemeckis brought to life such films as Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the Back to the Future trilogy. Since winning the Oscar, he's released What Lies Beneath and a series of films that, if they don't cross over it completely, skirt the edge of dipping into the uncanny valley: The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol.

Guide to Oscar: Best Supporting Actor

The Supporting Actor category was introduced in 1936. Until 1943 the Supporting Actor winners received a plaque rather than an actual Oscar statue.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Original Screenplay

The Best Original Screenplay is one of the original Oscar categories and honors, well, original screenplays.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Adapted Screenplay

The Best Adapted Screenplay category is one of the original Oscar categories and honors screenplays adapted from another source. Screenplays are considered "adapted" both when directly inspired from, for example, a novel or a television series, and when the story is a sequel to another film, in which case the characters are considered to have been adapted for the purpose of the new film.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Film Editing

The Best Film Editing category was first introduced in 1934 and has been given out every year since. Of all the Oscar categories aside from, obviously, Best Picture, the Best Editing category gives the best indication of a film's chances of winning Best Picture. You have to go all the way to 1980 to find a year in which the eventual winner of Best Picture wasn't at least nominated for Best Editing.

This year's nominees:

Review: The Kid (1921)

* * * 1/2
Director: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan

Aside from being one of Charlie Chaplin's most enduring films, The Kid also has the distinction of being his first feature length film. It also has a rather storried production history in that it almost ended up being a casualty of Chaplin's divorce from his first wife, Mildred Harris. In order to keep it from being claimed as part of his assets, the unfinished film was smuggled to Utah, where Chaplin edited the footage in a hotel room. The result is a delightful comedy with just a little bit of pathos mixed in (the formula for all of Chaplin's greatest films) - or, as its opening title card proclaims, "A picture with a smile - and perhaps, a tear - and one of the treasures of Hollywood's nascent years.

Guide to Oscar: Best Cinematography

The Best Cinematography category is one of the original Oscar categories, though in that first year the nominated cinematographers were nominated for their body of work during the course of the year, rather than one film specifically. From 1939 until 1967 (with an exception in 1957), the award was split into two categories to recognize work in color and black and white films separately.

This year's nominees:

Friday's Top 5... Worst Post-Oscar Careers (Actor Edition)

#5: Halle Berry

Admittedly, Halle Berry's career has always been a little hit and miss - her pre-Oscar resume runs the gamut from Jungle Fever to The Flintstones - but her post-Oscar career is a mess of films such as Gothika, Catwoman, X-Men: The Last Stand, Perfect Stranger, Frankie and Alice and New Year's Eve.

Guide to Oscar: Best Art Direction

Best Art Direction is one of the original Oscar categories. Between 1940 and 1957, and then again between 1959 until 1967, the category was split in two in order to recognize color films and black and white films separately.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Costume Design

The Best Costume Design category has been part of the Academy Awards since 1948. From 1948 until 1966 the category was split into two, separating work in black and white films and color films (except for 1957 and 1958, when the categories were merged into one). From 1966 onwards, there has been just one Best Costume Design category.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Makeup

The Best Makeup category was introduced in 1981 in response to outcry from the previous year when the makeup effects in The Elephant Man went unhonored (prior to 1981 the award had been given twice as a "Special Achievement Award"). Since 1981 the award has been given out every year, though the number of nominees in any given year has varied between 2 and 4

This year's nominees:

Review: The Guard (2011)

* * *
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle

The small town comedy, the fish out of water story, the anti-hero who subverts expectations, the buddy cop/opposites forced to work together action/comedy - each one is familiar to anyone with even passing interest in cinema, but when those elements are used well, that familiarity acts as a comforting narrative cushion, rather than a hinderance. The Guard makes use of a number of well-worn tropes but rather than resting on the laurels of past successes, it brings something of its own to the table. Headlined by a great performance by Brendan Gleeson, The Guard is a minor gem.

Guide to Oscar: Best Visual Effects

The award for Best Visual Effects honors the most outstanding special effects team of any given year. The award was given for the first time at the first ceremony in 1928 and then wasn't awarded again until 1938. The number of nominees can vary from year to year, depending on the number of films eligible to be nominated.

This year's nominees:

Guide to Oscar: Best Sound Mixing

The award for Best Sound Mixing has been given out since the 3rd Academy Awards and honour the technicians who create the balance of sounds in a film, creating a sonic picture.

This year's nominees:

Friday's Top 5... My Favourite Best Picture Winners

#5: On The Waterfront

One of the few Best Picture winners that no one seems to argue with. The politics behind it remain a bit fraught, but the product itself is wonderful. Showcasing Oscar winning performances by Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint, On The Waterfront is a film that everyone should see at least once.

Guide to Oscar: Best Sound Editing

The award for Best Sound Editing honors the technicians who create a film's sonic world by balancing dialogue, effects, and music and making them work together in harmony. The category was first introduced in 1964, though in years when there isn't a sufficient number of films that qualify to be nominated, a Special Achievement Award is given in lieu of the Oscar.

This year's nominees:

Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth

It begins, or perhaps it can better be described as ending, with the assertion that "we have a rotten apple." To suggest that there's just one, though, is an understatement. In the world of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the good guys are the exception, not the rule, and the world itself is a dark place defined by paranoia and brutality. Based on the novel of the same name by John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a cerebral spy saga that is totally engrossing from beginning to end.

Guide to Oscar: Best Original Score

The Best Original Score category was introduced in 1934. The category has taken various shapes since then, at one point allowing for as many as 17 nominees (as in 1940), and at various points splitting the category into two. From 1942 until 1961, the category was split into "Dramatic or Comedy Picture" and "Musical Picture;" from 1962 until 1969 and then off and on through the early 80s, it was split into "Original" and "Adaptation or treatment;" and from 1995 until 1998 it was split into "Dramatic Score" and "Musical or Comedy Score." Since 1998 all scores have been considered together in one category with five nominees.

This year's nominees: