One (at least to me it was a surprise) was how well Hugh Jackman played his role as host. I've enjoyed the comedy route the Academy has taken in the past, especially the one hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, but it seems from tonight's outcome, the Academy's new direction of picking entertainers from the film industry as host wins my award for best move. Funny, clever, entertaining, a voice pleasing to the ears, funny, Jackman filled the gaps of an already exciting night. I can now also acknowledge that at least one Australian can sing well.
"Slumdog Millionaire" swept the night with an astounding eight wins out of its 10 nominations (remember what I said about films rarely winning more than five Oscars?). The hotly contested awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress were awarded to actors with some slight surprises. Sean Penn won his second Academy Award, only six years after winning for his performance in "Mystic River," beating out favorite Mickey Rourke who received the award at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards. Penn, though, had won at the SAG Awards. His acceptance speech, rife with political messages against supporters of Proposition 8, and the white ribbons worn during the night by the cast and crew of "Milk" advocating gay rights got my nod.
Best Actress was given to Kate Winslet, who was up against the brilliant old-timer Meryl Streep. Penélope Cruz, after her unsuccessful run for Best Actress in 2007 for "Volver," won Best Supporting Actress. Although Cruz was a favorite, Viola Davis' performance in "Doubt" gained a loyal following from many prominent critics.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" won only three of the 13 awards it was nominated for, showing that 13 is an unlucky number. All three awards (Best Makeup, Art Direction, and Visual Effects) lauded the film's advanced technical work. Perhaps the only biggest surprise was the award for Best Foreign Film (which isn't a very climatic award to begin with), which was given to the Japanese film "Departures" instead of Israeli favorite "Waltz with Bashir."
And so, on a personal note, I managed to predict 17 of the 25 wins correctly in this year's exciting Oscars. Below are the results from the night. If I had just bet some money on this, I might have actually gone out of this a bit richer. 2008 was the year for movies. You know, because when a recession hits, people flock to the theaters.
In this list, movies or people in bold won an Academy Award. Those in italics were my picks. Thus, anything that is both bolded and italicized was one I guessed correctly.
Best Picture
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Frost/Nixon
- Milk
- The Reader
- Slumdog Millionaire
Expected.
Best Director
- Gus van Sant (Milk)
- Stephen Daldry (The Reader)
- David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
- Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)
- Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Expected.
Best Actor
- Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
- Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
- Sean Penn (Milk)
- Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
- Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
The award was hotly contested by both actors. Both were fantastic in their roles, and I am happy to see Sean Penn win the award for his performance of a gay rights activist.
Best Actress
- Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
- Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
- Melissa Leo (Frozen River)
- Meryl Streep (Doubt)
- Kate Winslet (The Reader)
During the weeks leading to the awards, I was stuck between Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet. It was hard choosing between two brilliant performances, but after reading different reviews and watching the films again, I decided on Winslet.
Best Supporting Actor
- Josh Brolin (Milk)
- Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
- Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)
- Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
- Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
Expected.
Best Supporting Actress
- Amy Adams (Doubt)
- Penélope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona)
- Viola Davis (Doubt)
- Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
- Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
I had also changed my mind a few days before the awards, deciding to throw myself behind Viola Davis in "Doubt," but I had discounted Penélope Cruz's highly acclaimed performance in a low-profile film.
Original Screenplay
- Frozen River (Written by Courtney Hunt)
- Happy-Go-Lucky (Written by Mike Leigh)
- In Bruges (Written by Martin McDonagh)
- Milk (Written by Dustin Lance Black)
- WALL-E (Screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon)
Many groups strongly believed "WALL-E" would be given this award. They were wrong.
Adapted Screenplay
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Screenplay by Eric Roth)
- Doubt (Written by John Patrick Shanley)
- Frost/Nixon (Screenplay by Peter Morgan)
- The Reader (Screenplay by David Hare)
- Slumdog Millionaire (Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy)
The screenplay award is generally given to the Best Picture, and this year's awards did not break from tradition. However, I had decided to go with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" because of the way F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story was transformed into a full film. Perhaps the writer had strayed too far from the original intentions of the story.
Animated Feature Film
- Bolt
- Kung Fu Panda
- WALL-E
Expected.
Foreign Language Film
- The Baader Meinhof Complex (Israel)
- The Class (France)
- Departures (Japan)
- Revanche (Austria)
- Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
This came as a surprise to me, especially since "Waltz with Bashir" performed so well in international awards and among critics. They like to do that a lot.
Art Direction
- Changeling
- The Dark Knight
- The Duchess
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Revolutionary Road
Expected.
Cinematography
- Changeling
- Slumdog Millionaire
- The Reader
- The Dark Knight
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ben Stiller joked the film could have been filmed with a cell phone camera with its extremely intimate scenes of the Mumbai slums.
Costume Design
- Australia
- The Duchess
- Milk
- Revolutionary Road
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Expected.
Documentary Feature
- Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)
- Encounters at the End of the World
- The Garden
- Man on Wire
- Trouble the Water
Expected.
Documentary Short
- The Conscience of Nhem En
- The Final Inch
- Smile Pinki
- The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306
In these troubling times, we may need a whimsical and optimistic film like "Smile Pinki," but I liked "The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306" for its relevance.
Film Editing
- The Dark Knight
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Frost/Nixon
- Milk
- Slumdog Millionaire
Closely related to whatever wins Best Picture.
Makeup
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- The Dark Knight
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Expected.
Visual Effects
- The Dark Knight
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Iron Man
The film's realistic technical effects were its highlight and its no surprise the film was given the award.
Original Score
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Alexandre Desplat)
- Defiance (James Newton Howard)
- Milk (Danny Elfman)
- Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman)
- WALL-E (Thomas Newman)
Expected.
Original Song
- Down to Earth (Wall-E) Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyrics by Peter Gabriel
- Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire) Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyrics by Gulzar
- O Saya (Slumdog Millionaire) Music and Lyrics by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Expected.
Animated Short
- Lavatory - Love Story
- Oktapodi
- La Maison en Petits Cubes
- Presto
- This Way Up
I did not see this one coming. I have had a bad rap with predicting shorts.
Live-Action Short
- Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
- Manon on the Asphalt
- New Boy
- The Pig
- Spielzeugland (Toyland)
This was a favorite by many critics, but many critics didn't reveal their predictions until days before the awards ceremony.
Sound Editing
- The Dark Knight
- Iron Man
- Slumdog Millionaire
- WALL-E
- Wanted
I was disappointed with this pick. I like action films and acknowledge the work that goes into their complex sounds, but I really felt the sound effects that guided the entire movie of "WALL-E" deserved merit.
Sound Mixing
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Dark Knight
- Slumdog Millionaire
- WALL-E
- Wanted
Expected.
Their Verdict
Slumdog Millionaire (8 wins)
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Bejamin Button (3 wins)
Best Art Direction
Best Makeup
Best Visual Effects
Milk (2 wins)
Best Actor
Best Original Screenplay
The Dark Knight (2 wins)
Best Supporting Actor
Best Sound Editing
WALL-E (1 win)
Best Animated Feature
The Reader (1 win)
Best Actress
Departures (1 win)
Best Foreign Language Film
The Duchess (1 win)
Best Costume Design
Man on Wire (1 win)
Best Documentary Feature
Smile Pinki (1 win)
Best Documentary Short
La Maison de Petits Cubes (1 win)
Best Animated Short
Spielzeugland (Toyland) (1 win)
Best Live-Action Short
My Verdict
Slumdog Millionaire (7 wins)
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Bejamin Button (5 wins)
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Art Direction
Best Makeup
Best Visual Effects
WALL-E (2 wins)
Best Animated Feature
Best Sound Editing
The Wrestler (1 win)
Best Actor
The Reader (1 win)
Best Actress
The Dark Knight (1 win)
Best Supporting Actor
Milk (1 win)
Best Original Screenplay
Waltz with Bashir (1 win)
Best Foreign Language Film
The Duchess (1 win)
Best Costume Design
Man on Wire (1 win)
Best Documentary Feature
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306 (1 win)
Best Documentary Short
Presto (1 win)
Best Animated Short
New Boy (1 win)
Best Live-Action Short
"Slumdog Millionaire" did extremely well, even better than I thought it would. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" fared well as I had expected, gaining awards for its technical work. Here's looking to another year of great film. Can't wait to see "The Soloist" in April. Not looking forward to "Hannah Montana: The Movie," coming out that same month.
Ah, you were close enough.