required oscar post - '09

as with last year, i'm not going to give a recap of the oscars, because many others do it much better than i could. might i direct you to mimi coco's liveblog or the sum up from this new blog i read (shout out, kristen!), redacted. if i had a laptop, this post would probably be different, but alas i do not. i will say how much i truly loved the part in hugh jackman's opening number that highlighted The Reader. I was guffawing. i thought all in all it was a pretty entertaining show. though i hated how i couldn't see the dead people during the in memoriam. mimi coco said it best when she described it as the Bourne Ultimatum of death montages.

anywho, what's really important here is to talk about what good guessers we are! i got fifteen right out of the 24, besting my total from last year. i was on such a roll in the beginning, but then i foolishly gave some stuff to benji butto that i obvs should've given to slumdog.

again, i was three for four on the acting noms, incorrectingly giving mickey rourke the best actor prize. i was pleased with myself for getting penny cruz right though. i must say, i used to think she was nothing special in the acting department as well as the looks department, but she's definitely grown on me with both. she's a completely different actor in her native language. and switching between english and spanish = hot. i was correct again this year with the director and picture prizes, but let's get to what i'm really proud of-- choosing the winners in Live Action Short (based on title), Sound Editing (Dark Knight!), editing (the deductive reasoning always works), documentary short AND feature, and costume design (always go for the elaborate royal dresses). the other ones i guessed correctly were pretty obvious - adapted and original screenplay, animated feature, and visual effects. i think what's most impressive here, if you'll allow me to continue patting myself on the back this year, is that the only movies i've seen out of all the nominees were Benjamin Button, Dark Knight, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Wall-E, Iron Man, and Hellboy II (which I TOTALLY thought would take it for makeup. benji butts for visual effects, yes, but not for makeup.) And Benjamin Button was the only one that really counted of those. Wall-E and the Dark Knight both had a good amount of nominations (6 and 8, respectively), but they were in like, sound mixing and original song.

anyway, that's enough bragging. the big winner was obviously slumdog millionaire, winning 8 of their 10 nominations. next closest was benji with three, and milk and dark knight (!) tied for 3rd with 2 each. how did you guys fare in your oscar pools? what were your favorite parts of the show? i personally got really excited to see marion cotillard there. have any of you watched "Love Me if You Dare"? i also, like my dear friend kate reilly (holla!), was confused at zac efron's constant presence.