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[elmono311]

Strike or no strike, the show must go on. As usual, the nominations follow with who I think will win in bold and, if applicable, who I would like to win in italics

UPDATE: Winners are underlined

Best Picture - once again no big blockbuster movies here
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Actor - very surprised by the Depp and Mortensen nominations
George Clooney for Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises

Best Actress - this one is a total unknown. Elizabeth was not very well received so that could hurt Blanchett's chances. As for the others, who knows? The Academy has a hard-on for foreigners winning so I'll go with the Frenchie. Also noticed Keira Knightly wasn't nominated.
Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie for Away from Her
Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney for The Savages
Ellen Page for Juno

Best Supporting Actor - wow, Casey Affleck is now an Oscar nominee. I've always liked him.
Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress - Jeebus, another Blanchett nomination... and for a role in which she plays "Bob Dylan"...
Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
Ruby Dee for American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton

Best Director - The Coen Brothers make excellent movies
Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
Ethan and Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman for Juno
Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Original Screenplay - Neato, an animated movie made this category
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Best Adapted Screenplay
Atonement
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
No Country for Old Men
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There Will Be Blood

Best Editing - I don't like the Bourne Ultimatum's style of editing but that's what makes it different from the rest of the nominees.
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Art Direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

Best Costume Design - The Academy has hard ons for Elizabethan costumes
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd

Best Makeup
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Best Original Score
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

Best Original Song - Nice to see the Disney domination in this category again. Surprised the Eddie Vedder song wasn't nominated.
"Raise It Up" from August Rush
"Happy Working Song" from Enchanted
"So Close" from Enchanted
"That's How You Know" from Enchanted
"Falling Slowly" from Once

Best Sound
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Best Sound Editing - What's the difference between best sound and best sound editing? I usually see editing as geared towards the more cerebral movies so that's how I'll base my pick
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best Visual Effects - Nothing can touch Transformers in this one...
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Best Animated Film - This is such a no brainer...
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Best Foreign Language Film - No idea on this one, I'm going to pick the Kazakh movie because of Borat.
Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiter) from Austria
Beaufort from Israel
Mongol from Kazakhstan
Katyn from Poland
12 from Russia

Best Feature Documentary
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War Dance

Best Short Subject Documentary - Who knows?
Freeheld
La Corona
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

Best Animated Short Film - No Pixar short was nominated so I have no idea.
Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Moya Lyubov
Peter & the Wolf

Best Live Action Short Film - Who knows?
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of the Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman (heh, The Stupid Woman)

[disnut8]

I pretty much agree with the choices although I'd like to see Gone Baby Gone get at least one acting award.  And I think Saoirse Ronan is getting some buzz too.  But then again, how many children who have been nominated for best supporting actor/actress and won has gone onto a bigger and brighter career?  How many that didn't win even went on?  Yes, some are successful but this is the best they've ever achieved award wise.  Now watch elmono come out with one person who has done better.

[elmono311]

Anna Paquin has enjoyed some success after her win, although I wouldn't call it a bigger and brighter career. Abigail Breslin was nominated but it's too soon to tell where she's going.

[elmono311]

And so the Oscars are over. It was pretty predictable, considering me getting 14 out of the 24 categories correct (I believe it's a personal best... outside of when Lord of the Rings won all 11 awards it was nominated for so I'm assuming I had more than 14 that year). I even managed to get all the major awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, and Adapted Screenplay) correct, except Supporting Actress. Tilda Swinton winning totally surprised me and I didn't see that one coming.

I am incredibly pissed Transformers didn't win for Best Visual Effects. Seriously, how can you top that?

Funny thing... Chandra and I were keeping a running total between our guesses. She got 4 right and 3 of those were ones I had also gotten correct, too. The only one she got that I didn't was for Original Score. She was so mad at me

She was also complaining about what the heck the difference is between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. I believe Sound Editing is how the sound is used in the film and Sound Mixing is the actual creation of the sounds. And I wonder how Bourne Ultimatum won Sound Mixing under that criteria when it uses real world sounds while Transformers had FRIGGIN GIGANTIC ROBOTS TRANSFORMING AND FIGHTING AND DIDN'T WIN VISUAL EFFECTS!!!

[disnut8]

I watched the Oscars by myself this year and it was quite pleasant.  Rich would have watched but he was upstairs hopin the California race was going to go on.  Since I was by myself, I had my ballot and made notes as the night went  on.  Everytime Transformers was nominated and didn't win, I wrote "Chris pissed".  Guess I know my son, huh?

I rather enjoyed the show even though it was predicable except for a few things.  I think they should have just done the Best Actor first thing since everyone on the planet knew who was going to win.  The upset for Best Original Song was actually nice even though I'm a Disney fan.  I have no idea what "Once" is all about but you couldn't help liking those two that got the Oscar.  And I just loved it when Jon Stewart brought back the woman so she could say her acceptance speech.  I think that was an honest mistake as she stood off to the side and really didn't appear to want to say anything so the music started too soon.

Inquiring minds do want to know what Diablo Cote did before she wrote "Juno".  And did she have to wear a sleeveless dress with that huge honking tattoo?  And did they ever get that slippery spot fixed by the podium or did they just warn the presenters to watch out for it?

I didn't think I would like Jon Stewart as a host but he did a pretty good job.  He wasn't over the top like some hosts can be and he kept things going along fairly smoothly.

The Oscars this year have been widely panned for being boring and predictable.  I still think the show was pretty good.  Especially since I watched it alone!

[elmono311]

I believe it was mentioned Diablo Cody was an exotic dancer.

And the more I listened to Falling Slowly from Once the more I liked it so I changed my pick before the winners were announced. Chandra was made with that, too, since I changed it to the winning song

EDIT: According to the IMDb, she started out as an employee for an ad agency. She was promoted and she began hating the job. She quit and began stripping full time. After going through a string of strip clubs, she became a phone sex operator before going back to stripping. But shortly after she quit stripping and married her longtime boyfriend (he was her boyfriend way before the ad agency thing and was apparently okay with her stripping, which started out as a hobby while she worked at the ad agency).

With this history, I am truly amazed the Academy gave her the Oscar considering how conservative they usually are.

[disnut8]

I guess the Academy is letting their hair down.  They have to.  I took notice one winner thanked his partner and referred to the partner as "he" and said "I love you".  Definitely not the buddy-type "I love you".

We've had black winners, gay winners, and now ex-stripper winners.