Month: February 2009

  • BEST EDITING

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Frost/Nixon
    • Milk
    • Slumdog Millionaire

     

    Erin’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

    My Mom’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

     

    Of course, the category I may claim some expertise in has no nominees that I’ve seen, just like last year. And the year before. And the year before that as well. So I’m forced to just be arbitrary. Again.

     

    BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Conscience of Nhem En
    • The Final Inch
    • Smile Pinki
    • The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Final Inch

    My Mom’s Pick: The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Freeheld

     

    Once again, I was actually responsible and looked up the synopsis of each documentary, which I will list for you here. The Conscience of Nhem En is the story of a Cambodian man who, when he was 16, was a prison photographer during the Khmer Rouge. The Final Inch is about the global effort to eradicate polio. Smile Pinki is about a girl living in rural India who is ostracized by her village because she has a cleft lip. The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306 is about the assassination of Martin Luther King (specifically, as told by the aforementioned witness).

  • BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • Defiance
    • Milk
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E

     

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E

    My Mom’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Atonement

     

    WALL-E is the only one of these movies that we’ve seen, so there you go. Once again, very few of the “usual suspects” in Original Score have been nominated (No John Williams, James Horner, etc).

     

    BEST MAKEUP

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Hellboy II: The Golden Army

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    My Mom’s Pick: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: La Vie en Rose

     

    The Academy seems to fall into a pattern with the Makeup category, usually nominating a fantasy/sci-fi flick, a period piece, and a movie where someone gets aged throughout the course of the story. Benjamin Button is both a period piece AND an age-makeup flick, so they killed two birds with one stone in that one. Hence, we got ourselves two superhero (read: fantasy/sci-fi) movies.

  • BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • La Maison en Petits Cubes
    • Lavatory-Lovestory
    • Oktapodi
    • Presto
    • This Way Up

     

    Erin’s Pick: Presto

    My Mom’s Pick: This Way Up

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Peter and the Wolf

     

    Yeah, we’re being arbitrary again. I found all the synopses for these films, but I’ve forgotten most of them. Presto is the Pixar short that was shown before WALL-E and is also on the DVD. It’s about a magician’s hungry rabbit who wants to eat a carrot and is pissed off that the magician won’t give it to him, so he sabotages his show. I didn’t particularly care for it, but it’s the only one of these that I’ve seen. This Way Up is about the troubles that occur when two undertakers are trying to transport a casket.

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SONG

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • “Down to Earth” from WALL-E
    • “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire
    • “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire

     

    Erin’s Pick: “Jai Ho”

    My Mom’s Pick: “Down to Earth”

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: “Falling Slowly” from Once

     

    Not much variety this year, with only three nominees. As much as I liked WALL-E, I didn’t really care for its song, so I went on YouTube to listen to the two Slumdog Millionaire songs (by the way, that is a movie that I have interest in seeing, hopefully before Oscar Night). “Jai Ho” was the one I liked better. And yes, apparently it WAS written by a fairly accomplished Bollywood composer (though neither of these songs make me picture people running around trees).

  • BEST SOUND MIXING

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E
    • Wanted

     

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E

    My Mom’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

     

    I believe Sound Mixing refers to how all the audio tracks (dialogue, sound effects, music, etc.) are put together as a whole. This isn’t as favorable towards “special effects” movies as Sound Editing is, but they still do pretty well here, as do musicals/movies based on musicians. However, this year, like last year, there’s only one difference between these nominees and the Best Sound Editing nominees. Once again, WALL-E is the only one that I’ve seen, and my mom picked Slumdog Millionaire cuz she wants to see it.

     

    BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
    • Manon on the Asphalt
    • New Boy
    • The Pig
    • Spielzeugland (Toyland)

     

    Erin’s Pick: New Boy

    My Mom’s Pick: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Mozart of Pickpockets

     

    As I’ve said the past six years, none of us frequent short films, so we’re just being arbitrary, usually picking the one with the most interesting title. I did look of the synopsis of all of these films, but I’ve forgotten most of them. I do remember that New Boy is about an African boy going to school in Ireland and that Toyland is about a little boy in Nazi Germany who believes his Jewish neighbors have gone to Toyland (that sounds a little depressing).

  • It's That Time of Year Again...

    Time for… 

    OSCAR PICKS!!!!

    I’ve done this on Xanga for six years, and I thought it was fun so I’ll do it again this year. Joining me this year is my mom again (yeah, I’ve fallen a bit, but the vast majority of my friends are either overseas, inconsistent when it comes to e-mailing, or “not movie people”). Considering the time crunch I’m in, I’ll post the nominees for two categories per day as well as my pick and my mom’s pick. Keep in mind that our “picks” are who we would LIKE to win, not necessarily who we think WILL win, although it’s cool when the two coincide. Feel free to join in on the fun and let me know your pick as well. Like last year, I’ll start with the tech categories and work my way up to the “big” categories, although this year is kind of a low for me, as I have only seen one nominated movie, which is WALL-E. Hell, my mom outranks me, having seen three of the nominated movies (WALL-E, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man). But without further ado, here we go…
     

    BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Iron Man

    Erin’s Pick: Iron Man
    My Mom’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Golden Compass

    It’s kind of a sad day when I haven’t seen ANY of the Visual Effects nominees, considering they’re normally the type of movies I enjoy. By contrast, my mom has seen two of them, and wants to see the third, which is the one she picked. Her assessment of The Dark Knight was that it was “too dark.” She did think I would like Iron Man, which is apparently more upbeat. A couple of people at work have also recommended Iron Man to me as something they think I’d like, so I picked it here.
     

    BEST SOUND EDITING
     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Dark Knight
    • Iron Man
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E
    • Wanted

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E
    My Mom’s Pick: The Dark Knight

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

    I will try to explain the two sound awards as best I can understand it. This category deals with the sound effects and other stuff that is put into the audio track in post-production. I picked WALL-E cuz it’s the only one of these five that I’ve seen.

  • Short update today. I will start Oscar Picks soon, I promise. I’m in the midst of a 3-exam week so time’s been kinda tight (not to mention I’ve worked every day except Monday). I’ll probably start either this weekend or Monday between class and lab. I did watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. That makes two exciting Super Bowls in a row, which has to be some kind of record, although the fourth quarter was nerve-wracking to watch cuz I was rooting for the Steelers. And as bad as I am with understanding the intricacies of baseball, I’m about a million times worse when it comes to football, but even I could recognize some outstanding plays. As far as the halftime show went, it wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it was better than Tom Petty. Meanwhile the commercials were kinda meh. I mean, the Clydesdale commercials were cute, but there were no real big standouts. Then again, there weren’t that many obnoxious beer commercials or really stupid ads, so maybe that’s a good thing.