So I thought I would take the day to think back on the ceremony and give my thoughts on how it went both in terms of awards and the telecast itself as well as hand out some superlatives. An awards show is always one of the trickiest things to produce, in my opinion, not that [...]

Here are the winners! See how my predictions stacked up and some of my thoughts on the outcomes. Overall, I felt the show was decent. I wasn’t awed by anything producer Adam Shankman did. I felt the duo of Martin and Baldwin was classy with their sarcastic humor. It was good because it didn’t try [...]

Here is my official list of predictions for Sunday’s ceremony. I’ve included links to every individual category post (some categories are lumped together, so keep notice of that) if you want to read a bit more about why I chose the films/people I did. I also link to my reviews of all the Best Picture [...]

This year we have what has been and will surely be one of the most storied competitions for the coveted Best Picture award at the Oscars: the first time in decades since there were 10 Best Picture nominees, plus there is the showdown between the highest-grossing motion picture ever made versus what would be the [...]

A lot of the times when it comes to someone winning Best Actor or Actress, it comes down to whether they “deserve it” or whether it’s “time they get their due.” It’s not necessarily an unfair way of doing things, as I too like when a veteran whose performances I have enjoyed countless times finally [...]

Oscar veterans vs. newbies. That always seems to be the feel of the Academy Awards every year in the Best Leading Actress category, especially when you have 12-time nominee Meryl Streep as a perennial contender. Last year, Streep was nominated for Doubt while Anne Hathaway earned her first nomination as did Melissa Leo and Angelina Jolie [...]

Here comes the good stuff. Director is the only glorified job in film behind the camera. Sure, everyone knows a few good famous score composers or a few writers here and there when someone like Diablo Cody gets an Oscar, but director counts. And rightfully so, as much as I like to pull for the [...]

Although the leading performances get all the glamor and attention, supporting actors and actresses are the best. They go to those characters that steal scenes, people playing incredibly convincing character roles or even impersonations. Sometimes they’re so good like in a year such as this one that there’s one clear favorite.

We often forget that the Oscars are primarily a celebration of American cinema and American opinions about other country’s cinema. Thus, we have the “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” category. With 10 Best Picture nominees, we might not be long for a debate about whether Foreign films should count. For example, you can’t [...]

What a year for animation. I mentioned it back when I did my 2009 Year in Review but I can’t state it enough. With the advances in CGI and some of the brightest minds in filmmaking (namely the folks at Pixar and one could argue James Cameron), the animated storytelling medium is rivaling its live [...]

A lot of people who love movies leave out one genre in particular: documentaries. I always try to include the most compelling documentaries of each year into my steady diet of movie-watching. I usually end up watching about two every three months or so. As a journalist and cinephile, I’m obligated to like documentaries. I [...]

Short films are on the rise. There have always been short films and most feature filmmakers got their start by making short films since they’re easy on the pockets if you’re an amateur, but in our YouTube video society, there’s an interest in short films. You can find virtually anyone’s short film on the Internet [...]

When a film does well, it’s usually the director that gets all the credit. There are many cases where the director and writer are one in the same, but the director is the position of prestige. In a director-centric movie world, few people walk out of the theater and say “wow, that was a killer [...]

There’s probably some great quote about music in film, but I’m too lazy to Google it. Simply put, even the silent movie era films were accompanied by music. That tells you how essential a score is to a film. Silence is bad and awkward in a film. That’s why every movie has a score, soundtrack [...]

There are numerous elements in movies that simply go under-appreciated. I talked last week about costumes, makeup and art direction, which all contribute to creating the believable world of a film. But there are even more subtle elements in a film that if the person behind them wasn’t doing his or her job, you would [...]