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 I can speak from experience. There’s very little about it that’s “good television.” Everyone tunes in out of habit each year or because there’s at least one to a handful of pieces that each person is invested in.

I’m an anomaly when it comes to the Oscars as are all film buffs. I understand what all the categories are about and I have thoughts and feelings about nearly every one of them, but that’s a slim percentage of the millions of viewers tuning in. They want to see who wins, they want it to be a good story and they want the person winning to validate their own opinions and more importantly to deserve the award.

Well, you’re getting my take on the Oscars, so expect something a little less traditional.

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The Awards

To start with, I’m pleased with how things turned out. Do I feel like an achievement such as Avatar deserves to walk away more than just three awards? Sure. It wasn’t, however, the best film of the year and while I’m not so quick to endorse The Hurt Locker either, it certainly was as deserving. True, you couldn’t pick two films further apart from each other conceptually and in terms of how they were made. I mean, one earned the most of any film ever and the other just became the lowest-grossing Oscar winner. I think looking at both overall films, you marvel at them for different reasons and “Locker” had more Oscar-worthy reasons.

The Academy Awards is not a ceremony to honor films that make the most worldwide or break the most ground. Their goal is to reward the best film and “Locker” was simply better. Avatar was great because it was one of the greatest spectacles to ever be released and under groundbreaking circumstances. “Locker” was the more innovative in terms of story and themes. Avatar recycled them and tricked them out in a way that blew our minds. Both great achievements, but different achievements.

Moving on, I was most disappointed by Up in the Air not receiving a single award. That goes hand in hand with the biggest surprise. Geoffrey Fletcher’s win for Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire I did not feel was as worthy. It’s a great story being the first black man to win in that category, but as far as his work — as great of an adaptation as “Precious” was — just isn’t as evident in the film as Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s ability to turn Walter Kirn’s novel into something that resonated so well with its audience. Considering I felt it was the best film of the year, it saddens me that it came away empty-handed.

Everything else was by the book and I can’t say I complain. I think I can say all the acting winners were deserving, even Sandra Bullock. I am definitely at peace with her win. When someone defies your expectations (like Mo’Nique even) with a performance that simply impresses you, that you didn’t believe the actor had inside him or her, I think that’s Oscar caliber. As long as history maintains a healthy balance between rewarding those like Meryl Streep or Jeff Bridges who do consistently great work and giving them their due and honoring those rare great performances from actors who might not appear ever again on the Kodak stage in an expensive piece of clothing, I’m cool with it.

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The Hosts

I enjoyed Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s co-hosting job. I think part of the problem with the hosting gig before was that one man or woman simply can’t be as funny as two, especially two older nuts like those guys. They didn’t go for the big “knock-em dead” jokes, but they bounced sarcasm off one another that gave the impression that they were just glad to be there. I think it’s important to have seasoned and respected individuals up there because they know best how to handle the Hollywood crowd. As funny as Jon Stewart was that one time, for example, that’s not his crowd and you could tell he was so uncomfortable. These guys just did their thing, made fun of themselves just as much and set a nice tone for the evening. B+

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Superlatives

Best Presenters: Tina Fey in some strange animal dress and Robert Downey Jr. with his powdery teal bow tie (as he later called it on Jimmy Kimmel Live) awarded original screenplay to Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker and made a heck of a duo. Some producer saw that and said “we need to get those two together for something one day.” In fact, looking at the blogosphere a lot of people thought that. The two joked about what writers hope from their actors (not ad-libbing) and what actors want from their writers (films set in warm weather locations). Heck, these two were good enough to host next years Oscars, although they would probably decline.

Worst Presenters: Adam Shankman desperately tried to reach a younger audience by asking Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Amanda Seyfried, Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron to present in the ceremony. A wasted effort. They all looked uncomfortable. One day, maybe we’ll see a couple of them in those seats because they earned their way into them, but not yet. Particularly Cyrus and Seyfried were nearly painful to watch.

Most Awkward Moment: I don’t think anything was more strange than when Music By Prudence won for Best Documentary Short Subject and producer Roger Ross Williams was cut-off abruptly by co-producer Elinor Burkett who stole all the speech time. In reading up on this later, apparently the two had recently gotten in and over a spat over the film and only one person could speak, so both rushed to the stage. Apparently,  Williams got up their first because his mother impeded Burkett with her cane. That’s crazy.

Most Beautiful Presenters: Stop my heart with a combination like Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaal who presented Best Adapted Screenplay.

Funniest Moment: I laughed loudest when Steve Martin went to discuss Christoph Waltz’ performance as Col. Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter,” describing him as a man who spends his time looking for Jews. “Well,” Martin said, gesturing to the crowd, “here you are.” I might be biased, but there were not that many laugh-out-loud moments in the show.

Worst Moment: I love Neal Patrick Harris, but the musical number opened a show that was completely untheatrical in nearly every way possible. Martin and Baldwin couldn’t have been less showy, the stage elements were gorgeous but kept tasteful and the focus was on the awards. Looking back it was really the only thing that didn’t work. That and the announcer saying basically that Avatar, “Blind Side” and “Locker” were the favorites to win Best Picture and that everyone else would be “a surprise.”

Best Nominee Showcase: Introduced last year, I absolutely love the idea of having an actor or someone speak about each nominee. This I think is such heartfelt and natural way to honor the five performances in each category. I think the actors appreciate them and I also think it’s the best way to celebrate the category as opposed to merely the winner. A close second would be the sound categories being introduced with a little featurette on what these people do and why it’s extraordinarily important. Right there with that, however, was the interviewing of the main characters from the animated features.

Worst Nominee Showcase: The Academy proved that the 10 Best Picture nominees was all about money and ratings when they more or less gave these films the could shoulder. I know you can’t make the ceremony that much longer, but at least do something that truly honors every film if you’re going to bother to give away that many nominations. I felt like District 9 and A Serious Man were hardly a part of the ceremony, for example. I also didn’t so much like the dance crews doing the Best Score nominees, although they were quite talented.

Camera Magnet: The cameras couldn’t help but keep showing George Clooney and how much he wanted to mess with everyone watching the ceremony. He can never just take things as is and he made enough awkward faces at jokes by presenters and the hosts about him. Goes to show what happens when you get sick and tired of hearing about how every woman in the world wants your pants.

Best Overall Acceptance Speech: I really thought Sandra Bullock’s speech was the most heartfelt and meaningful of the evening on the whole. She took the time to thank who she needed to and talk about what mattered in her life, but to her it’s about what the role means and why she’s honored she got to play it. I don’t think speeches should be overrun with thank yous as there’s always time afterward for that or to call those people, etc. so it was nice to hear her focus on what really matters: the value behind the storytelling.

Best Acceptance Speech Moment: You always have your touching moments such as one of the technical award winners (was it Star Trek?) who overcame an illness once thought to be terminal, but there were two other parts of speeches that stood out. One was definitely for multiple Oscar-winner Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria), dedicating her award to those who work on costume design for movies that don’t involve dead monarchs or glittery musicals, whose work is constantly overlooked by the Academy voters. You might say she should still be thankful or humble, but when you win awards, have given other speeches and other great designers aren’t getting recognized, you feel a bit obligated I might imagine, to give a shout-out to them. That’s like giving a shout-out to fellow nominees.

I also liked Michael Giaccino’s (Best Score for Up) bit of advice to kids out there who love doing the arts and film, encouraging them and telling them that these hobbies of theirs are not a waste of their time. That kind of speech is indicative of someone who’s truly honored by their award. You never know if one day you’ll be lucky enough to hold an Oscar, so keep exploring and who knows what will happen.

Most Random Set Element: Anyone else wonder why those lit lampshades kept descending from the ceiling? I couldn’t for the life of me figure that one out.

Best Dress: Ha. I’m not going here. I will say of all the big winners, Sandra Bullock looked the best.

Most Underrated Joke: Ben Stiller managed to not totally fail going on in full Na’vi make up despite the possibility that he in fact could’ve been seen as the worst joke of the show. I think he pulls off all his presenting duties well despite the limb he usually goes out on. You have to applaud the irony of doing an Avatar joke for the Best Make Up category considering the film was all CGI.

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 to do too much comically. I love Neil Patrick Harris too, but the musical opening was a waste considering that was the only musical element of the program.

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

• Woody Harrelson for The Messenger
• Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones
• Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
• Matt Damon for Invictus

Movie Muse Prediction: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (read post). A nice, humble speech from a much-deserved Oscar-winner.

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Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Up (Pete Docter)

• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• Coraline
• The Secret of Kells

Movie Muse Prediction: Up (read post) I watched this again last night and it just reinforces how superb of a film this was and how deserving it was to be included in the Best Picture category

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

“The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart

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• “Down in New Orleans” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Almost There” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Loin de Paname” by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas from Paris 36
• “Take it All” by Maury Yeston from Nine

Movie Muse Prediction: “The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart (read post) As expected. The ceremony didn’t exactly do these nominees justice, but whatever.

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Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker

• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man
• Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman for The Messenger
• Bob Peterson, Pete Docter for Up

Movie Muse Prediction: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker (read post). Part of me was beginning to think Quentin Tarantino would win this, but it just goes to show the respect “Locker” has.

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Best Short Film, Animated

Logorama (Nicolas Schmerkin)

• French Roast
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

Movie Muse Prediction: A Matter of Loaf and Death (read post) Hard to imagine Nick Park losing out, but he did. When Schmerkin said it took six years to make his film, however, he earned my respect, as vulgar and off as I felt the film was.

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Best Documentary, Short Subject

Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams, Elinor Burkett)

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• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
• Rabbit a la Berlin

Movie Muse Prediction: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (read post) After I made my pick, I started to hear a lot about “Prudence,” but not so much as a trailer is online. Seems like a worthy film, however.

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Best Short Film, Live Action

The New Tenants (Joachim Back, Tivi Magnusson)

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish

Movie Muse Prediction: The Door (read post) Heard this film wasn’t as good as it looked, but it had some talented actors and was the more interesting of all the premises.

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Best Achievement in Makeup

Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow)

• Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti, Vittorio Sodano)
• The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon, Jenny Shircore)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon, Jenny Shircore) (read post) I regretted this choice a few days after making it and of course I was right to think that. Star Trek was definitely worthy.

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Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air
• Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell for District 9
• Nick Hornby for An Education
• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armondo Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche for In the Loop

Movie Muse Prediction: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air (read post) Here was the biggest shock of the night. This was the one shot that Up in the Air had to win an award and it came home empty-handed despite going into award season as one of the favorites. I guess voters were most impressed with Fletcher’s adaptation, I just didn’t think it stood out.

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Mo’nique for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

• Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air
• Penelope Cruz for Nine
• Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart

Movie Muse Prediction: Mo’nique for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (read post) So much has been made of Mo’nique’s performance in the media during the season that I was glad she kept it short and sweet. A very deserving award of course.

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Best Achievement in Art Direction

Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair)

• Sherlock Holmes (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)
• The Young Victoria (Patrice Vermette, Maggie Gray)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Dave Warren, Terry Gilliam, Anastasia Masaro, Caroline Smith, Shane Vieau)
• Nine (Jon Myhre, Gordon Sim)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair) (read post) Glad that Avatar won. The imagining of this film was spectacular and credit was definitely due here.

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Best Achievement in Costume Design

The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

• Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
• Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
• Nine (Colleen Atwood)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)

Movie Muse Prediction: Nine (Colleen Atwood) (read post) One of my favorite acceptance speeches was Sandy Powell saying not enough credit goes to designers who make costumes for films that don’t involve musicals or dead monarchs. Amen.

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Best Achievement in Sound Editing

The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
• Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
• Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger, Alan Rankin)
• Up (Michael Silvers, Tom Myers)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle) (read post) I thought the sound categories would all belong to the big blue giant, so when “Locker” swept, I knew that it would be in for a big night.

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Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett)

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson)
• Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, Mark Ulano)
• Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Peter J. Devlin)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Geoffrey Patterson)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Cinematography

Avatar (Mauro Fiore)

• The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
• Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
• The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd) (read post) Avatar stole one back from “Locker” here. Gotta give credit to a man who does lighting for film taking place in a world that doesn’t exist.

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Michael Giacchino for Up

• James Horner for Avatar
• Hans Zimmer for Sherlock Holmes
• Alexandre Desplat for Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders for The Hurt Locker

Movie Muse Prediction: Michael Giacchino for Up (read post) With exception this winner, I did not like the interpretive America’s best dance crew-style for Best Score. The dancers were incredibly athletic, but with the exception of the little narrative dance for Giacchino’s piano theme that’ll melt your heart, it was meh.

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Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones)

• District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken)
• Star Trek (Robert Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones) (read post) This was the prime example of justice at the Oscars. This had to happen.

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Best Documentary, Features

The Cove (Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens)

• Food, Inc.
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Burma VJ
• Which Way Home

Movie Muse Prediction: The Cove (read post) I need to see this.

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Best Achievement in Editing

The Hurt Locker (Chris Innis, Bob Murawski)

• Avatar (John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin)
• District 9 (Julian Clarke)
• Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Joe Klotz)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker (Chris Innis, Bob Murawski) (read post) This was the one technical award I definitely felt “Locker” deserved, so I was glad to see it happen.

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Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

The Secret in their Eyes (Argentina)

• The White Ribbon (Germany)
• A Prophet (France)
• Ajami (Israel)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

Movie Muse Prediction: A Prophet (France) (read post) Entertainment Weekly said this would happen: “Secret” would snake up and take out both “Prophet” and “Ribbon.” Well done there, EW.

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

• Colin Firth for A Single Man
• George Clooney for Up in the Air
• Morgan Freeman for Invictus
• Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker

Movie Muse Prediction: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (read post). After the standing ovation Jeff got, this was clearly an award he deserved. If he’s truly that beloved in Hollywood and known as such a great guy, then kudos.

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side

• Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
• Carey Mulligan for An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Helen Mirren for The Last Station

Movie Muse Prediction: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (read post) Bullock’s heartfelt and smart speech won me over. I think she belonged up there. She gave the best performance of her life and it clearly effected people. You can’t shoot someone down for all the other films they make even if they make mostly bad ones. That said, I wouldn’t have minded Streep winning.

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Best Achievement in Directing

Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

Movie Muse Prediction: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (read post) Avatar lovers are going to take Barbara Streisand’s emphasis on first woman director winning and say that that was the only reason it won. What you have to do here is understand that Bigelow won for her execution of the craft whereas Cameron would’ve won for his imagination. Those are two totally different criteria for voting. Clearly we know which way the voting went.

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Best Motion Picture of the Year

The Hurt Locker

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• Up in the Air
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• An Education
• Up
• A Serious Man
• District 9

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker. Based on the way the ceremony went, this was inevitable. It was also deserved. When a little film does big things, it deserves recognition. Maybe Avatar will be more remembered in years to come, but it shouldn’t. “Locker” is about making the best movie you can from a small-potatoes but great idea.

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Movie Muse Prediction Total: 14/24 Correct.

Eh. At least I got the big ones.

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Awards Breakdown

• The Hurt Locker: 6 Awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Editing)
• Avatar: 3 Awards (Visual Effects, Cinematography, Art Direction)
• Up: 2 Awards (Animated Feature, Original Score)
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire: 2 Awards (Best Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay)
• Crazy Heart: 2 Awards (Best Actor, Original Song)
• Inglourious Basterds: 1 Award (Best Supporting Actor)
• The Blind Side: 1 Award (Best Actress)
• The Young Victoria: 1 Award (Costume Design)
• Star Trek: 1 Award (Make Up)

I will happily be tweeting the whole ceremony and I promise witty insights and snide comments will abound. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/Movie_Muse

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Best Motion Picture of the Year

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• The Blind Side
• Up in the Air
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• An Education
• Up
• A Serious Man
• District 9

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker (read post)

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

• Mo’nique for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air
• Penelope Cruz for Nine
• Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart

Movie Muse Prediction: Mo’nique for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (read post)

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
• Woody Harrelson for The Messenger
• Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones
• Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
• Matt Damon for Invictus

Movie Muse Prediction: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (read post)

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
• Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
• Carey Mulligan for An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Helen Mirren for The Last Station

Movie Muse Prediction: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (read post)

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
• Colin Firth for A Single Man
• George Clooney for Up in the Air
• Morgan Freeman for Invictus
• Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker

Movie Muse Prediction: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (read post)

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Best Achievement in Directing

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

Movie Muse Prediction: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (read post)

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Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
• Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man
• Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman for The Messenger
• Bob Peterson, Pete Docter for Up

Movie Muse Prediction: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker (read post)

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Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air
• Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell for District 9
• Nick Hornby for An Education
• Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armondo Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche for In the Loop

Movie Muse Prediction: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air (read post)

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Best Achievement in Cinematography

• The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
• Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
• Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
• The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Editing

• Avatar (John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin)
• District 9 (Julian Clarke)
• The Hurt Locker (Chris Innis, Bob Murawski)
• Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Joe Klotz)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Hurt Locker (Chris Innis, Bob Murawski) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Art Direction

• Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg)
• Sherlock Holmes (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)
• The Young Victoria (Patrice Vermette, Maggie Gray)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Dave Warren, Terry Gilliam, Anastasia Masaro, Caroline Smith, Shane Vieau)
• Nine (Jon Myhre, Gordon Sim)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Costume Design

• Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
• The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)
• Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
• Nine (Colleen Atwood)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)

Movie Muse Prediction: Nine (Colleen Atwood) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Makeup

• Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow)
• Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti, Vittorio Sodano)
• The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon, Jenny Shircore)

Movie Muse Prediction: The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon, Jenny Shircore) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

• Michael Giacchino for Up
• James Horner for Avatar
• Hans Zimmer for Sherlock Holmes
• Alexandre Desplat for Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders for The Hurt Locker

Movie Muse Prediction: Michael Giacchino for Up (read post)

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

• “The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart
• “Down in New Orleans” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Almost There” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Loin de Paname” by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas from Paris 36
• “Take it All” by Maury Yeston from Nine

Movie Muse Prediction: “The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart (read post)

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Best Achievement in Sound Mixing

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson)
• The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett)
• Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, Mark Ulano)
• Star Trek (anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Peter J. Devlin)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Geoffrey Patterson)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Sound Editing

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
• The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
• Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
• Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger, Alan Rankin)
• Up (Michael Silvers, Tom Myers)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle) (read post)

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Best Achievement in Visual Effects

• Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones)
• District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken)
• Star Trek (Robert Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton)

Movie Muse Prediction: Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones) (read post)

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Best Short Film, Animated

• French Roast
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
• Logorama
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

Movie Muse Prediction: A Matter of Loaf and Death (read post)

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Best Short Film, Live Action

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish
• The New Tenants

Movie Muse Prediction: The Door (read post)

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Best Documentary, Features

• Food, Inc.
• The Cove
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Burma VJ
• Which Way Home

Movie Muse Prediction: The Cove (read post)

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Best Documentary, Short Subject

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
• Music by Prudence
• Rabbit a la Berlin

Movie Muse Prediction: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (read post)

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Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

• The White Ribbon (Germany)
• A Prophet (France)
• The Secret in their Eyes (Argentina)
• Ajami (Israel)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

Movie Muse Prediction: A Prophet (France) (read post)

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Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

• Up
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• Coraline
• The Secret of Kells

Movie Muse Prediction: Up (read post)

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Predictions Breakdown

• The Hurt Locker: 5 Awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing)
• Avatar: 4 Awards (Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Art Direction)
• Up: 2 Awards (Animated Feature, Original Score)
• Crazy Heart: 2 Awards (Best Actor, Original Song)
• Up in the Air: 1 Award (Adapted Screenplay)
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire: 1 Award (Best Supporting Actress)
• Inglourious Basterds: 1 Award (Best Supporting Actor)
• The Blind Side: 1 Award (Best Actress)
• The Young Victoria: 1 Award (Make-Up)
• Nine: 1 Award (Costume Design)

I feel pretty good about this list. My only regrets are in those last two categories listed above, perhaps. If anything, I didn’t consider the popularity/overall quality of the two films. There’s a chance Star Trek wins Best Make-Up with ease and that the classic period film “Victoria” does win costumes. That last one was probably my boldest prediction.

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 lowest-grossing Best Picture winner ever.

The people’s choice would be Golden Globe winner Avatar, a ground-breaking visual epic with a timeless story. Meanwhile, critics all over the country have heaped praise on the quietly released The Hurt Locker, a perspective-transforming story about action and war. There have been emails going out from producers begging them to vote for one over the other, people have been emotionally invested … it’s been bitter, people.

So, who will it be?

The way my predictions have gone so far leaves both films tied with four Oscars apiece and therefore Best Picture is this fifth award on the line. I have Avatar winning four technical categories including art direction, both sound categories and visual effects. I have “Locker” taking home the coveted director category, original screenplay, cinematography and editing.

If you look at those categories that I predict The Hurt Locker will win, you have all categories that Best Picture 2009 winner Slumdog Millionaire took home awards for (just switch original out for adapted screenplay). The two films are more similar than you think and although it would be impossible for “Locker” to run away with 8 awards like “Slumdog” did, it should win in the categories that seem to be necessary to win best picture.

I’m sure that no recent Best Picture winner ever came away with nothing in either a leading actor category, director or screenplay. The last film to do so was actually Chicago, and  Avatar has to hope the ceremony goes in that direction. Chicago won a slew of technical awards and only won Best Supporting Actress in the big categories. Avatar doesn’t even have an acting nomination.

I can say this without hesitation. If the Academy voters have not decided Avatar is a very special circumstance and is voting true to the way they always have, especially in the last ten years, then Avatar will not win Best Picture unless James Cameron wins for Best Director. The only other way it could win is if it sweeps its technical awards and leaves “Locker” short of Editing and Cinematography.

Here are some facts. In the last ten years, only two films have won Best Picture without winning Best Director: Chicago and Brokeback Mountain. In the case of the last, that was a huge upset. Chicago and Gladiator are the only two films recently that have won Best Picture without either a directing or Best Screenplay award.

So, unless voters deem Avatar worthy of a historical rarity, if Kathryn Bigelow or anyone else takes home Best Director, Avatar is almost assuredly not going to win the big prize. That said, a film grossing $700 million and touching people all over the world could very well be deemed worthy of a historical rarity. If Cameron does upset Bigelow and take director, I think that ups the likelihood of Avatar winning by about 90 – 100 percent.

There is also the voting process change due to 10 nominees this year. Each person ranks the films 1 – 10. Unless a picture receives an overwhelming majority of votes in the first count, the two films with the fewest votes are eliminated. Anyone who voted these films for Best Picture get their second choices counted. Who does that favor? Too hard to tell, but it certainly sets up the possibility of something unusual happening, which in this case favors Avatar.

As a predictor, my safest bet is to side with history, especially recent history. I also believe as much as I really enjoyed Avatar that it was not the best film of 2009 nor even the best science fiction film of 2009 (that would be District 9)

Personally speaking (not my prediction), if I were voting, Up in the Air would be my first choice based on what I liked most. “Locker” would be second. Then would likely be District 9 and A Serious Man. But, trying to guess what’s going to happen …

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

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 gets their statuette, but sometimes it feels like an excuse to vote for people.

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
• Colin Firth for A Single Man
• George Clooney for Up in the Air
• Morgan Freeman for Invictus
• Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker

This is a bit of how I feel about Jeff Bridges being the favorite in this category for Crazy Heart. I haven’t seen the film, so I should probably just shut up, but I’m not hearing the kinds of things about Bridges as I have in the past about winners such as Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. At the same time, as a five-time nominee (should be six for The Big Lebowski), “getting his due” certainly applies.

Speaking of comedy roles like The Dude in The Big Lebowski, what about someone like George Clooney in Up in the Air? Sure, he got his trophy for supporting actor in Syriana, but just because he’s playing a familiar role and so naturally embodies his character doesn’t make him any less impressive. But no, we must award the tortured and dramatic performance that takes the performer out of his comfort zone. Shouting dialogue is required. Why else would Al Pacino be so decorated? I’m not saying Clooney should win, I simply mean to point out that I don’t think these categories get judged by the right criteria all the time.

The two Oscar newcomers were also impressing. Colin Firth would be the frontrunner without Jeff Bridges in the category. He plays a tortured, lonely character who goes through an incredible process of self-discovery in A Single Man. He also delivers a few powerful moments that shout “Oscar” with ease.  Jeremy Renner gave a sophisticated and complex performance in The Hurt Locker. I don’t think the message that this film drives home is nearly as effective without him. Part of that is writing, but the performance is the communicator and there’s no white noise in what Renner does on screen.

Morgan Freeman was the one everyone predicted as a shoo-in early last year. How does an Academy-decorated actor playing of the most inspiring and influential figures not get an Oscar? Truthfully, Freeman was outstanding as Nelson Mandela, but his performance did not move me. I think that the script being about rugby and South African unity — not a true biopic of Mandela — was the reason. We know he spent a lot of time in prison, but we don’t see the journey of his character, only the qualities that he consists of.

So while Jeff Bridges will finally walk up and take that Oscar this weekend, there was something to think about. Jeff deserves it and I will be glad to see him win, but the reasons why are something worth examining in years to come. What makes a performance Oscar -worthy and what should?

Prediction: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

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 (first time nominated for leading role, as she won supporting in 2000), but it was Kate Winslet’s chance to finally win an Oscar.

The year before it was veterans Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney and Julie Christie with 12 nominations and two wins between them against newcomers Ellen Page and winner Marion Cotillard. The year before, newcomer Penelope Cruz up against Winslet, Streep Judi Dench and winner Helen Mirren.

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Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
• Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
• Carey Mulligan for An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Helen Mirren for The Last Station

This time, you have much of the same thing. Nominees Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan are young stars, the latter of which will definitely be back at the Kodak in the future. Streep takes her seat as usual and so does Mirren. The wild card is Sandra Bullock. Long-time star, first-time nominee. We don’t often see that.

I bet I’ve already cued your moaning and groaning. Let me now address the idea of Sandra Bullock as Oscar nominee (and potential winner). I don’t like it either, but popularity is a powerful thing in the movies and when a popular actress turns out the best performance  of her career and it gets noticed because a movie did incredibly well, there you have it. Between 10 nominees for Best Picture, Avatar and Sandra Bullock, the ceremony could have the highest ratings in years.

And another thing: Most of us hip urban movie-connoseiurs living in Chicago, LA, New York and Austin or wherever don’t realize that there’s a huge part of the USA to the south and east that went to this film in droves. They’re the ones who probably loved Bullock’s performance the most. They might not otherwise care about the Academy Awards.

But the question is still, does she have a shot? Does Sandra Bullock command enough of the respect of her Academy-voting peers, or do they turn to a safe and terrific choice in Streep as Julia Child. Will it come into play that The Blind Side has a best picture nomination but Julie & Julia does not (despite being more worthy)?

We can write off Sidibe, Mulligan and Mirren. I thought the performances of the first two were above the bar (haven’t seen The Last Station), but neither had a moment on screen that made me say “this is an Oscar-winning performance.” Mirren was just kind of a freebie.

So who will be rewarded? Streep created a portrait of America’s TV cook, Julia Child, that instead of settling for quirkiness went so much deeper into this woman than anyone expected. Sandra Bullock played a strong thick-skinned woman who was as selfless as she was a stickler and turned The Blind Side into a film about her when it was supposed to be about football player Michael Oher. She also gave a performance that will likely go down as the best of her career.

I think there will be resistance toward Sandra Bullock from a number of voters, but I think somewhere there are a lot of voters that know or like her, that will see her performance as being one-of-a-kind and will know that not only did Streep not win for roles that were better than Julia Child, but also that she’ll be there again. It’s been a long time since Meryl hoisted the trophy, but I think her day to do it has still yet to come. She’s more deserving — and it will definitely be close, maybe the closest race after Best Picture — but Bullock is likeliest to win.

Prediction: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side

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 writers and other jobs here and there. The director is the puppet master, the “visioneer” for the film. Like that? I made it up. But it’s true. Ultimately, the director is responsible for whatever goes in front of that camera and wherever that camera is and what it does. Normally when we refer to the mystical “They” when talking about a film, as in “how did they do that?” or “it was so cool when they ___,” it’s usually the director who we’re talking about. All of these five nominated directors have moments like that in their films.

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Best Achievement in Directing

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

This category has been buzzing second most to the gigantic Best Picture category. Why? Because people love drama and nothing is juicier than ex-husband and wife vying for the Best Director award for two outstanding pictures that couldn’t be more different from one another.

The real achievement, however, is that for only the fourth time in history, a woman has been nominated for this category. The last was Sofia Coppolla in 2003 for Lost in Translation. The fact that Bigelow has a great chance to be the first women to win it is something even more special.

The Hurt Locker was exceptionally well-made from start to finish and Bigelow has been generating all kinds of excitement for women filmmakers and anyone interested in seeing someone who has a shot at making history. The Academy likes those stories too. Having won the Directors Guild Award, Bigelow is now historically the favorite to win.

But how do you discredit James Cameron’s amazing vision to create the biggest and highest-grossing movie ever made? That’s hard to do. Boil it down and there’s Cameron who would win for his imagination or Bigelow for her ability to create powerful suspense and a sense of gritty realism.

Look at the rest of the nominees and it’s hard to ignore the work of Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino. Lee Daniels did a fine job with “Precious” as well, but it doesn’t stack up to these four.

Reitman does his best work yet with Up in the Air. I love his process shots at the beginning showing how his main character (Clooney) goes through airport security with everything so finely choreographed. There’s great choreography throughout his entire work on this film and that’s part of what makes him a director with such mass appeal. One day he will get his due. They always do.

Inglourious Basterds is a great looking film. It was too wild for me and I never fully got on board with what it was trying to do, but no one works a scene better that Tarantino. It starts with excellent writing and it builds from there. He definitely captures your attention with this gutsy film.

Prediction: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

All voters have to do is side with history for this one: not in the sense of women directors, but DGA winners almost always win. The last DGA winner to lose was Chicago director Rob Marshall to Roman Polanski for The Pianist. It’s a great excuse to make history for a director undoubtedly worthy.

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.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

• Mo’nique for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air
• Penelope Cruz for Nine
• Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart

In this category, the exciting part is that Penelope Cruz (last year’s winner in this category) is the lone veteran. I did not see Nine but she does play the mistress in the film, which I know is a great part, so I’m sure she’s terrific and in the deserving category.

Also in the deserving category is Anna Kendrick. She plays a more believable recent college graduate than I do and I’m actually a recent college graduate. Poised for a huge year in 2010 with another Twilight film a couple anticipated comedies, this is the beginning of something special for Anna and she deserves it. Her character dynamic and her performance as funny as it is touching.

Head honcho of the deserving category is Mo’Nique. Her emotional speech before the Welfare officer (Mariah Carey) at the end is the reason this film was a guaranteed Best Picture nominee. Somehow she turns an abhorrent monster into a human being with her performance.

Haven’t seen Crazy Heart but I know Maggie Gyllenhaal is a heck of a talent, so I trust that, but I’m not sure I agree with Vera Farmiga making the list. She’s talented, no doubt about it. Alex is a sexy character with a heck of a personality, but I didn’t come out of that film moved or inspired by her performance at all. She’s just an interesting character, nothing more or less.

Prediction: Mo’Nique for Precious

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Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
• Woody Harrelson for The Messenger
• Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones
• Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
• Matt Damon for Invictus

Unfortunately, I’ve only seen two of these nominated performances, but I hardly think it matters. I will say outright that I agree with Matt Damon’s nomination. He was worthy of a nomination for The Informant!, so I think it’s basically justice for him to be honored for playing Francois Pienaar of the South African rugby team. He was good, to be truthful, in that part. He played an inspiring leader and he managed to stand out while sharing screen time with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. Talk about a shadow.

I felt like Stanley Tucci should’ve gotten nominated for Julie & Julia because he was a hysterical delight in that film as opposed to a murderous pedophile and The Lovely Bones wasn’t received nearly as well. He’s a terrific actor, however and he deserves this first Oscar nomination.

Woody Harrelson is another terrific actor that I’m glad to see with a nomination, his second after The People vs. Larry Flynt. He’s often cast in roles where he plays dumb or crazy people, so I understand not associating him with good acting, but he’s terrific.

Acting luminary Christopher Plummer getting nominated is like giving Meryl Streep a nomination. Every time he’s on screen in a decent film he’s probably worthy of nomination. I wouldn’t expect him to win in any case.

Then there’s the newcomer and the likely winner, Christoph Waltz. I think there should be a rule in place that if you impressively speak three or more languages in one film that you should automatically receive a nomination. The reason he wins, however — the reason many villains win Oscars — is because he simply steals the scenes he is in. Hands down he was the best part of Inglourious Basterds.

Prediction: Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

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 tell me that a few years back Pan’s Labyrinth wasn’t deserving of a Best Picture nod (or even the film that beat it in this category, The Lives of Others.)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

• The White Ribbon (Germany)
• A Prophet (France)
• The Secret in their Eyes (Argentina)
• Ajami (Israel)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

This year there weren’t any foreign films that received massive commercial attention in the states. The closest we got were the two leading candidates in this category: The White Ribbon and A Prophet. “Ribbon” opened domestically on Jan 1 and “Prophet” this past weekend. Both films, I believe, have been overshadowed by the 10 Best Picture nominees. Suddenly the most avid moviegoers have 10 films to see, not five. This is the same crowd that tends to catch these kinds of films.

When you look at past winners in this category, the Academy tends to spread the love around and not tend to award the more popular choices. Last year, huge favorite Waltz with Bashir (Israel) lost out to Japan’s Okuribito, which no one saw coming. Then there was the aforementioned The Lives of Others beating huge favorite Pan’s Labyrinth. Way in the 2002 ceremony, the beloved French film Amelie lost to No Man’s Land (Bosnia). Only Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the big winner.

Go back six years and a different country has won each year: Japan (2009), Austria (2008), Germany (2007), South Africa (2006), Spain (2005), Canada (2004).  Germany is the only country to have one twice in the last ten years unless you count Spain’s win in the 2000 Oscars.

So who will it be? The black and white mystery with creepy children or the Arab man who goes to French prison and becomes a mafia kingpin? Maybe even Argentina’s film version of the show “Cold Case”  as a dark horse even though no American critics have seen it? The Academy loves Germany, but France has been without a winner for a long time unless you count the Canadian film from 2004 being in French. I’ve seen neither film. Well, since type that last sentence, I’ve done some reading.

Prediction: A Prophet (France)

Haneke’s film might be a little too disturbing for some critics and the Rotten Tomatoes score is 12 percent greater for “Prophet.”

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 action counterpart more than anyone ever expected. The expanded Best Animated Feature category (up to five films this year from three) might have a clear winner this year, but it’s truly a celebration of all things animated unlike anything the Oscars has ever seen. I truly hope next Sunday’s ceremony reflects this with a creative award presentation and/or tribute.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

• Up (Review)
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog (Review)
• Coraline (Review)
• The Secret of Kells

This category is so loaded that when The Secret of Kells was announced as a nominee it immediately caught the curiosity of just about everyone and earned itself a US release date this coming month. The Irish fantasy adventure is about a boy who must overcome quite an ordeal to complete a magical book. Sorry, the summary on imdb was dizzying, it was the best I could do.

“Kells” might not have a chance at winning, but it’s testament to the power of the medium right now. Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo wasn’t even nominated and it was quite another imaginative feat from the anime master.

Other good films that will be bypassed in this category are Coraline and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. “Meatballs” is creeping up my Netflix queue, so I can’t testify that it’s as enjoyable as I’ve heard for a kid-focused film, but Coraline was an impressive stop-motion feat by Henry Selick, one that is certainly not for all children as it’s a bit scary. I spoke about Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park as the master of the stop-motion in the animated short category, but Selick is really the father of the medium as he directed the classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Before we get to the likely winner, Fantastic Mr. Fox deserves its own paragraph. Raved about by many critics and in some cases chosen over the likely winner by area film critic associations, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion telling of Roald Dahl’s story was massively overlooked by the public. Part of the problem was that Fox Searchlight didn’t give it the full release it deserved, but I think they knew that parents were going to say “it wasn’t a child’s film” and it would hurt the movie’s reputation. Perhaps I will post my thoughts about kids movies in the near feature, but for now let me just say that despite Anderson’s unique sense of humor, the film should not have been treated this way. I haven’t seen it, so I won’t argue vehemently, but I will as soon as I possibly can get my hands on a DVD. It says a lot when some critics chose this over Up.

That brings us to said uncontested favorite, Pixar’s Up. If Toy Story 3 came out last year instead of this summer, I think we would be crowning “Fox” or “Coraline” the winner, but for the third year in a row now we got a genre-defying piece of art from the folks at Pixar, this time under the direction of Bob Peterson and Pete Docter. I think many people saw this film as a bit childish, but when a film can be good and offer something for generations young and old, it’s a tremendous accomplishment.

Prediction: Up

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 enjoy some subjects more than others no doubt, but visuals bring certain issues to life in ways we can’t think about them reading an article.

Take this year’s Documentary Feature nominees, for instance. We’ve known the stomach-churinging process by which our food is made to some extent, but it sometimes takes a doc like Food, Inc. to really see it and understand it. The same goes for The Cove. We’ve known for ages that in certain places sea creatures such as dolphins are treated terribly, but this film aims to show just how far it has gone in this one town in Japan. Seeing is believing, plain and simple.

Documentaries are also made by people passionately concerned about the issues they are making their film about. There’s no motivation to make money when you make a documentary, it’s all about spreading your message to as many people as possible, telling a story most people don’t know that they need to hear and see or need to experience with a new perspective. It’s a powerful medium and I hope that it continues to grow and the number of documentary film festivals increases.

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Best Documentary, Features

• Food, Inc.
• The Cove
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Burma VJ
• Which Way Home

There are a lot of great films in this category this year. Right away the race is neck-and-neck between Food, Inc. and The Cove. I’ve only seen the former, which you can read about by clicking. “Food” was very revealing about the way our food is processed and ought to convince anyone to buy food locally and at the least pay attention to where the meat they’re buying comes from. More so, you understand just how much corporate culture has actually controlled the way our food is made.

The Cove is a “save the dolphins” meets espionage documentary. A film is always a bit more compelling when what the filmmaker is doing is “illegal” in any way. The crew tries to uncover the truth while Japanese locals aim to keep them away because exposing their secrets could cost billions. Check out the trailer here.

At last year’s True/False Documentary Film Festival (currently going on this weekend), I saw the nominee Burma VJ and also got to hear from filmmaker Anders Ostergaard. The film is pretty straightforward and effective: people living in Burma risk their lives getting footage of the horrible crimes against their people and smuggling it out of the country so the rest of the world can see what’s going on. It’s a compelling subject unlike any other.

The other nominees tell interesting stories but won’t compete with the top two. The Most Dangerous Man in America tells a critical story of a time in American history where the government was first in question during the Vietnam War. Daniel Ellsberg was inspired to leak private documents to the New York Times alleging fabrications by the government. One man deciding to stand up no matter the consequences is a story of utmost importance. Which Way Home barely landed in the category. It’s an HBO doc about Central American immigrants, mostly children, riding along trains to get to America and all they sacrifice along the way. A unique look at illegal immigration, but also a story that’s been uncovered before.

Prediction: The Cove

In a heated battle with Food, Inc., I think this is the more unique and compelling of the two.

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Best Documentary, Short Subject

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (watch)
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
• Music by Prudence
• Rabbit a la Berlin

Short subject documentaries are distinguished from feature mostly in terms of length, but also in terms of how they are reported. They usually capture one event or one aspect of a bigger issue and explore it in depth or reactively. The one common element for most of these films is the involvement of HBO in getting them aired. Many doc filmmakers have HBO’s initiative to thank for their films reaching the audience they deserve.

I provided a link to the only film I was able to watch in five parts on YouTube, China’s Unnatural Disaster. I only intended to watch just enough of it but I ended up seeing the whole thing. It’s a moving documentary that follows the parents of countless children killed in a May 2008 earthquake in the Sichuan province of China. This is not about a natural disaster, but the “unnatural” element of the questionable construction of the school buildings. In many cases, the school was the only building in the area to collapse. The parents, with nothing left (they only get one child in China) demand justice. They wait for the government officials to act. 10 days with no response, they march and the government tries to stop them. In light of the events in Haiti, I think this film is more prevalent than it might otherwise have been. I think it’s a definite frontrunner.

One film that no one has seen anything of is Music by Prudence. It looks to be  a touching story of a young Zimbabwean girl born deformed who finds strength in her ability to sing. Many parents kill their deformed children because they’re seen as having been cursed, but Prudence’s story is obviously much different. The film must’ve premiered in 2009, but it won’t be released until April, so I’m not sure if it can factor into the race. There isn’t even a trailer.

The other film that looks like a real contender is Rabbit a la Berlin, the fascinating concept of what the Berlin Wall was like from the perspective of the rabbits that inhabited the space between the two walls, consequently living without predators and in total bliss. The filmmakers are able to draw an interesting comparison between the rabbits and the citizens of Germany at the time. Talk about a one-of-a-kind film. I’m curious to know how it took so long to assemble the necessary footage to make this film.

The other films I don’t expect to factor in are “The Last Campaign” and “The Last Truck.” The first focuses on a Washington state governor to pass assisted suicide legislation and the second on the closing of a GM Plant with Americans losing their jobs. Both relevant issues, but I don’t think they’re as compelling.

Prediction: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

The story is so interesting with so many layers. I think “Rabbit” if it’s as good as the premise suggests could overtake it, but I’m going with the timeliness of earth quake disasters in pushing this film over the top.

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 including some of our Best Animated Short Film nominees. The live action shorts are not as accessible. I don’t know why, but I think it’s because they’re a bit bigger of a deal. Either way, closer to March 7 you should be able to download/rent on iTunes and some theaters even show all the shorts as Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have recently began the tradition of grouping them together for a theatrical release.

Anyway, short films are perfect for the attention span of today and they usually are more clever or profound than many full-length works because they’re working with less time. They have to pick a great concept and executed it cleanly and most of these films do that. What’s more, especially the animated films, they are very similar to the classic cartoons of back in the day. Just think about all the Pixar shorts you’ve seen over the years and how clever/cute they are. Many of these (at least the animated ones) are similar.

So here’s to the short film — the part of the Academy Awards nearly everyone ignores. Join me in watching these films so that you can make the telecast a bit more meaningful. I’ve provided links to every video I could find (all animated shorts), so enjoy! For more information and some clips of everything, go to the official shorts site

Best Short Film, Animated

• French Roast (watch)
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (watch)
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte) (watch)
• Logorama (watch)
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

These films are a lot of fun this year, but will any of them be able to defeat four-time Oscar winner Nick Park, creator of the Wallace & Gromit short films and master of claymation? I grew up loving Wallace & Gromit, the goofy bald man and his intelligent canine companion Gromit who always bails him out of trouble. We would watch them in grade school all the time, namely Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers and Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave. Since those films, however, Park has taken a break from Wallace & Gromit short films. In that time he’s made two feature films, 2000′s Chicken Run and the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit movie “Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” the latter of which I’m sorry to save I’ve yet to see.

Now Park returns to what he does best: stop-motion short films. I haven’t seen “Matter of Loaf and Death” because the popularity of the franchise keeps those works off of YouTube, but I’ve no doubt it’s top-notch and clearly the favorite. Park has won four Oscars and has been nominated for five — the fifth Oscar was for the first Wallace & Gromit and it lost to … his own film, Creature Comforts.

The two throwaways in this category are great films but simply don’t measure up. Granny O’Grimm from the folks at Brown Bag Films is a bit of a YouTube sensation. “Sleeping Beauty” is one of many hysterical films featuring the psychotic Irish granny. It’s funny and the animation terrific, but it’s solely made for comedic impact. In it, Granny tells a horrifying bedtime story to her granddaughter that loaded with her own personal grievances about life in general. The other film is the very Looney Tunes-ish La Dama y La Muerte. Very gorgeous, it starts to tell the touching story of an old woman who has lost her husband and wishes to follow him. Death comes to claim her in grim reaper form, but doctors and nurses at the hospital constantly find a way to revive her. That ticks Death off, as you’d imagine. Clever and cute, but lacking that emotional message almost entirely.

My personal favorite of the films I’ve linked to is French Roast. A man in a coffee shop realizes he has forgotten his wallet to pay his tab. Instead of ‘fessing up, he continues to drink coffee so that he delays having to pay. During that time he tries to rob an old woman of enough to pay the tab. A dirty beggar is also in the mix. Not only is it funny, but it is also a satire about economic class. Is it enough to fend off a Wallace & Gromit film? Not sure.

The film getting most of the interest, however is the French-made Logorama. The filmmaker has taken countless logos from our society and created a world made entirely of them. The characters are trash-talking Michelin Men cops, a renegade Ronald McDonald and a foul-mouthed Big Boy among others. I’m not sure I really took home the message implied by the obvious social commentary and I thought a few parts were a bit too crude, but nonetheless it’s very interesting.

Prediction: Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death

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Best Short Film, Live Action

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish (watch)
• The New Tenants

At the moment I’m stuck speculating here, which I’m not thrilled with. If I find a way to watch these films, I will come back and delete these paragraphs you’re reading and replace them with more knowledgeable information. From what I have gathered, it appears this lineup is not nearly as strong as year’s past.

From what I’ve read, The Door is the frontrunner. The film brings the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion to a more personal level. It starts with a man running and flashes back to how he, as a father, deals with the 1986 event right after it happened.

The people’s choice award, so to speak, has gone to the one comedic film of the bunch, Instead of Abracadabra. It is about a Napoleon Dynamite-esque loser who is a magician still living with his parents. One trick goes wrong and he accidentally stabs his mother. He’s also trying to bring some magic into his life when he meets the girl of his dreams.

Kavi has drawn some Slumdog Millionaire comparisons taking place in India and being about a boy who’s forced into labor when he just wants to play cricket with other kids. Definitely a more social issue awareness film with some attempt to pull heartstrings toward the end.

Miracle Fish is about another child who is a victim of bullying, goes to hide in the school infirmary and falls asleep, only to wake up and find the building empty. This was the only film, as you can see, that I found a link for (click the link and scroll down to find the film). The Aussie film might be one of the more intriguing and well-made films of the bunch and could compete with The Door. I wasn’t amazed by it, but it’s certainly interesting.

The last film has a couple of standout actors (Vincent D’Onofrio and Kevin Corrigan) that have garnered it some attention. The New Tenants is about two men who have just moved into an apartment where the strange history of the apartment’s previous tenant is about to cause them some unfortunate luck. The short is a dark comedy full of crazy mayhem whose payoff has been getting mixed reviews.

Prediction: The Door

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 screenplay.”

To be fair, the script is the source material for which the rest of the movie is made. It is interpreted and imagined, cast often times after the fact. What’s on the page could be done hundreds of different ways in the hands of any variety of directors, producers, actors, crew, etc. But as is often said, no great film comes from a bad screenplay. Maybe from an okay screenplay, but never a bad screenplay. It is the foundation and as such it receives a place of honor on the list of Academy Awards categories. Still beneath director, but high up there no less.

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Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
• Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man
• Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman for The Messenger
• Bob Peterson, Pete Docter for Up

Original screenplays are more rare than you think. Even a completely unique and original film like District 9 was a short film by Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell prior to being expanded into a motion picture. They had to prove their vision first before they could really make a movie.

Producers want as close to a sure thing as they can get. It’s easier to take a chance on a film based on a popular novel or other source than risk it on some aspiring screenwriter’s never-before-heard-of story. With the former, you have at least some kind of audience’s attention before you even get started.

This year’s nominees are pretty strong and that’s a great thing. For many, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is tops. After proving himself with the Oscar-winning script for Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s work became instantly reputable, allowing the Weinstein Co. to easily sweep up his “Basterds” script and his other efforts since.

The other veteran nomination went to the Coen brothers for yet another phenomenal script in A Serious Man, quite possibly the most intelligent script on the list.

Then there’s a guy like Mark Boal, whose only previous work was a story credit for In the Valley of Elah. This is a heck of a story: a guy who comes up with a screenplay as dynamite as The Hurt Locker. Completely original. As such he won the BAFTA, Writers Guild Award as well as numerous other area film critics awards.

Along the lines of originality you also have a similar unique war film in The Messenger plus Pixar geniuses Pete Docter and Bob Johnson following along the lines of last year’s winner in this category, their colleague Andrew Stanton, creator of WALL*E.

Each of these nominees brings something different. Boal’s script is impeccably suspenseful while highlighting a new way to think about action and war. Tarantino writes some of the most dynamic and powerful scenes ever in “Basterds.” Then there are of course the Coens who pack gems into every second of their film. It’s also worth mentioning Avatar is missing from this list. A heck of a year for originality.

Prediction: Mark Boal for “The Hurt Locker”

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Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air
• Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell for District 9
• Nick Hornby for An Education
• Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armondo Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche for In the Loop

Adapting existing material for the big screen is a challenge in itself. It’s easy to champion originality, but one of the real challenges is taking something successful in one medium and making it work as a film without veering too far away from the original material. How many times have you heard “it’s not as good as the book”? Well, that phrase doesn’t apply to these films.

Up in the Air could get shut out of every other category it was nominated in, but it shouldn’t fail on this front. Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner took Walter Kirn’s novel and turned it into something better than the original from what I can tell. Reitman deserves at least one accolade for this terrific film – my favorite of the year – and after winning the Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award for this script, it seems likely.

Many people might turn on the Oscars this year just to see how District 9 holds up. Other than Best Picture, this is the category where it has the biggest presence. As we saw with the animated movie 9 this year, it’s not easy to expand a short film into one of feature length, but District 9 was brilliant. The inventiveness, the allegory, the fictional documentary style – it all made this a one-of-a-kind film.

English writer Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch, About a Boy) sounds pretty deserving as well for An Education and the writing team behind Brit political comedy In the Loop has apparently made one of the funnier more quotable movies of the year. I was also impressed with some of the unique ideas in Geoffrey Fletcher’s adaptation of Push by Sapphire, but it’s competing against too many films that while adapted are fairly original.

Prediction: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air

Side Note: I wrote both these without knowing who won the WGA awards and only added that information in, so it happens to be that I predicted in accordance with the WGA, not because of the WGA awards.

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 or both. Next time you watch a film, pay attention to what it uses and when there’s music versus when there isn’t and you’ll have a totally new understanding of the importance of music.

I’m not going to toot the horn of the original song. That’s just a perk category and apparently the producers have said this year that there will not be live performances. Since every original song nominee must appear in the film itself, I think they plan on showing the numbers straight from the movie so you get a sense of how they connect to the film, which is just as if not more important than the quality of the song itself.

To keep you abreast of some of the conflict with the Oscars, there’s a great deal of subjectivity when it comes to what constitutes original work that’s Oscar-eligible. For one thing, it must not be based on anything previously published and it must have been written for purposes of use in the film, not written beforehand and then chosen to be in the movie (even if the movie is the first time the song is heard). I’ll give some examples later on.

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

• Michael Giacchino for Up
• James Horner for Avatar
• Hans Zimmer for Sherlock Holmes
• Alexandre Desplat for Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders for The Hurt Locker

Open up your iTunes right now or get YouTube ready. I’m going to be sampling these scores right off of there if it’s a film I haven’t seen. Even then, like I just mentioned with original song, more than half the score is the way it works with the images on screen.

Let’s start with Avatar. If you search online, you can find a video of excerpts of James Horner scores strung together. In it, you’ll hear his horn theme that he constantly uses is every film he works on. He might argue it’s his musical signature, but shouldn’t that make his score for Avatar ineligible? Either way, you can’t argue that his score doesn’t make the Avatar world more beautiful. His choices of using a lot more tribal instruments as the focal parts of the score is really what gets it done.

Golden Globe winner Michael Giacchino’s score for Up certainly has to be considered the favorite. Check out his track “Married Life,” the music that was set to the film’s heartbreaking flashback montage with Carl and his wife meeting all the way until she passes. He echoes this simple waltz theme throughout the soundtrack and that’s what makes it so moving. That’s not to say his suspenseful stuff isn’t great too – after all, he has been working on ABC’s LOST for six years and that’s nothing but suspense.

Then there’s the master – seven-time nominee Hans Zimmer. But it’s been awhile. Zimmer has only one once: 15 years ago for The Lion King. He was last nominated for Gladiator. Although his The Dark Knight score was deemed ineligible last year, there’s a good chance that would’ve won. Anyway, it’s good to see him back with Sherlock Holmes. All you have to do is find the main track “Discombobulate” and you get the essence of this fun score. I can’t tell if the stringed instrument is a sitar or not, but it’s a unique score to say the least.

Though not the favorite, Alexandre Desplat did a lot of great work this past year and Fantastic Mr. Fox is just some of it. Check out the quirky, playful and unique sounds of this very string and percussion-based (especially bells) soundtrack.

As for The Hurt Locker soundtrack, it’s cool, but it’s mostly just sounds getting louder. The music here is entirely to keep things suspenseful in the film and you definitely have to say it did it’s job. Just not Oscar-worthy in my ey…ears.

Prediction: Michael Giacchino for “Up”

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Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

• “The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart
• “Down in New Orleans” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Almost There” by Randy Newman from The Princess and the Frog
• “Loin de Paname” by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas from Paris 36
• “Take it All” by Maury Yeston from Nine

We all knew Nine was going to get nominated here for something, but no one expected Take it All. I think this is more the academy’s obsession with Marion Cotillard. It’s a pretty good song, but traditional. Perhaps it’s the placement in the film.

Then there’s the Academy’s Randy Newman obsession. Two songs from Princess and the Frog got nominated. They’re not my favorite songs from the movie, but they’re two of the three that were eligible. “Almost There” is the better of the two, especially in the context of the film. It’s the most beautiful animation to any of the songs and it’s a classy melody.

“Loin De Paname,” if you check it out on YouTube is a very traditional lyrical waltz that you’d expect from the French. I suppose after listening to the Up soundtrack, this makes sense, but I don’t give it a shot.

Then there’s Golden Globe winner “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart. It’s performed by Ryan Bingham (not George Clooney’s character from Up in the Air, which is totally weird coincidence), whose smoky voice and traditional folk fingerpicking make it one of those songs you listen intently to. Not all quiet songs are good ones, but “The Weary Kind” draws you in. After “Falling Slowly” won from Once a couple years ago, this seems a favorite, though I don’t know the context in the film.

Prediction: “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart

Close second from “Almost There.”

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 indeed notice.

Cinematography and editing are not necessarily related, I’ve just grouped them here as they are the last of the smaller technical categories left for my Oscar predictions. They are however, the more unnoticeable visual elements of a film. Often times an editor’s best work, for example, is what gets left on the cutting room floor. We’re so caught up in the story that we never realize a huge part of what tells the story in the visual sense is not only the director but the editor.

Cinematography is something you would definitely notice if the cinematographer was slacking off. Just think about where you sit at this moment. What’s the lighting like in the room? Are there shadows? Could someone be filming you on camera right this minute and clearly see your face? Lighting is not only about visual clarity, but also about mood and feel. We can make your blog-reading experience in this room suspenseful or striking just by reducing the light and casting a shadow over your face.

If you’re looking to watch one of these films on DVD soon, I challenge you to pay a bit of attention to the way they are either edited or lit. You might just appreciate the movie a bit more.

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Best Achievement in Cinematography

• The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
• Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
• Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
• The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

I absolutely love a moment or scene with incredible cinematography. One moment from last year’s Oscar-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button sticks out in my mind. Remember when Benjamin meets his birth father who is on his last legs and he wheels him out onto the dock and shares this beautiful moment in the sunset with him? Well in any case, that scene is half of what it is without Claudio Miranda catching that sunset just right.

This year, the three favorites are Avatar, Inglourious Basterds and The Hurt Locker. All three are very different and deserving of consideration for many reasons.

Avatar is the wildcard in all these categories. How do you assess the cinematography of an entirely digital film? How did they even do it? Is Mauro Fiore deserving of the Oscar for that technological leap alone? Obviously the beauty of Pandora is unignorable, but I couldn’t even begin to decipher digital work from cinematography.

Inglourious Basterds takes the place of that gorgeous period film that always gets nominated such as “Benjamin Button” or The Aviator. It also boasts the most Oscar-decorated cinematographer on the list, six-time nominee Robert Richardson who has won twice for The Aviator and Oliver Stone’s JFK. When I think lighting from “Basterds” I recall the underground bar scene and the theater.

Then there’s The Hurt Locker. Barry Ackroyd has worked with Paul Greengrass on United 93 and the upcoming Green Zone starring Matt Damon (so the Middle East on location thing is his forte). Certainly the desert has its challenges and “Locker” was visually superb in countless ways.

This is hard for me to decipher and it might come down to who wins the American Society of Cinematographers award on Feb. 27 (I should’ve waited to post this) but looking at Slumdog Millionaire as last year’s winner, I’m gonna ride the hot hand.

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

“Basterds” is an incredibly close second.

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Best Achievement in Editing

• Avatar (John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin)
• District 9 (Julian Clarke)
• The Hurt Locker (Chris Innis, Bob Murawski)
• Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire (Joe Klotz)

Movies have tons more footage than what makes it on the screen. The editor along with the director is responsible for picking out and sewing together the very best takes so that there are no hiccups in the visual storytelling. Once again, the big three mentioned for cinematography are the biggest players this year. Fortunately, the “Eddies” were awarded on Sunday, so we have a clearer picture.

Inglourious Basterds was not even nominated for an Eddie, so it’s hard to see it winning this category. Although it was said to be one of the favorites, it’s hard for me to imagine that the strongest suit of Avatar was its editing. Of all the things not needing new technology to meet the demands of a CGI film, editing is atop the list.

I think the Eddie-winning The Hurt Locker has to be the runaway favorite. This was a suspenseful film and any film that has such success with suspense has to have great editing. The quick cuts, holding out certain shots longer than others – lingering – that’s what editors can do to enhance the pacing of a film and Chris Innis and Bob Murawski certainly did that.

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

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