2012 Academy Award winners

Best Picture:
The Artist

Best Actress in a Leading Role:
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady

Best Actor in a Leading Role:
Jean Dujardin for The Artist

Best Director:
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Best Animated Short Film:
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Best Documentary, Short Subjects:
Saving Face

Best Short Film, Live Action:
The Shore

Best Original Screenplay:
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash for The Descendents 

Best Original Song:
Bret McKenzie for "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets

Best Original Score:
Ludovic Bource for The Artist

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Octavia Spencer for The Help

Best Visual Effects:
Hugo

Best Animated Film:
Rango

Best Documentary Feature:
Undefeated

Best Sound Mixing:
Hugo

Best Sound Editing:
Hugo

Best Editing:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Foreign Language Film:
A Separation (Iran)

Best Makeup:
The Iron Lady

Best Costume Design:
The Artist

Best Art Direction:
Hugo

Best Cinematography:
Hugo


Well, there you have it. I predicted The Artist would win big and it did. However, I did not anticipate Meryl Streep and Jean Dujardin winning so that genuinely surprised me. I was positive it would be Viola Davis and George Clooney.
I am, however, very disappointed that Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo lost out on Best Original Screenplay for Bridesmaids. The members of the Academy officially have no sense of humor. And what the fuck at Rise of the Planet of the Apes not winning Best Visual Effects? I loved Hugo but put credit where credit is due, people.

Billy Crystal should host every Oscar telecast until he retires. He's the only one who can do it right. 

And honestly... Twilight in the beginning film montage? Really? How about we stick to films that actually mean something and/or were nominated for Oscars. Fucking hell. I screamed the moment I saw Kristen Stewart's face on my TV.

Sacha Baron Cohen banned from the Oscars

Honestly, I am laughing so hard at this.

Basically Cohen was banned from attending the Oscars disguised as his new character, General Alladeen, from his upcoming film The Dictator. The Academy withdrew Cohen's tickets to the event as a precautionary measure. Now Cohen is bitching up a storm claiming The Academy took away his free speech and issued a threat saying they would face severe consequences if his tickets weren't reinstated by noon on Sunday.
I have seen Cohen's antics in public with his previous characters, Borat and Bruno, and I can't say that I blame those running the Oscars one bit. I probably would have done the same thing. If he wants to attend the event it will not be as a character which serves no purpose other than to promote his upcoming film. A film that will, no doubt, be vulgar and inappropriate for young viewers. Let's face it... kids do still watch the Oscars. I hope they stick to their guns with this one and tell Cohen to shove it up his ass.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/sacha-baron-cohen-as-the-dictator-comments-on-oscars-ban/

2012 Academy Awards

The Academy Awards are this upcoming Sunday, February 26, and normally I would be super excited by now. However, after being given such a shitty list of nominations including many omissions I am not. I was thinking about the major categories and I just wanted to share my ideal Oscar list for what 2011 gave.

Best Picture:
Should be - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (but it wasn't even nominated)
Will be - The Artist

Best Actor:
Should be - Michael Shannon for Take Shelter (but he wasn't nominated)
Will be - George Clooney for The Descendents

Best Actress:
Should be - Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Will be - Viola Davis for The Help

Best Supporting Actor:
Should be - Sir Ben Kingsley for Hugo (but he wasn't nominated)
Will be - Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Best Supporting Actress:
Should be - Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Will be - Octavia Spencer for The Help

Best Director:
Should be - Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Will be - Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist

Best Original Score:
Should be - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (but they weren't nominated)
Will be - Ludovic Bource for The Artist



Such a disappointing year. I am tempted to not even watch this time around. The Walking Dead is on at the same time anyway, so I have a plausible argument going.

2012 Academy Award nominations

Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendents
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Actor:
Demian Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendents
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress:
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help

Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actress:
Berenice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help

Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help

Best Animated Film:
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots

Rango

Art Direction:
The Artist - Laurence Bennett & Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Stuart Craig & Stephenie McMillan

Hugo - Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Shiavo

Midnight in Paris - Anne Aeibel & Helene Dubreuil
War Horse - Rick Carter & Lee Sandales

Cinematography:
The Artist - Guillame Schiffman

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth

Hugo - Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design:
Anonymous - Lisy Christi
The Artist - Mark Bridges

Hugo - Sandy Powell

Jane Eyre - Michael O'Connor
W.E. - Arianne Phillips

Best Director:
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendents

Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life

Best Documentary Feature:
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Best Documentary Short:
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Film Editing:
The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendents - Kevin Tent

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall

Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker

Moneyball - Christopher Tellefsen

Best Foreign Language Film:
Bullhead (Belgium)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
A Separation (Iran)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)

Makeup:
Albert Nobbs - Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston, and Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, and Lisa Tomblin
The Iron Lady - Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Best Original Score:
John Williams for The Adventures of Tintin
Ludovic Bource for The Artist

Howard Shore for Hugo

Alberto Iglesias for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Williams for War Horse

Best Original Song:
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets - Bret McKenzie
"Real in Rio" from RIO - Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett

Best Animated Short Film:
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Best Live Action Short Film:
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Sound Editing:
Drive - Lon Bender & Victor Ray Ennis

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ren Klyce

Hugo - Philip Stockton & Eugene Gearty

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ethan Van der Ryn & Erik Aadahl
War Horse - Richard Hymns & Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, and Bo Persson

Hugo - Tom Fleischman & John Midgley

Moneyball - Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco, and Ed Novick

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers,  Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Peter J. Devlin
War Horse - Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Descendents - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash

Hugo - John Logan

The Ides of March - George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon

Moneyball - Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Best Original Screenplay:
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius

Bridesmaids - Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Margin Call - J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
A Separation - Asghar Farhadi

My picks are in red if I have a pick. If there are multiples that means I would take either one.

But let me get this straight... The Academy completely stiffed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? The nomination for Best Actress is deserved and should be there, but nothing for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, or Adapted Screenplay? Nothing?! That is bullshit. How in the fuck did Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross not get a nomination this year? The score for that film was 1000x better, and longer, than the score for The Social Network and they swept the awards for that one last year. Leaving that film out of the major categories while films like The Tree of Life were included was a big "fuck you" to intelligent moviegoers. I am pissed. Rooney Mara should win but she won't. It will be any of the other 4 in the category despite Mara giving the best performance and putting herself through such a physical and mental transformation. Who else did that and won an Oscar for it last year? Ugh...

Comparing these nominations to others I am surprised they didn't give a nomination to Ryan Gosling for either Drive or The Ides of March and that Leonardo DiCaprio got shafted for J. Edgar. I am also surprised, and a little disappointed, that Bridesmaids wasn't nominated for Best Picture. Crazy, Stupid, Love was also left out of the mix.