Oscar Blogging 2010

Multiple Oscar winners:

• The Hurt Locker: 6
• Avatar: 3
• Precious: 2
• Crazy Heart: 2
• Up: 2

For those who are unfamiliar with me doing this, you can find previous year's Oscarblogging at:

• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009

Updates will be (mostly) placed at the end, so scroll down.

By popular request: as with previous years, I've got a live chat group going. If you've got AIM (or .Mac, or anything similar) join us at: backupbrainchat. Instructions:

For Mac OS X:

• Logon to any iChat account (AIM, Me.com, or .Mac)
• Select File > Go to Chat Room
• In the Go to Chat Room dialog, fill in backupbrainchat for the room name and click Go

For Windows:

• If you don't already have it, go to AOL.com and download AIM, and do what's necessary to get a screenname (AIM is free and you don't need to have an AOL account to use it)
• Launch AIM
• Choose People > Send Chat Invitation…
• Invite doriasmith to join you in the room backupbrainchat—you'll be transferred into the room instantaneously.

And here we go…

Huh... all the nominated actors and actresses come out at once? That's a new one. As is multiple hosts, so I guess it'll be an interesting night.

I love NPH doing anything, so I'm always happy to see the Oscars start off with him singing. Yay!

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin descend from the ceiling. Nice touch, and nice tuxedos, as they introduce each other.

Okay, the two hosts thing works so far — I like the way they're playing off each other.

"Damn Helen Mirren."

"No, that's Dame Helen Mirren."

I wonder how much they had to pay James Cameron to use the sprites from Avatar?

Penelope Cruz comes out to present, and damn, that's a great dress. But then, she's always gorgeous. She announces the nominees for Actor in a SUp porting Role. I saw none of these films, so I've got no preference here.

And the winner is Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.

Ryan Reynolds presents The Blind Side. Didn't they get rid of the best picture nominees getting this kind of treatment a few years ago? And with twice the movies this year, it may really eat up the time.

It says something about me that what really got my attention was the iPad advertisement. Now, as to what it says about me, that's another thing.

Steve Carell and Cameron Diaz (with bits about how it was supposed to be Jude Law) announcing the best animated film nominees. I loved both Up and Coraline, so I'm truly torn. And the winner is Pete Docter for Up. Sucks to be a great animated film that comes out the same year as a Pixar release.

Amanda Seyfried looks amazing. Someone needs to tell Miley Cyrus how to stand when she's wearing a dress like that. They announce the best original song nominees, with the Oscar going to Ryan Bingham and T. Bone Burnett for The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart.

It appears that they've tossed the old ban against "and the winner is." No more "and the Oscar goes to…," I guess.

Chris Pine presents District 9. I saw it and had truly mixed feelings afterwards—it's not exactly a film you can describe as "enjoyable."

Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey (with appropriate props from Baldwin) announce the original screenplay nominees. Downey, what the hell are you wearing? The blue bow tie doesn't really work, and the sneakers don't help. She looks amazing, and they give the Oscar to Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker.

Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald? I'm having 1980s flashbacks. Then again, I guess that makes sense given that they're talking about John Hughes. The rest of my 1980s nightmares then come out all at once. How many of these people still have careers?

Samuel L. Jackson presents Up. Why him, I have no idea.

Carey Mulligan and Zoë Saldana come out to give the short film awards. The best animated short Oscar goes to Nicolas Schmerkin for Logorama (amazingly, I actually saw it). The Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar goes to Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett for Music by Prudence, and the Short Film (Live Action) Oscar goes to Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson for The New Tenants. Wow, when your time is up, it is up—they even turn the mic off.

Ben Stiller, who I find consistently unfunny, comes out made up as a Navi. He gives the best makeup Oscar to Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow for Star Trek. No surprise there, as the makeup was both good and flashy.

Jeff Bridges presents A Serious Man for best picture. Tom wonders why he's standing in the middle of the audience. Good question.

Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaal give the award for best adapted screenplay to Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious (based on the novel Push by Sapphire).

Queen Latifah shows highlights from the Governors awards. Sean wants to know what she's queen of. Clearly, I've failed in teaching him anything about culture. Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman are shown as representatives of the winners—now there is an odd couple.

Robin Williams gives the best supporting actress award. I walked out of Up in the Air saying that both these women were going to be nominated in this category, and my guess is that they're going to split the vote (a shame, as they were amazing). And the Oscar goes to Mo’Nique for Precious.

Colin Firth announces An Education as a best picture nominee.

Sigourney Weaver comes out to give the award for art direction. Damn, that woman knows how to dress. The Oscar goes to Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (art direction) and Kim Sinclair (set decoration) for Avatar. It makes me wonder—would she have said Avatar no matter what the card said?

Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker give the best costume award. I know that SJP has this rep for always being well-dressed, but I have to say that I've never seen it and her dress here doesn't change my opinion any. The winner is Sandy Powell for The Young Victoria, exactly the type of film the voters love to honor here. I'm always interested in what the costume designers choose to wear themselves, and hers is an odd dress, but one that's pretty darn gorgeous.

Charlize Thereon shows Precious.

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner announce a tribute to horror. She looks like the perfect little goth princess, doesn't she? Ah, a tribute to films that are otherwise not even considered Academy-worthy. A lot of these weren't solely horror, and there's way to many possibilities to include them all, but a nice quickie overview.

Zack Efron and Anna Kendrick give the award for best sound editing to Paul N. J. Ottosson for The Hurt Locker and for sound mixing to Paul N. J. Ottosson (again) and Ray Beckett for The Hurt Locker (again). That gives it three so far.

Elizabeth Banks gives the sci/tech awards its thirty seconds, followed by John Travolta presenting Inglourious Basterds.

Sandra Bullock looks lovely, and gives the award for cinematography. It goes to Mauro Fiore for Avatar.

Demi Moore presents the obituary section, which explains why she wasn't on stage earlier for the John Hughes bit. She introduces James Taylor, who plays In My Life over the film clips.

Jennifer Lopez and Sam Worthington announce the best original score nominees. Is this another opportunity for an Avatar actor to give the award to Avatar? Oh no—a dance routine! I thought those had gone the way of "And the winner is"…oh, right. It reminds us all of why they stopped doing these things. The Oscar (finally) goes to Michael Giacchino for Up, ending that little conspiracy theory.

Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper give the visual effects Oscar. As usual, this is the only category in which I've seen all the films. The winner is Avatar, which has now tied The Hurt Locker with three.

Jason Bateman presents Up in the Air.

Matt Damon gives the best documentary Oscar to Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens for The Cove.

Tyler Perry comes out to give the best editor, doing a (very) mildly funny bit. The Oscar goes to Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for The Hurt Locker.

Keanu Reeves presents The Hurt Locker. Once again, why did they pick him?

Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino give the best foreign language film award to The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) from Argentina. They thank the Academy for not considering Navi to be a foreign language.

Kathy Bates presents Avatar, saying that it's the largest-grossing film of all time. I hadn't realized that it had already hit that mark. And that's before it's even gone to DVD?

And the best actor award… I don't understand why the two actors and three actresses just came out. Ah, I guess it's "suck up to the actors" time. Michelle Pfeiffer talks about Jeff Bridges, Vera Farmiga for George Clooney, Julianne Moore for Colin Firth, Tim Robbins for Morgan Freeman, and Colin Farrell for Jeremy Renner.

Kate Winslet looks amazing and gives the award to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. He gives a nice speech with lots of credit to his parents for getting him into the business in the first place, and to his wife for 33 years (it's nice to hear about a Hollywood marriage that's lasted).

Another five come out for the best actress nominees; this time it's Forrest Whittaker for Sandra Bullock, Michael Sheen for Helen Mirren, Peter Sarsgaard for Carey Mulligan, Oprah Winfrey for Gabourey Sidibe, and Stanley Tucci for Meryl Streep. It's her 16th nomination, making her the top nominated woman ever. Sean Penn starts off with a bit that makes no sense and then gives the award to Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side. That one was a shocker, but I think that she's the most surprised of all.

Barbra Streisand comes out to give the best director award. Will Cameron and Bigelow split this and best picture? The Oscar goes to Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. It's great that a woman finally won, but it's pathetic that the Academy thought I Am Woman was the best song to play her off.

She gets the last laugh, though, as Tom Hanks almost immediately brings her (and The Hurt Locker) back out as the best picture winner.

Tonight's big winners: Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker with six Oscars. Baldwin and Martin were more than adequate; nothing terribly memorable, but no gigantic gaffes either. More Neil Patrick Harris would have been nice, but we can't have everything.