The person or thing highlighted is who I would like to win, even if odds are terrible.

Actor in a Leading Role

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

Actor in a Supporting Role

* Matt Damon in “Invictus”
* Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
* Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
* Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
* Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

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

Actress in a Supporting Role

* Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
* Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
* Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
* Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
* Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

* “Coraline” Henry Selick
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
* “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
* “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
* “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

* “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
* “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
* “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
* “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

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

Costume Design

* “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
* “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
* “Nine” Colleen Atwood
* “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

* “Avatar” James Cameron
* “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow (It would obviously be ok if Cameron won also, but I just don't like him and it would be great if the woman he cheated on beat him.)
* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
* “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

* “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
* “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
* “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein (This is the only nominee that I've seen)
* “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
* “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

* “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
* “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
* “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
* “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
* “Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

* “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
* “District 9” Julian Clarke
* “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis (I can't give an editing award to a movie that's almost 3 hours long. I'd be great with a QT win here also.)
* “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

* “Ajami” Israel
* “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
* “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
* “Un Prophète” France
* “The White Ribbon” Germany (Again, the only one I've seen on this list.)

Makeup

* “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
* “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
* “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

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

Music (Original Song)

* “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
* “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
* “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Picture

* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

* “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
* “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
* “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
* “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
* “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

* “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
* “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
* “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
* “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
* “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

* “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
* “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
* “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
* “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
* “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing (Does anyone know what this means? How does it differ from Sound Editing?)

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

Visual Effects

* “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
* “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
* “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

* “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
* “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
* “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy




Avatar and The Hurt Locker are leading the Oscar race with nine nominations each.

LOL @ adultery informing even your Oscar rooting interests.

The only one that I even vaguely care about is Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. If he doesn't win, then nothing makes sense.

I think the 10 best picture nominees thing is dumb. It pretty much ensures that Avatar is going to win, in my opinion. All the other movies are going to be watered down, and right now Avatar is the "default" vote.

Basterds was my favorite film of last year (I think). But it's not going to win.

Just in the directing category. I'm ok with Avatar cleaning house on everything else.

A female has also never won best director, would be a solid "Halle Berry" moment.

There's a lot of movies nominated across the board that I haven't seen. Looks like we'll have some renting to do soon.

Avatar for Best Picture is such a fucking joke. Visual Effects and Art Direction, maybe, but there are tons of films with more substance than Avatar. Fucking retard Academy.

Wait...really?

I mean, I haven't actually seen it, but I had no idea this was even a remote possibility.

I think it has to do with the overall crappiness of the Academy Awards.

as everyone knew when they first heard it, the ten nominees thing is retard city. What would be the five if they still had their usual half-sense?


* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers



An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man

I've only seen THL, IB, and ASM on that list.

* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers


I haven't seen the last two.

I think from now on I will refer to Precious as "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."

Costume Design

* “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
* “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
* “Nine” Colleen Atwood
* “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

* “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
* “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
* “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

I haven't seen many of the films from 2009 yet (only An Education, A Serious Man, Coco Before Chanel) so I don't have much to say about the categories. I don't necessarily thing they deserve to win everything e.g. Carey isn't the Best Actress and won't win it for sure, but in these categories I do think they are all worthy of winning, whether they actually do or not.

What I will say: I don't want Avatar to win Best Picture. I want to see it and I know it will be a cool experience, but it's not a film film, so I think it should win all the effects categories etc but leave the Best Picture to a film with proper actors and camerawork etc. It just doesn't feel right to me for a CGI film to win Best Picture, especially since it's going to win a bunch of other categories anyway.

You can't honestly be surprised that Avatar is nominated for best picture lol. I understand the frustration part of it I guess but I'm pretty sure when a movie sets wordwide box office records it's a shoe in.

Judged on its own, I really liked the editing in Hurt Locker. The film's pacing was spot on, there was a constant feel of danger and chaos, and all of the action scenes were visceral and comprehensible (I mean--I always felt I knew and understood the various levels of danger that were on the screen. Compare/contrast that with Ninja Assasin.)

Oh, I'm not surprised. Disappointed is more like it. Making lots of money doesn't equal good movie. And, as I said, there are plenty of movies that are likely better in terms of true filmmaking that could use a leg up at the box office. Nominating Avatar kind of killed that.

You really have to see it before saying this. I know that what you're saying sounds reasonable, but the movie is just a totally overwhelming experience, and as I have argued (with some futility) its not only because of the effects. I think the academy may not go for it because it feels so commercial, but I do think it deserves to win.

Also, while there is plenty of CGI, it is still an "acted" film due to the motion and face capture.

My "want to win" votes:

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

I haven't seen any of the other ones, but I did like him a lot, so sure.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

No brainer for me.

Animated Feature Film

“Up” Pete Docter

Directing

* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino

Music (Original Score)

“Up” Michael Giacchino

Best Picture

* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer


Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino[/color]



Hmm, there seems to be a theme in my picks.

I hate to break this to you, but the Oscars aren't "Film" film awards. They are movie award. SOme of the movies that have won over the past 20 years are Gladiator, LOTR, Braveheart, Titanic.... Avatar isn't any less of a "film" than these movies. Other winners, like Forrest Gump, Beautiful mind, Crash.. might have " filmatic "aspirations, but they they are cheesey and not great. Out of the last twenty years, there are only a couple winners that I would call great artistic films, and a couple more that I'd call good ones, and the rest are either epics or okay to shitty dramas ( and chicago, a musical). people get so bent out of shape about what movies get the oscars, thinking they are awarding art. They aren't. The oscars are an industry mutual masterbation, and they award the "movie of the year".

My guesses:

BigD's great artistic films over the last 20 years that have won an Oscar: No Country, American Beauty

BigD's good artistic films over the last 20 years that have won an Oscar: Schindler's List, Unforgiven


How'd I do?

(Note: This was harder than I thought and the problem wasn't narrowing it down.)

I enjoyed Up, but Coraline was amazing.

nail/head

It's good, but it's only there because of the 10 movies thing.



I think Joey's correct on this:






Stuff that won't happen? (Up will win for animation)

That's more like a subplot.

I don't agree with a lot of what was said here:

The humble Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences folks announced their Oscar nominations Tuesday morning, and what was most interesting was not the actual movies nominated for Best Picture, but rather the sheer number of movies nominated. For several decades, the Academy had nominated just five movies, but this year it doubled the number to 10.

The increase is: 1) an attempt to boost TV ratings by adding movies that more people may have actually, you know, seen; and 2) an attempt to increase box-office receipts and DVD sales by doubling the number of films that can now claim "Nominated for Best Picture!" in their advertising.

The Oscars are merely following the example set by pro sports leagues and the college football bowls -- the bottom line is, there is never a postseason that can't be expanded. The NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB have boosted profits and provided the illusion of greater parity by continually adding teams to their playoffs. College football keeps adding more bowl games, thereby increasing revenue and allowing more mediocre teams to claim a successful season. ("We went to the Meineke Car Care Bowl!")

The problem is, Hollywood is not making better movies (see "Bride Wars" and "Old Dogs"). Hollywood is simply deeming lesser movies great. Listen, I love movies -- but looking through the showtimes at my local multiplex each week, I can barely come up with a movie I even want to see, let alone nominate for Best Picture. There may be 20 screens, but 12 will be showing "New Moon," five will be showing "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," two will be showing "It's Complicated," and "Up in the Air" will be sold out.

Most years, it's difficult enough coming up with five legitimate Best Picture nominees -- honestly, who would want to sit through a repeat showing of "Moulin Rouge," "Gangs of New York," "The Hours" or "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"? Now the Academy has to come up with 10 nominees! Pretty soon we'll see a Michael Bay movie earning a Best Picture nomination, which would be the equivalent of the Pittsburgh Pirates or Detroit Lions making the playoffs.

If the Academy really wants to increase interest in movies, it should go all-out and follow the example of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Simply announce a 65-movie field at the start of February -- "Land of the Lost" versus "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" in the play-in game! -- and then have an hour-long "American Idol"-type show each weekend during which Academy voters debate, argue, and narrow the field in half until there is a Final Four.

This would be a huge hit. For crying out loud, people would tune in just to see who the Academy voters really are and how they justify their votes! (Who voted for "A Beautiful Mind," anyway?)

Sigh. All I know is, the Academy doubled the number of nominees, and "The Hangover" still didn't get a Best Picture nod. If that's the best they can do, instead of expanding the field to 10, they should have just narrowed it down to two: "Up" and "Up in the Air."

...but there's about a 0% chance I don't come up with some brackets and do this myself.

I agree with both what the guy said and the idea of you doing a brackets. I only now wish that I had seen more movies this year so I could participate.

Perhaps we can be given time to watch the movies before we have to vote.

As a fan of the 2009 New Mexico Bowl Champion Wyoming Cowboys, I take umbrage with this.

I'm just doing my own brackets. Started with the 40 movies that have been nominated, then added 24 movies that I've either seen or did really well at the box office.

Here's the field (in alphabetical order):

9
2012
(500) Days of Summer
A Serious Man
A Single Man
An Education
Angels & Demons
Avatar
Bright Star
Brothers
Bruno
Burma VJ
Coco before Chanel
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Coraline
Crazy Heart
District 9
Duplicity
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Food, Inc.
Funny People
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Il Divo
In the Loop
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Julie & Julia
Knowing
Nine
Paranormal Activity
Paris 36
Precious
Public Enemies
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
State of Play
Taken
Terminator Salvation
The Blind Side
The Cove
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The Informant!
The Last Station
The Lovely Bones
The Men Who Stare at Goats
The Messenger
The Most Dangerous Man in America
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
The Soloist
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The White Ribbon
The Young Victoria
The Young Victoria
Transformers
Up
Up in the Air
Watchmen
Where the Wild Things Are
Which Way Home
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Zombieland


I'm going to seed them randomly...

Ha, what a redundant statement. It's like the guy thought "I'm going to make an incredibly generalised claim and then back it up with the 2 examples that most suit my argument, without setting any basis for comparison." Yes, compared to Fight Club and American Beauty, those films are clearly not any better. Compared with Gigli and Walk Hard, I would argue that Hollywood has improved dramatically in the last year.


Hey Joey, ship me copy of your blank bracket to fill in (please include the seeds in it though), thanks.

Here's my blank bracket:

Edit: I forgot that my random seeding function keeps functioning until I tell it to stop. So this bracket isn't what I filled out.

I changed the seeding order and filled it in, making the titles bold for films I've actually seen. When I was done I realised I had only seen 6 and had a film I haven't watched yet winning (I expect to like Inglourious Basterds, I'm watching it tonight). So, it's not really worth posting my results. The only films I've seen from that list that are deserving of a top 4 spot are A Serious Man and An Education.

My final four turned out to be Inglorious Basterds (winner), The Hurt Locker (runner-up), Up, and Avatar.

So no real surprises there.

Some movies went farther than I would have liked and some didn't go far enough, but that's the way the cookie crumbles or something.

I filled out the left side of the bracket and had UP going against IG in the final four. I found it odd how easily both these films cruised through each match.

I'm waiting for the proper seeding and brackets with more difficult match-ups.


edit: well there it is. bah

Were you looking for something in particular re: seedings? Maybe by box office..?

Frankly, I don't think the Oscars should necessarily be about rewarding artistic merit only. That's what Sundance/Cannes/etc. are for...some might say that's why they're called "film festivals". I think the Oscars should be about rewarding movies or films (or however you want to classify them) that are the most rewarding for the general public while still maintaining a measure of integrity and artistic merit. Sometimes that will be something like Gladiator that leans towards pure entertainment, and sometimes it will be something like American Beauty that's more on the artsy end of the spectrum. I like the fact that either type of movie if done well enough, or something in the middle, can win.



Don't you ever badmouth Forrest Gump again.

Nah, you're bracket and seedings were good there.

A couple of upsets in the early rounds with your picks but ultimately I agree with the elite 8 and beyond.

No way 500 Days of Summer beats Where the Wild Things Are.

Where the Wild Things Are got SCREWED in the oscar noms.


Also: Did you mean to put Young Victoria in twice?

You didn't like Walk Hard? Really? Sure, some of it was dumb, but as far as parodies go, it was better than Scary Movie, for example.

The selected are the ones I would like to see win in categories in which I've actually seen more than one of the movies or in categories in which I even care about.

Actor in a Leading Role

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

Actor in a Supporting Role

* Matt Damon in “Invictus”
* Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
* Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
* Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
* Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Animated Feature Film

* “Coraline” Henry Selick
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
* “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
* “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
* “Up” Pete Docter


Art Direction

* “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
* “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
* “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
* “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

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

Directing

* “Avatar” James Cameron
* “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow (It would obviously be ok if Cameron won also, but I just don't like him and it would be great if the woman he cheated on beat him.)
* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
* “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Film Editing

* “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
* “District 9” Julian Clarke
* “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
* “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Music (Original Score)

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

Best Picture

* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

I'd be happy with either one.

Visual Effects

* “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
* “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
* “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton


Writing (Original Screenplay)

* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

That. Movie. Was. AWESOME.

My only gripe: I wish Neal from Freaks and Geeks had lasted til the end instead of Ryan from the Office. Other than that it was perfect. My heart was literally racing for the last half an hour, and it wasn't because some faggy blue CGI man was waltzing around a faggy CGI jungle in 3D.

Dude!

Also, does it seem to anyone else like James Horner has a dial in his studio marked "Solo String/Full Orchestra" and all he does is twist it from one extreme to another?

Don't worry, that's really not a spoiler. The whole film is full of gore and violence, so me revealing the order in which two characters leave the film isn't going to ruin it for you at all. Note: I didn't say whether either or both die, survive, desert, go missing, whatever, you still don't know what happens to them at all. Don't sweat it. Watch the goddamn movie and enjoy it, you'll have plenty of surprises.

p.s. I added spoiler tags to my post, so if you could edit your quote of it then maybe it won't piss off anyone else.

I know you're just playing around, but you really can't say this until you actually see the movie, you know, in a 3D theater. Really. I mean, everyone has been saying the same thing. People you trust: JJJ, Speedz, BigD, brvheart, have all said that it's really unexplainable how great the visuals are. You really should see it. BigD said that he even went in with his expectation level high and was still blown away.

Dude. (and by dude, I mean pretty lady.) He wrote the Braveheart score. Enough said. Free pass for eternity.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Horner


Edit: He also wrote Glory. Double free pass.

How do you guys rate films you have yet to see?

Counterargument: while there is plenty of motion and face capture, you still felt the need to put "acted" in quotes.

I would guess that Joey did it on his bracket based on reviews from people that he trusts, like someone on the board, or Roger Ebert or something. It's easy to make a general guess if someone with consistently equal tastes really loved it.

Thanks...I've always kind of wanted to watch this and keep putting it off for no particular reason, but your excitement over it has put me over the edge. I'm going to rent it tomorrow night, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's nice to have something to look forward to during 4 hours of class and 8 hours of studying.

Counter-counterargument: I think that was because I'm not sure "acted" works as an adjective, rather than because avatar doesn't really fall into that category.

I thought Avatar was a joke before I saw it too.

Now I think it's a must see. Best film? Maybe not, but you should see it. It's entertaining as hell.