The 2008 Oscar roundup
The Oscars were reasonably short (3:17), reasonably entertaining, and not terribly surprising. Jon Stewart was very funny (Gaydolf Titler!), Helen Mirren was elegant even while saying the word “cojones,” and a whole lot of foreigners won awards. Several of the acceptance speeches were actually quite touching and sweet, which is rare.
I correctly predicted 13 out of 24, same as last year. I note that while I intentionally avoided matching Entertainment Weekly’s predictions in the short categories because of their poor track record, this year we split: EW got the documentary short right, I got the animated short, and we both missed the narrative short.
The big winner of the night was “No Country for Old Men.” That’s only the second time since I started doing top 10 lists in 1999 that my pick for the year’s best film actually won the Oscar for Best Picture. (The other time was “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”) Am I starting to have the same tastes as the Academy? Am I turning into an old white liberal rich man? I hope so!
“No Country” won four prizes. The second biggest haul was three awards for … “The Bourne Ultimatum”? It won all three of its categories (editing, sound editing, and sound mixing) — not bad, considering the first two “Bourne” films didn’t even get nominated for anything.
After the jump, the complete list of winners, in case you didn’t watch the show and haven’t been anywhere else on the Internet yet today.
PICTURE: “No Country for Old Men”
DIRECTOR: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”
ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Diablo Cody, “Juno”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “The Counterfeiters” (Austria)
ANIMATED FEATURE: “Ratatouille”
ORIGINAL SCORE: Dario Marianelli, “Atonement”
ORIGINAL SONG: “Falling Slowly,” from “Once”
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Elswit, “There Will Be Blood”
ART DIRECTION: “Sweeney Todd”
COSTUME DESIGN: “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
MAKEUP: “La Vie en Rose”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: “Taxi to the Dark Side”
SOUND MIXING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
SOUND EDITING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
VISUAL EFFECTS: “The Golden Compass”
FILM EDITING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
SHORT FILM - ANIMATED: “Peter & the Wolf”
SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION: “Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: “Freeheld”
Total awards:
4: “No Country for Old Men”
3: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
2: “There Will Be Blood,” “La Vie en Rose”
1: “Michael Clayton,” “Juno,” “The Golden Compass,” “The Counterfeiters,” “Ratatouille,” “Atonement,” “Once,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” “Taxi to the Dark Side”
February 25th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I’m torn on the Visual Effects award. The Transformers loss may cause Mikey Bay to either give up on the one thing he does really well, or it may inspire him to redouble his efforts (which means everything else in his movies will have to suffer). I wonder what we will see…..
February 25th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Neil, I don’t think that the other aspects of Michael Bay’s movies could be suffering any more. He might as well just put them out of their misery and make an entire movie of just CGI effects and things exploding, with no dialog.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:31 am
cojones.
that is all.
February 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am
When are DVRs going to be able to properly watch TV for you and realize a show has gone over and keep recording until it’s done?! Luckily I the only award I cared about was Animated Film and that was taken care of rather early on in the broadcast.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I liked Tilda Swinton’s win — I was rooting for her — but was disappointed that she didn’t use the great British word, ‘gobsmacked’. Pity.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:54 am
All I can say is THANK GOD ‘ONCE’ WON FOR BEST SONG!!! That was the only award I found myself caring about at all. The Enchanted Songs were lovely, but “Falling Slowly” and the movie in general REALLY needed to be recognized.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Pretty psyched to see Bourne Ultimatum win some awards. Maybe they were awarding both Supremacy and Ultimatum like they did back with Lord of the Rings? Does anyone care?
February 25th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I was so happy to see “Once” win for best song too! I don’t care what Eric says, “Falling Slowly” is a beautiful song.
Catty remark: Did someone tell Diablo Cody she was going to a costume party? She forgot to put the bone in her hair. For the record, I have no problem with individuals expressing their personal style through dress, even if it comes out weird, as long as it is appropriate for the occasion (see Tilda Swinton). Cody bugged me because she appeared not even to try to dress formally, which said to me, “I’m too cool to conform to your silly traditions in any way.” That’s probably just me though.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Oh, Tilda Swinton and her awesome craziness… I love her so much. Why was she wearing a black satin (or whatever that was) sack?