Film-Otaku Awards 2009

BEST PICTURE

AVATAR


2. Up in the Air
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. Summer Wars
5. Antichrist
6. The Hurt Locker
7. Star Trek
8. (500) Days of Summer
9. Moon
10. Inglourious Basterds

BEST DIRECTOR

JAMES CAMERON (AVATAR)


2. Lars von Trier (Antichrist)
3. Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
4. Jane Campion (Bright Star)
5. Jacques Audiard (Un Prophete)
6. Duncan Jones (Moon)
7. Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
8. Clint Eastwood (Invictus)
9. Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
10. Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox)

BEST ACTOR

VIGGO MORTENSEN (THE ROAD)


2. Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man)
3. Tahar Rahim (Un Prophete)
4. George Clooney (Up in the Air)
5. Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
6. Sam Rockwell (Moon)
7. Ben Foster (The Messenger)
8. Willem Dafoe (Antichrist)
9. Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days of Summer)
10. Ben Whishaw (Bright Star)

BEST ACTRESS

TILDA SWINTON (JULIA)


2. Abbie Cornish (Bright Star)
3. Michelle Pfeiffer (Cheri)
4. Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist)
5. Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
6. Kim Hye-ja (Mother)
7. Carey Mulligan (An Education)
8. Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)
9. Gabourey Sidibe (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)
10. Robin Wright-Penn (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

CHRISTOPH WALTZ (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS)


2. Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
3. Paul Schneider (Bright Star)
4. Niels Arestrup (Un Prophete)
5. Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker)
6. Alfred Molina (An Education)
7. Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes)
8. Robert Duvall (The Road)
9. Rhys Ifans (The Boat that Rocked)
10. Stephen Lang (Avatar)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MO'NIQUE (PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE)


2. Bianca Portillo (Broken Embraces)
3. Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
4. Marion Cotillard (Nine)
5. Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
6. Penelope Cruz (Nine)
7. Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds0
8. Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
9. Bailee Madison (Brothers)
10. Mozhan Marno (The Stoning of Soraya M.)

BEST SCREENPLAY

SCOTT NEUSTADTER, MICHAEL H. WEBER ((500) DAYS OF SUMMER)


2. Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (based on the novel by Walter Kim) (Up in the Air)
3. Lars von Trier (Antichrist)
4. Duncan Jones, Nathan Parker (Moon)
5. James Cameron (Avatar)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

FANTASTIC MR. FOX


2. Summer Wars
3. Coraline
4. Up
5. The Secret of Kells

BEST ART DIRECTION

SHERLOCK HOLMES


2. Moon
3. Red Cliff
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Avatar

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

ANTHONY DOD MANTLE (ANTICHRIST)


2. Philippe Rousselot (Sherlock Holmes)
3. Bruno Delbonell (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
4. Andrew Lesnie (The Lovely Bones)
5. Mauro Fiore (Avatar)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

JANET PATTERSON (BRIGHT STAR)


2. Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria)
3. Jenny Beavan (Sherlock Holmes)
4. Tim Yip (Red Cliff)
5. Consolata Boyle (Cheri)

BEST MAKEUP

STAR TREK


2. Zombieland
3. Dead Snow

BEST SCORE

BRUNO COULAIS (CORALINE)


2. Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
3. James Horner (Avatar)
4. Bruno Coulais (The Secret of Kells)
5. Michael Giacchino (Star Trek)

BEST SONG

"ALL IS LOVE" (WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE)


2. "Ponyo" (Ponyo)
3. "Aisling's Song" (The Secret of Kells)
4. "Cinema Italiano" (Nine)
5. "I See You" (Avatar)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

AVATAR


2. Star Trek
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
4. Where the Wild Things Are
5. The Lovely Bones

BEST ENSEMBLE

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS


2. The Boat that Rocked
3. An Education
4. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
5. In the Loop

BEST CAMEO PERFORMANCE

BILL MURRAY (ZOMBIELAND)


2. J.K. Simmons (Up in the Air)
3. Emma Thompson (The Boat that Rocked)

Coming Soon on Film-Otaku

With another Oscar year over, it's time to move on. Predicting nominees has always been much more fun than predicting winners.

Coming soon (sooner than would seem normal, in the third case haha) on this blog:

My 50 Favorite Films of the Past Decade (2000-2009)

Film-Otaku Awards 2009

Predictions on the 83rd Academy Awards

Winners of the 82nd Academy Awards

MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

The Hurt Locker

Predicted: Inglourious Basterds. The safest best. I just had to change my bet at the last minute to Basterds, thinking the preferential voting would benefit it. Oh well. I loved Avatar and wanted it to win, but while I still believe that it deserved to win, I'm happy for Locker and the people involved.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

First female winner of this category EVER. Very deserving, though James Cameron's achievements with Avatar are still mind-blowing and should have been rewarded more.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

He finally wins after the fifth nod. Can't say I was crazy about the performance (and as I still haven't seen A Single Man, can't say it's the best either), but the voters could have done much worse. He's a terrific actor.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Up until the last minute, I was still rooting for Meryl Streep, but there was no denying Sandra Bullock's momentum. Blah. Love her and the speech and the fact that she now has an Oscar, but over those other four? America's sweetheart indeed.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

The most deserving of the five by a mile.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)

Ditto here. Love her speech. It should never be about the campaigning!

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)

Predicted: Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). Tarantino's support within the Academy was not enough to have his creative script win over Boal's intense screenplay.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)

Predicted: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air). One of the biggest upsets of the night. Not really happy with the result here, as Up in the Air is easily the superior film.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Pete Docter (Up)

Duh. Though while I was watching the clips of the nominees (and the "interviews" with the leads), I found myself wondering what Princess and the Frog was doing lumped with all those excellent films.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Cove

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Argentina (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)

Less of a surprise than generally thought, as the film has been getting rave reviews and buzz.

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION

Avatar

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mauro Fiore (Avatar)

Predicted: Barry Ackroyd (The Hurt Locker). I'm happy that I'm wrong. Fiore deserves it.

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria)

How utterly predictable. I wish Janet Patterson had won.

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

Bob Murawski, Chris Innis (The Hurt Locker)

Predicted: John Refoua, Stephen Rivkin (Avatar). Come on. They should have given this to the Avatar team. Respect.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

Star Trek

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Michael Giacchino (Up)

I realized how great this score is when the nominees were being played.

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

"The Weary Kind" (Crazy Heart)

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

The Hurt Locker

Predicted: Avatar. This stings.

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

The Hurt Locker

Predicted: Avatar. Again.

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

"Music by Prudence"

Predicted: "China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province"

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

"Logorama"

Predicted: "A Matter of Loaf and Death"

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

"The New Tenants"

Predicted: "The Door"


Score: 14/24. As usual, the shorts got me. The major categories were much more easily predictable.

Who I Think Would Make a Great Captain America

The powers-that-be have yet to announce who they'll be casting as the iconic titular character in The First Avenger: Captain America, with names such as Chace Crawford (too pretty?) and John Krasinski (umm...nope) popping out. At the earliest stages of speculation, when Brad Pitt's name was being tossed around as the ideal Thor, Leonardo DiCaprio was being mentioned for this role. Leo's my favorite actor, so I wouldn't mind if it came to that, but I don't think they'll go that way.

There's another actor, recently surging in popularity and Oscar-nominated to boot, that I believe would be a very good Captain America. He's American (as the character's actor should be), a good actor, and he starred in an action movie with American sentiments (just something called The Hurt Locker). He's being rumored to be Hawkeye in the Avengers movie, but I'm thinking that might be a decoy...

JEREMY RENNER


And who else to play Nazi villain Red Skull but Christoph Waltz?

Final Oscar Predictions on Friday

At this point, The Hurt Locker still has the momentum (e-mail brouhaha and all), but any of the other big three (Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air) can still take it. It hasn't won anything recently, but I'm beginning to suspect a Basterds "upset." Hmm...