Craig Walker

The audience at The Kodak Theatre loved the fact that Hugh was onstage, and he broke the 4th wall immediately by interacting with the assembled stars, physically as well. It was a bold move, and perhaps only Billy Crystal could have equally carried it off. As far as the performance goes? I think he was nervous. He had the weight of carrying the concept of 'rejuvenating the Oscars' on his shoulders and that is NOT a small weight to bear. He did go off tune at times, but remember that he was live, and dancing, and NOT lip-synching, but that honest, good-humoured, charming, smile NEVER wavered.

Technical flubs abounded throughout the night (which were not Hugh's fault). The Sound Mixer should be shot, or at least banned from any live work. Steve, the curtain-puller, also won't be working again (anytime soon) either. I think they changed something partway through as Will Smith had to do one of Hugh's pieces on the construction of a feature film, and whilst Hugh kept the pace going, I found the idea a little contrived.

I must add that I really liked the idea of having a past recipient of a Major Award come out and give their own thourhs on the performance of the nominee. The sheer star-power onstage during any one of those moments was awe-inspiring.

Highpoints included: The musical numbers (thank the GODS they brought them back), the Award for Jerry Lewis, Best Documentray, Best Supporting Actor Award and response, Sarah Jessica Parker's breasts, Kate Winslet's breathing, Anne Hathaway's memorable Richard Nixon, and the animator who thanked his pencil.

As far as the actual Awards, themselves, are concerned...

ART DIRECTION:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
^{I was surprised, but I can see why. I may not agree with the choice in this one, but I can follow the logic.}

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{("A 4-Way split which I can't choose - but if I were pushed I would choose SLUMDOG" and so it was).}

BEST COSTUME:
THE DUCHESS
^{Seriously, a feast of sumptuous costuming, which was the best in the category by far.}

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Heath Ledger for THE DARK KNIGHT
^{This was a foregone concusion, though some thought of the outside possibility of Phillip Seymour Hoffman taking it away from him for "Doubt". However, in my mind there never was any doubt. Well deserved, and an explosion of cheers with a standing ovation made for a genuine misty-eyed moment.}

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Penelope Cruz for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
^{What The Fuck??? How?????? A bitter dissappointment, and perhaps only as a bit of a nod to Woody Allen moreso than anything to do with La Cruz's performance (it felt like she simply phoned in the performance). IMO Marissa Tomei and Amy Adams were seriously gypped.}

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
WALL.E
^{There was NO other competition in this category. The other two entries were very very strong, it's just that WALL.E was light-years better. I believe that this should possibly be renamed the Disney/Pixar Animation Award.}

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
MAN ON WIRE
^{Whilst I liked it a lot, I liked Werner Herzog's "Encounters..." more, although the acceptance speech was great and DID give one of the real magic moments of the night.}

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
SMILE PINKI
^{A winner from left-field, even more obvious as the recipient was seated WAY in the back. The problem here is not being able to see all the entries and so I have taken steps to try and confirm this for next year (hopefullythe Academy will send me screeners of the short subjects next year [Yes, I HAVE asked]).}

BEST EDITING:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^Absolutely.

BEST FOREIGN FILM:
OKURIBITO
^{Honestly, even in this strong a field there was NO other choice for me than "Waltz With Bashir", so I even write it down as the winner, when out of left-field came the one we hadn't seen (from Japan). Maybe I should add 'Foreign Films to my request from the Academy.}

BEST MAKEUP:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
^{Again... What. The. Fuck???? IMO this was a travesty, and an opinion shared by everyone in the room (and there was almost half the room having professional experience in film there). So...now digital compositing gets the nod for a makeup award? WTF? I don't think so, and a strongly worded "Please explain what drugs you are on??" email to the Academy is in order for this. CG has it's places and it's own award/s. Make-up is a physical thing, and the only film which consistently raised the bar in the category was "Hellboy II".}

BEST ORIGINAL (MUSIC) SCORE:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{All scores were pretty spot-on, though I agree with Amaya that "Slumdog..." did have a lot of repetition throughout, so I guess I was hoping for "Wall.E" (even though it really was a coin-toss)}

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
"Jai Ho" from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{I agree. It is a good number and a great moment at the end of the film. However, the performance of the three songs ("O Saya", "Down To Earth" and "Jai Ho") was the real winner of the night, where the Musical Director skillfully meshed all three songs in a Bollywood/Broadway manner which has everyone in the house, and at the Awards, cheering.}

SHORT FILM ANIMATED:
LA MAISON UN PETITE CUBES
^{A winner from left-field (like "Pinki...") but this time I managed to see almost 3/4 of the entries, because I went spare seeing bits and pieces online so I could get a fair idea as to what they were like. Like all the other short subjects, seeing these is a real crap-shoot because you either catch them at Festivals or see what you can online. Again, I have written to the Academy for their suggestions (even though they have screenings for them in L.A, WE don't get to see them and that sucks). I also like the fact that it was a Japanese animator making a French animation who also thanked his pencil :)}

SHORT FILM LIVE ACTION:
SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)
^{Again, like the other short subjects, maybe we'll see tghem all next year. Thanks to Flickerfest for getting me to see "Manon...", but from what I saw piecemeal online, the winner well deserved it.}

BEST SOUND EDITING:
THE DARK KNIGHT
^{I was surprised, but not disappointed.}

BEST SOUND MIXING:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{Should NOT have gotten the gong, as "Wall.E"'s sound design was not only wide in scope, but had the balls to use no dialogue, just sounds for language.}

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
^{A VERY strong field, and well deserved, IMO. Although, some dissented and insisted that "The Dark Knight" deserved it more.}

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{I guess in this case I will HAVE to start seeing the films and instantly reading the material afterwards, to judge this category fairly.}

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
MILK
^{I still believe that my original choices were the right ones. "In Bruges" or "Wall.E" were better IMO}

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
JERRY LEWIS
^{I wasn't aware of this one, and it was wonderful to see the man get something which he richly deserves. In his lifetime he has personally raised 2 BILLION dollars for kids with muscular dystrophy, There are no words to express my admiration for that feat alone.}

BEST ACTOR:
Sean Penn for MILK
^{They ALL deserved it, but Sean Penn wore this role so completely.}

BEST ACTRESS:
Kate Winslet for THE READER
^{It was Kate's year (especially seeing that it was widely circulated that the Academy would have entered her for both if her films if they could) and amongst a powerhouse of competition, she shone out.}

BEST DIRECTOR:
Danny Boyle for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{Quite Dissappointing. Whilst "Slumdog..." was a good film, I believed that Ron Howard did a masterfully better job on "Frost/Nixon", so too did Gus Van Sant with "Milk" and were well-deserving of the award, moreso than Mr Boyle (in this instance).}

BEST PICTURE:
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
^{I picked it, as it had too much momentum from the other Awards shows. I still think that "Frost/Nixon" was better and "Milk" was better overall, but I guess Bio-pics were not the flavour of the year for the major gong.}

That's it for another year of Oscar (Awards-Show) madness. many MANY thanks to those who came by and braved the mugginess (and thunderstorms) to fill the house. A HUGE thanks goes out to arby_doll for all the cooking for the night (more than ably assisted by Ben, The Waiter).

(Although, you DO know that the TONY AWARDS are in June and the PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS start the ball rolling (again) in August this year)...

... I'll see you all there ;)