Ellington

The red carpet rolls out on Sunday, which happens to land smack dab in the middle of the International Documentary Challenge (www.docchallenge.org). For me, that means it will be a weekend of multi-tasking like a champ, and for most women, particularly those with a brood of kids, we do this with relative ease. (That's my mantra and I'm sticking to it.) If the editing system breaks down or there are other snafus on the doc front, I know I can kick back on Sunday and enjoy Oscar time.

Here are my 2010 Oscar picks in the order of the official Oscar ballot that I downloaded off the Academy Award website.

Leading Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, although if Morgan Freeman got it for Invictus, I would be happy too. In my opinion, Invictus never got its proper due.

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. Waltz stole the show, which is hard to do when your co-star is Brad Pitt who gets to say great stuff like "let's go get some Nazi scalps" and "I like my scalps."

Leading Actress: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. I interviewed Bullock at a red carpet premier in New Orleans. This was before all the Oscar buzz and asked her if she ever considered winning an Oscar for her extraordinary performance. She said she hadn't. She just fell in love with the role and the story. You go Sandra!

Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique in Precious. Mo'Nique is a wonderful comedian, but in Precious, she reinvents the term "raw."

Animated Feature: Up, which is also one of the ten films nominated for Best Picture.

Art Direction: Avatar, although Nine dazzles.

Cinematography: It's between Mauro Fiore for Avatar and Robert Richardson's Inglorious Basterds, but given the technical accomplishments (3D and all), Avatar will probably edge out.

Costume Design: I'm hemming and hawing between Coco before Chanel (haute couture) and Nine (haute and sexy). Then there's The Young Victoria (period haute). With absolutely no reason other than I love Fellini, I'll go with Nine.

Directing: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. I would be equally thrilled if Lee Daniels wins for Precious, but the real race here is between Bigelow and her ex-husband James Cameron for Avatar. Bigelow won the Director's Guild Award, and she is likely to win here. I've been a big fan of Bigelow's work for a long time, and she has proven that she can direct any genre.

Feature Documentary: The Cove. Who doesn't love dolphins?

Documentary Short: Who knows, but if I made the documentary in that category, I would care so I'm going with Rabbit a la Berlin. Never saw it, but the title is enticing.

Film Editing: The Hurt Locker. War films are based on great editing, although Avatar had some spectacular editing as well.
Foreign Language Film: Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon.

Makeup: Star Trek

Original Score: This is getting hard. Divining through the choices, I'm torn between Avatar and Up. Today, I pick Avatar.

Original Song: The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart. The music was terrific in Crazy Heart and I would think the two Disney songs, Almost There and Down in New Orleans, would split voters.

Short Film Animated: Another difficult category when I've never seen one of these films. Going with the clever title, A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Short Film Live Action: Miracle Fish. This is a sentimental pick. I have a fish. It's a miracle that O'Mara is still alive.

Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker

Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects: I'll go with Avatar on this one.

Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air, although Precious would be a great win.

Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker, although Inglourious Basterds is an audacious original.

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker. I would be ecstatic if Precious won, but the battle lines have been drawn between he Hurt Locker and Avatar, and I'm rooting for The Hurt Locker in that battle. It's all about war when it comes to best picture.

Let's see where the tea leaves fall on Sunday. Besides the glam, the surprises are the best part of the ceremony.

Previous Comments

ID

156534

Comment

Of course I've seen very few of these, but it will definitely be interesting to see how the Screenplay and Picture awards get divvied up this year and whether or not they're willing to split Director and Picture...with Bigelow getting Director and Avatar getting Picture. Too bad their isn't Best Roller Coaster so that Star Trek and Avatar could go head-to-head in something else. :-)

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2010-03-04T17:31:21-06:00

ID

156540

Comment

Although rather depressing, "Up in the Air" is a great movie. I really like "Crazy Heart" also. After months and months, The Blind Side is STILL playing right now in town... Wild. Really stinks The Hurt Locker never played here. No clue what "A Matter of Loaf and Death" is, but the title makes me what to see it.

Author

herman

Date

2010-03-05T08:53:27-06:00