The Oscars Have Begun!

It's currently 7:17, the Oscars have officially started...well...the red carpet has officially started, but that's totally apart of the Oscars. Check back periodically, I'll be doing my best to do a live update, so check back periodically if you can't watch the Oscars live.

Red Carpet: Kate Winslet=Hot
Brad and Angelina=In a Hurry
Amy Adams=Hot
Anne Hatheway=hmmm

7:20, here come the guys with the winning envelopes! They're walking sooooooo slow.

Penelope Cruz=Classic/Gorgeous
Jack Black=Akward...kinda funny...maybe drunk

7:27, Montage of the Oscars new set and musical direction. Band on stage, classic jazz band stands, LOT OF CRYSTALS...hmmm, don't know how I feel about this... I'll find out in 3min.

7:38, the set wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, but it feels like there's a lot less stage space than in the past. The stage is just a little higher than the floor space and the seats go right up to the stage because they got rid of the orchestra pit. Because of this, Hugh Jackman keeps going into the audience to harass the actors, it gives the Oscars a feel that is much like SNL...I don't think it works for the Oscars. Hugh Jackman's opening musical montage was pretty entertaining.

7:41, Montage of women accepting Oscars. I thought one of the changes they were making to the Oscar's was no more montages, except for the Lifetime Achievement Award.

7:43, WOW they have 5 women presenting the award for Best Supporting Actress.

The Nominees Are:
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

It's weird...instead of doing a small clip for each nominee each of the five presenters is giving a small description of the actress' roles. I really hope they don't do this for the whole show, I'd rather watch a small clip.

And The Best Supporting Actress of 2008 goes to:

Penelope Cruz

This makes me happy. It was a great movie, with a great cast, and she is just an amazing woman.

And she gave an eloquent speech. I love that woman.

7:53, Good intro for best screenplay, Tina Fey and Steve Martin are great. It seems like this year at the Oscars they're spending more time introducing the presenters than the nominees.

And the Nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Milk
WALL-E

And the Best Original Screenplay of 2008 is:

Milk

Milk, I think is a bit of an upset. I think WALL-E should have one. It's harder to make up a story than adapt a person's real life, you've already got the story here. The politics of the Oscars are already taking affect.

7:59, Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

And the Best Adapted Screenplay of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

I'm ok with this.


8:03, Montage of animated movies. The music is overbearing and obnoxious, it feels kind of slapped together or very similar to an art students re-appropriation project.

Nominees For Best Animated Feature:
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

And the Best Animated Feature of 2008 is:

WALL-E

Sweet!

8:08, Nominees for Animated Short Film:
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory - Love Story
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

And the Best Animated Short of 2008 is:

La Maison en Petits Cubes

This makes me happy, I actually had the chance to see the shorts screen, this one deserved to win. Aw, the poor guy accepting the award can hardly speak English, but it made it ok when he finished his speech with "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto."

8:15, Nominees for Best Art Direction:

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

And the Best Art Direction of 2008 is:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Ok, this is Bullshit. Yes, the art director had to figure things out for multiple decades, but here's the thing...there were a lot of problems with their art direction. The thing that gave it away was that some times cars wouldn't match the time period. It wasn't consistent enough for this to be the best art direction of 2008. It should have gone to The Dark Knight, it was consistent and it created a world.

Nominees for Best Costume Design:

Revolutionary Road
The Dutchess
Milk
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Australia

And the Best Costume Design of 2008 is:

The Dutchess

Nominees for Best Make-Up:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

And the Best Make-Up of 2008 is:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This deserved to win, they freakin' put Brad Pitts face on another guys body! AND CHANGED HIS AGE!

8:25, The guy from Twilight looks like such a creeper. I don't know why you girls find him sooooo attractive. Romance 2008 Montage

8:29, Stay Tuned for a short by Judd Apatow.

8:31, OOOOOHHHH MY GOD, I love Natalie Portman, Ben Stiller is making fun of Jaoquin Phoenix by wearing sun glasses and a big fake beard.

The Nominees for Best Cinematography:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight
Changeling
The Reader

And the Best Cinematography of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

Hmmm, I think Dark Knight should have one, it did so many new things with the camera, it was the first movie to use an IMAX camera for a feature length film, it was so much harder. The cinematographer for Slumdog just replicated previous styles of Danny Boyle, nothing new. Yes the movie looked gorgeous, but nothing new.

8:38, Jessica Biel is a bad presenter..."joke...(Wait for laugh...shit! Where's my laugh?)"

8:42, Judd Apatow short with Seth Rogan and James Franco. It's their characters from Pineapple Express sit down and watch movies that weren't nominated for best movie.

Nominees for Best Live Action Short:

Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

And the Best Live Action Short of 2008 is:

Spielzeugland (Toyland)

I can agree with this.

8:52, Another Hugh Jackman musical number with surprise guest Beyonce. They're going through a musical montage of movie musicals. This is slightly ridiculous and awesome at the same time. "THE MUSICAL IS BACK!" - Hugh Jackman

9:02, Nominees for Best Supporting Actor:
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

And the Best Supporting Actor of 2008 is:

Heath Ledger

This was well deserved, I don't care what any of you think or say. Ben Kingsly was totally dosing off during the acceptance speech.

9:11, Documentary Montage. Why is Bill Mahr at the Oscars...oh wait...I guess he did do a documentary this year.

Nominees for Best Documentary:
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

The Best Documentary of 2008 is:

Man on Wire

This was really good, it deserved to win. Haha, the star of the documentary crepily worked his way on stage and did some magic and balanced the Oscar on his chin.

Noninees for Best Documentary Short Subject:
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

And the Best Short Subject Documentary Short Subject of 2008 is:

Smile Pinki

Didn't know anything about these, so I have no opinion.

9:23, Action Montage
Nominees for Best Visual Effects:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

And the Best Visual Effects of 2008 are:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I'm glad the Academy got this one right.

Nominees for Best Sound Editing:
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

The Best Sound Editing of 2008 is:

The Dark Knight

SWEET!!!! I wanted this to win, but didn't think it'd win.

The Nominees for Best Sound Mixing:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

And the Best Sound Mixing of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

I'll take it, the soundtrack was really cool.

Will Smith is still on stage presenting.

Nominees for Best Editing:
Frost/Nixon
The Dark Knight
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Best Editing of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

This is deserved, Danny Boyle's style requires some crazy editing.

9:41, The Jean Hersholt Award goes to - Jerry Louis

9:50, Scores Montage
Nominees for Best Original Score:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E

The Best Original Score of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

They got another one right.

Nominees for Best Original Song:
Slumdog Millionaire - O-Saya and Jai Ho
WALL-E - Down to Earth

The Best Original Song of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire: Jai Ho

I really would have liked to see Peter Gabriel there perform, but I give him mad props for choosing not to perform. Read up on it here.

10:06, Nominees for Best Foreign Film:
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

And the Best Foreign Film of 2008 is:

Departures (Japan)

I didn't see any of these, I have no opinion.

10:10, The In Memoram, was nice, but not suited for TV, there were lots of little projections on the stage, doesn't work too well for TV, it was so hard to see what was going on. And I think they skipped Heath Ledger.

10:18, Nominees for Best Director:
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant, Milk
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

The Best Director of 2008 is:

Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle has been working so hard now and he deserved to finally get this. He's a very under rated director.

It looks like the Oscars might end before midnight for the first time in awhile.

10:25, Best Actress winners montage.
Nominees for Best Actress:
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader

And the Best Actress of 2008 is:

Kate Winslet

WOOOO! She's NEVER EVER WON AN OSCAR! It's kinda funny though that she wins the Oscar for a movie where in ever other awards ceremony she was nominated for best supporting actress. But at least she got an Oscar.

10:36, Montage of Best Actor Winners. PS: Who introduced Michael Douglas? Some def woman? When I find out the answer I'm probably gonna feel like an asshole, but that was weird.
Nominees for Best Actor:

Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

And The Best Actor of 2008 is:

Sean Penn

I still need to see this movie...I feel bad for having not seen it.

10:47, Steven Spielberg!!!! Best Picture Winners/Nominees Montage
Best Picture Nominees:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

The Best Picture of 2008 is:

Slumdog Millionaire

Saw this coming a mile away, but I think it was well deserved. I haven't seen all the noms, so I don't know for sure.