Tuesday, February 24, 2009

81st Academy Awards--The Winners

BEST PICTURE
Slumdog Millionaire - Christian Colson, Producer

BEST DIRECTOR
Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

BEST ACTOR
Sean Penn - Milk

BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet - The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Milk - Dustin Lance Black

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Departures - Japan

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Man on Wire

ANIMATED FEATURE
WALL-E

ART DIRECTION
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Slumdog Millionaire - Anthony Dod Mantle

COSTUME DESIGN
The Duchess - Michael O'Connor

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Smile Pinki

FILM EDITING
Slumdog Millionaire - Chris Dickens

MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Greg Cannom

ORIGINAL SCORE
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman

ORIGINAL SONG
Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire - Music by A.R. Rahman, LyricS by Gulzar

SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight - Richard King

SOUND MIXING
Slumdog Millionaire - Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
La Maison en Petits Cubes - Kunio Kato

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Spielzeugland (Toyland) - Jochen Alexander Freydank

5 comments:

Bob Keller said...

On a very tiny note, I felt Penn should win the Oscar and was pleased that he did.

I've read all your many recent Oscar posts with interest, but I do not hold them in the same high regard you (J) do.

In fact, most nominations are pretentious, reflecting the best of nothing.

J McKiernan said...

You don't hold what in the same high regard that I do? The posts or the Oscars?

Bob Keller said...

The Oscars......

I hold your writing and criticism in very high regard.

Bob Keller said...

I do enjoy the Oscars and always have..... But often felt the Academy doesn't even understand really great movies, let alone nominate them for awards.


While we might all disagree with the rankings of the AFI Top 100 Movies of all time, it is telling that only 32 of the AFI Top 100 movies ever won the Best Picture Award.

Even more telling is that over 35 of the Best Picture Winners didn't even make the Top 100 list.

I am even more critical of the nominees and winners over the last three or four years. The Academy is really out of touch with the craft they are supposed to represent.

J McKiernan said...

Well, please don't confuse my praise for the Oscar telecast with praise for the *awards* themselves.

OF COURSE the Academy is completely out of step with most truly great films and performances. They always have been. The Academy by definition means that collective thinking trumps independent thinking. That's why it's so easy to read the tea leaves and make yearly predictions...after so many years of seeing how the Academy operates within the industry, it's a fairly easy forecast.

My reaction to the SHOW was for just that...the show. It was, for the first time in several years, a fun show to watch. Hugh Jackman was one of the best hosts ever...I really believe that. And the tweaks Condon and Mark made as producers were strong and interesting. But I, as all movie lovers and film critics are, have plenty of enmity reserved for Oscar's annual predictability.

There are plenty of examples, but here's the most high-profile example: I have written more than once about my feeling that only two of this year's Best Picture nominees--"Slumdog" and "Milk"--actually deserved to be there. "Frost/Nixon" was strong but not Top 5 material, and the inclusion of "Ben Button" and "The Reader" was a travesty. And there are plenty more undeserving films nominated in a lot of other categories.

I will say one thing, though. "Slumdog Millionaire" is about as deserving as any Best Picture winner in recent memory. If "WALL-E" had been in the mix, it would have been a different story. But "Slumdog" is a classic, and in a year filled with predictable, safe nominations, it was a truly deserving winner.