Oscar Night 2009 is upon us with first-time host Hugh Jackman. Join us as we give almost-live coverage!
To start the awards, Jackman provided viewers with a solid opening that was effective and not too over-the-top. Then we moved right into the ceremony with five previous Best Supporting Actress winners coming on stage to say something nice about of this year’s five nominees. Tilda Swinton who was last year’s winner was the quarterback for this segment and she had the honor of announcing the winner.
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1) Winner for Best Support Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
This was unexpected but not undeserved – It was a rather difficult category to pick this year with all five nominees being almost equally likely winners. Personally, I would have gone with Taraji P. Henson from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Next we have Steve Martin and Tina Fey giving a good little skit to present the nominations for best Original Screenplay.
2) Winner for Best Original screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk
It was a touching acceptance speech and well-spoken (arguably the best acceptance of the night). Not wasting any time, Fey and Martin continue on to announce the nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay.
3) Winner for Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Next, Jennifer Anniston and Jack Black came out and tried to be funny and it didn’t work too well. However, Jack Black did made a joke about animated films and how he earns his money and it was pretty good. After playing a video of all the major animated features of the night, they eventually got to announcing the nominees for best animated feature and best animated short of the year.
4) Winner for Best Animated Feature: Wall-E (which was no surprise at all)
Andrew Stanton accepted the award and again we were a treated to a quick and efficient acceptance speech.
5) Winner for Best Animated Short: La Maison En Petits Cubes
So far, the awards have flown by and I think the Academy’s years of rushing people off stage have paid off (as cruel as that is). They’ve also had some of the presenters do multiple awards to keep things quick as opposed to constantly switching celebrities to announce each of the 24 categories. So far, they’ve tried to keep a light atmosphere with comedic presenters.
After the Commercial Break, Hugh announced the next presenters Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig (in James Bond attire) who gave a boring presentation just reading off the prompter. They announced the nominees and winners for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup.
6) Winner for Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This was the first category we see The Dark Knight involved in and the winner was a no-brainer as this movie clearly had the most extensive set design and behind-the-scenes work involved. The acceptors of the award gave much respect and recognition to director David Fincher.
7) Winner for Best Costume Design: The Duchess
It was almost painful to watch Craig and Parker making multiple mistakes reading off the prompter and missing their cues. As for the winner, it’s not my pick personally but this award does tend to go to the period pieces.
8 ) Winner for Best Makeup: Greg Cannom, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Next we have the Academy desperately trying to appease presenters the younger demographics with Robert Pattinson and Amanda Seyfried on stage to present a vignette of romance films of 2008 which hit many of the mainstream flicks of the year.
After the commercial break, Jackman introduced the presenters for Best Cinematography and to my delight Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller (sporting a funky beard to parody Joaquin Phoenix’s presence on the recent David Letterman show) came on stage. Stiller even re-enacted the gum incident by putting his chewing gum on the stand after Portman confronted him about it.
This was definitely one of the funniest moments of the night and as the beautiful Natalie Portman announced the nominees, Stiller walked around the stage with his cellphone out acting as if he was lost.
9) Winner for Best Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
Next we have another highlight of the night with James Franco and a skinnier Seth Rogen re-enacting a scene from Pineapple Express where they’re now watching all the non-Oscar nominated films and loving it while high on their drug of choice.
It was pretty funny watching them laughing their way through serious moments and terrible films like The Love Guru and it got even funnier when Franco noticed the film crew in his room and invited cinematographer to sit with them and watch. After the video, the three of them came out to announce the nominees for best Live Action Short.
10) Winner for Best Live Action Short: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
After the commercial break we have host Hugh Jackman back to discuss musicals and give a little one himself where he was joined by Beyonce Knowles in a classy red dress doing some great dancing accompanied by mediocre lip-syncing. The performance was later joined by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical Fame as well as Amanda Seyfried from Mamma Mia.
Another commercial break and we are given a similar to the setup for The Best Supporting Actress award, where five previous winners of the Best Supporting Actor award came out to praise this years nominees of the same category.
Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken, Cuba Gooding Jr. Kevin Kline and Joel Grey were the presenters and Cuba Gooding stood out by harping on (and at the same time praising) Robert Downey Jr.’s performance from Tropic Thunder.
11) Winner for Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (obvious).
Next we have a nice video showcasing the directors of 2008’s best Documentaries.
12) Winner for Best Documentary: Man on Wire
This was an awesome acceptance by the star of the documentary who gave us a nice little magic trick with his lucky coin followed by a balancing act involving the Oscar award and his chin.
13) Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject: Smile Pinki
Next, Jackman presented a video of many of the big action scenes of 2008 followed by welcoming Will Smith to the stage to present the nominees for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Editing.
14) Winner for Best Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
15) Winner for Best Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
16) Winner for Best Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight earns its first award of the night and Benjamin Button wins another. They’re really trying to get these awards for behind-the-scenes work out of the way quick.
17) Winner of Best Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Next we have Eddie Murphy come out on stage to announce the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis who received an honorable standing ovation from the star-studded audience.
Continuing the need to meet the youth quota, Zac Efron and Alicia Keys came on stage to present the nominees for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
18) Winner for Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire (an obvious winner for its outstanding soundtrack and score)
19) Winner Best Original Song: “Jai Ho”, Slumdog Millionaire (another given for me, this song was awesome in the film and when presented live on stage before the winner was announced).
Next on stage are Liam Neeson joined by Freida Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire to present best Foreign Film.
20) winner for Best Foreign Film: Departures
After a song by Queen Latifah Hugh Jackman honors the present of the Academy Awards who’s stepping down this year. After this, Reese Witherspoon is introduced by Hugh Jackman to announce the nominees for Best Director.
21) Winner for Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Mr. Boyle gave a nice little dance to keep a promise made to his kids. It was cute and he deserved this award.
As we’re in the final stretch of the show, the next major award is for Best Actress and again they brought out five previous winners including Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman to honor this year’s nominees. I like this strategy and it’s better than just having a winner from the Best Actor/Actress category of the previous year.
22) Winner for Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Finally, Kate has won! Meryl Streep was amazing in Doubt but she’s had 15 nominations and several wins before. It’s time for Ms. Winslet to share in the glory and you can tell from her speech that she really wanted it.
For the Best Actor award, presenters Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Sir Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins and Adrian Brody (all past winners) have come on stage to praise this year’s nominees. Robert De Niro was especially funny in talking about Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley had very nice things to say about Brad Pitt and Mickey Rourke, respectively.
23) Winner for Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Sean Penn wins another for his outstanding performance in Milk and he gave a funny opening line in his acceptance speech. He ended his speech touching on a serious note and preaching for equal rights for which he received a loud applause. He also gave credit to Mickey Rourke whom I thought may win this award.
Stephen Spielberg is next on stage to present the nominees and award for the final and most important category of the night: Best Picture.
24) Winner for Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
I’m happy that Slumdog Millionaire beat out The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I thought Button was great but it was missing some elements that Forrest Gump had and that’s what it is always compared to. I thought Slumdog was the best overall film of the year and it did deserve this award.
So there you have it folks, the summary of this evening’s 81st Academy Awards and all of the winners.
All-in-all, the night was a slight improvement over previous years. I think the big problem this year was with the nominations and certain omissions in certain categories.
What did you think of this year’s Oscar awards and what would you like to see improved for next year’s?
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114 Comments
@Tricia
So, were the OTHER actors who received applause “God?”
Just wondering.
@greenknight
See Tricia’s comment for your answer.
Vic
Come on, greenknight333, English Patient is a heartwarming tale of love and loss.
The Wrestler got shafted. Not even a nom for best picture, which it should have won! At least Rourke got nominated, and I haven’t seen Milk so I guess I can’t vouch for if Penn deserved it more, but I was really hoping for a win for Rourke.
@greenknight
Hey, don’t diss The English Patient…it cured my insomnia!
I forgot the awards were on but I did see Slumdog yesterday and I did enjoy it. I wouldn’t, however, see it again because it didn’t leave that type of impact on me. On the other hand, I would see Iron Man, Hancock, TDK, Incredible Hulk over and over again because of the entertainment.
Charleston Heston, IMHO, deserves all the kudos of any actor out there. Regardless if you agree with his stand on gun control or not, the man has starred in some of the greatest movies of all time. At this moment, I applaud you Mr. Heston, and rest in peace.
English Patient is
a heartwarmingan adulterous tale of love and loss.Unless I’m recalling incorrectly.
Vic
I loved Charlton Heston. On my top 5 favorite actor radio/podcast, Heston is number one. While he may not be the best actor of all time, he certainly had a powerful screen presence with a great voice and line delivery. The Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, The Omega Man and Earthquake, the guy stood tall on screen. I know I applauded when his image came on screen last night.
Chuck
@Evie: I mentioned cases where awards were largely thought to be handed to the wrong nominees. If the awards do look beyond entertainment (to more important factors), then the show has a great record of truly stuffing up.
does anybody know if the voice that introduced Michael Douglas during The Best Actor segment was his Father Kirk Douglas ?
If somebody taped it,
Please check .
Its been bugging me all day!
I like Heston’s roles for the most part..
I respect him as an actor and he should have been shown at least that repsect from his peers on Oscar night..
@ John “Kahless” Taylor
Hey, don’t diss The English Patient…it cured my insomnia
Dude I laughed so hard I hurt my tenders!! That was good…
I’d rather be given an enema, have colonoscopy without sedation and then pass a kidney stone the size of a clementine than watch that film again(okay I’m overexaggerating but you get my drift)
Now Vic there is a real example of self-indulgence and pretentiousness from those film-makers..
@greenknight
Ah, thanks for the reminder that we share SOME common ground.
Vic
Hey Vic..Little from Column A and a little from column B dude!! There is always common ground to be found..
Cheers
I didn’t watch the shameless pretentious back slapping fun that is the Oscars. Shame I know, but there are a few actors I won’t spend money on cause I really don’t like them. Sean Penn is one of them, he’s an incredible actor no doubt, but I just can’t watch any movie he’s in.
Tricia, Heston is an icon, he isn’t GOD but he deserves some modicum of respect for his past works, even if you won’t watch him for his political beliefs. He believed in the 2nd amendment, don’t knock him for believing in the US constitution.
fan atics?
Sorry,
I just couldnt resist!
oops ! wrong thread again!
@ Tricia
So you’re one of the sheeple, I mean people who believe that criminals will follow gun laws? Aren’t they called “criminals” because they don’t follow laws? So why would you think if they banned guns or passed mroe gun laws that ALL OF A SUDDEN the people who go around robbing and killing people will wake up one day and be like “what? they banned guns? Man, I normally would ignore it and buy a gun off the street like I normally do, but I think I will follow this one law this one time!”
Get real. Charlton Heston was one of the FEW logical people in Hollywood that wasn’t dumb or naive enough to believe in all of the BS they typically push. Oh yes, we want it so that only the government has weapons and the sheeple have to hope they don’t take advantage of the power.
Many very successful politicians believed in gun control of the people, Hitler and Lenin just to name a few… Helped them rise to power.
So hey, if you’re so willing to give up your rights to protect yourself, then go ahead. I guess you can keep yor fingers crossed that nobody will attack you anytime, because without a means to protect yourself, all you can do is call 911 so they can come and take pictures of your body…
I prefer to not die, thanks. I’m just trying to keep the work load down for the cops, they have enough on their tables to have to investigate yet another murder case… It’s completely selfless, I SWEAR!
I loved Ben Hur as a kid .
Thats how I will remember Chrlton Heston.
AS a larger then life figure
Who gave me some great movie memories.
Actually I always preferred Charlton In Ben Hur Heston to Russel Crowe in Gladiator.
Of course you cant discuss gladiator movies without talking about Kirk Douglas in Spartacus.
Great film.
El Cid was another great Charlton Heston film.
I wonder,
which one was his favorite?
Also, if it was not for Heston, we wouldn’t have an Indiana Jones. Well, we would have, but in terms of look. Lucas take the look of Jones from a Heston movie!
Ken is on his gun-totting soapbox again!!
and Ken
“So hey, if you’re so willing to give up your rights to protect yourself, then go ahead”
Patriot Act Dude..already been done..they come for your guns next
Ken & greenknight
Let’s not ramp this up, ok? We all know it goes nowhere.
Thanks,
Vic
Heath’s passing was not included in the memorial montage because he died on Jan. 22nd of last year and was included in last year’s Oscars.
As for C Heston, I meant to say that he was not “a god” because I know that we often put entertainers and athletes on the level of being gods. They are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I know that Mr. Heston was a great actor, even tho I watched only a few of his movies with his role as Moses being the only one that I liked. (I watch the 10 Commandments every year). I didn’t like when he said “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people,” which is ridiculous. How many would have died at Columbine if those killers had not had assault weapons? Altho I too believe in the 2nd amendment and the right to own a gun to protect myself, I think we need more control in some areas. (My nephew died by an accidental shooting at a party of teens when a 19 year old was showing off his collection of guns).
I did as little research on Heston and found out that in the 50’s and 60’s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors actors who openly stood up against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Politically, I actually have more in common with his beliefs than I realized. So Mr. Heston, I applaud you!
SK47,
which Heston film inspired Indys look ?
Thats a fascinating tidbit which I didnt know.
Just being cheeky Vic!!
Cheers
Found it !
Heston played Harry Steele in Secret Of The Incas .
and he wore the jacket and the fedora!
Thanks for the tidbit SK47 and the follow-up Gary…
Cheers
@Tricia
I’m very sorry to hear about your nephew. Someone with a gun collection should have known better and taken more precautions.
FYI, Florida adopted a right-to-carry law in 1987. Anti-gun groups, politicians and the news media predicted the new law would lead to vigilante justice and “Wild West” shootouts on every corner.
Between 1987 and 1996, these changes occurred:
homicide rate
Florida: -36%
United States: -0.4%
firearm homicide rate
Florida: -37%
United States: +15%
handgun homicide rate
Florida: -41%
United States: +24%
In Japan, where guns are outlawed (and even the criminals don’t have them) murder and assault using knives as weapons is increasing. If someone is intent on hurting someone they WILL find a way, whether it be with a gun, a knife or a rock.
Vic
Here’s the only point I’ll make about guns and gun control:
Many of us here in America don’t trust the strangers around us to act right to begin with. It’s for that very reason that many of us feel the need to own guns: in case the strangers around us don’t act right.
However following that strain of logic to its end: we don’t trust the strangers around us, who might have guns, to act right. So we need a better gun than they have (shoot further, faster, etc.)
Even when we trust a gun owner we know to act right with her/his gun, there’s usually SOMEONE within that person’s circle who we don’t trust around the guns (crazy uncle Jerry, Aunt Flo who’s half blind, etc.)
The thing about guns is if one lands in the hands of someone irresponsible, even if that person is NOT a criminal; even if the gun belongs to a responsible owner (yes you can be “responsible” and have your gun fall into the wrong hands. STUFF HAPPENS), a gun is a weapon where, if one shot goes awary or off mark it’s not just the user or the person standing next to them who is in potential danger. It could be the child in the next house playing by the window, the mother doing the dishes–innocent uninvolved people. And the probability of that tragedy occurring is directly proportional to the caliber and type of the gun.
You don’t need an assault rifle to thwart or kill a mugger, carjacker or home invader. In any of those situations a Pistol will do the job. You DO need an assault rifle to get drunk and have target practice in the woods with your hillbilly friends; to highjack an armored car, rob a bank, or keep the government from storming your compound; or, to quote the Simpsons “To kill today’s super animals like the flying squirrel or electric eel.”
In fact, no debate needed. The NRA episode said it all.
Me, I don’t like guns. “They don’t allow you to savior, all the, little…emotions.”
That’s why I use a switchblade.
What’s your weapon of choice?
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