MD Poll: All Hail the King

With just over a day until the "real thing", it's time to take a look at the final results of our latest MD Poll and see what movies and performers would win the top Academy Awards If You Picked the Oscars:

At close to 30% of the vote, The King's Speech was victorious as your Best Picture pick. However, second place went to Black Swan over the heavily favored The Social Network, which placed third. Inception and Toy Story 3 round out the top five.

Just as expected for tomorrow night, Colin Firth easily topped the Best Actor race, with Oscar co-host James Franco coming in a distant second for his performance in 127 Hours.

The Black Swan herself, Natalie Portman, triumphed as Best Actress, with her closest competition, The Kids Are All Right's Annette Bening placing second.

As for the supporting categories, one film delivered two knockout performances that you chose as the champions. With over half of the votes, The Fighter's Christian Bale was named your Best Supporting Actor. But it wasn't without a fight, as The King's Speech's Geoffrey Rush earned over half of the remaining votes.

The closest race, here and in reality, was for Best Supporting Actress. With just 0.5% of a difference, The Fighter's Melissa Leo squeaked past The King's Speech's Helena Bonham Carter for the win. Also making an impressive showing was True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld.

See the complete results in the comments section below, and be sure to tune in to the actual Oscars tomorrow night on ABC to see how well we matched the actual winners!

Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions 2010

Mentally unstable. Out of their element. Full of themselves. In over their heads. Lacking the proper faculties to fulfill their duties. No, these aren't the subjects of this year's Academy Award nominees, these are the wannabe Oscar pundits who foolishly try to win their office pools or party contests without consulting the 2010 Edition of Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions!

Best Picture: Bucking the recent trend of gritty contemporary fare, The King's Speech should reign over all other contenders come Sunday night.
Best Actor: The surest of bets in the acting races is Colin Firth in The King's Speech.
Best Actress: The Academy loves A) young actresses who B) take a challenging role and C) aren't afraid to get a little ugly doing it. This year, that's Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
Best Supporting Actor: Showy roles shine here of late, and there was no one showier this year than Christian Bale in The Fighter.
Best Supporting Actress: Probably the toughest call of all the major races. Looking back at recent winners in this category, the victors have been women who have "paid their dues". The Fighter's Melissa Leo fills that bill best of all.
Best Director: Expect a split between Best Picture and this award, with The Social Network's David Fincher taking this prize.
Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay: The writing awards are easily split between the two Best Picture heavyweights, The King's Speech and The Social Network, respectively.
Cinematography: Roger Deakins is long overdue, and his True Grit has what it takes to get the gold for him.
Art Direction: It's usually not so much "Best" as "Most" Art Direction, so that would be Alice in Wonderland.
Costume Design: Royal films have been on a roll in this race, and that would mean another for The King's Speech.
Original Score: The prolific Alexandre Desplat will finally score (ahem) for The King's Speech.
Original Song: From this lackluster batch, Randy Newman will get a "collective" award for all his work on the Toy Story films.
Film Editing: With presumed front-runner Inception out of the running, the prize should go to the slick Social Network.
Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects: No worries though, as Inception should sweep the rest of the tech categories.
Makeup: It's doubtful that members have even seen all three of these lone nominees... but they'll vote anyway, and for the obvious one at that: The Wolfman.
Animated Feature: Toy Story 3 all the way.

The remaining five categories are voted on only by members who have seen every nominee in each race, so they can be tricky... in other words, these are the Really Fearless Oscar Predictions:
Foreign Language Film: Mexico's Biutiful may be more well known, but Denmark's In a Better World has the buzz.
Documentary Feature: Despite the possibility of an appearance by its covert director, Exit Through the Gift Shop will likely be passed over for the more traditional (and more serious) Inside Job.
Documentary Short Subject: In a field of dourness, look for the uplifting inspirational story... especially if it's about kids. This year, that's Strangers No More.
Animated Short Subject: Pixar got the Academy to screen Day & Night in 3-D, which should help it stand out (get it?) from the crowd.
Live Action Short Subject: Dark subjects with a twist of humor have proved victorious here recently, leading me to predict a win for No Wewe.

Make your own predictions in the comments section below. Oscar winners will be announced this Sunday when ABC presents the 83rd Annual Academy Awards live from Los Angeles.

Reverend's Reviews: Oscar Shorts 2011

From a religious standpoint, I find it interesting that three of this year's five Academy Award nominees for Best Live Action Short Film deal with spiritual topics, and two of them involve priests. Has some sort of theological bias affected the nominating branch's members or is this another sign, following the strong showing at this year's Sundance Film Festival, of an increased interest in religious topics by filmmakers?

At any rate, these nominees as well as the five 2011 candidates for Best Animated Short Film are now available for public consideration in Los Angeles, New York and other select cities. In some cities, the Best Documentary Short Film finalists are also being shown, the first time this has been done prior to Oscar night (February 27 this year). All the nominees will be available for viewing on iTunes and cable's Movies on Demand beginning February 22.

I had the opportunity to screen the honored Live Action and Animated shorts in advance. All are worth seeing, but here are my more specific reactions to each of them:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILMS:

The Confession: This is a sly, disturbing morality tale from the UK, and a study in Catholic guilt to the nth degree. It starts out innocently as two young boys prepare to make their first confession with their classmates. One is having difficulty identifying a sin for which he feels true remorse — which is necessary for absolution, according to Catholic practice — but things change dramatically in the wake of a prank the boys play that has unexpectedly tragic consequences. Dark stuff, but the film is extremely well-directed by Tanel Toom and beautifully photographed by Davide Cinzi.

Wish 143: The tonal antithesis of The Confession if also steeped in questions of morality, this is my personal favorite of the five. When a terminally-ill teenager is asked by the British equivalent of the Make a Wish Foundation what he would like to do before he dies, he knocks them for a loop when he responds that he wants to lose his virginity. A delicate subject is handled not only humorously but gracefully here primarily thanks to screenwriter Tom Bidwell and a great cast. The priest character, played by recognizable actor Jim Carter, is particularly indicative of the short's balance of laughs and compassion. When the young patient, attempting to convince the good Father that he deserves a night with a prostitute, states bluntly "I've got cancer, Father," the priest replies, "I don't care if you've got stigmata!"

God of Love: A decidedly tongue-in-cheek exploration of love and divine intervention. A lounge singer (played by Luke Matheny, who also wrote and directed) pines for the drummer in his band, but she only has eyes for his best friend and guitarist. Help mysteriously arrives via a box full of darts that have the magical effect of making those struck with them fall in love with the first person they see. Amusing, and well-shot in black and white, if a bit slight and amateurish for Academy Award contention in my opinion.

Na Wewe: The title of this selection from Belgium is pronounced "No wayway" and means "You too" in Kurundi. It sets up a tense showdown between travelers journeying in a bus through civil war-torn, 1990's Burundi and a group of rebels that stops them. The armed rebels, intent on distinguishing between Hutus and Tutsis on the bus (when most of the travelers are neither), somewhat learn a lesson in the futility of making such ethnic/tribal distinctions. If the film's ending is perhaps overly optimistic, even comical, this is still a worthy 19 minutes that may well win the Oscar in this category.

The Crush: While it isn't unusual for school children to develop romantic feelings for their teachers, it is rare for such situations to grow as intense as they do in this well-written, sweet and sour short from Ireland. Eight-year old Ardal, crushing on his newly-engaged teacher, challenges her fiancee to a duel to the death with pistols. To say much more would likely ruin the satisfying payoff.

ANIMATED SHORT FILMS:

Day & Night: Pixar has become not only an annual fixture in the Best Picture and Best Animated Feature categories in recent years, but among the nominated shorts as well. Day & Night, which played theatrically before Toy Story 3 last summer, similarly serves as the latter's "date" to the Oscars this year. A bit more artsy or experimental than usual Pixar fare, it's an enjoyable visual parable about prejudice that, if nothing else, is much better than the corny, cloying short involving baby-creating clouds (or something like that) that preceded last year's Up.

The Gruffalo: Beautifully animated if overlong and too slowly paced for a child-oriented tale (based on the book by Julia Donaldson). It benefits substantially from a great voice cast of name British actors, including this year's Best Supporting Actress nominee Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech) as well as John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Robbie Coltrane. Given the star power involved and its visual accomplishment, German co-directors Jakob Schuh and Max Lange will likely take home the Academy Award.

The Lost Thing: I'm hoping, though, that this imaginative, haunting short from Australia will emerge triumphant. A young man discovers a bell-laden, mechanical-crustacean hybrid with tentacles on the beach. While it serves as an odd pet for a time, he commits himself to finding a suitable home for it with other "lost things." Charmingly designed, the film can potentially be interpreted as a commentary on immigration, environmental displacement, adolescence or any number of other issues. Definitely my favorite among the animated shorts.

Let's Pollute: Speaking of environmental meltdown, this American production takes a sprightly approach to the subject in the guise of an 1950's-60's educational movie for elementary school kids. Amusingly animated, it becomes irritatingly heavy-handed and preachy at only 6 minutes in length. History, though, may yet prove it prescient.

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage: A French-made travelogue through the title country that bears no relation to the DreamWorks series that stars Ben Stiller as a talking lion. Here, the filmmakers employ an arresting, unpredictable mix of animation styles. Although it doesn't really have a plot or a point, it may persuade more viewers to actually visit Madagascar than Stiller & Co. have done.

Visit Shorts International for more information. Click here to watch clips from all the nominated shorts.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Trivial Pursuits: Oscars 2010

Illustration by Pablo Lobato for The New Yorker
It's Oscar trivia time, 2010 edition!:

- Women at the Top: For the first time in Academy Award history, a lesbian-themed film — The Kids Are All Right — is nominated for Best Picture. It is also the first time that two Best Picture nominees — Kids and Winter's Bone — were directed by women (Lisa Cholodenko and Debra Granik, respectively).

- On the Other Hand: Three of the Best Picture nominees — 127 Hours, True Grit and Winter's Bone — feature characters with severed arms or hands.

- Top Toon: Toy Story 3 is not only the third animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (following previous nominees Beauty and the Beast and Up), it is also only the third "Part 3" to be nominated (following previous nominees The Godfather Part III and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King).  Plus, it is the only sequel to be nominated for Best Picture when the original film was not.

Illustration by Philip Burke for The New Yorker
- Head Games: Three Best Actress nominees — Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right, Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine — were on the receiving end in steamy oral sex scenes in their movies. Their partners in said scenes — Julianne Moore, Mila Kunis and Ryan Gosling, respectively — weren't so lucky though; all strong contenders in each of their races, none of them were nominated.

- Join the Club: Speaking of Annette Bening, she now joins the ranks of acting nominees recognized for playing GLBT characters, a group that also includes her fellow 2010 nominees Javier Bardem, Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

- Double Down: With both The Social Network and True Grit nominated, producer Scott Rudin has twice the chance to take home another Best Picture Oscar; he previously won for No Country for Old Men.

Illustration by Luis Grañena for The New Yorker
- Best Actor Take 2: Jeff Bridges (True Grit) and Colin Firth (The King's Speech) are both nominated for Best Actor again after facing off last year in this category, where Bridges won for Crazy Heart over Firth for A Single Man. This year, Firth is the front-runner. Meanwhile, their competition from last year, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) is the only other repeat nominee, this time in the Supporting Actor category for The Town.

- Lucky Rooster: Speaking of Jeff Bridges, he is nominated for playing Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, the same role that won John Wayne the Oscar in the original Grit forty-one years ago.

- Two Times a Lady: For the sixth time in the past ten years, two performances from the same film were nominated for Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams and Melissa Leo for The Fighter.

Illustration by Robert Risko for The New Yorker
- Music Man: If composer Alan Menken wins for his Tangled song "I See the Light", it will be his 9th Oscar, securing his status as the most Oscared person still living.

- Isn't That Special: For the first time since 1979, there are more than three nominees for Best Visual Effects.

MD Poll: If You Picked the Oscars 2010

It's that time of year again! Time for you to pick what movies and performances you would vote for if you were a member of the Academy and could vote for the best of film 2010 in the actual Oscars.

Last year, you correctly matched the real thing in three out of the five major categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.  But remember, this isn't about predictions, you are voting for who you want to win!

There are five separate polls, located in the right-hand sidebar, so be sure to vote in each one. The polls will run from now until Oscar Eve, February 26, when the winners of the MD Poll: If You Picked the Oscars 2010 will be revealed!

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

Reverend’s Reactions: The 2010 Oscar Nominations

The sun is just starting to show itself here in Hollywood, but celebrations are already underway in the wake of the Academy Awards nominations announcement at 5:38 AM PST today. The film industry's equivalent of Christmas morning has inevitably left some kiddies disappointed while many others are gleeful today.

In general, I'm pleased with this year's contenders. I was very happy about the unexpectedly strong showing made by Winter's Bone in addition to The Social Network, The King's Speech (the leader with 12 nominations) and Inception, all of which were among my top 10 of 2010. I was also pleasantly surprised by Nicole Kidman's well-deserved Best Actress nomination for the affecting Rabbit Hole as well as the inclusion of Javier Bardem, who has been largely shut out of other awards this year, in the Best Actor category for his raw, haunting performance in Biutiful, which was also nominated as Best Foreign Language Film.

The Kids Are All Right, 2010's big GLBT-themed release, garnered a number of nominations and cemented its status in my mind as last year's most overrated movie. Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo were deservedly honored, but the nods it received for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture are excessive. More strained domestic drama than ballyhooed comedy, The Kids Are All Right fell way short for me despite its excellent cast.

Also highly overrated in my opinion is True Grit. While technically proficient, very well-acted (the amazing, 14-year old Hailee Steinfeld received a deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actress), and a definite improvement on the original movie version, it's also a fairly routine achievement for Joel and Ethan Coen. The brothers' latest nomination for Best Director is unjust, especially when one realizes Christopher Nolan was left out of the category for his extraordinarily creative work on Inception!

But my disappointment with the high praise heaped upon these two films is tempered by some nominations in "lesser" categories: the song "I See The Light" from Tangled as Best Song (although "You Haven't See the Last of Me" from Burlesque was somewhat surprisingly omitted, so we won't have the prospective thrill of seeing and hearing Cher sing it live during the awards ceremony); composer John Powell's Best Music Score nomination for How to Train Your Dragon; the Best Costume Design nod for the sumptuous I Am Love, our Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association pick as Best Film of the Year; and the inclusion of the hand-drawn, Jacques Tati homage The Illusionist among the Best Animated Feature contenders (alongside Dragon and Toy Story 3).

We'll have to tune in to the 83rd Academy Awards presentation on February 27 to see how everything plays out, but I'm expecting Bening and Colin Firth (Best Actor nominee for The King's Speech) at least to have continued reason to celebrate after that night.

See the comments section below for a quick look at all of this year's Oscar nominations.

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Blade California.

Awards Watch: GLBT Films of 2010 Honored

The annual Hollywood awards season is in full swing, with the Golden Globes recently announced and the Academy Awards coming up on February 27. The Social Network and The King's Speech may be the big winners thus far, but the Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA) had some surprises among the winners of its second annual Dorian Awards, which were announced today.

GALECA is only two years old but is quickly becoming known in the industry. The organization is composed of more than 40 LGBT film and television critics from across the US as well as Canada and Great Britain. Such major publications as The Advocate, US Weekly, TV Guide and our own Movie Dearest are represented. Unlike GLAAD, which specifically honors movie and TV shows each year that show the GLBT community in a positive light, GALECA considers both mainstream and LGBT-specific projects for the Dorian Awards. Toy Story 3 and The Social Network were among GALECA's five nominees for Film of the Year in addition to the more LGBT-oriented The Kids Are All Right, Black Swan and I Am Love. The Dorian Awards are so named in honor of gay writer Oscar Wilde and his literary masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Grey.

I Am Love was the surprise choice as the 2010 Dorian Award-winner for Film of the Year. This sensual tale stars Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton as the Russian-born matriarch of an Italian family beset by romantic entanglements of various genders and orientations. Little seen upon its theatrical release but much admired by those who have caught it, I Am Love is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Unlike most groups that bestow awards, GALECA doesn't separate men and women in its consideration of the Best Performances in Film and Television. This year, Annette Bening triumphed over such acclaimed fellow nominees as Colin Firth (The King's Speech), James Franco (who was nominated for his great acting in two 2010 releases, 127 Hours and Howl) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan). Bening won the Dorian Award for her excellent turn as one-half of a lesbian couple raising two teenagers in The Kids Are All Right.

In GALECA's television categories, The Good Wife won Drama of the Year while Glee won its second Dorian Award in a row for TV Comedy or Musical of the Year. Glee also won the Dorian for LGBT-themed TV Show of the Year as well as acting awards for Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer, who tied in the TV Comedy Performance of the Year category. New Glee cast member Darren Criss won GALECA's "We're Wilde About You" Rising Star Award over such other talented newcomers as Andrew Garfield (The Social Network and the upcoming Spider-Man reboot) and Black Swan's Mila Kunis. Michael C. Hall, as the sympathetic serial killer of Dexter, won the Dorian Award for TV Dramatic Performance of the Year. The HBO series Hung, about a well-endowed gigolo, was recognized as the Unsung TV Show of the Year and the new comedy Hot in Cleveland, starring Valerie Bertinelli and Betty White, won the "Campy (Intentional or Not) TV Show of the Year" Dorian.

The delightful Easy A, about a high school student who takes her Scarlet Letter reading assignment a bit too literally, won the Dorian Award for Unsung Film of the Year. Additional winners in other film-related categories were Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (Documentary of the Year); I Love You Phillip Morris (LGBT-Themed Film of the Year); 8: The Mormon Proposition (LGBT-Themed Documentary of the Year); and Burlesque (Campy (Intentional or Not) Film of the Year). The latter beat out such dubious contenders as Sex and the City 2 and Piranha 3-D.

Finally, GALECA's prestigious "Wilde Wit of the Year Award" was given to Rachel Maddow, the openly lesbian TV and radio news host, and the group's annual "Timeless Award" — which is given to a living actor or performer with an exemplary career marked by smarts, character and wit — was bestowed upon theatre and film legend Angela Lansbury.

While this year's Academy Award nominations have yet to be announced, a number of LGBT-interest contenders are likely. Annette Bening and Natalie Portman will likely duke it out for the Best Actress Oscar, and Bening's Kids Are All Right partner, Julianne Moore, could also be nominated. Meanwhile, the Academy Award for Best Song might well go to "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," which was sung by Cher in Burlesque and won the Golden Globe. If the song is nominated for an Oscar, Cher will likely perform it during the telecast. Her appearance alone will be enough to get virtually every gay man in the US to tune in on February 27!

See the comments section below for a quick look at this year's Dorian Award winners.

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

MD Poll: Global Certainty 2010

The Golden Globes are tomorrow night and, if the "real" voting was as close as it was for out latest MD Poll, it will be a heated race to victory in at least one of the Best Picture categories.

The Social Network narrowly topped the Dramatic competition, closely followed by Black Swan and The King's Speech, in a tie for second place. Meanwhile in the Comedy or Musical category, it should be smooth sailing for The Kids Are All Right, which netted more then 60% of the votes.  See the comments section below for the complete results.

Since the Oscar nominations are only two weeks away, the MD Poll will be taking a short break until then.

Awards Watch: Nominations for the 2010 Dorian Awards

The Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (of which yours truly and my fellow Movie Dearest Men on Film Chris Carpenter and Neil Cohen are members) has announced its nominations for the group's second annual Dorian Awards, celebrating the best in film and television for 2010.

In 17 categories, including new ones this year for documentaries and "unsung" movies, GALECA has nominated a wide variety of films and TV programs, both with and without GLBT themes. Titles with multiple nominations include such big screen hits as Black Swan, The Kids Are All Right and The Social Network, while The Big Bang Theory, Glee and Modern Family represent the small screen.

See the comments section below for the complete list of nominations. Winners will be announced January 18 in Los Angeles.

MD Poll: Global Possibilities 2010

Once again, it's time for our annual MD Poll look at the Golden Globes. And this year, they're even more controversial then ever!

Pick the movies you think will win in the Globes' top two categories, Best Picture - Drama and Best Picture - Musical or Comedy. Place your votes in the two polls located in the right hand sidebar, and be sure to vote in both of them! Results will be revealed on January 15, the day before the Golden Globe telecast.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

Reverend's Preview: Black is in at AFI Fest

The American Film Institute's now annual (and free, thanks to presenting sponsor Audi and other supporters) festival AFI Fest kicked off last night in Hollywood with the world premiere of Edward Zwick's Love & Other Drugs. Alas, critics were denied admission to the rom com starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, reunited for the first time since Brokeback Mountain five years ago. However, I look forward to attending several other fest screenings between now and November 11 and I've already gotten an advance look at its closing film, the imperfect but still terrific Black Swan (more on that one below).

Despite advance reports that Jake and Anne both show plenty of skin in Love & Other Drugs, there is more GLBT interest behind the scenes of various AFI Fest offerings than on the screen, although Black Swan and Heartbeats, the second film by I Killed My Mother writer-director Xavier Dolan, are notable exceptions to this. The current buzz is that Colin Firth, who lost the Best Actor Oscar last year for his gay turn in A Single Man but headlines festival entry The King's Speech, is virtually a lock to win the golden guy this year. Similarly, Natalie Portman, who gives an amazing performance as a psychotic ballerina with lesbian longings in Black Swan, and GLBT fave Nicole Kidman, as a mother grieving the death of her young child in Rabbit Hole (screening this Sunday), are running neck-and-neck for Best Actress among Academy Award prognosticators.

Rabbit Hole, by the way, is directed by John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus fame. Other noteworthy filmmakers debuting movies at AFI Fest include John Sayles (Amigo); Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, in 3D no less); George Hickenlooper (Casino Jack), who unexpectedly passed away just last week; and actor Diego Luna of Y tu Mamá También fame making his directorial debut (Abel). If they don't represent enough star power behind the camera, David Lynch is serving as the festival's first-ever Guest Artistic Director. Lynch will be presenting a selection of personal favorites, among them the sexually charged classics Sunset Boulevard, Lolita and Rear Window.

Despite having polarized critics and audiences — understandably so — at this year's Cannes Film Festival, I highly recommend Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan to more adventurous filmgoers. Aronofsky is one of the best and most intelligent directors working today, as evidenced by his previous films Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain and The Wrestler. His "psychosexual" take on gay composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky's classic ballet Swan Lake, starring Portman, has already gotten his leading lady into hot water with her orthodox Jewish father, according to recent news reports. Portman doesn't appear nude in the film, but does have a heated masturbation scene and gets hot 'n heavy with both Vincent Cassel, who plays her demanding choreographer, and company rival Mila Kunis.

The cast of Black Swan, which also includes Barbara Hershey, is excellent, with the exception of a miscast Winona Ryder. I couldn't buy Ryder as an aging prima donna in her brief scenes and it doesn't help that, unlike Portman, we never see Ryder dance. I was riveted by Portman, though, who makes an award-worthy impression that is underscored by her spectacular, increasingly passionate dancing (choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, who also plays the Prince in the Swan Lake scenes). Matthew Libatique's photography and Andrew Weisblum's keep-the-audience-on-the-edge editing are also excellent. The film is scarier than I anticipated and, while some of its "Boo, gotcha!" moments are predictable, at least a couple of them made me jump out of my seat. The Nutcracker, it ain't! Black Swan is scheduled to open in theaters nationwide beginning December 3.

Click here for more information about AFI Fest, running now through November 11, or to attempt to secure any remaining free screening tickets.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Awards Watch: Yearly Round Up 2009

Once again, Movie Dearest has tallied up the total trophies handed out by the top 28 organizations, critics groups and industry guilds to get a clearer picture of what is indeed the Best Picture (et al) of the year; only categories with at least two wins are included.

Picture of the Year: The Hurt Locker, 10 wins
Actor of the Year: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, 6 wins
Actress of the Year: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, 4 wins each
Supporting Actor of the Year: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds, 10 wins
Supporting Actress of the Year: Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, 12 wins
Director of the Year: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, 9 wins
Adapted Screenplay of the Year: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air, 7 wins
Original Screenplay of the Year: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker, 3 wins
Cinematography of the Year: The White Ribbon, 4 wins
Art Direction of the Year: Avatar, 4 wins
Costume Design of the Year: The Young Victoria, 4 wins
Original Score of the Year: Up, 6 wins
Original Song of the Year: "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart, 4 wins
Film Editing of the Year: The Hurt Locker, 5 wins
Sound Mixing & Editing of the Year: The Hurt Locker, 4 wins
Visual Effects of the Year: Avatar, 9 wins
Animated Feature of the Year: Up, 7 wins
Foreign Film of the Year: Summer Hours, 3 wins
Documentary Feature of the Year: The Cove, 5 wins
Acting Ensemble of the Year: Inglourious Basterds, 2 wins
New Actor/Actress of the Year: Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, 3 wins
New Director of the Year: Duncan Jones for Moon

The top winner was The Hurt Locker, with wins in 5 categories, while Precious supporting actress Mo'Nique won the most awards in any category, with 12 total.

See the comments section below for the list of the 28 groups tracked.

Awards Watch: Oscars Post Mortem 2009

Seriously, wtf was that?
Well, I suppose after the high point that was last year's Oscar ceremony, the only way to go was down. And the signs were there that this year's program was going to be a letdown for some time now, from co-producer Adam Shankman referring to it as the "best-dressed reality show" to the axing of the Best Song performances. But who knew it would fail so badly?

From the sloppy direction to the banal presenter banter to the needlessly complicated eyesore of a set, first time producers Shankman and Bill Mechanic cranked out one bad choice after another, turning the show into a prime example of what most people knee-jerkingly call it year after year: a long, dull evening filled with the moviemaking elite congratulating themselves.

Did we really need yet another cheeky/cheesy Neil Patrick Harris/Marc Shaiman musical number? How about hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin trotting out the ol' standard, let's-poke-fun-at-Hollywood schtick? And all do respect to John Hughes, but how do you justify giving seven minutes to someone who was never nominated for an Academy Award and relegate poor Honorary Oscar winner Lauren Bacall to an awkward "stand up and take a bow" moment? And don't get me started on the "In Memoriam" omissions, most glaringly Farrah Fawcett and Beatrice Arthur.

To be fair, the longer film clips of the nominated movies were welcome, and the actual awards themselves (though screamingly predictable at this point in the season) offered some of the evening's few highlights, including great speeches by Sandra Bullock, Up composer Michael Giacchino and Mo'Nique, among others. And who could resist the "only on live TV" awkwardness that was brought to us by the documentary winners?

And let's not forget the evening's milestones, including the Academy's first ever female director winner, The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow, and its first ever African American screenplay winner, Precious' surprise victor Geoffrey Fletcher. Oh, and I'll just say it: thank god Avatar didn't win Best Picture!

On the other hand, by the time the lead acting categories rolled around, with its sloppy seconds take on last year's unique presentation, this longtime Oscar watcher was more than ready to draw the curtain on the 2009 movie awards year. And that's just what we'll do later today, with our third annual yearly round up of the best of the best of the year.

Awards Watch: Oscars 2009

And the winners of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were ...

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker - Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Geoffrey Fletcher
Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Best Cinematography: Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Best Art Direction: Avatar - Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell
Best Original Score: Up - Michael Giacchino
Best Original Song: “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart - Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best Film Editing: The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson
Best Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Best Visual Effects: Avatar - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
Best Makeup: Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
Best Animated Feature: Up - Pete Docter
Best Foreign Language Film: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) - Argentina
Best Documentary Feature: The Cove - Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
Best Documentary Short: Music by Prudence - Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Best Animated Short: Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin
Best Live Action Short: The New Tenants - Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

The Hurt Locker led the night with six wins, followed by Avatar with three and two each for Crazy Heart, Precious and Up.  The official Movie Dearest predictions correctly picked 18 out of the 24 categories, one more than last year (drat those short films!).

Tune in tomorrow for our annual "Oscar Post Mortem", where we'll have a thing or two (or three) to say on tonight's show. We'll also have our "Yearly Round Up", where we take a look at all the major movie awards from the past year to see what really was the best of 2009.

Reel Thoughts: Oscar Love (and Hate)

When the curtain rises on the Oscars tonight, there won’t be much notice of Tom Ford’s gorgeous drama, A Single Man. The story of a gay man dealing with the death of his partner didn’t get much Oscar love. Except for Colin Firth’s Best Actor nomination, the movie was ignored.  Just as Brokeback Mountain lost Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Acting honors to lesser challengers in 2006, this year, the GLBT community is again reminded that being “too gay” is the kiss of death as far as Oscar is concerned.

Still, there is a lot to love about Oscars this year ... and a lot to hate:

Best Pictures:
Love It: Ten Best Pictures are nominated, including Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (directed by out director Lee Daniels), Inglourious Basterds, Up and District 9.
Hate It: Ten Best Pictures nominated include Avatar and The Blind Side, but not A Single Man or Julie & Julia.

Acting Nominations:
Love It: In a year that really wasn’t so great, great performances still happened, and Oscar noticed with nominations for Firth, Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Mo’Nique (Precious), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Helen Mirren (The Last Station) and newcomer Carey Mulligan (An Education).
Hate It: No nominations for Julianne Moore (A Single Man), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) or Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for Mariah Carey’s Precious mustache.

Oscar Music:
Love It: There’s a nice mix of Best Song nominees, thanks to Crazy Heart, The Princess and the Frog, Nine and some French movie no one has ever heard of.
Hate It: But we won't hear the songs. Producer Adam Shankman (Hairspray) has cut the live performances from the Oscars telecast. Come on! It’s not like Snow White was going to do a reprise with Rob Lowe.

Oscar Party Food:
Love It: There are great Oscar food inspirations this year! District 9 Prawns (or ... canned cat food?), Crazy (Artichoke) Hearts, a Coralime Jell-O Mold, Inglourious Strudel (don't forget the cream!), Hot Cocoa Before Chanel, Precious Pigs Feet (ew), etc. And if you're lazy, just get Taco Bell à la The Blind Side.
Hate It: Avatar’s inclusion means lots of blue food, except there are no really blue foods ... perhaps Blueberry Avatarts? Na'vi Blue Curacao Martinis will mean lots of hangovers the morning after.

First Nominations:
Love It: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) got their first nominations ... finally!
Hate It: Director Tom Ford and his brilliant art director Dan Bishop did not get nominated for A Single Man. If that movie wasn’t a brilliant bit of art direction, what was it?

Now, on to the part I love ... Picking the Oscars!:

Best Actor:
Who Should Win: Colin Firth gave a heart-breaking performance as George Falconer, an outwardly closeted man whose life partner is killed, and who wishes to join him in A Single Man. George Clooney is great in Up in the Air, and so is the man who will win, but it’s really hard to pull off the quiet intensity that Firth masters.
Who Will Win: Jeff Bridges, as a washed up but still pretty talented country singer in Crazy Heart. Bridges lives and breathes his role, and he’s considered “owed” the award.

Best Actress:
Who Should Win: Meryl, Meryl, Meryl! Saying it enough won’t make it happen. Her Julia Child in Julie & Julia was as light as a perfect soufflé, yet as earthy and grounded in real human emotions as a hearty stew. Streep makes it all look too easy, but she is never less than brilliant.
Who Will Win: Sandy, Sandy, Sandy! If any year belongs to Sandra Bullock, it’s this year. Hollywood loves a success story, and with her tart and funny performance in The Proposal and her immensely warm and lovable role in The Blind Side, she’s as unstoppable as Big Mike!

Best Supporting Actor:
Who Should and Will Win: This one’s easy. Remember a certain unknown actor who electrified people as a cold and murderous Nazi in Schindler’s List? Ralph Fiennes became a star and got his first Oscar nomination (and should have won over The Fugitive's Tommy Lee Jones). Christoph Waltz is a different man playing a different Nazi “Jew Hunter” in Inglourious Basterds, but he is no less thrilling to watch. He should win. He will win.

Best Supporting Actress:
Who Should and Will Win: If Waltz’s character was a hate-filled black woman living in the slums of New York, taking her wrath out on her obese daughter and grandchildren rather than helpless Jews, he still wouldn’t be all of the marvelous, horrifying, pitiful and raw things that Mo’Nique is in Precious. The actress is getting a lot of flack for not seeming grateful enough for Oscar’s love, but honey, that performance stands on its own (as Mo’Nique herself might say).

Best Picture:
What Should Win: Jason Reitman is an amazingly smart and talented director, able to create seemingly flippant films with surprising heart and soul. Up in the Air is his best work yet. In terms of achieving all that it attempted, it deserves the title of Best Picture.

What Will Win: The front-runners are The Hurt Locker and Avatar. I wouldn’t be hurt by a Locker upset, even though the film isn’t much more than one tense bomb-diffusing scene after another. But it does capture the hell of being in the Iraq War. Avatar however, is the big blue monster that can’t be stopped. It will win, and somewhere cinematic angels will weep.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be presented live on ABC tonight.  Movie Dearest will chime in after the show with a quick round up of the winners, and we'll offer our full "Oscar Post Mortem" tomorrow.

By Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Inglourious Basterds illustration by Morning Breath for Upper Playground. All other illustrations by Tavis Coburn for the BAFTA Awards.

MD Poll: Hurt's So Good

On this Oscar Eve, the results are in ... if you picked 'em, the Oscars would go to:

Best Picture was as close as it probably is in reality, with the three front-runners taking nearly 60% of the vote and only 3.6% separating them from victory. In the end, The Hurt Locker triumphed, with Avatar and Inglourious Basterds nipping at its heels.

Mamma Mia! co-stars (and Movie Dearest faves) Colin Firth (A Single Man) and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) are your lead acting victors, besting the favored Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side).

As for the supporting races, you went with the consensus: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds and Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. The surprises here were second place finishes for Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones and Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air.

See the comments section below for the complete stats in all five polls.

Of course, we'll find out how well our picks match up with the real thing tomorrow night when ABC presents the 82nd Annual Academy Awards live from Los Angeles.

Illustration by Tavis Coburn for the BAFTA Awards.

Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions 2009

This year's "Fearless Oscar Predictions" is brought to you by* the delectable creations found in Eleni's Oscar Season cookies! Above you'll find the five Best Actor edibles, which brings up the inevitable question, "Who would you rather nibble, Colin Firth or Jeremy Renner?" Now on to business ...

This year's predictions aren't quite so fearless as there are several sure things in the mix, including at least three of the four acting categories. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of tight races, including the expanded Best Picture field and the highly competitive Best Actress category (both envisioned in dessert form below).  And now, on to the predictions (click here for the complete list of nominees) ...

Best Picture: Despite recent scandals, The Hurt Locker should best its closest competition, Avatar.
Best Actor: An Oscar Bait role and previous losses will make Crazy Heart's Jeff Bridges this year's Kate Winslet.
Best Actress: It's a diva smack down, with The Blind Side's Sandra Bullock expected to come out on top.
Best Supporting Actor: There's no surer thing than Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz ...
Best Supporting Actress: ... except Precious' Mo'Nique.
Best Director: It's pretty much a foregone conclusion now that Locker's Kathryn Bigelow will become the first female winner in this category.
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air's best chance for a win.
Original Screenplay: Another close call, between Locker and Basterds, with the edge going to the talkier Tarantino.
Cinematography: Probably the toughest race of all. Will say Avatar in a tech sweep, which will also include Art Direction, Sound Editing and Visual Effects ...
Film Editing and Sound Mixing: ... with Hurt Locker picking up a few too.

Costume Design: Royalty reigns here of late, so The Young Victoria will be victorious.
Original Score: Michael Giacchino's Up music is irresistible.
Original Song: Crazy Heart's "The Weary Kind" will continue its sweep of this category.
Makeup: Star Trek's first ever Oscar.
Animated Feature: Best Picture nominee Up should sail away with the prize.
Foreign Language Film: Last year's dark horse won, so I'm going out on a limb with Argentina's The Secret in Their Eyes.
Documentary Feature: The Cove elicits the right amount of righteous outrage ...
Documentary Short: ... as does China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.
Animated Short: Wallace and Gromit's latest escapade, A Matter of Loaf and Death, will continue their hold on this category.
Live Action Short: The Door has the dramatic edge.

Who do you think will win at this year's Oscars? We'll find out this Sunday when ABC presents the 82nd Annual Academy Awards live from Los Angeles.

* Not really.

Men on Film: If We Picked the Oscars 2009

Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days, Movie Dearest's very own Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions (we'll get to those next week), but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy.

So without further ado, the envelope please ...

The nominees for Best Picture are: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: While A Serious Man ranked slightly higher on my top 10 list, I would vote for the more moving Precious.
NC: I loved Up in the Air. It's witty and surprisingly moving, and boasts a perfect ensemble.
KH: Can the most entertaining movie of the year be the "best"? If it's Up it can.

The nominees for Best Actor are: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, George Clooney in Up in the Air, Colin Firth in A Single Man, Morgan Freeman in Invictus and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker.
And our winners would be:
CC: Firth, who manages to be devastated and affecting without debasing himself or losing his character's sense of humor.
KH: I agree. No performance this year was as raw, as real as Firth's tortured, transcendent one.
NC: A perfect trifecta! Firth makes his suicidal pent-up perfect gentleman a hero of restraint and agony. He's period perfect.

The nominees for Best Actress are: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan in An Education, Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's tough because I loved all of them, but I would vote for Bullock's very impressive turn.
NC: Sandy was great, but Meryl was sublime, giving a pitch perfect performance that showed us the real woman behind the icon.
KH: Never lapsing into caricature, Streep served up a saucy (and sexy?!) Julia Child.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Matt Damon in Invictus, Woody Harrelson in The Messenger, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station, Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones and Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Plummer (who I can't believe hasn't been nominated before) would get my vote for his great Leo Tolstoy.
NC: Waltz dances away with this award, creating an indelible villain with a twinkle in his eye as he mowed people down.
KH: Harrelson avoided all the "drill sergeant" clichés, creating a uniquely humorous — and humane — individual.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Penélope Cruz in Nine, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air and Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC: No contest: Mo'Nique.
NC: Yes, she is in a whole other league than the other women. She was like an open wound on screen.
KH: Mo’Nique's final scene turned her "mother from hell" into a mother in hell.

The nominees for Best Director are: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Bigelow did a great job, and its way past time to break up the boys' club.
KH: Who else could create the gleefully twisted alternate universe that was Inglourious Basterds but Tarantino?
NC: I'm with you. Tarantino did a brilliant rewrite of history, and staged some of the best suspense scenes of the year.

The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are: District 9, An Education, In the Loop, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: I liked the funny and foul-mouthed In the Loop a lot, but I would have to vote for Geoffrey Fletcher's Precious.
NC: Up in the Air is like classic golden age comedy, and much adaptation (by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner) was necessary to create it.
KH: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell's District 9 was inventive, intelligent science fiction.

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: A tough call for me at present between Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man, both of which are very smart, sophisticated, and unapologetically pro-Jewish!
NC: Basterds is a remake (wasn't it?), but Tarantino's script is hilarious and horrifying.
KH: Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman's The Messenger ... now this is how you make a contemporary war film.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are: Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and The White Ribbon.
And our winners would be:
CC: Robert Richardson, probably the best cinematographer working, would get my vote for his stunning work on Inglourious Basterds.
NC: I vote for Richardson too, but The Hurt Locker was amazing as well.
KH: Agree, his work on Basterds was old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

The nominees for Best Art Direction are: Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine, Sherlock Holmes and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar is undeniably stunning.
KH: Granted, but parts of Pandora looked like the E.T. ride at Universal Studios; still, there was still plenty to gawk in amazement at.
NC: If I picked it, A Single Man wouldn't have been ignored. Of what's here, Sherlock Holmes was fun and creative.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are: Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: I would vote for Catherine Leterrier's work in the fashion-centric Coco Before Chanel.
NC: Again, my vote is for A Single Man's gorgeous 60's duds, but The Young Victoria is the best of the nominees.
KH: Sandy Powell's exquisite color choices and opulent designs served Young Victoria well.

The nominees for Best Original Score are: Avatar, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: While I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes' jaunty score, Up is great and composer Michael Giacchino is the man of the hour.
NC: Up with Up!
KH: For Up, Giacchino created a musical theme that was an instant classic.

The nominees for Best Original Song are: "Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog, "Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog, “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, “Take It All” from Nine and “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart.
And our winners would be:
CC: "Almost There" (although the un-nominated "Dig a Little Deeper" and "When We're Human" from the same film are better, more memorable songs).
NC: The Paris 36 song is terrible and inexplicable, but "Almost There" is classic Oscar song magic.
KH: It's unanimous ... too bad we won't get to see Anika Noni Rose belt it out at the Kodak.

The nominees for Best Film Editing are: Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We all agree that the high anxiety level of The Hurt Locker is thanks to the taut cutting of Bob Murawski and Chris Innis.

The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar cannot be denied in this category.
KH: Yes, Avatar is a game changer; but I prefer the scrappy results (at a fraction of the budget) of District 9's team.
NC: I second District 9's effects that merged with the documentary style.

The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
And our winners would be:
CC: I'll say Avatar.
NC: Inglourious Basterds for its firepower.
KH: The Hurt Locker proved that silences can be as equally terrifying as explosions.

The nominees for Best Sound Editing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's always hard for me to tell the difference between this category and the previous one, but I would probably vote for Avatar.
NC: Again, Inglourious Basterds rules the roost.
KH: Avatar's team created a whole new world of sound effects.

The nominees for Best Makeup are: Il Divo, Star Trek and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Star Trek, if only for making the normally attractive Eric Bana appear nasty and virtually unrecognizable.
NC: Trek was style and substance, rather than just age makeup.
KH: Two words: Spock ears.

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: I have a soft spot in my heart for the crafty Coraline, and would have to vote for it.
NC: Mr. Fox was fantastic, but Up is heavenly.
KH: In a banner year for the medium, Pixar still reigns.

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are: Ajami from Israel, El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) from Argentina, The Milk of Sorrow from Peru, Un Prophète (A Prophet) from France and The White Ribbon from Germany.
And our winners would be:
NC: Broken Embraces. Oh wait, it wasn't nominated?  Then I'll go with the haunting and hypnotic The White Ribbon.
CC, KH: Can we vote on this next year when all the movies are out on DVD?

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, The Cove, Food, Inc., The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Which Way Home.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Cove and Food, Inc. are both very well made and highly disturbing, but the latter gets my vote for its slightly more immediate impact.
NC: Capitalism: A Love Story is the film that the Republicans need to watch. Too bad it was overlooked.
KH: Like the best of its genre, The Cove offers filmmaking as compelling as its subject matter.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short are: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Music by Prudence and Rabbit à la Berlin.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: This is always the Oscar Pool "Lucky Guess" category, so here goes: The Last Truck, which taps into the country's woes best (we hear).

The nominees for Best Animated Short are: French Roast, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Logorama and A Matter of Loaf and Death.
And our winners would be:
CC: The audacious (or should that be adacious) Logorama.
NC: Logorama is brand-named brilliance.
KH: The Lady and the Reaper is ... (wait for it) ... to die for.

The nominees for Best Live Action Short are: The Door, Instead of Abracadabra, Kavi, Miracle Fish and The New Tenants.
And our winners would be:
NC, KH:  We bow down to the reverend on this one:
CC: The hauntingly sublime The Door.

Now it's your turn: tell us who and what you would vote for in the comments section below!