The Oscars were reasonably short (3:17), reasonably entertaining, and not terribly surprising. Jon Stewart was very funny (Gaydolf Titler!), Helen Mirren was elegant even while saying the word “cojones,” and a whole lot of foreigners won awards. Several of the acceptance speeches were actually quite touching and sweet, which is rare.
I correctly predicted 13 out of 24, same as last year. I note that while I intentionally avoided matching Entertainment Weekly’s predictions in the short categories because of their poor track record, this year we split: EW got the documentary short right, I got the animated short, and we both missed the narrative short.
The big winner of the night was “No Country for Old Men.” That’s only the second time since I started doing top 10 lists in 1999 that my pick for the year’s best film actually won the Oscar for Best Picture. (The other time was “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”) Am I starting to have the same tastes as the Academy? Am I turning into an old white liberal rich man? I hope so!
“No Country” won four prizes. The second biggest haul was three awards for … “The Bourne Ultimatum”? It won all three of its categories (editing, sound editing, and sound mixing) — not bad, considering the first two “Bourne” films didn’t even get nominated for anything.
After the jump, the complete list of winners, in case you didn’t watch the show and haven’t been anywhere else on the Internet yet today.
PICTURE: “No Country for Old Men”
DIRECTOR: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”
ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Diablo Cody, “Juno”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “The Counterfeiters” (Austria)
ANIMATED FEATURE: “Ratatouille”
ORIGINAL SCORE: Dario Marianelli, “Atonement”
ORIGINAL SONG: “Falling Slowly,” from “Once”
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Elswit, “There Will Be Blood”
ART DIRECTION: “Sweeney Todd”
COSTUME DESIGN: “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
MAKEUP: “La Vie en Rose”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: “Taxi to the Dark Side”
SOUND MIXING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
SOUND EDITING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
VISUAL EFFECTS: “The Golden Compass”
FILM EDITING: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
SHORT FILM – ANIMATED: “Peter & the Wolf”
SHORT FILM – LIVE ACTION: “Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: “Freeheld”
Total awards:
4: “No Country for Old Men”
3: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
2: “There Will Be Blood,” “La Vie en Rose”
1: “Michael Clayton,” “Juno,” “The Golden Compass,” “The Counterfeiters,” “Ratatouille,” “Atonement,” “Once,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” “Taxi to the Dark Side”
