2010 Oscar Winners

The Oscars are done and I'm in agreement with almost everything.  However, I can't speak for the Hurt Locker as I haven't seen it yet.  Netflix is queued up though!  I am happy to see Avatar only receive the awards that it deserved, and that James Cameron did not receive Best Director.  I was a little disappointed that Up In The Air did not receive an award, but it's not a big deal.  I do wonder how close Up! got in receiving the Best Picture award or if Nine was closer.  In any case, this was a good year!  Below are the results....


Best Visual Affects - Avatar
Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones


Best Adapted Screenplay - Precious
Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher 


Best Original Screenplay Writing - The Hurt Locker
Written By Mark Boal


Best Sound Mixing - The Hurt Locker
Paul N.J. Ottosson


Best Live Action Short Film - The New Tenants
 Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson


Best Animated Short Film - Logorama 
Nicolas Schmerkin


Best Original Song - Crazy Heart
The Weary Kind
Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett


Best Original Score - Up!
Michael Giacchino


Best Makeup - Star Trek
Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow


Best Foreign Film - The Secret In Their Eyes
Directed by Juan José Campanella


Best Film Editing - The Hurt Locker
Bob Murawski and Chris Innis


Best Short Documentary - Music By Prudence
Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett


Best Documentary Feature - The Cove
Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens


Best Costume Design - The Young Victoria
Sandy Powell


Best Cinematography - Avatar
Mauro Fiore


Best Art Direction - Avatar
Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)


Best Animated Feature - Up!
Pete Docter


Best Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire


Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz
Inglourious Basterds


Best Actor - Jeff Bridges
Crazy Heart


Best Actress - Sandra Bullock
The Blind Side


Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow
The Hurt Locker


Best Picture - The Hurt Locker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

2010 Golden Globes: Does Avatar Deserve A Golden Globe?

It's a shame I don't get cable where I can watch the Golden Globes at the comfort of my own home.  However, I am keeping the website up to help keep track of the awards as they come out.  And while it's fun to see Up!, Inglorious Bastards and other great films get some awesome awards, I can't get away from the best picture nominations.

As I'm sure you all know, the nominated films are as follows...


1. Avatar
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Inglorious Bastards
4. Precious
5. Up in the Air

Having not seen two of these films nominated films, The Hurt Locker & Inglorious Bastards, I can't really speak for them.  However, the other three nominations I have had the pleasure of seeing.  While Precious and Up in the Air are completely deserving of this highly acclaimed award, Avatar truly disappoints me in making the nominations.  A film such as Avatar truly does redefine the art of movie making as far as the special effects are concerned, but to put in the category one of the best films of 2009, I tilt my head in wonder.

There are many things that make a good movie, effects, music, editing, scenery, art direction, script, direction, acting, and so on and so forth.  However, the script and story are what make the movie what it is.  Precious and Up in the Air are truly great films in the fact that they create truly original story lines in an innovative way.  Along with top notch acting performances, those two film are very "human" stories written in an intelligent way.  In my opinion, the two said films are both very deserving of best picture.

Avatar, on the other hand, finds a new way of being one of the most unoriginal films I've ever seen when it comes to the story.  Every single event that takes place in the film is predictable and contains no originality.  Along with it's blatant racist undertones when dealing with American Indians and English colonists, the film's script and story are equal to that of Fern Gully, Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and other like stories.   If it hadn't of been for the films amazing special effects, it would have been another cheesy Disney "feel-good" movie, not worthy of Best Picture Award.

As I await the results of Best Picture, I'll keep my fingers crossed that the more deserving films beat out the average Avatar.  My top 5 best films (In no specific order) of 2009 would be these...


1. Up In The Air
2. Precious
3. Up!
4. Nine
5. Coraline

Of course keep in mind I haven't seen EVERY film that's come out last, including the two nominees Inglorious Bastards and The Hurt Locker.  But Expect they could replace a few films that I have in my five, as well as the Road.  Their are so many good films out there, and Avatar, a second rate story line makes the nominations.  I certainly hope America grows up a little and figures out that Avatar, while being a visual masterpiece, is nothing compared to truly amazing films.