Daily Archives: February 25, 2008

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar

I only get 14 out of 24 and thus lose the office pool, after winning two years in a row. I can usually count on getting three out of the four acting awards, but manage only two this year. Even worse, I screw the pooch completely on foreign language and documentary and shorts. Big fat zero on all five.

Mike Kelly wins with 15. Damn, I was counting on that forty bucks.

I’m otherwise thrilled, however, that Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton both win, since I utterly adore them both, Ms. Swinton for Orlando & Mlle. Cotillard for Un long dimanche de fiançailles and Jeux d’enfants.

Category

Winner

EJB’s Wrong Pick

Best Picture

No Country for Old Men

 

Director

Joel & Ethan Coen

 

Actress

Marion Cotillard

Julie Christie

Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis

 

Supporting Actress

Tilda Swinton

Ruby Dee

Supporting Actor

Javier Bardem

 

Original Screenplay

Juno

 

Adapted Screenplay

No Country for Old Men

 

Foreign-Language Film

The Counterfeiters

Katyn

Documentary Feature

Taxi to the Dark Side

No End in Sight

Animated Feature

Ratatouille

 

Live-Action Short

Le Mozart des Pickpockets

Tanghi Argentini

Documentary Short

Freeheld

Sari’s Mother

Animated Short

Peter & the Wolf

I Met the Walrus

Cinematography

There Will Be Blood

 

Art Direction

Sweeney Todd

Atonement

Film Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum

 

Sound Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum

 

Sound Mixing

The Bourne Ultimatum

 

Visual Effects

The Golden Compass

Transformers

Costumes

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Atonement

Makeup

La Vie en Rose

 

Original Score

Atonement

 

Original Song

Falling Slowly from Once

 

I probably shouldn’t have gone with the grand dame legends in both actress categories. But, to be perfectly honest, going with that thinking would probably have led me to pick Cate Blanchett for supporting, given that she was up for leading as well. Or I would have gone with Saorise Ronan on the theory that the youngest or oldest wins the supporting actress category, and if I wasn’t going to go with Ruby Dee as oldest then I’d go with Ms. Ronan as youngest. Ms. Swinton would have been just about my last pick, despite being easily my favorite among the group.

And I wish I had gone with Taxi to the Dark Side instead of No End in Sight, after hearing Bill Moyers’s piece on it from his Journal show. I listened to it by way of podcast, while I was picking up trash off the street on Sunday. I hadn’t realized Taxi was made by Alex Gibney, director of the excellent Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. But, then again, Gibney was also executive producer of No End in Sight, so who knows what I would have done with this information if I’d had it on Friday, when I filled out my office ballot.

And all of this is very much despite the fact that La Vie en Rose and Eastern Promises were the only movies among all of the nominees that I actually saw, of course. I try not to let complete ignorance get in the way of these things.