The Oscars 2009

Coming into school this morning, I was amazed at how many people were actually talking about The Oscars- of course, I realised that some would be talking about the spectacle and others, the pure celebrity base instinct that some seem to have inbuilt but instead, today, people were talking about the films.
Whether they liked them, whether they thought the right person won and in the very rare occasion, listening to a conversation between boys over whether the winners should be based on their look (in regards to actresses), of course none of this geared them up for the machine that I was when people were getting the winners wrong or they hadn't heard of Sean Penn!!!
Last night, marked the beginning of the new film year and while sitting in assembly today, our Deputy Head spoke to us about the Oscars. I wondered on first impressions, whether in our traditional chapel, the talk would be purely sensationalist and celebrity, thankfully I was wrong. Instead we were given The Oscars as a window of opportunity, take away from this what you will, but she started talking about opportunity and accomplishment.
What have you done with your life which can place you where you are now? What are you going to be doing with your life, your days and your attitude to people and work that will get you where you want to be? These are all accomplishments and at the end of the day- these are what people can and will judge you on.
Whether you want to be a vet, a singer, a lawyer or an actor, they all need work and accomplishment to get to where you want to be. During one of my breaks today, I sat on YouTube watching the Oscars from last night and was inspired by every single person in the room. There was a spark in there which collectively shows the accomplishments that these people have made and the actual difference they make to people's lives. Now, don't get me wrong, I defiantly understood where my Deputy Head was coming from when she asked a very simple question. "I bet most of you know the winners from last night, but who knows who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year or who are the nominations this year?" (By the way, last years winner was Martti Ahtisaari for "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts") and yet that hit a nerve with me.
I reckon 99% of the people listening didn't know the answer and yet were enthralled by the shiny glamour of last night's event which leaves me to question where the peace prizes of the future will be going because if my generation don't have an understanding of the process but are instead charmed and fascinated by the glitz and the glamour.
The sad truth is that as time goes on, it will lay upon those who do have an understanding to stand up and guide the rest of those before they get left in the storm- becoming just another person. People are always saying that everyone wants to become a celebrity but instead why don't we change the definition of celebrity? Why not look upon this person as someone who stands out from the crowd but also understands the moral practices behind something like the Peace Prize- someone who leaves their positive mark on the world is a celebrity. Not just someone who sleeps around and then sells their story to the media!

So back to last night, take a towel and rub away the shiny, vulgar glitz attracted to such an event and instead look at that little man- Oscar. Look at the accomplishments that people have made to be awarded that little man and what he means to those who have the blessing of holding one. The prestige which comes with him is something that only those in the exclusive group of winners will ever understand and it will never be able to come out in a media article. Did the right people win the awards? That's down to personal opinion.

Britain certainly had something to celebrate with homegrown talent turned international star overnight, Danny Boyle directing a film which has equaled the Oscar success of 'Ghandi' starring Ben Kingsley. 'Slumdog Millionaire' which I covered in my previous post went on to win eight out of the 10 nominations including Best Director and Best Film. Director Danny Boyle, 52, bounced up and down in delight as he received his award, telling the audience: "I swore [to my children] if this miracle ever happened I would receive it in the spirit of Tigger."

The film, set in the slums of Mumbai (Bombay) also won awards for best adapted screenplay, cinematography, sound mixing, film editing, best original score and best song.

As anticipated - after years of waiting, Kate Winslet, 33, won her Academy Award for playing a Nazi prison officer in The Reader.
"I'd be lying if I hadn't made a version of this speech. I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror," she said.
"I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here."

In a night of predictable outcomes, Sean Penn's best actor triumph for his portrayal of gay rights activist Harvey Milk seemed to win the A-list audience's approval. "You Commie, homo-loving, sons of a gun," said Penn, addressing his fellow performers.
"I did not expect this, and I want to be very clear that I know how hard I make it to appreciate me," said the 48-year-old, who often attracts criticism for his outspoken views.
In an impassioned plea - and to rapturous applause - Penn called on "equal rights for everyone".
"I think it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame," he said.
His thoughts were echoed by Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won best original screenplay for Milk.
"I heard the story of Harvey Milk and it gave me hope ... that one day I could live my life openly as who I am. And that maybe I could even fall in love and one day get married," he said.

Here is the full list of winners at the 81st Academy Awards, which have been held in Los Angeles.

Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader
Sean Penn
Sean Penn shook as he used a scrap of paper to thank people for his award

Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Stephen Daldry - The Reader; David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best actor: Sean Penn - Milk
Also nominated: Richard Jenkins - The Visitor; Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best actress: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Also nominated: Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie - Changeling; Melissa Leo - Frozen River; Meryl Streep - Doubt

Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Josh Brolin - Milk; Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder; Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt; Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Also nominated: Amy Adams - Doubt; Viola Davis - Doubt; Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best original screenplay: Milk
Also nominated: Happy-Go-Lucky; Wall-E; In Bruges; Frozen River

Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Doubt; Frost/Nixon; The Reader

Best animated feature film: Wall-E
Also nominated: Bolt; Kung Fu Panda

Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Also nominated: Lavatory - Lovestory; Oktapodi; Presto; This Way Up

Best foreign language film: Departures - Japan
Also nominated: Revanche - Austria; The Class - France; The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany; Waltz With Bashir - Israel

Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
Also nominated: The Betrayal; Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; Trouble The Water

Best documentary short subject: Smile Pinki
Also nominated: The Conscience of Nhem En; The Final Inch; The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road

Costume design: The Duchess
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Australia; Milk; Revolutionary Road

Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Reader

Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Also nominated: Auf der Strecke (On The Line); Manon on the Asphalt; New Boy; The Pig

Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Iron Man

Sound editing: The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Iron Man; Wanted; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E

Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Wanted; Wall-E

Film editing:Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk

Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Defiance; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E

Best original song: Jai Ho - Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Down To Earth - Wall-E; O Saya - Slumdog Millionaire

Over ten of my predictions were correct, check the next post to find out what I said yesterday!

So after the sparkle from the dust has settled, one can look upon an event which ultimately changes the directions of so many people in the industry who have tried and accomplished for years to get to where they are today. For me? This is an inspiration for things to come, I don't want the celebrity status but what I do want and what I now understand is that it's work, hard work which is not always beautiful but will always help get to where I want to be, wherever that is...

Why have I written about The Oscars in this way? Because everyone else has written in the same way and... because I can.

By the way, congratulations to Hugh Jackman on hosting the event and this musical number made me smile-

The Academy Awards, Oscars 2009

In case anyone has been living underneath a rock for the past six months, let me explain. This evening at 5PT/8ET, Live on ABC, the film event of the year is broadcast celebrating and awarding the best actors, actresses, directors and films of the past year.

Here's a quick lowdown on the biggest nominations-

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Total Nominations 13
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in David Fincher's new feature based on the 1921 short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald which itself was based on a quote by Mark Twain, "Life would be infinitely happier if only we could be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18," where the protagonist, Benjamin Button is born with the appearance and physical maladies of elderly man. Covering almost an entire century, we are taken on a journey stretching from New Orleans to Russia and back to New York City. Following Button as his mind matures but his body seemingly ages backwards and while he wrestles with changes both physically and mentally he is always drawn back to Daisy, played by Elle Fanning (the young Dakota) as a young girl and Cate Blanchett from her 20's till the end. This is the first time that Fincher has directed a love story, albeit an unconventional one, but it's certainly not what we have come to expect from the man who bought us 'Panic Room', 'Seven' and 'Zodiac', and yet he hits the note perfectly, showing a real relationship over time and the deterioration of both Button (in a gut wrenching scene as a baby in the elderly Daisy's arm) and Daisy herself as she goes back to her love.
This film was my favourite of the last year, and I feel it deserves to win Best Picture but also Best Cinematography and Best Make Up.

2. Slumdog Millionaire
Total Nominations 10
Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) returns to form after a couple of years with a love story, based on Vikas Swarup's book 'Q & A', set in Mumbai. We follow Dev Patel's (one of the stars of the UK's teen drama, Skins) character Jamal as he is being questioned by police as to how he has managed to get one question away from winning India's 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'. At the very beginning of the film the audience are given a choice- did Jamal A. Cheat B. He's lucky C. He's a genius or D. It's written? As the film continues we are taken to the slums of Mumbai in Jamal's story explaining how he knows the answer to each of the questions asked. Jamal, along with his brother Salim and a girl who Jamal gradually falls in love with, Latika, the audience are shown the history of the magnificent city and how the children survived for so long. Boyle's best known work, Trainspotting, showed that he was not scared to show the dark side of life and again that is seen in 'Slumdog'. He doesn't shy aware from showing the trauma that these children went through whether they are trying to get away from a man who blinds children to get more money on the street or gangsters who want to sell women- it's all in here. But what you have to remember is that it's not all doom and gloom, instead, 'Slumdog' is being hailed as one of the 'Best Feel Good Movies of the Decade', whether you agree with that is up to you but there are plenty of laughs and romance along the way. The children who played the three characters showed some of the best child acting the cinema has seen in a long time as they captured the characters just as they were written.
The decision to advertise the film as if it were a Mamma Mia! 'feel good' movie is an inspired one, even if it totally misrepresents the film and the director is unhappy with the deception. Audiences who will likely be shocked at the torture scenes that appear at the start of the film, but feeling beholden to stay to the end because they've already paid, will by the end feel they've been on a journey and seen a worthy film, even if it wasn't the one they'd been sold.
Personally, I thought 'Slumdog Millionaire' was a very good film, but not my film of the year.

3. Milk
Total Nominations 8
Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic, racked up eight nominations after being virtually ignored by the Golden Globes. 'Slumdog's' status as the presumptive winner doesn't seem to deter the 'Milk' men, "It's a clean slate... and what will happen now- unlike with the nominations- is all of the Academy will vote for all the different Oscars, so it's a completely different voting pool," says Bruce Cohen who produced 'Milk' with Dan Jinks. Van Sant returns after quietly releasing 'Paranoid Park' last year with an Academy friendly film based on a controversial subject. Audience's everywhere are likely to be drawn in half over this biopic about the first openly gay man to be elected in public office in California. With big stars such as Sean Penn and Josh Brolin connected to the work, it certainly shows that Hollywood is not the institution it once was but instead is accepting of everyone what ever their colour or sexuality- it has finally come into this century. The film has received widespread acclaim from film critics.
A.O. Scott of The New York Times called Milk, "A Marvel", and wrote the film "is a fascinating, multi-layered history lesson. In its scale and visual variety it feels almost like a calmed-down Oliver Stone movie, stripped of hyperbole and Oedipal melodrama. But it is also a film that like Mr. Van Sant’s other recent work — and also, curiously, like David Fincher’s Zodiac, another San Francisco-based tale of the 1970s — respects the limits of psychological and sociological explanation."

4. The Reader
Total Nominations 5
After being away for a while, Kate Winslet returned with not one but two highly acclaimed films. 'Revolutionary Road' sees the Brit returning to the screen with her 'Titanic' co-star, Leo DiCaprio, based on the 1961 novel by Richard Yates. The other film was 'The Reader' based on the 1995 novel by Bernhard Schlink. It tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past, a secret that may cost her at the trial.
Winslet has been picking up awards everywhere for this film, beating competition like Meryl Streep (Doubt) and Angelina Jolie (The Changeling). Directed by Stephen Daldry who is best known for 'Billy Elliot' and 'The Hours', the film is hard hitting and it's deep tones resonate still today.

5. Frost/Nixon
Total Nominations 5
Frost/Nixon is a 2008 historical drama film based upon the play of the same name by Peter Morgan, writer of The Queen, which dramatises the 1977 televised Frost/Nixon interviews. The film version is directed by Ron Howard and reunites its original two stars from the West End and Broadway productions of the play, Frank Langella as former President of the United States Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as British television broadcaster David Frost.

As for predictions this evening, in bold (the people I believe deserve to win) and in italics (those I believe the Acadmey will award).

Actor in a Leading Role-
Sean Penn (Milk)
Sean Penn (Milk)

Actor in a Supporting Role-
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

Actress in a Leading Role-
Meryl Streep (Doubt)
Kate Winslet (The Reader)

Actress in a Supporting Role-
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Animated Feature Film-
Wall-E
Wall-E

Art Direction-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Cinematography-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Costume Design-
Milk
The Duchess

Directing-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Documentary Feature-
Man on Wire
Man on Wire

Film Editing-
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire

Foreign Language Film-
Waltz With Bashir
The Baader Meinhof Complex

Make Up-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Music (Score)-
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Picture-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Visual Effects-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Milk
Milk