2001. FiLM BiTCH AWARDS

Oscar Diary
3/25 Thank God That's Over With

And one more: Full Oscar Night Review...

So, every year it's about the same. I hope to be pleasantly surprised but I'm mostly dissappointed. Did well in my predictions though -at least considering how wide open this race was. See here. I'm not sure why I put myself through this because each year... well, I know this is whiny but I'm going to say it anyway...when is it my turn? When do I get to have the film I love the most win the top prize?

God bless Baz Luhrman and the Moulin Rouge! They'll go down in history, Oscared or not...

Category	My Prediction (In red if it was wrong)	Reaction
Picture	A Beautiful Mind	Well, we knew that was happening. But it doesn't mean I'm not quite depressed. Bland generic choice in an exciting and wild year with four great pictures losing...
Director	Howard	Again. This is even worse than best picture... he's up against 4 of the most acclaimed and influential directors in the world and he wins (?) What world is this we live in where that's OK?
Actress	Spacek	Well, this went to Berry. And of course it made history but I wonder about her speech. I understand the emotional reaction to making history but I wish she'd been a little "stronger" about it. Personally I think that would have left a deeper impression. As it was I just felt -here we go with a Hollywood princess again...
Actor	Crowe	This went to Washington. His speech was immensely classy and he's just so great. I'm thrilled about this. I personally think Wilkinson was the best but I can usually be thrilled about second best winning... and Denzel has a career worth celebrating.
Supp Actress	Connelly	We knew this. This category is really a disguise for "Most Supportive Character." Longsuffering wives do well here. And I'm not just talking Marcia Gay Harden's win last year.
Supp Actor	Broadbent	I was the only one I know of that didn't buy McKellen's chances. Berry made history for black women. But Sir Ian wasn't given the same opportunity for gay actors. It's probably going to be a LONG time before an out homosexual wins Hollywood's biggest prize. If Sir Ian and the late Nigel Hawthorne can't do it, who can? Rupert Everett can't even get himself nominated...
Original	GP	Yay!
Adaptation	ABM	Damn!
Animated	Shrek	Damn!
Foreign	No Man's Land	I went for the upset here... and I was right. Yay! I've seen only 3 of the nominees but this was the best of those. One of only a few happy moments this night.
Art Direction	Moulin Rouge!	Yay!
Cinematography	The Man Who Wasn't There	I assumed that if it wasn't TMWWT it would be LOTR and I probably should have switched my vote.
Editing	Moulin Rouge!	Well, wrong here. I wasn't confident about that prediction though. Black Hawk Down took it.
Score	Monsters, Inc	I was right that Randy Newman would take home his first Golden Boy. I just had the category wrong. Howard Shore from LOTR won this.
Costume Design	Moulin Rouge!	Yay!
Song	"May It Be"	This went to Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" breaking his Susan Lucci streak.
Sound	Black Hawk Down	I was right here. I figured the explosions would do it.
Sound Editing	Pearl Harbor	no brainer but I wish it'd been Monsters, Inc.
MakeUp	Lord of the Rings	Yay!
Visual Effects	Lord of the Rings	Yay!
Documentary	Promises	The winner was Murder on a Sunday Morning
Short (Docu)	Thoth	Yay! I was rewarded when I went out on a limb here...but it's a New York thang....
Short (Ani)	For The Birds	Yay!
Short (Live)	The Accountant	Yay!
My favorite moment of the whole night: THE APPEARANCE OF WOODY ALLEN. I could not believe it and I loved every second of it.
So My overall score in the big eight categories was... 6 of 8 for 75% (missing the two leads) My overall score figuring in all awards was of 17 of 24 for something like 70.8%

3/24 The Morning of the Day of the Big Night
(Did you catch that?) It's 12:22 AM so it's officially Oscar time. E! will start their live coverage after I wake up (I have no idea what they'll talk about for 12 hours before people start showing up -so they'll probably just replay clips of previous red carpet moments zzzz.

A few last minute things I want to give my two cents on...

AFI Awards
In various articles when people mention the AFI awards (usually in connection to the possible Denzel Washington win or LOTR's buzz) they're sometimes referred to as 'meaningless to the Oscar race.' I just wanted to offer a word of caution: Nobody knows what meaning the AFI wins do or do not have at this point. It's the INAUGURAL YEAR for f***'s sake. No statistics need apply just yet.

A Few Thoughts on Best Cinematography.
Up until recently, based on precursors and Roger Deakins reputation it seemed a safe bet that The Man Who Wasn't There would take this statue. But the more I think about it the more I realize this is not a safe bet at all. The film has no other nominations -indicating the AMPAS voting populace wasn't crazy for it. It is also the least seen entry in the category... and none of the nominees this year are glaringly unworthy. A first! ha ha. Nobody seems to have been nominated for taking pictures of sunsets this year. It's so cool. My personal preference here is Moulin Rouge! with The Man Who Wasn't There coming in a close second. But if the Academy doesn't go for the always inspired work of the Coen Bros favored DP Roger Deakins (TMWWT), who also shot A Beautiful Mind this year, they'll probably go with LOTR. For whatever reason, unbeknownst to this moviegoer, cinematography -the way Oscar sees it -is about landscapes. LOTR has the natural grandeur of New Zealand on full display. Moulin Rouge! on the other hand with its sensational sets, costumes, and eye popping kaleidoscope of colors was probably the single most difficult film to light this year. And Donald McAlpine the inspired DP just makes it sing. The entire film is dripping in radiance and drama. But, and it's a 'big but', it's entirely filmed inside studio walls. In Moulin Rouge! the whole world is literally a stage. It'd get my vote but I'm not sure about those outdoor loving AMPAS voters. They tend to prefer God's natural lighting... to any manmade accomplishment. It's very possible that LOTR will take this... the only reason I'm still leaving TMWWT as the predicted winner is that Deakins is widely considered to be a genius AND he filmed ABM as well. His work on both films is well publicized and that may help his name pop up more often on the ballot. Much as I dislike ABM, Deakins work there is top notch as well. The man couldn't shoot an ugly film if he tried.

One more precursor...

I just watched the Independent Spirit Awards. zzzzzzzzzz. Now, I liked Memento. I did. But I just don't get it winning everything over things like Hedwig and the Angry Inch. People regularly come up with new gimmicks for thrillers (The Usual Suspects, Se7en, etc...) and Memento is insanely clever... but for me it doesn't hold a candle to the phenomenal John Cameron Mitchell and his one-of-a-kind punk rock transgender show. (Don't even start with the tired critic-lazy "rocky horror" references... as they don't apply beyond a wig and makeup) I also tire of big Hollywood stars swooping in and stealing the awards right out from under people who are really toiling in the underground. I watch a LOT of movies. I read a LOT of film magazines. And I hadn't heard of at least two of the productions nominated tonight.

High Points :
Seeing Kerry Washington nominated for Lift. She was great in Our Song and Save the Last Dance last year as well. And seeing Gael Garcia Bernal (yum) presenting best foreign film. Gotta love him. Go see Y Tu Mama Tambien! These are both up and coming actors that I'm endorsing here at The Film Experience so take note: Expect great things from these two. (See my breakout awards)

Peter Deming getting an award for Mulholland Drive also ranked high as I feel he was robbed of an Oscar nod for cinematography.

Todd Field getting to give an acceptance speech. In all the In the Bedroom hoopla, he's left out as much as Nick Stahl.

Molly Parker's nomination for Center of the World. The film has problems but it did NOT deserve the throwaway we-can't-be-bothered-to-think-about-this reviews that it received when it opened. If you can handle sexually frank films, give it a rental's chance. Not perfect but there's some interesting things happening there...

Low Points:
John Waters opening monologue. I like Mr. Waters, I do. (Especially Hairspray and CryBaby) But his monologues at the ISAs always go on forever. Someone should ask him to be brief. (Although it is sort of amusing to watch how uncomfortable the big stars are with the irreverent humor)

Memento winning three awards and Hedwig losing everything it was nominated for.

Amélie winning foreign film. zzzzzz. This is the "Independent Spirit" award and the three big prizes (Feature, First Feature, Foreign Film) all went to the most financially successful nominee. That seems suspiciously Hollywood to me.

3/23 Prediction Comparisons
(Note: I changed my prediction in a couple of shorts categories -just because I didn't want to match everyone.)

As most every Computer literate Oscar junky knows -there's several sites that cover Oscar madness: Herewith a comparison of some major ones and their predictions: Predictions against the flow in red.

Site:	The FiLM EXPERiENCE	Oscar Watch	Alex Fung	Zeusefer	Oscar Central	EW	Sijmen	Awards Heaven	O' Neill (GoldDerby)
PREDICTIONS not PREFERENCES...
Picture	ABM	LOTR		ABM	ABM	ABM	ABM	LOTR	MR!
There you go, (name deleted): the general consensus for the "apocalypse"... ha ha. File this under 'Some people have no sense of humor'
Director	Howard	Howard		Altman	Howard	Jackson	Howard	Howard	Howard
Actress	Spacek	Berry		Berry	Spacek	Spacek	Berry	Berry	Kidman
Actor	Crowe	Washington		Crowe	Crowe	Washington	Crowe	Crowe	Washington
Supp Actress	Connelly	Connelly		Connelly	Connelly	Connelly	Connelly	Connelly	Connelly
Supp Actor	Broadbent	McKellen		McKellen	McKellen	McKellen	McKellen	McKellen	McKellen
Original	GP	Memento		GP	GP		Memento	Memento	GP
Adaptation	ABM	ABM		ABM	ABM		ABM	ABM	ABM
Animated	Shrek	Shrek		Shrek	Shrek		Shrek	Shrek
Foreign	NML	NML		Amélie	Amélie		Amélie	Amélie
Site:	The FiLM EXPERiENCE	Oscar Watch	Alex Fung	Zeusefer	Oscar Central	EW	Sijmen	Awards Heaven
Art Direction	MR!	MR!		MR!	MR!		MR!	LOTR
Cinematography	TMWWT	TMWWT		TMWWT	LOTR		TMWWT	TMWWT
Editing	MR!	MR!		BHD	MR!		MR!	MR!
Score	M,Inc	ABM		LOTR	ABM		LOTR	LOTR
Costume Design	MR!	MR!		LOTR	MR!		MR!	MR!
Song	"May It Be"	"Until"		"Until"	"Until"		"Until"	"If I Didn't..."
Sound	BHD	LOTR		LOTR	LOTR		LOTR	LOTR
Sound Editing	PH	PH		M,I	PH		PH	M,I
MakeUp	LOTR	LOTR		MR!	LOTR		LOTR	MR!
Visual Effects	LOTR	LOTR		LOTR	LOTR		LOTR	LOTR
Documentary	Promises	Promises		Promises	Promises		Promises
Short (Docu)	Thoth	A&O		Sing	A&O		Sing
Short (Ani)	FTB	FTB		GULAS	FTB		FTB
Short (Live)	Accountant	Man Thing		Man Thing	Accountant		Accountant

Now, If we're talking preferences... that's a whole other ballgame.

What it all boils down to:
It's about 50/50 on the Spacek Vs. Berry front. No one will be surprised either way.
Despite past shocks in the supporting actress category -Connelly losing would still register as a shock.
People are generally behind ABM as the most probable Best Picture choice.
People feel like MR! and LOTR! will split most if not all of the technicals between them. But nobody's really agreeing on how many statuettes each of these spectacles will get.