All Ready for the Oscars!

Get ready for the red carpet as the Stars stride in for the biggest movie award show of the year!
For the past month, I've been catching up on as many nominated films. 2007 was an outstanding year in the movies.
Here's my take on the nominations:

Best Motion Picture of the Year
1) Atonement
2) Juno
3) Michael Clayton
4) No Country for Old Men*
5) There Will Be Blood

It's a rare occasion when the Best Motion Picture of the Year category comes across so diverse and non-obvious. It's another year without the upfront mainstream popularity, making each film unique and excellent in its own right. I watched 'Juno' and 'Atonement' over the same weekend and absolutely loved both. At that moment, I was pretty certain 'Atonement' would win for its poetic depiction of war and love. It was such a beautiful film. I only caught 'There Will Be Blood' this afternoon. A wonderful character film that many have cited to be as brilliantly crafted as 'Citizen Kane'.

But it was truly 'No Country for Old Men' with its extraordinary editing and storytelling which got me thinking weeks after I had caught the film. By far one of the most haunting thrillers and human drama filmed for the silver screens. Not many films have such an effect on me, and though I can't say I fell in love with the movie at first watch... the film grows on you. If this film doesn't pick up the award, it's certainly more geared toward a non structured story execution, which you either get... or you don't...

This is a year, I'd be happy if any of the films nominated took honours at this category. If 'Juno' wins, it'll be another dark horse year like 'Shakespeare In Love' or 'Little Miss Sunshine'!


Best Achievement in Directing
1) Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
2) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men*
3) Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton
4) Jason Reitman for Juno
5) Julian Schnabel for Le Scaphandre et le papillon

My vote goes out to the Coen brothers. They deserved this award since 'Fargo' and as mentioned 'No Country for Old Men' is a brilliantly executed film. Very distinct of the Coen style. In a way, they should have been recognised for 'The Man Who Wasn't There' and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'.


Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
1) George Clooney for Michael Clayton
2) Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood*
3) Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
4) Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah
5) Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises

This is Daniel Day-Lewis' 4th Oscar nomination, of which he had already begged a golden statue in 1990 for his leading role in 'My Left Foot'. I'm going to have to say I appreciated his performance better in 'My Left Foot'; by which I have since seen few performances as worthy of the award. However, Day-Lewis' portrayal of Daniel Plainview (the oil-man) makes you wonder if his riches were making him insane or was he trying to keep his sanity in an insane world.


Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
1) Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
2) Julie Christie for Away from Her
3) Marion Cotillard for La Môme*
4) Laura Linney for The Savages
5) Ellen Page for Juno

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in 'La Môme'


Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
1) Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2) Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men*
3) Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War
4) Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild
5) Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton

You want to know what evil looks like... it's Javier Bardem in 'No Country for Old Men'. I remembered going to bed after catching the film and I had cold chills thinking about Bardem's role as Anton Chigurh the hitman.


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
1) Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There
2) Ruby Dee for American Gangster
3) Saoirse Ronan for Atonement
4) Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
5) Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton*

This one is between Saoirse Ronan as the young Briony Tallis in 'Atonement' or Amy Ryan as the irresponsible mother in 'Gone Baby Gone'. Both were awesome roles played to almost perfection. But perhaps I'm a little more convinced in the role played by Ryan, my vote goes to her.


Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
1) Juno : Diablo Cody*
2) Lars and the Real Girl : Nancy Oliver
3) Michael Clayton : Tony Gilroy
4) Ratatouille : Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco
5) The Savages : Tamara Jenkins


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
1) Atonement : Christopher Hampton
2) Away from Her : Sarah Polley
3) Le Scaphandre et le papillon : Ronald Harwood
4) No Country for Old Men : Joel Coen, Ethan Coen*
5) There Will Be Blood : Paul Thomas Anderson


Best Achievement in Cinematography
1) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford : Roger Deakins
2) Atonement : Seamus McGarvey
3) No Country for Old Men : Roger Deakins
4) Le Scaphandre et le papillon : Janusz Kaminski
5) There Will Be Blood : Robert Elswit*


Best Achievement in Editing
1) The Bourne Ultimatum : Christopher Rouse*
2) Le Scaphandre et le papillon : Juliette Welfling
3) Into the Wild : Jay Cassidy
4) No Country for Old Men : Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
5) There Will Be Blood : Dylan Tichenor


Best Achievement in Art Direction
1) American Gangster : Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino
2) Atonement : Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
3) The Golden Compass : Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock
4) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street : Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo*
5) There Will Be Blood : Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson

I don't quite know what how to vote for this category, simply because I am convinced of the stages and scenes set for each film. Each have portrayed and set me into believing that I was actually in a war, in old London, in a fantasy world with polar bear warriors or in the great western lands of 1900s American.

I am bias when it comes to a Tim Burton film. So my vote goes to 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'.


Best Achievement in Costume Design
1) Across the Universe : Albert Wolsky
2) Atonement : Jacqueline Durran
3) Elizabeth: The Golden Age : Alexandra Byrne*
4) La Môme : Marit Allen
5) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street : Colleen Atwood


Best Achievement in Makeup
1) La Môme : Didier Lavergne, Jan Archibald*
2) Norbit : Rick Baker, Kazuhiro Tsuji
3) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End : Ve Neill, Martin Samuel


Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
1) Atonement : Dario Marianelli*
2) The Kite Runner : Alberto Iglesias
3) Michael Clayton : James Newton Howard
4) Ratatouille : Michael Giacchino
5) 3:10 to Yuma : Marco Beltrami


Best Achievement in Sound
1) The Bourne Ultimatum : Scott Millan, David Parker, Kirk Francis*
2) No Country for Old Men : Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland
3) Ratatouille : Randy Thom, Michael Semanick, Doc Kane
4) 3:10 to Yuma : Paul Massey, David Giammarco, Jim Stuebe
5) Transformers : Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Peter J. Devlin


Best Achievement in Sound Editing
1) The Bourne Ultimatum : Karen M. Baker, Per Hallberg*
2) No Country for Old Men : Skip Lievsay
3) Ratatouille : Randy Thom, Michael Silvers
4) There Will Be Blood : Matthew Wood
5) Transformers : Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn


Best Achievement in Visual Effects
1) The Golden Compass : Michael L. Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, Trevor Wood*
2) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End : John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charlie Gibson, John Frazier
3) Transformers : Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, John Frazier


Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
1) Persepolis : Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
2) Ratatouille : Brad Bird*
3) Surf's Up : Ash Brannon, Chris Buck

Out of the 8 Oscar nominations awarded for 'No Country for Old Men', I've given them 5 votes. Let's see if I did well in the predictions tomorrow.

* for actual wins