Ah, it's that time of year again. The Oscars. Now, I'm not saying that I'm a total film buff or anything (okay, maybe a little) This is my Super Bowl (except, of course, when my team gets to the Super Bowl,in which caseit'smy Super Bowl, Round 2, but my team didn't even get anywhere near the playoffs this year, so its a moot point)So far I've onlyseen 4 of the Best Picture Nominees,I have yet to see Michael Clayton because whenit came out I was completely buried under school work and I didn't get the chance to go the the movies at all. Ugh. At least I'm going to see it tomorrow cause it's being re-released.But I can;t wait to inform you all of my favorites any longer (It was held off already because of my trip to New York City yesterday).

So here's how it's going to go. I'm going to bold my current favorites for the category and then italicise the ones I wouldn't mind winning. If it's a tie I'll bold them both. Then I'm going to do commentary below the list of nominees.

Best motion picture of the year
"Atonement" (Focus Features) A Working Title Production: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight) A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production: Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) A Clayton Productions, LLC Production: Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producer

Okay, the way this squares up so far is, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Atonement and a very distant Juno. As much as I liked Juno, it just really isn't Best Picture material. In any other year, I would have no qualms about it being nominated, but this was a really competitive year with a lot of really good movies and I can name several more worthy candidates off the top of my head, such as Eastern Promises, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Zodiac and The Bourne Ultimatum, to name a few. Juno was the token popular nom, although I think that Bourne would have been a better option for that, but it's early release probably hurt it there, as did it's blockbuster status. Once I see Michael Clayton I'll figure out where that is on my list, so my picks aren;t carved in stone. Yet.

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

This choice is in stone. Viggo Mortensen should win this award, hands down. His performance was one of the best I've seen in years. He is an incredible actor, but he's majorly underrated. Probably the most underrated actor in Hollywood today. Anyone who has not seen Eastern Promises needs to. When I look at Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, I can't help but think that Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg are the new Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio-and they won Best Picture for The Departed last year. Back to Viggo in this movie, anyone who has seen it remembers the fight scene in the steambath, which has to take some serious dedication ot be willing to do without a stunt double.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

This is a no competition category. Anyone who has seen No Country for Old Men knows why. That was one of the singularly most resonating characters I've ever seen. It was just... well, as a writer for EW said, the question was not 'who will be nominated for best supporting actor this year?' but rather 'Who are the four poor schlubs that will have to try and compete against Javier Bardem?'. This is another must see movie, if only for Javier Bardems character. And Tommy Lee Jones line of "What do we circulate? Looking for a man who recently drank milk?"

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

This is a category where I could pretty much care less. I don't know why, but I just don't see any true front runners, although I do see what I see as a distinct back runner. I love Cate Blanchett, but Elizabeth: The Golden Age was truly horrible and her performance was okay, but no where near Best Actress. My favorite is Ellen Page because, while the movie was only alright, her performance was outstanding, so she's my current favourite, but I don't really care too much. I haven't seen Away from her, but everything i've heard indicates that Julie Christie was also outstanding in that.

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Now, Ruby Dee didn't have too many scenes in American Gangster, but the ones that she did have were amazing and beyond memorable. I loved her in this and her character was one of the best parts of one of the best movies this year. Saoirase Rohan in Atonement was also incredible, even though I spent half the movie wanting to strangle her character for being a little b!tch. Which is a complement to her acting, really, because not many people can make a 13 year old seem like Satan reincarnated and yet make her someone that can be sympathized with.

Best animated feature film of the year
"Persepolis" (Sony Pictures ****cs): Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Brad Bird
"Surf's Up" (Sony Pictures Releasing): Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

I simply do not give a crap about animated movies.

Achievement in art direction
"American Gangster" (Universal): Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount): Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

My real question is why the hell Across the Universe wasn't nominated for this? i mean, seriously?! Anyway, given the nominees, I don't have any real favorite, the only one that would raise my eyebrows if it won is The Golden Compass. All the other 4 have very strong... strengths. Wow. That was stylistically horrible.

Achievement in cinematography
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.): Roger Deakins
"Atonement" (Focus Features): Seamus McGarvey
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Janusz Kaminski
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Roger Deakins
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Robert Elswit

Atonement's cinematography was amazing, but No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood are both close seconds.

Achievement in costume design
"Across the Universe" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood

I love Across the Universe so much and I really want it to win something, but I just don't get the costume nomination and not Art Direction or Cinematography or Editing or Music or something. But whatever. With Atonement, I am just SO in love with that green dress and all the other costumes were great. I rarely sit there in a movie and look at costumes more then once, but during Atonement I just kept noticing how great they were.

Achievement in directing
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Julian Schnabel
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Jason Reitman
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Tony Gilroy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Paul Thomas Anderson

The decision not to use any music in the entire movie was a very bold choice by the Coen brothers and it really paid off in a great way. The decision to give Javier Bardem that weird ass bowl haircut was also bold and it also paid off. This movie was just generally directed brilliantly. This was a movie that would have been a complete disaster without such brilliant directing.

Best documentary feature
"No End in Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production: Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production: Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko" (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production: Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance" (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

I haven't even seen any of these documentaries, but Taxi to the Dark side is the only one that had ever made it to my 'movies to see' list, so I've chosen it.

Best documentary short subject
"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production: Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production: Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari's Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production: James Longley

Yeah. I got nothing on any of these.

Achievement in film editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn): Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment): Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Dylan Tichenor

Bourne was amazing. It was one of the best movies of the year and the use of the shaky camera and the quick editing and cutting made the movie all that much better, keeping up the pace of the movie. This used some of the best editing in ages.

Best foreign language film of the year
"Beaufort" Israel
"The Counterfeiters" Austria
"Katyn" Poland
"Mongol" Kazakhstan
"12" Russia

Yeah, I don't have anything on any of these, either. I haven't ever even heard any of them.

Achievement in makeup
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount): Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Pirates had amazing makeup, so it should be a hands down winner. Even if you take away evrything except for Johnny Depps eyeliner it should still win.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount ****cs): Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

3:10 to Yuma had awesome music, yet Atonement has that amazing little typewriter music sound effect going on (yeah, at first I was just like 'this is going to get really annoying really fast.' but it didn't it was actually quite awesome.) So either of them I'd be good with.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.): Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney): Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

This category has me annoyed. Are you really telling me that there were no other movies with good music? Did Enchanted really deserve 3 out of 5 nominations? I doubt it. My friend (who has generally crappy tastes in movies) dragged me to see it and I slept through about 80% of it. It was horrible. Yeah, the only reason she got me to go was because she agreed to see No Country for Old Men after. So I just don't want any of them to win, which they probably won't because they'll split the vote.

Best animated short film
"I Met the Walrus" A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
"Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)" (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Don't care, haven't heard of any of them.

Best live action short film
"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production: Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)" (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia Production: Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Karé Production: Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini" (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production: Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman" A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production: Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Really, I don't do short films. At all.

Achievement in sound editing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal): Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax): Matthew Wood
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Sound in Bourne=amazing. I love it. I am also disgusted that Transformers got not one but three nominations. Another one I was dragged to, although the explosions kept me awake a vaguely interested. I said vaguely. The plot, acting and everything else sucked. Michael Bay is a moron and crime against cinema.

Achievement in sound mixing
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate): Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

My love for Bourne continues, although Yuma was great.

Achievement in visual effects
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners): Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Walt Disney): John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro): Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

And I still hate Transformers. Pirates had great effects. Davy Jones is without a doubt the best CGI character since Gollum. But they'll never beat Gollum. He was the first and best.

Adapted screenplay
"Atonement" (Focus Features), Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
"Away from Her" (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn), Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax), Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Atonement had one hell of a screenplay. No Country for Old Men and There will be Blood didn't get their greatness from their screenplays.

Original screenplay
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Diablo Cody
"Lars and the Real Girl" (MGM), Written by Nancy Oliver
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.), Written by Tony Gilroy
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
"The Savages" (Fox Searchlight), Written by Tamara Jenkins

People don't give Lars and the Real Girl a real shot. Then again, no matter how you slice it it tends to sound creepy. You know, small town boy falls for mail order sex doll." But it was still strangely touching and deep. It's indescribable, you've got to see it to understand.

Okay, midterms are over (I swear, I almost cried when I had to leave my last film class. My friend and I didn't want to leave the class, we just kind of stood there talking to our teacher for, like, 10 minutes because we had decided that the class wasn't over until we left the classroom. And we decided that we were going to go tell her about every single movie we see. So, basically, we're going to be living in her room cause we practically live at the movie theater during the weekend.) Anyway, in the insanity of finals and in my quest to see all the really good movies that have been coming out, I totally forgot about posting the link to my fanfic.net profile. SO, here it is: http://www.fanfiction.net/~coldember. My NaNoWriMo story still isn't up yet, cause both myself and my beta have been really busy lately and it is a really long story with a huge number of continuity errors (okay, not a huge number, but it isn't exactly the most consistent plot line ever. And, of course, the ever popular marinating the bullet wound and the Marine Crops. Yeah. Exactly. I'll try to update again soon, but I can't make any promises, cause I'm currently avoiding my house via going to the movies all the time. See, as many of you might know, the Green Bay Packers are playing the New York Giants in the NFC championship game tomorrow. Well, I live inNew Yorkwith a diehard Green Bay Packers fan *cough*owns 2 shares of stock in the team*cough* and a Giants fan. It's been like a freakin' war zone all week. I've just been ducking all the flying objects.

I felt the need to make a whole new pot to answer the simple question of if Emily and I were cold during our bikini snowball fight (Which my other friend, Olivia, who had a very dirty mind thinks itsounds like the name of a porno. Although this time he might actually be right. But this is not the point) No, surprisingly, it really wasn't cold at all. The pool was heated and the hot tub was, well, hot. And eve when we got out it didn't seem that cold. Now, on top of the mountain with all the fake snow they were making when we had about 12 layers on, that was cold. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but whatever... And I'll post a link to my fanfic.net profile later o that you all can see my fanfic. But I'm in school right now and they've blocked my profile page so I don't know what the address is. Stupid school. In other new, in my study hall first block this morning I decided to google picture search Dylan Bruno so that I could prove to my one friend how hot he is and a picture of his in a towel came up. I was very distracted for several hours after and my friend was forced to admit that he was one fine piece of man. Okay, I have to get back to work, but I'll post again later with the link to my fanfic.net profile.