Scorsese For The Win And Other Oscar Oddities
 

So, Marty finally got the gold. About time. In case I'm the only one who watched here's a list of the winners.
Best Motion Picture: "The Departed"

Lead Actor: Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland"

Lead Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"

Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"

Directing: Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"

Foreign Language Film: "The Lives of Others," Germany

Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, "The Departed"

Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"

Animated Feature Film: "Happy Feet"

Art Direction: "Pan's Labyrinth"

Cinematography: "Pan's Labyrinth"

Sound Mixing: "Dreamgirls"

Sound Editing: "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Original Score: "Babel," Gustavo Santaolalla

Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth," Melissa Etheridge

Costume: "Marie Antoinette"

Documentary Feature: "An Inconvenient Truth"

Documentary Short Subject: "The Blood of Yingzhou District"

Film Editing: "The Departed"

Makeup: "Pan's Labyrinth"

Animated Short Film: "The Danish Poet"

Live Action Short Film: "West Bank Story"

Visual Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"

Special honors
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Sherry Lansing
Academy Honorary Award: Ennio Morricone

Now I thought that this year's show was horribly dull. It was worse tha the one where they wouldnt even let the winners come to the stage. Ellen didn't even dance! But it did have it's moments. Like the Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C Reilly performance. Or Al Gore "announcing" his candidacy for the 08 election. There were other moments, but this entire telecast just lacked zazz. I mean is there a bigger geek moment then Marty walking off stage with Coppola, Lucas and Spielberg?
What do you guys think of the winners? And for those who watched what did you think period?

I thought "Happy Feet" taking the best animated feature award was a bit of a mild surprise, since every year Pixar had a film in that catagory they are almost a shoe in to win.

To be honest, I was surprised how the award turn out, such as Happy Feet winning the award for "Best Animated Film" and Forest Whitaker winning his first Academy Award for "Best Actor".

Of course, I knew Hudson was going to get the award in the first place, as well as "The Departed" getting "Best Picture".

Overall, this year's Academy Award was okay.

I watched the Oscars tonight, I really enjoyed it especially Ellen hosting :D

I loved Ellen this year. She was such a nut.


And....I've calmed down a lot after my all night tirade over Happy Feet winning over CARS. I still think it's the biggest mistake that the academy has ever made.

And Pan's Labyrinth didn't win best Foreign?! what was THAT about?!

The big surprise for me was Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor. I thought FOR SURE that Eddie Murphy would win that one.

But Scorsese finally winning Best Director made my night.

I have to admit that I was disappointed that The Departed won for best film, and Little Miss Sunshine did not. Now, I'm not really one to judge, because I've never seen The Departed, but I love Little Miss Sunshine.

"Happy Feet" winning was somewhat surprising to me.

I haven't seen Happy Feet. But I really found Cars to be an inferior Pixar film. I guess it's because I'm a huge Incredibles fan and that one movie's a hard act to follow.
Yes, many people have this issue over Whittaker winning because he wasn't the actual lead in the film.
However, Marty, Forrest and Helen winning were sure locks if you ask me.

I was also pretty surprised that "Cars" was trounced by "Happy Feet" for Best Animated Feature. Nonetheless, while I enjoyed "Cars" and went to see it twice on the big screen, I agree with AerostarMonk that it was a far cry from Pixar's best work. I haven't seen "Happy Feet" (or "Monster House", for that matter), but the trailer did make it look a tad...well, ridiculous? ??? I'm not getting at the fact that its central characters are a colony of talking, singing, dancing penguins (no more ridiculous than a film about talking, sentient cars), but that the lead penguin should be banished in such disgrace from his family because he can't sing, only tap-dance? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something there. I'll try not to judge it until I've seen it...

To be honest, I found it hard to get terribly excited about any of the Animated Feature nominees this year. 2006 was pretty much another year ruled by the ever-increasing CG-animation glut. I was much more interested in the nominees of last year's ceremony, which were refreshingly CG-free.

Oh yes, and congratulations to Mr. Scorsese. :D