Oscar night is here

Oscar night is here! This is the pinnacle of film awards, and we are aways excited to see who wins.

We’ve made our picks (click here) and can’t wait to see how they unfold. For a complete list of the nominees, click here.

And the winners are…

Achievement in Art Direction: Alice in Wonderand
Achievement in Cinematography: Inception
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3
Best Animated Short: The Lost Thing
Best Original Screenplay: The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
Best Foriegn Film: In a Better World
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Original Score: The Social Network
Best Sound Mixing:  Inception
Best Sound Editing: Inception
Best makeup: The Wolfman
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderand
Life Action Short Film: God of Love
Feature-length Documentary: Inside Job
Short Subject Documentary: Strangers No More
Achievment in Visual Effects: Inception
Best Original Song: We Belong Together, from the film Tangled
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Picture: The King’s Speech 

Our Oscar Picks

Who will be the Oscar winners…
and the Oscar losers?

Oscar night is upon us, at long last! Here are the picks from our regular contributors. Our writers are all making their selections, and we’ll see who the most prolific prognosticator is… and who isn’t. Click here to see the full nominee list. We’re only picking the main categories. I mean, who really gives a crap about art direction awards? Well, we do, but we won’t bore you with that. The Oscars are Sunday at 8 p.m. east coast time on ABC. The majority are picking “The King’s Speech” for best picture, but after that, it’s a jumble.

Matt

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Brian

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Annette Benning, The Kids Are All Right
Supporting Actress: Hailee Stenfield, True Grit
Animated feature: Toy Story 3

Kyle

Best Picture: Black Swan
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, The Black Swan
Best Actor: James Franco, 127 Hours
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, The Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Lauren

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Fighter
Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Victor

Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Best Supporting Actor: Geoffery Rush, The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Fighter
Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

127 Hours

From director Danny Boyle comes this harrowing tale of real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), who literally cuts himself loose from danger — and lives to tell about it when sliding rock pins his forearm under a boulder during a climb in Utah. To stay alive, Ralston resorts to his basest survival instincts. The film scored Academy Award nominations in the Best Picture and Best Actor (Franco) categories.

Lauren
Rating: 8 out of 10

“127 Hours” is hard to watch and completely worth it. It made me cringe watching the opening scenes as Aron Ralston (James Franco) greedily chugs water, ignores phone calls from his family, and leaves his apartment without his Swiss Army Knife to go hiking in Utah. I knew he was going to go, not tell anyone where, fall, and that a boulder would trap the hand he’d lose on the trip. But a part of me still hoped for a different outcome.

It didn’t happen. About a half hour into the movie he fell, the boulder crushed his hand, and he was trapped. The real-life hiker filmed himself during his 127 hours in the canyon, and Franco and director Danny Boyle are among the few people who have seen these tapes. I’m sure the video helped Franco to pull off the amazing performance he gave expressing the frustration, fear, anger, desperation, and sadness Aron felt.

There’s a scene when he’s standing there, hand caught, nothing to drink, nothing to eat, where his mind rushes back to the bottle of Gatorade laying in the back seat of his car. Oh, what he’d do for that Gatorade. There’s nothing funny about this story, obviously, but the way Boyle tells the story I can’t help but laugh. Even though there were lighthearted moments I was just waiting. I knew what was coming. The hand had to go. And he had to be the one to slice it off.

From the time I heard about Aron when he had his accident in 2003 I always said there’s no way I could do it. I’d just die there in that canyon. I don’t think I would have had the strength to survive what he did (not that I’ve been there to begin with). But watching him, how he had given up and knew he was dead, I understand how he did it. Not the physical how, but the emotional how. The physical how, well, that’s another story. Watching him snap his bones and hack away at his half dead arm, blood gushing out, just to get to the nerves, which he plucked like guitar strings as he screamed in pain. It is graphic and slow but I felt the relief with him and could breathe again.

The movie ended with a little about Aron and his life since 2003, but I still want to know more. I wonder if he will ever show the real videos? Probably not. “127 Hours” is probably intense enough anyway.

Academy Award Nominations Announced

Matt

The weird little naked, bald man is back. Oscar is his name, and we’re happy to bring you the nominations from the major categories.

I think this year was highly predictable, not surprising in any way, shape, or form — with one big exception. Why on earth was Christopher Nolan snubbed for “Inception” in the best director category? Look, I get it if “Inception” wasn’t your thing, but that is one of the most visually striking films that is also extremely difficult to tell visually. Personally, I think it was a phenomenal film, and I happily gave it a glowing review. Ethan and Joel Coen were nominated for “True Grit,” which was a good movie. But what was harder to make and more engaging? “Inception.” Ben Affleck’s “The Town” – which garnered Jefferey Renner a supporting actor nomination – was a better film that “True Grit.”

“Black Swan” should win best picture, but “The King’s Speech” is the critics darling of the year and I expect it to win. Christopher Nolan should have at least been given a token best director nomination. The Nolan snug is rock solid evidence that “Inception” has no shot of winning best picture.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Our Oscar predictions will come later. For now, they nominees are…

Best Picture

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Director

Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter – David O. Russel
The King’s Speech – Tom Hooper
The Social Network – David Fincher
True Grit – Joel and Ethan Coen

Best Actor

Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale – The Fighter
John’s Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

Best Actress

Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actess

Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdon

Animated Feature Film

How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3