So the 79th Oscars have wrapped, and it was a REALLY LONG show, especially if you live somewhere like the UK, and they get around to ‘Best Picture’ at about 5am. Despite the insane length, the nominations where everyone was saying “well X should win, it’s their year” actually seemed to pan out for a change. Just when I was close to thinking there really is no justice in the world (Ghostrider is number 1 film in the world right now), the Oscars picks me up from my low ebb, as I now live in a world where a Martin Scorsese has won a ‘Best Director’ oscar and a ‘Best Picture’ oscar. Hah in your FACE Babel!

Quote of the night goes to Ryan Gosling who turned up on the red carpet with a woman on both arms (looked like his Mum, and his perhaps… his sister) and was asked by an ABC presenter “so you brought 2 ladies with you?” to which he replied “Yeah, i’m rocking it like Snoop”.

I think the 79th Oscars will be remembered as the renumerations year, where the academy made up for past Oscar-crimes and awarded someone a bunch of statues that should have had them 20 years ago. Anyway, here’s the full rundown, with my comments thrown in where I can be bothered:

Best picture
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

He was owed, ‘The Departed’ is a lesser scorsese film in my opinion, but.. like I said… he was owed.

Best director
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

I’m not sure I mentioned it, he was owed.

Best actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Ryan Gosling will win one eventually that’s for sure. It’s a shame Peter O’Toole couldn’t win one after he rejected the ‘we’re sorry you’re going to die soon’ honorary Oscar in 2003, I guess it’s possible he could still get one, but I would say it’s unlikely. A difficult category to be in when you’re up against the powerhouse performance from Forrest Whitaker in ‘Last King of Scotland’.

Best actress
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best supporting actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

I don’t think Little Miss Sunshine deserves any Oscars personally, it’s not a bad film but I hated the end, that being said getting an Oscar Nomination when you’re 10 years old is impressive. Nice to see newcomer Jennifer Hudson taking the award, finally she might be able to shake off the ‘American Idol’ tag, which has been following her like a sex disease. Now she’ll be ‘Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson’

Best supporting actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Ok I know I said that ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ shouldn’t win anything, but … Alan Arkin was great in it, in fact I just realised that the bit where I started hating the film, is when Alan Arkin ‘exited’ so-to-speak. Eddie Murphy get’s burned, but well, that’s what you get for knocking-up a spice girl and doing another fucking fat-suit movie. It’s Karma baby.

Best foreign language film
Efter Brylluppet (aka After the Wedding), Denmark
Indigenes (aka Days of Glory), Algeria
El Laberinto del Fauno (aka Pan’s Labyrinth), Mexico
Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others), Germany
Water, Canada

I haven’t seen ‘The Lives of Others’, but I hear it’s amazing, still I wanted ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ to win just to see the smile of Guillermo’s chubby face.

Best animated feature film
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

This category is like the when you have a sportsday at school and the teachers make up a fake ‘winners’ category so they can put the special kids in it so they won’t freak out and break things. That’s ll I have to say on the matter.

Best adapted screenplay
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal

Yay Scorsese.

Best original screenplay
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best original score
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

As I said when It won a Bafta, this is the only award I think Babel should win, the soundtrack blew me away, unlike the film.

Best original song
I Need to Wake Up - An Inconvenient Truth (performed by Melissa Etheridge)
Listen - Dreamgirls (performed by Beyonce Knowles)
Love You I Do - Dreamgirls (performed by Jennifer Hudson)
Our Town - Cars (performed by James Taylor)
Patience - Dreamgirls (performed by Eddie Murphy, Keith Robinson, Anika Noni Rose)

Best documentary feature
Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best documentary short subject
The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing A Dream
Two Hands

Best visual effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Poseidon
Superman Returns

Best cinematography
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Prestige

Best art direction
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The Prestige

Best animated short film
The Danish Poet
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best action short film
Binta and the Great Idea
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer and Son
The Saviour
West Bank Story

Best costume design
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Marie Antoinette
The Queen

Best make-up
Apocalypto
Click
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best sound mixing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Dreamgirls
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Sound editing
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Letters from Iwo Jima
Flags of our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best film editing
Babel
Blood Diamond
Children of Men
The Departed
United 93

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Sherry Lansing

Honorary Award
Ennio Morricone