My Predictions - The 76th Annual Academy Awards
Submitted by lbangs on Sun, 02/29/2004 - 06:08
Tags:
- Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Best Actor: Bill Murray
- Best Actress: Charlize Theron
- Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins
- Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Clarkson
- Best Director: Peter Jackson
- Best Adapated Screenplay: Brian Helgeland, Mystic River
- Best Original Screenplay: Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
- Best Animated Feature Film: Finding Nemo
- Best Foreign Film: The Barbarian Invasions, Canada
- Best Documentary Feature: The Fog of War
- Best Art Direction: Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Best Costume: The Last Samurai
- Best Makeup: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Best Film Editing: City of God
- Best Cinematography: Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Best Sound Mixing: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Best Sound Editing: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
- Best Original Score: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Howard Shore
- Best Original Song: "Into the West" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox
- Best Documentary (Short Subject): Chernobyl Heart
- Best Animated Short Film: Destino
- Best Live Action Short Film: Two Soldiers
Author Comments:
Ah, the Oscars...
I pray that someone will upset Renee's deathgrip on her category, so I hope you're right.
Let's pray that there are some upsets tonight. Hope, hope, hope.
Dammit, AAA, you weren't hoping hard enough! :-)
Man, what a safe, conservative, BORING presentation.
Was it me or did Bill Murray look pissed when he didn't win?
I agree, and I agree.
Another year, another Cintra Wilson Oscar bile-fest. Great stuff, something to offend everyone. I think I look forward to her post-morten more than the Oscars themselves.
I REALLY didn't like Stiller and Wilson getting the opportunity to shill their "new" movie, disguised as entertainment-not once but twice. The pre-show pitch was less offensive, but the onstage affair as presenters, was just pathetic. Why not let EVERYBODY have the opportunity to pump up their next project on the show. Sheesh, what crap!
My, that was the most boring Oscars in ages, proving that if the nominees are exciting, the awards usually aren't (the opposite is sometimes true as well). Personally, I even found Mr. Crystal boring as could be, with only the song from The Triplets of Belleville and Mr. Black and (shudder, I hate to admit it) and that doofus Mr. Ferrell's singing intro worth my attention. The winners were better than usual, but please, anything to get my pulse moving again!
And yep, I am so sick of the mass marketing of Starsky & Hutch. With the idiot Todd Phillips directing, I can wait. Oh boy, can I.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
PS - Have I ever mentioned how brain-numbingly snooze-inducing that Lord of the Rings song is? Annie has a great voice, but that song... Eh...
Amen to that. Jack Black and Will Ferrell were hilarious, Starsky and Hutch is gonna suck, "Into the West" is really boring, and "Belleville Rendezvous" kicked ass.
I liked Billy Crystal, for the most part. I thought he definitely had some hilarious lines. I thought he was better than Steve Martin, personally.
Blake Edwards occasionally held my attention. There's just something about an 81-year-old man who begins his Oscar speech by taking part in the sort of pratfall which he is famous for directing.
I invited some friends over, hoping for the most interesting Oscar ceremony in years. Before long, everyone but me was playing Ping Pong or Uno; I was still naively hanging onto the hope that there would be just ONE upset...
I also liked Blake Edwards' (a fellow native Tulsan, for the record...) entrance, but I certainly enjoyed Steve Martin last year much more than I did Crystal this year.
Yep, it appears the upsets just weren't to be.
Wow, Uno. I haven't played that game in years...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Man, Todd Phillips's films keep getting better and better! "Road Trip" got a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Old School" got a 58%, and "Starsky and Hutch" is currently pulling off a 59%. If he keeps making brainless, raunchy comedies, maybe his 29th film will actually be worth watching!
Our hopes can't change votes, it seems.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Lester,
I remember you once saying that it seemed the "academy" often gave the Best Original Screenplay Oscar to the edgier newer film that they secretly knew they should give Best Picture to; looks like that theory continues to gather more evidence...
And you, I couldn't decide if Bill Murray looked pissed or genuinely upset. His reaction, along with his great appearance on Letterman a week or so before really blew away that popular idea of him being simply weird, distant, and cold. He deserved the Oscar, but I think Penn did too; I wish they could have split it.
Johnny Waco
Ah, yes. The Best Original Screenplay, AKA the Citizen Kane Oscar...
For my money, I thought Bill just looked stunned and disappointed. For a nice change, we actually saw a very close race between two worthy nominees in a field, and I also woud not have minded a tie. That would have just been too cool...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
It's not unusual for there to be two winners in the same category, and it's happened before (1969, Best Actress, Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand). Unfortunately, since Bill Murray's still foolishly seen as a "comedy" actor, he lost out to Sean Penn. However, losing out to Sean Penn in perhaps the performance of his career isn't such a bad thing after all. But, yeah, Bill shoulda won it.
Well, in all fairness, I'd say that Murray's performance in "Lost in Translation" is probably the performance of his career. And actually, if Penn keeps taking roles in small, dramatic character-driven films, he might have a few more great performances left in him. Personally, I thought his acting in "21 Grams" was great, maybe just as good as in "Mystic River."
Oh, and BTW, it's not unprecedented for there to be two winners in the same category, but it certainly is unusual. Also, I think the Academy is much larger now than it was in 1969. However, if two Best Actor nominees ever deserved a tie, it was Murray and Penn. Murray deserved a shared Oscar much, much more than Barbra Streisand (very annoying in "Funny Girl").