The Oscars are coming up this Sunday and I always look forward to them. I still have a few movies to catch up on, but in the meantime here are my personal favorite picks:

Best Supporting Actor

• Casey Affleck
• Javier Bardem
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Hal Holbrook
• Tom Wilkinson

I liked Casey Affleck, was underwhelmed by the others, who just weren’t in movies I liked. Expect for Bardem, the creepiest villain I’ve seen in ages. Just his voice scares me to death.

Best Supporting Actress

• Cate Blanchett
• Ruby Dee
• Saoirse Ronan
• Amy Ryan
• Tilda Swinton

Ruby Dee was in the movie for only a few minutes, I liked Amy Ryan, Swinton I though was overrated, while Saoirse Ronan was good in her role. But the best performance has to be Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan.

Best Actor

• George Clooney
• Daniel Day Lewis
• Johnny Depp
• Tommy Lee Jones
• Viggo Mortensen

Haven’t seen There will be blodd yet, but I liked Mortensen and Clooney. Tommy Lee Jones is just on another level for me.

Best Actress

• Cate Blanchett
• Julie Christie
• Marion Cotillard
• Laura Linney
• Ellen Page

I don’t even understand how Blanchett was nominated. Christie was excellent as was Cotillard. However the one that I enjoyed most was Ellen Page.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Atonement
• Away From Her
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

Haven’t read any of these books, so I am basing this on the screenplays alone. No Country was fairly simple, I didn’t get Atonement, but I loved the subtleties in Away From Her. Haven’t seen the other two.

Best Original Screenplay

• Juno
• Lars and the Real Girl
• Michael Clayton
• Ratatouille
• The Savages

Haven’t seen Savages or Lars. Liked Ratatouille, Clayton was ok, but Juno was a very strong screenplay.

Best Director

• Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
• Jason Reitman (Juno)
• Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
• Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

Haven’t seen Butterfly. Juno is fun, but a big part of it was the screenplay. I think the Coen brothers should get this one, this is really their vision.

Best Picture

• Atonement
• Juno
• Michael Clayton
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

I think Atonement and Michael Clayton are overrated and don’t belong in this list. I am really torn between Juno and No Country. No Country is technically a masterpiece, the suspense is incredible and the performances are great. However Juno had so much heart, I really had a great time with Juno. In the end that’s what I’ll best remember.

Of course there are some favorites of mine that weren’t nominated: Once, Zodiac, The Namesake.

I finally managed to watch the Oscars, you can find the winners here. Unlike last year, I am pretty happy with this year’s winners. There are some disappointments, but I cannot have it all. Here are some random thoughts about the Oscar Night.

• During The Departed presentation the speaker said that Infernal Affairs is a Japanese movie!! It’s from Hong Kong, you morons!! At least Scorsese said Asian movie.
• I was happy they gave the honorary award to Ennio Morricone, even though honorary award means “we screwed up, sorry you never won before”. It was nice listening to his Italian, but I didn’t know Clint Eastwood knew Italian that well. Makes sense, he’s made so many movies with Sergio Leone.
• Dreamgirls had 3 songs nominated, but it didn’t win! Nothing against the winner, but how ironic that the musical of the year doesn’t get the best song award.
• The actors awards weren’t too surprising, Alan Arkin being the only small surprise.
• I am happy that Martin Scorsese finally got his Oscar, and it is for a good movie. I also loved watching the 3 friends (Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas) little fun sketch about Lucas not having won for Best Director, and then giving the award to their other good friend Scorsese. The best moment of the night.
• Which brings me to the disappointments. The original screenplay went to Little Miss Sunshine, but I really wanted Pan’s Labyrinth to get it. But the biggest upset was the foreign language film award. Nothing against Germany, I haven’t even watched the other films. But how can a movie with 6 nominations not get this award? They even won some of the other Oscars, how can this be more popular than the others? Bah!?
• About Ellen. I am not too familiar with her, but I recognize her humor. I thought she was funny, and she brought a more relaxed atmosphere to this all too important show. Not the best ever, but she had some funny jokes.
• As usual the only montage worth seeing was the tribute to people who passed away. All other montages are just useless.
• I loved the people doing shadow images of the best picture nominees. So inventive!

Overall a good year for movies, and good Oscar winners. Now I can start concentrating on this year’s movies.

Time for this year’s Oscar picks. These are not what I think will win, these are my own favorite movies and performances.

Let’s start with supporting actor:

• Alan Arkin – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
• Jackie Earle Haley – LITTLE CHILDREN
• Djimon Hounsou – BLOOD DIAMOND
• Eddie Murphy – DREAMGIRLS
• Mark Wahlberg – THE DEPARTED

I liked all of these performances, except maybe Eddie Murphy. But the best without a doubt is Haley. A very controversial and difficult role, perfectly rendered by Haley.

Best supporting actress:

• Adriana Barraza – BABEL
• Cate Blanchett – NOTES ON A SCANDAL
• Abigail Breslin – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
• Jennifer Hudson – DREAMGIRLS
• Rinko Kikuchi – BABEL

I am missing Notes, but I really don’t understand all the hype for Barraza. I did not find it that good, she had one good scene, and that’s it. Kikuchi was in my opinion much better, and I think she deserves to win.

Best leading 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

Have not seen Venus. DiCaprio was good. Gosling and Smith were very good. But for me, Whitaker was the best this year. The only problem is that his role was supporting, not leading. I really don’t understand this.

Best leading actress:

• Penélope Cruz – VOLVER
• Judi Dench – NOTES ON A SCANDAL
• Helen Mirren – THE QUEEN
• Meryl Streep – THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
• Kate Winslet – LITTLE CHILDREN

Have not seen Volver and Notes. Liked Meryl Steep’s cold performance. Don’t really think Winslet was that good. But the best was Mirren, just a fascinating portrayal of the Queen.

Best adapted screenplay:

• BORAT
• CHILDREN OF MEN
• THE DEPARTED
• LITTLE CHILDREN
• NOTES ON A SCANDAL

I still don’t understand how Borat was an adapted screenplay. I am tempted to give it to Departed, it was a very interesting remake, same plot but completely different themes and style. However I think the narration in Little Children was the best adaptation from a novel.

Best original screenplay:

• BABEL
• LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
• LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
• PAN’S LABYRINTH
• THE QUEEN

Have not seen Letters. Sunshine was fun, Babel had good structure, but I didn’t care for the characters. The Queen is an interesting invention of what happens behind royal doors. But the interweaving of the fantasy and reality stories in Pan’s Labyrinth is astonishing, and the end is the best I’ve seen in years.

Best director:

• Alejandro González Iñárritu - BABEL
• Martin Scorsese - THE DEPARTED
• Clint Eastwood - LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
• Stephen Frears - THE QUEEN
• Paul Greengrass - UNITED 93

Paul Greengrass managed to direct an objective representation of 9/11, and that’s not easy. But Scorsese really came back to form with his new mob movie. He deserves to finally get an Oscar.

Best picture:

• BABEL
• THE DEPARTED
• LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
• LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
• THE QUEEN

I really don’t get why Babel is even nominated. Same for Sunshine, a fun little movie but not much more. The Queen is interesting, but to me not even close to the impact of The Departed. I really liked this movie. A lot.

I’ll be back after I watch the Oscars to talk about the winners.

Check my IBC blog for how I watched the Oscars this year. Some comments on the winners:

• Very happy for Ang Lee, he finally gets a well reserved recognition of his talent.
• Very surprised at Crash winning best picture, I obviously do not agree with them, and you can read my thoughts on Crash here.
• No big surprises in the actor categories, except for Weisz, who I didn’t think would win.
• My wife is very happy that Tsotsi won, even though we haven’t seen the movie.
• I wish A History of Violence had won best screenplay. One of my favorites of the past year.
• I didn’t think the Academy had the balls to vote for “It’s hard out here for a pimp”, but they surprised me. But the performance was still censored.
• Most exciting moment of the evening was when Jennifer Garner (Alias) almost fell on the floor, and then said “I do my own stunts”.
• Jon Stewart was fun. I don’t know why people didn’t like him. I found him funny

I am glad the Oscars are over, I can stop rushing out looking for the movies.

This year the best picture and best director are exactly the same:

• “Brokeback Mountain” Ang Lee
• “Capote” Bennett Miller
• “Crash” Paul Haggis
• “Good Night, and Good Luck.”  George Clooney
• “Munich” Steven Spielberg

I am a little disappointed in this year’s nominations. Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich all seem important, but I am afraid that is the only reason why the academy choose them. There were so many good movies, A History of Violence, Junebug, MirrorMask, Broken Arrow… these were not “important”, but I felt they were better movies. However, I don’t think I liked them more than Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. Maybe I am biased, since Lee is from Taiwan like my family. Maybe, but I think the movie speaks to our heart, even though I am not gay and I’ve never lived in that place during that time. The story is just universal, and I think anybody can understand it. I really hope Ang Lee is awarded this year.

Best original screenplays:

• “Crash” Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco, Story by Paul Haggis
• “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov
• “Match Point” Written by Woody Allen
• “The Squid and the Whale” Written by Noah Baumbach
• “Syriana” Written by Stephen Gaghan

Even though I haven’t seen Match Point and Squid & Whale, I believe I know who should win. Crash did a good job balancing all the different threads and characters in the story, but I found the dialogs were unnatural. Crash felt like a rehash of the real TV programs by Murray. Syriana is to me the big winner. Even though I didn’t get all the details, it was simply a huge accomplishment. This script is very intelligent and does not spell out all the facts, but it keeps track of everything that happens. I hope Gaghan is honored with this award.

Nominations for this category:

• “Brokeback Mountain” Screenplay by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
• “Capote” Screenplay by Dan Futterma
• “The Constant Gardener” Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine
• “A History of Violence” Screenplay by Josh Olson
• “Munich” Screenplay by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth

The first half of The Constant Gardener is really intriguing, letting us wonder what is going on. However the last part of it and the resolution are not equally good. The story of Brokeback Mountain is very good, but I think what makes the film great is the acting and the directing. Munich did not convince me. So my favorite is A History of Violence, an adaptation of a graphic novel (which I also liked). The screenplay is very different from the GN, it just takes the basic plot of the GN and goes in a completely different direction, with totally different themes. It’s hard to guess what comes next in the plot, and even how it ends. It’s just a nice tight plot.

Here are the nominations:

• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote”
• Terrence Howard in “Hustle & Flow”
• Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”
• Joaquin Phoenix in “Walk the Line”
• David Strathairn in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

Hoffman is the big favorite, unfortunately I still haven’t seen Capote. Strathairn and Phoenix were both fine as their respecting real personalities. I really liked Howard as the pimp-turned-rapper, he really convinced me that he was a good man, and had a lot to say in his songs. Another performance that really touched me is Ledger’s Ennis. I’ve rarely seen a character as conflicted as Ennis, who also keeps that frustration inside and never lets it out, and later on he will regret it. Just an amazing performance, this is my favorite.

And the nominations for actress in a leading role are:

• Judi Dench in “Mrs. Henderson Presents” (not seen)
• Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica”  (not seen)
• Keira Knightley in “Pride & Prejudice”
• Charlize Theron in “North Country”
• Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line”

Huffman won the Golden Globe but the movie was not seen by a lot of people (I haven’t!) so I doubt she will win. Theron gave a good performance, but it wasn’t spectacular. I really liked Knightley’s performance, truly a revelation for me. But the winner for me is Witherspoon. She completely changed my opinion about her, and she was justlikable and true. And a great singer. Hands down my favorite.

The nominations for best supporting actor:

• George Clooney in “Syriana”
• Matt Dillon in “Crash”
• Paul Giamatti in “Cinderella Man”
• Jake Gyllenhaal in “Brokeback Mountain”
• William Hurt in “A History of Violence”

This is harder for me. William Hurt gave a phenomenal short performance as the mob boss, but it was very short. Matt Dillon’s performance was not as powerful to me. I really like Paul Giamatti, and he did a good job as the boxing manager.

But to me the two big contenders are George Clooney and Jake Gyllenhaal. Clooney put on a lot of weight for his role, and changed a lot from his previous roles. Gyllenhaal was just perfect as the woman-role in a gay relationship, without losing his masculinity. He was the woman not because he looked like a woman, or moved like a woman. But because of the feelings he showed, feelings that normally belong to women in a relationship.

And maybe Gyllenhaal is my favorite for this category.