2008-09

It's a Wonderful Night for Oscar! Oscar, Oscar! Who Will Win?

Terrified by the sight of a year that saw some truly remarkable and original filmmaking, the Academy retreated into its cocoon of biopics, Americana, and the Holocaust, shafting the two most critically praised and financially successful films of the year for Best Picture nominations. With the exception of the exceptional Slumdog Millionaire, the remaining four Best Picture nominees would feel much more at home in the 1990’s. They do not come close to representing the best films of 2008.

There is, however, much cause to celebrate the actors. 2008 saw an embarrassing abundance of extraordinary performances. From Heath Ledger’s maniacal swansong in The Dark Knight to Kate Winslet’s double-whammy in Revolutionary Road and The Reader to the resurrection of Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler to the outstanding ensemble work in the likes of Milk, Rachel Getting Married, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button… the list goes on. It’s a shame that only 20 actors could receive Oscar nominations. That’s only the tip of the iceberg.

In a perfect world, the Academy would be run by me, for only I have the perspicacity and taste to make such an important decision. ;)

Unfortunately, the world is not perfect, and the Academy is not run by me (yet). So for the time being, I’ll have to make do with the small outlet provided to me by the Internet. Behold! The winners of the 81st Academy Awards on Sunday night will be:

BEST PICTURE ✅

Will/Should win: Slumdog Millionaire (lock)

BEST DIRECTOR ✅

Will/Should win: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (lock)

BEST ACTOR ❌

Will/Should win: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler (could be Sean Penn)

BEST ACTRESS ✅

Will win: Kate Winslet, The Reader (could be Meryl Streep)

Should win: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR ✅

Will/Should win: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (lock)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS ✅

Will/Should win: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona (likely)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY ✅

Will win: Milk (likely)

Should win: WALL-E

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY ✅

Will/Should win: Slumdog Millionaire (lock)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE ✅

Will/Should win: WALL-E (lock)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM ✅

Will win: Departures (dark horse, most likely Waltz with Bashir will win)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE ✅

Will win: Man on Wire (likely)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ✅

Will win: Slumdog Millionaire (could be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Should win: The Dark Knight

BEST FILM EDITING ✅

Will/Should win: Slumdog Millionaire (lock)

BEST ART DIRECTION ✅

Will/Should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (likely)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN ✅

Will win: The Duchess (could be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Should win: Australia

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE ✅

Will win: Slumdog Millionaire (likely)

Should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST ORIGINAL SONG ✅

Will win: "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire (could be "Down to Earth" from Wall-E)

Should win: "Down to Earth" from WALL-E

BEST SOUND MIXING ❌

Will win: The Dark Knight (could be Slumdog Millionaire or WALL-E)

Should win: WALL-E

BEST SOUND EDITING ✅

Will win: The Dark Knight (could be Slumdog Millionaire or WALL-E)

Should win: WALL-E

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS ✅

Will/Should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (likely)

BEST MAKEUP ✅

Will/Should win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (likely)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT ✅

Will/Should win: La Maison en Petit Cubes (could be Presto)

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT ✅

Will win: Toyland (could be The Pig)

BEST DOCUMENTARY, SHORT SUBJECT ❌

Will win: The Conscience of Nhem En (1 in 4 chance, could be any)

[Did win]: Smile Pinki

Post-Oscars Analysis

Final score: One of the highlights for me was reaching a new personal record of prediction accuracy, correctly pegging 21/24 categories, including the surprise upset of Departures over Waltz with Bashir for Foreign Language Film.

As far as the winners go, I have a few small complaints. I loved Slumdog Millionaire, but not to the tune of eight Oscars, four of which it had no business winning (cinematography, song, score, sound mixing). The real loser of the night was Andrew Stanton's masterpiece WALL-E, which won only one trophy (animated feature) when it should have won five. Other big winners include Benjamin Button which won three well-deserved awards, and Milk and The Dark Knight with two apiece (they were among the year's best films).

While the slate of nominees generally left much to be desired, the show was better than it's been in years! Hugh Jackman was exceptional as host, and the innovations introduced to the show's format by producers Bill Condon and Lawrence Mark made the four-hour ceremony feel much shorter than it actually was.

[RETROSPECTIVE, 2023-03-14]

One of the gifts of hindsight is that it allows you treasure memories to an even greater extent than you can in the moment. At the time, I complimented this Oscar telecast as one of the best I had seen "in years", obviously lacking the foreknowledge that it would remain the best Oscar telecast ever produced in my lifetime. To date, it represents the pinnacle of what the Academy Awards can be.

Condon and Mark's structural conceit of the show – presenting the categories in rough order of the filmmaking process itself, while sprinkling in the Acting and Specialty categories at strategic points – was a stroke of simple, elegant genius. Having presenters remain on stage to hand out multiple awards consecutively was a savvy time-saving decision, accompanied by stage dressing and scripted introductions that actually paid homage to the nominated work.

I stand by my original assessment that these choices made the whole affair move with greater alacrity than its 4-hour runtime suggests. But the true value in this efficient programming is that it afforded Condon & Mark the leeway to indulge in a few creative risks, ones that would ultimately define their telecast as something special.

The presentation of the Acting categories is perhaps their most memorable innovation, bringing out five previous winners in each category to sing the praises of the current nominees. To be fair, your mileage may vary with this approach. Traditionalists who prefer acting clips are perfectly in their right mind to point out that this did slow down the proceedings, and not every nominated actor yielded an emotive or satisfying reaction shot to hearing their performances described, but there was a novelty and a curiosity-factor to this gamble that made it must-see television. Getting to witness current and classic Oscar winners share the stage was an irresistible treat, and spit-balling who you would choose to represent each category has become an annual Oscar-nerd thought exercise ever since. Adam Shankman would attempt to replicate this format the following year with less success, proving that this wasn't a sustainable model moving forward. But as a one-off experiment, it will always last in my memory as a thrilling surprise!

Another creative gambit that people forget originated with this telecast (but which as since become the norm) was having a live song performance during the In Memoriam segment, courtesy of Queen Latifah's lovely rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You". This one remains somewhat divisive. Some still believe that having someone croon over the clip reel is a distraction from the departed artists who we should be honouring, but I find that they've managed to pull this off tactfully most years.

Overall the evening's musical direction deserves high praise. With the music branch only nominating three songs, the showrunners smartly opted to consolidate all three into one meaty medley, thus freeing up time for an orchestral performance of the Best Original Score nominees (which aught to be done every year), and not one, but two Hugh Jackman numbers elsewhere in the program. His adorably silly DIY tribute to the films of 2008 that opened the show was a perfect tone-setter, and only whet our appetite for the halftime showstopper "Musicals Are Back" (staged by the master of maximalism Baz Luhrmann himself). Couple his gifts for razzle-dazzle with a warm audience rapport that truly comes across as effortless during his monologues, and it's easy to see why he's the only Oscar host this century to earn reviews that were near-unanimously positive. Only a star of Jackman's acumen could have handled this impresario role so ebulliently.

If you had to sum up the evening in one word, it would be "class". Upon rewatching the ceremony, you may be surprised to discover that you won't find one single joke made at the expense of a movie or an individual, and that the reverence expressed towards every nominated artist felt genuine. The stage sparkled, the band sizzled, and all the stars were smiling.

Danny Boyle, upon accepting the prize for Best Director towards the end of the night, actually remarked, "I want to thank you for what a beautiful show you've done. I don't know what it looks like on television everybody, but in the room it's bloody wonderful, really."

Take my word for it, Mr. Boyle, it was bloody wonderful on TV too.