The Academy Awards

I didn’t watch the Oscar telecast. Instead, I went to Disneyland with a group of friends. Oscar Sunday is the only time we found to all go to Disneyland at the same time (we’re all extremely busy students with jobs and responsibilities), so I had to sacrifice the Oscars for my friends.

Admittedly, I’m not entirely upset that I missed watching the Oscars. In the final weeks of Award Season, the Oscar race became very certain. In all of the major categories, the winners had already been known for weeks. Award Season stopped being fun for me when it was extremely clear that The King’s Speech would take Best Picture. There were few competitive categories this year. (Obviously, I will watch the telecast later this week when I’m on spring break and have access to my DVR.)

Again, none of the winners are very surprising at all. It was clear a few weeks ago after The King’s Speech had a hell of an Oscar campaign that it would take the top prize. Harvey Weinstein wins again. Colin Firth was a lock for Best Actor, and Natalie Portman was a lock for Best Actress.

Inception did take 4 Oscars for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. It deserved much, much more than that. It could have taken Best Picture, should have taken Best Original Screenplay, and Christopher Nolan should have been nominated for Best Director. I do believe that when history looks back at this Academy Awards, they will name Christopher Nolan’s snub as one of the worst snubs in all Oscar history.

The Social Network was given the Oscar cold shoulder, and I don’t really get why. That film really should have won Best Picture for many reasons. It was robbed by the british, and I’m not really okay with that. History will also name this film as the film that should have won over TKS. Aaron Sorkin got his Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, which isn’t surprising at all. It would have been one of the worst snubs in Oscar history (Citizen Kane level) if Sorkin didn’t win. He deserves that award.

I’m kinda surprised that Exit Through the Gift Shop didn’t win Best Documentary. Its one of the most inventive and entertaining documentaries I’ve seen, and I do think that the Academy should have awarded this film. (But this snub is probably due to the Academy’s weird rules about voting for documentaries.)

Though I’m a huge fan of The King’s Speech, it and Harvey Weinstein really killed the excitement of Award Season.

I’m definitely looking forward to the 2011 Award Season. I’m excited for the films of 2011 that will blow us away, and looking towards the 2012 Academy Awards, I’m hoping for a competitive show.

The WGA Award Winners!

I love the Writer’s Guild of America.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan; Warner Bros.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich; Sony Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Inside Job, Written by Charles Ferguson; Co-written by Chad Beck, Adam Bolt; Sony Pictures Classics

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Finally, FINALLY, Christopher Nolan gets his much deserved recognition. I’m extremely happy with the winners. EXTREMELY.

And Aaron Sorkin rightfully wins his award for The Social Network.

Thank you, Writer’s Guild of America, for making me happy and awarding the correct people!

(I’m praying that this will put Inception back into the Oscar conversation. Praying, Praying, Praying.)

Perfection

I’m halfway through reading this, and I’m in love. If I could marry a screenplay, it would be this one. The Inception Shooting Script is perfect. It reads so well, I’m still getting a sense that Mal is a crazy ass bitch (but I love her) and I’ve finally fully thought out my theory of Mal and Dom. WHAT UP. I’m not going to publish my full on Inception breakdown analysis because every other blogger in the world has done so, and I’ll use my blog-space to hero-worship Christopher Nolan instead.

If Christopher Nolan is robbed of an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay this year, I’ll be filled with RAGE.

I highly recommend that everyone who loves Inception to read this.

DGA Nominations!!!

This morning, the Director’s Guild of America announced their nominations for Best Director of a Feature Film. The nominees are:

• Christopher Nolan for Inception
• David Fincher for The Social Network
• Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
• David O. Russell for The Fighter
• Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan

Out of all these films, the only one I haven’t seen is The Fighter, so I can’t speak on that. However, the rest of these directors deserve their nominations.

Obviously, I’m Team Nolan. He’s been nominated for this award twice before for Memento and The Dark Knight, losing both times to Ang Lee and Danny Boyle, respectively. I do believe (and hope) that the DGA will finally give him this award this year, which he really, really deserves.

If for any reason Nolan does not win, I’ll be happy for David Fincher and maybe even Darren Aronofsky.

But Christopher Nolan better win.

I should also note that the DGA usually predicts the nominees for Best Director at the Academy Awards as well, and the winner of this award usually wins the Oscar as well.

This award will be announced on January 29th.