Is anyone else into the Academy Awards? I get into it every year. Even though the show often ends up boring me a bit, I get excited about watching it! My husband and I used to try to see most of the movies that are up for big nominations, but we don't always have time to do that anymore. This year we've seen three of the Best Picture nominees and a few of the acting and screenplay nominees. We used to even try to catch as many of the foreign ones as we could! (We're kind of movie geeks...)

Any predictions for this year? It looks like No Country for Old Men will win Best Picture (I haven't seen it yet) and Daniel Day-Lewis will win for There Will Be Blood (well deserved - he's amazing). I think Julie Christie will win for Away From Her, which was a good little movie that very few people saw. Juno will win Original Screenplay, the Coen brothers will win Adapted Screenplay for No Country for Old Men, and they'll also win for Directing. Ratatouille will win for Animated Feature, Atonement will win for Original Score... ok, I'll stop there and I won't bore you with my predictions for makeup and art direction and all that.

I even like to watch a bit of the pre-show coverage to check out the gowns!

Your predictions look to be right on, to me!

Will be watching, here. (Even though it's never as much fun watching everyone pull up to the red carpet in the rain. Still, the tarp casts a lovely li'l glow on everyone. They do their best!)

Cheers,
full of grace

I always start watching but seldom make it all the way through. We are an hour ahead of everybody here in Atlantic Canada and this old lady just cannot stay awake that late.

We have a sweet little local girl up for best actress (for Juno) this year. don't expect that she will win, but it's exciting just the same.

I'm sure pulling for her!!!!

Ellen Page was great in Juno! I don't know if the Academy will give her an Oscar yet because she's so young. It's silly, but I think they look at it that way -- like they can reward her later because she has plenty of time to do more good work. They could surprise us, though, which I would love to see!

It would be nice if Ellen won, but I don't think she will.

I am rooting for Viggo Mortensen for his role in Eastern Promises. Amazing. I dont think he'll win (DDL is a huge favourite) but its nice to see him recognized!

I also like Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There..in supporting actress..

And I wouldnt mind seeing Sarah Polley win for Best Adapted Screenplay

I love watching the Red Carpet and see what everyone is wearing

Me too... I just wish the commentators were better. I mean, I know it's a tough job and all, but the TV Guide Channel people in particular... bleh.

Glad I can finally change to ABC for "official" coverage.

(Oh, it's all so easy from the sofa, ain't it? *snark* )

I watched the E! red carpet coverage. At least it's better than it used to be when Joan Rivers did it -- she never seemed to know who anyone was or what movie they were in. Speaking of that, it was pretty funny when Regis Philbin called Javier Bardem Xavier Bardem.

No big surprises in the awards. I'm glad Daniel Day-Lewis won (even though everyone knew he would) because I think he's probably our greatest living actor, and he's just so charming and weird. I love that he makes so few movies but when he does they're amazing.

Hat Trick, I agree those three ladies looked lovely. I didn't like Katherine Heigl's hair at all (it looked too hot-roller-ish and "set"), but the dress was great.

Surprisingly, my favorite look of the night was Marion Cotillard. At first glance, I was weirded out by the "fish scale" look of the dress, but it won me over. She looked amazing. I thought Helen Mirren looked fantastic too, as she always does. She has a killer body, and I love that she wears dresses that look "mature" for her age but also show off her curves.

For the men, I thought Javier Bardem looked great. George Clooney always looks nice, but that kind of goes without saying. His girlfriend's dress was ugly, though...

Cameron Diaz bugs the pee out of me for some reason, but her arms looked super-toned. What was with that sloppy ponytail, though? It looked like she threw her hair up to clean her house. Not cute. I'm not a fan anyway, though. I just kept wondering why she was there. Has she been in anything lately?

Cameron Diaz's dress was a really pale pink -- like a blush color. I thought her arms were impressively toned but I also remember thinking there was a disconnect between the feminine look of her dress and the severeness of her muscles, so that's probably the one you saw! I hated Jennifer Hudson's dress too, and I didn't like what she wore last year either. Her stylist is just doing her wrong. But that makes sense, because I doubt many Hollywood stylists know how to dress a woman who isn't a size 0. I love Tilda Swinton -- she's very odd looking, but it's refreshing really. She's different. And I loved her speech too.

Why didn't I think of watching E! this time? Silly me! I was watching that horrible Lisa Rinna and Joey Fatone stuff on TV Guide. Bleh. They were at least as bad as Joan Rivers ever was.

I thought she looked great EXCEPT for a little "over-do" on the bronzer on her face (at least when she took the mic and did the presenting thing). Great on the red carpet, but under the lights on stage, she was a little too George Hamilton for me.

Hee! I thought it looked like the halter top part was put on with whipped cream, if you know what I'm sayin'. She was stunning, but that dress was a little distracting, IMO. But after seeing the makeup job they did on her for the film, I am really glad that they won for best makeup. Wow! What a transformation!!

100% agree! And what a lovely color that ruby red was!!

Ditto, ditto.

Totally agree. I actually said--to the TV screen--"Jennifer, fire your stylist! You need something that flatters your lovely ladies. Do NOT wear that dress! EVER! Again!" Hee!

Agree. It is so infrequent that we SEE George Clooney "getting it" from anyone else. He is always the one who deals it out (and oh, so well). So, it was a blast watching him cover his face TWICE during her speech, because she "got him" so good. It was awesome.



Cheers,
full of grace

I typically watch Oscars each year. Although I live in jeans, I still enjoy watching the red carpet arrivals, etc. This year, I am really behind, I haven't seen any of the nominated movies (by hey, I DID see The Golden Compass and it did win special effects Oscar). I was rooting for Ellen Page (because she is from Canada). I also read an article about a guy who is from Halifax and he was the creator of Bardem's bob. (His last name is Dieppe and I think he has a salon in Halifax of the same name, if I lived there, I would want to get a haircut from him).

I think the most stunning dress was Anne Hathaway's. She looked gorgeous in it, the rich red was so flattering for her. The dress was funky and classy at the same time, I simply loved it.
Hillary Swank looked awesome (I mean her hair and face). She looked so polished. Her dress was ok.
Katherine Heigl had nice hair, but the dress was nothing to write home about.
Cameron Diaz had terrible hair (like she just got out of bed and left the house and frankly, Cate Blanchett's hair was also sloppy and only marginally better than Diaz's. I like the colour of Jessica Alba's dress (but only the colour).
Jennifer Hudson - eeegads, what a disaster! The worst dress she could pick.

And by the way, did anybody see Jeanne Bekker? (She was doing the red carpet interviews for, I think, E! Entertainment [not sure though]. Her boobs looked enormous and the cleavage just kept going and going and going! (like the Energizer bunny). Somebody should have bought her a bra and explain to her that at 55 (or whatever) she simply cannot pull off the same stuff women half her age do.
I agree on Clooney's GF - she is lovely, but the dress was hideous.