Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Email: Netflix Support

Title request: ? (2005)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Media: 2007 Academy Awards winners

I didn't get time to publish my Academy Awards winner selections earlier this year. I saved the list of candidates on Jan. 22 but never got back to it for color-coding my picks and posting them. I also missed the first hour-and-a-half of the televised awards ceremonies this evening but got home by 8:30 pm, dashed down my selections on both sides of a Post-It, and turned on the TV to see how I was doing. I will now check the Oscars Web site and compile the annual win/loss accuracy rate for my predictions.

It's weird picking winners when you haven't seen most of the films. (Seems like every year is busier than the last, with less leisure time, even for a most favored pursuit.) My system is to go by sheer intuition, unless I know a film -- but even then it comes down to intuition with the films I don't know. This year, I have seen precisely 7 feature-length nominees (Enchanted, Lars and the Real Girl, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ratatouille, Surf's Up, Transformers, and La Vie en Rose) and 1 short (Madame Tutli-Putli). I had preview passes for 10 more (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Eastern Promises, Into the Wild, Juno, The Kite Runner, Once, Persepolis, and There Will Be Blood) but had to cancel plans because of obligations. As a result, all I can say for certain this year is that Norbit is not winning anything. I was also pretty sure Marion Cotillard would take Best Lead Actress.

Here is the list of Academy Awards nominees, color-coded with my selections in blue (if wrong) and the winners in salmon (in a slight variance from the color scheme of previous years). In brief, I chose 15 out of 24 categories right. The contest between No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood threw me off with the wrong pick for Best Picture. I should also have stayed with my original pick 2 times (for Art Direction and Visual Effects), second-guessing myself instead.

Click the navigation link in this post's title to reference my Oscar picks for 2006 (when I chose 10 of 24 right), which in turn links to my Oscar picks for 2005 (when I chose 15 of 24 right).

1. Best Picture: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
2. Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises.
3. Actress: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie, Away From Her; Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose; Laura Linney, The Savages; Ellen Page, Juno.
4. Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men; Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.
5. Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There; Ruby Dee, American Gangster; Saoirse Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton.
6. 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.
7. Foreign Film: Beaufort, Israel; The Counterfeiters, Austria; Katyn, Poland; Mongol, Kazakhstan; 12, Russia. [no selection made]
8. Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, Atonement; Sarah Polley, Away from Her; Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men; Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood.
9. Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno; Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl; Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, Ratatouille; Tamara Jenkins, The Savages.
10. Animated Feature Film: Persepolis; Ratatouille; Surf's Up.
11. Art Direction: American Gangster, Atonement, The Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, There Will Be Blood.
12. Cinematography: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
13. Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, 3:10 to Yuma, Transformers.
14. Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men, Ratatouille, There Will Be Blood, Transformers.
15. Original Score: Atonement, Dario Marianelli; The Kite Runner, Alberto Iglesias; Michael Clayton, James Newton Howard; Ratatouille, Michael Giacchino; 3:10 to Yuma, Marco Beltrami.
16. Original Song: Falling Slowly from Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; Happy Working Song from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; Raise It Up from August Rush, So Close from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; That's How You Know from Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
17. Costume: Across the Universe, Atonement, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, La Vie en Rose, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
18. Documentary Feature: No End in Sight, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, War/Dance.
19. Documentary (short subject): Freeheld, La Corona (The Crown), Salim Baba, Sari's Mother.
20. Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
21. Makeup: La Vie en Rose, Norbit, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
22. Animated Short Film: I Met the Walrus, Madame Tutli-Putli, Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven), My Love (Moya Lyubov), Peter & the Wolf.
23. Live Action Short Film: At Night, Il Supplente (The Substitute), Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets), Tanghi Argentini, The Tonto Woman.
24. Visual Effects: The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Email: Netflix Support

Title request: PBS Kids Pack (Zaboomafoo/Sagwa/George Shrinks) (2000)