82ND ACADEMY AWARDS

[6.50 - French Time] Thank God the great Nikki Finke did her usual "Live-Snarking" magic on her site, Deadline.com, which spared us to watch another borefest telecast. That's why Nikki is the best at her job, should I "live-blog" the Academy Awards I'd jump from my second floor before the end of the show.

Talented Austrian actor Christoph Waltz gets a deserved Best Supporting Actor for Inglorious Basterds. Let's hope that Hollywoodland will not stick him into the villain gig, for we can't tell if Y & R will still exist in ten years and French and Brit actors need work too.

Animated Feature goes to Up, which also wins Best Music for Michael Giacchino. The Weary Kind (from Crazy Heart) gets Original Song. JJ Abrams' Star Trek wins Makeup - Makeup! Nikki is right when she says that Star Trek should have been nominated for Best Picture.

Precious wins Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Mo'Nique. « A win for diversity in Hollywood », writes our dear She Who Must Be Read about Adapted Screenplay. Well, it would have been a TRIUMPH for diversity in Hollywood if the charming Gabourey Sidibe had won Best Actress for her groundbreaking performance in the movie. Movies like Precious help to keep some little faith in this industry, but unfortunately Sidibe lost to Sandra Bullock.

Argentinian movie El Secreto de Sus Ojos wins Best Foreign Language Film and beats French favourite A Prophet. Jeff Bridges is Best Actor for Crazy Heart.

Anyway this year's ceremony was all clichéed by the duel between ex-spouses Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and James Cameron (Avatar). The Hurt Locker wins Best Director, Best Picture, Best original Screenplay and Best Editing (plus the two awards for Sound). Avatar gets Best Art Direction, Cinematography and of course Visual Effects (« Seriously, if Avatar hadn't won this category, Jim Cameron could go home right now » writes Nikki!)

In December your humble servant wrote: « The video game industry makes more money than Hollywoodland. With Avatar it's as if you plunged into the cinematics of a VG and contemporary moviegoers love VGs (moviemakers too and sometimes too much). But is it still cinema? » Nikki Finke thinks Avatar "changed the way Hollywood makes movies" (http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/oscar-barred-academy-of-shame-makes-decision-thats-lame/).

Yes, there will be more 3D films and even more franchises. Will the Smurfs movie or the film adaptation of Gilligan's Island be "3Dised"? I Can't wait.

Everything considered, methinks Academy voters did a rather balanced job this year. I was expecting a Blue Man Group concert, you know.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/live-blogging-the-82nd-oscars/
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a206942/in-full-oscars-2010-the-winners.html