2012 Awards Season: Live Blogging the Oscars... Best Picture... The Arist

February 26, 2012

It's Oscars night. (Actually, it's 3:43 in the morning as I'm typing this, but I thought I would get a jump on the celebration.) As I do every year, I will follow the announcements live and update our list of Oscar winners. However, this year I will be doing it a little differently and the list of nominees below will include the favorites as picked by our readers in Italics and as picked by me in Bold. So you can watch live and tell when I'm out of the running for our Oscar contest. (I figure it will take at least 17 wins out of 24 to come out on top. Maybe even 18 or 19 wins.) So, will The Artist be the big winner tonight as our readers predict? Or will Hugo score the upset? Stay tuned to fine out.

The categories and nominations are...

BEST PICTURE

DIRECTING

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

BEST DOCUMENTARY - FEATURE LENGTH

BEST DOCUMENTARY - SHORT FILM

  • Saving Face
SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

  • The Shore
SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

  • The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG

Notes and Reactions...

  • Before we get to the notes and reactions about the winners, one last note / reaction about our contest. Our readers and I agree on a lot of categories. Going from the top, it isn't until we reach Best Feature Length Documentary that we disagree and even then, it's close. In fact there are more categories where there is a disagreement between who I think will win and who I think should win.

And now on to the actual winners...

After a particularly poorly timed computer crash, live blogging begins now.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Hugo wins for Cinematography, which is deserved, but neither me nor our readers predicted. This could be a very good omen for Hugo's chances overall, and a very bad omen for my chances at winning our Oscar Prediction Contest. (Although I'm not eligible for the prizes regardless.)
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTING

  • Two awards in and Hugo has two wins. This one was expected, on the other hand.
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

  • The Artist won for Costume Design, which is another award that was predicted by both our readers and myself. Had it lost here, it could have been a long night for the film.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

  • On the other hand, our readers picked correctly that Hugo would win Sound Editing, while I was going for War Horse. I figured it was such Oscar bait it would win at least one award and this one seemed like the most obvious choice.
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

BEST DOCUMENTARY - FEATURE LENGTH

On a side note, I'm having a really bad night as far as prognosticating is concerned. I'm quite embarrassed.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

  • Rango won, which is a result that should surprise very few people. Although I still think Winnie the Pooh deserved the Oscar.
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE

  • The Artist picks up only its second award. Had it lost here, it would have been seen as a shock and would have made me suspect it would lose Best Picture.
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG

  • "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets wins Best Original Song. It was the obvious choice in a strange year with only two nominees.
BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

  • The Shore won for Best Live Action short over Tuba Atlantic, and now I have no chance of topping our readers overall.
BEST DOCUMENTARY - SHORT FILM

  • Saving Face won over our favorite, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Short films are notoriously hard to predict.
SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

  • Our readers went two for three on the shorts, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore winning for Best Animated Short film.
DIRECTING

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Meryl Streep winning for Iron Lady is arguably the closest we've had to an upset all night, as Viola Davis for The Help was picked by most to win. However, Meryl Streep had such a long losing streak, her winning wasn't really a shock.
BEST PICTURE

  • The night ends with The Artist picking up the top prize, which should really go to the Weinsteins' Oscar campaign managers. And in a few years, most people will argue The Descendants or Hugo deserved it more.
And that's it for the night. The Artist won five awards, just ahead of Hugo, but it won more prestigious awards and has to be seen as the big winner of the night.

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Filed under: Awards Season, Hugo, Rango, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Beginners, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, War Horse, The Help, The Iron Lady, The Muppets, Pina, Jodaeiye Nader az Simin, The Artist, Undefeated, Monsieur Lazhar