HGTV Dream Home Giveaway

Burn Notice Caption Contest

The Winner is....

Jana Ragsdale!!!

Labels: Academy Awards, Burn Notice, Dream Home, giveaways, Heath Ledger, HGTV, Oscars

The Academy Awards Nominations came out today and as expected Heath Ledger was nominated for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Its especially bitter sweet since today is the 1st anniversary of his tragic death.
I think the biggest shock is that The Dark Knight was not nominated for Best Picture. It marks only the 4th time that a film was nominated for best picture by all three guilds (Producer, Writer, Director) and not by the Academy. It would seem that it's spot was taken by the Reader which has been getting more buzz over the past few months. I myself will be rooting for Slumdog Millionaire to continue it's hot streak and take home the award, as it's probably my favorite film of the past year.


Below you'll find the big categories in acting, writing, directing and best film and best animated. For all the rest of the categories head on over to Academy Awards Official Site.


Best Actor:
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler


Best Supporting Actor:
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman -Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road


Best Actress:
Anne Hathaway -Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader


Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P. Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler


Best Original Screenplay:
Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter - WALL-E


Best Adapted Screenplay:
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
David Hare - The Reader
Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire


Best Animated Feature:
Bolt - Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda - John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WALL-E - Andrew Stanton


Best Director:
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire


Best Picture:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ceán Chaffin
Frost/Nixon - Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Eric Fellner
Milk - Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
The Reader - Nominees to be determined
Slumdog Millionaire - Christian Colson

Labels: Academy Awards, Heath Ledger

Earlier today over at Cinematical they had a story about how the Academy was going to be picking a host who was not a comedian, as has been the trend for a while now. Well TV Guide is reporting that Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, has been tapped to host the 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony. That is if the awards, which are scheduled to take place Feb. 22 aren't interrupted by the possible SAG strike.

The awards shows producer Laurence Mark and executive producer Bill Condon said in a joint statement that "Hugh Jackman is a consummate entertainer and an internationally renowned movie star. He also has style, elegance and a sense of occasion. Hugh is the ideal choice to host a celebration of the year's movies — and to have fun doing it."

While this will be Jackman's first time to host The Oscar's it's not his first hosting gig as he hosted the Tony's three times from 2003 to 2005. I for one can say that Jackman did awesome hosting the Tony's as he kept me interested the whole time.

Here's hoping Jackman can pull in more viewers than the last few years. And also I"m hoping that Jackman will bring out his vocal skills to help him throughout the night. What are your thoughts on Jackman hosting?

Labels: Academy Awards, Hugh Jackman, Oscars

THE 2008 OSCAR NOMINEES

BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

I'm surprised and delighted that Juno is nominated for Best Picture, I don't think it has a shot, but I'll be pulling for it or No Country come Oscar night.

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

I honestly haven't seen any of these films, but Tommy Lee Jones is a shock.

BEST 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

Again I'm glad to see Ellen Page nominated, as I haven't seen any of the others I can't say much, but I'm hoping Page walks away with the award.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Javier Bardem gave one of the, if not the best performance in any movie all year. He should walk away with the prize.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

I'm surprised Ruby Dee was nominated as she has such little screen time, but I think the academy is also acknowledging her past work as well.

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This one will likely go to Schnabel, but I'm hoping the Coen's get it as No Country was a return to form for them. Although if Reitman wins I'll be just as excited.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Brad Bird, Ratatouille
Diablo Cody, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl

Diablo Cody has gone from a stripper to "It Girl" screenwriter in no time, and I'm happy to see her nominated here.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sarah Polley, Away From Her

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Assassination of Jesse James…
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd

BEST DOCUMENTARY
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari’s Mother

BEST EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort (Israel)
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Katyn (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan)
12 (Russia)

BEST MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
''Falling Slowly,'' Once
''Happy Working Song,'' Enchanted
''Raise It Up,'' August Rush
''So Close,'' Enchanted
''That's How You Know,'' Enchanted

I thought it was a long shot for one of Enchanted's songs to be nominated but 3? Here's hoping that doesn't ruin it's chances as it splits the vote. Personally I think "That's How You Know" was the most fun song of the year.

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
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

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

And there you go, start getting your ballot ready for Oscar night.

Labels: Academy Awards

Me I did alright or great depending on how you look at it.
If we're basing it just on the Big Six Categories I got 5 out of 6! That's pretty impressive, especially when you figure Eddie Murphy was supposed to be a shoe-in for Best Supporting but it instead went to Alan Arkin. And although the people I wanted to win Best Actor/Actress didn't win, I said who it was likely going to go to and I was right. So out of the big 6 here's how I scored:
Best Picture - The Departed - Correct
Best Director - Martin Scorsese - Correct
Best Actor - Forest Whitaker - Correct
Best Actress - Helen Mirren - Correct
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin - Correct
Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson - Wrong - I picked Cate Blanchett

Now if we go with every category I was sub-par. Out of 24 Awards I picked 11 right. And even though I was wrong I was still happy that Pan's Labyrinth picked up 3 awards, and that Little Miss Sunshine walked away with the best screenplay award.
Here's the one's I got right.
Documentary Feature - An Inconvenient Truth
Makeup - Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction - Pan's Labyrinth
Sound Editing - Letters From Iwo Jima
Visual Effects - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Animated Feature - Happy Feet - Yes I said I wanted Monster House to win, but I said HF would likely win. Plus it was obviously the Environmental Oscars, what with them "going green" and giving awards to An Inconvenient Truth both for best song and best doc, and Happy Feet for best Animated Film. BTW in his acceptance speech when the director thanked the people who edited the trailer, i had to laugh because without them making it look like a kid's movie instead of a crappy political propaganda they wouldn't have made any money.

All in all it was the most enjoyable Academy Awards in quite sometime, a lot of which I think goes to Ellen, for doing a wonderful job as host, and for some categories which truly surprised, instead of it all being locked in months in advance.

Labels: Academy Awards, Oscar

Ok, I'll be honest my track record at picking the winners is not good at all. So this is who I feel should win of the nominees (to see the awards I gave out click here), although I will mention whose likely to win. So here we go:

Best Picture:
Tie - Little Miss Sunshine & The Departed.
Little Miss Sunshine was one of the funniest movies of last year and a suprise nominee, but the academy rarely selects a comedy so it won't likely win.
The Departed was a great action movie, with wonderful performances and a great plot. After watching the preview I didn't see any reason to see the movie as I felt it had given it all away, boy was I wrong.
But the truth is I didn't see The Queen or Letter from Iwo Jima and Babel was quite possibly the worst movie I saw last year. So I don't have much to go on.
It's anyone's race but I think The Departed will win.

Best Actor:
I honestly didn't see any of these movies so let's say Ryan Gosling, I like him and I hear he was great in Half Nelson.
But it's most likely going to Forest Whitaker.

Best Actress:
I only saw one of the movies nominated in this category, The Devil Wears Prada, but I have an affinity for Kate Winslet, so I'll go with her, but I think we all know that the trophy has been all but handed to Helen Mirren.

Best Supporting Actor:
I'd say Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, because it was a fantastic role for him.
I'm sticking with Arkin as the winner on this one.

Best Supporting Actress:
Abigail Breslin, best part of an amazing movie as she carries Little Miss Sunshine on her short little shoulders. (I just hope Jennifer Hudson loses)
I'm not putting any money on Babel, so I'll go with Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal to walk away with the trophy.

Best Director:
I only saw one of the movies in this category and I have to say Scorsese did a fabulous job on The Departed, and he's not getting any younger, and this is his eighth nomination, so I'm saying not only des he deserve it, but he's getting it too.

Foreign Language Film:
If Pan's Labyrinth doesn't win this award, something is seriously wrong with this world, In fact Pan's should have been up for the Best Picture Award.

Cinematography:
Both Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men really should win this category, but I'm going with Children of Men, which has two of the best scenes in cinema history, so it should win, for those tracking shots alone.

Original Screenplay:
Again Pan's Labyrinth should win here, it's the most imaginitive, creative movie out this year and it blows the competition away.

Adapted Screenplay:
Children of Men, hands down it's the best of the 5 listed here. I mean Borat for best screenplay, come on. If Children doesn't win, the academy needs to have professional help.

As for the rest of the categories I have no idea so here's my guesses for who will win, not who i want to win, based mostly on the titles (Unless Pan's Labyrinth or Children of Men was nominated):

Documentary Feature:
An Inconvenient Truth

Documentary Short Subject:
Recycled Life

Live Action Short Film:
Eramos Pocos

Film Editing:
Children of Men

Makeup:
Pan's Labyrinth

Art Direction:
Pan's Labyrinth

Sound Mixing:
Flags of Our Fathers

Sound Editing:
Letters from Iwo Jima

Visual Effects:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Costume Design:
The Devil Wears Prada

Original Score:
Pan's Labyrinth

Original Song:
Our Town - Cars

Animated Feature:
Monster House
Ok so Happy Feet will likely win, because it's an enviromental film, but it's not the best animated movie, It's a propaganda film disguised as a Kid's Film and not worth anyone's time.

Animated Short Film:
No Time for Nuts

Labels: Academy Awards, Oscar