I'm the Oscar champ!

I handily beat Rian in this year's Oscar race. I got 18 correct to his 13. I ended up changing a couple of my "blogged" picks when filling out my official ballot. Here are the ones I picked correctly:

Best Picture--"Slumdog Millionaire"
Best Actor--Sean Penn "Milk"
Best Actress--Kate Winslet "The Reader"
Supporting Actor--Heath Ledgeer "The Dark Knight"
Supporting Actress--Penelope Cruz "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Director--Danny Boyle "Slumdog Millionaire"
Animated Feature--"Wall-E"
Best Score--"Slumdog Millionaire"
Film Editing--"Slumdog Millionaire"
Sound Editing--"The Dark Knight"
Visual Effects--"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Documentary Feature--"Man on Wire"
Cinematography--"Slumdog Millionaire"
Costume Design--"The Duchess"
Art Direction--"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Short Film Animated--"La Maison En Petits Cubes" **ok, so that was a total guess*
Adapted Screenplay--"Slumdog Millionaire"
Original Screenplay--"Milk"

Ok, so there it is. I did great this year! I had a pretty "educated" guess on most of the categories and it paid off. Although, I did find it funny that the winner for sound editing wasn't the winner for sound mixing. From what I understand, those kind of go hand in hand. "Slumdog Millionaire" took home every Oscar it was nominated for except sound editing...wonder how that guy's feeling??

I really enjoyed this year's Oscar format for the most part. I liked the different sets and how they seemed to give the awards out in a somewhat orderly fashion (screenplay, costume, makeup, etc). Also, the way they presented the screenplays was cool! It was fun to see the typed words on the screen as the actors followed the directions and lines. The past winners coming out and saying a little piece about each nominee made it feel more personal. It's easy to forget that these actors are people too. I guess the only thing I would change is to bring back the performance of the nominated songs. I had read a couple weeks ago that Peter Gabriel wasn't going to perform his song because he was upset about the editing down of the 3 nominated songs into one medley. I don't blame him! Why did we need the other singing dancing numbers when the nominated songs were just all blobbed in together? There were only 3 songs! I can see how that would be upsetting to the artist if you are expecting him to smile and say "sure, I'll smash my Oscar nominated song into 60 seconds." So, come on Academy, I want the songs performed in full next year!

I guess that's about it for this year's Oscars. Oh, wait, I'd better give my opinion on best/worst dressed...

Best Dressed--This year, I was a big fan of the white/beaded dresses. Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Aniston and Anne Hathaway's were my favorites. Inside joke with my friend Amber, "it's really sparkly!" Sean Penn took home my award for best dressed man. Loved the black on black.

Worst Dressed--I did not like Amy Adams' red dress and huge necklace nor did I like Beyonce's black and gold atrocity. So, it was a tie. For men, I don't really have one. Mickey Rourke definitely went outside of the box but I liked his look. What I don't like are the basic, boring black bow-tie tuxes. And, there seemed to be a fair share of them this year...