2010 Oscar nominations

And the winner is….well, we won’t know that for a fair few weeks yet but the 2010 Oscar nominations are in! Woo! All is pretty much as expected, with the big surprise being District 9 in the best picture category. Not that it will win, but it’s nice to see it get some acknowledgement anyway.

What isn’t nice is the bullshit exclusion of Moon in every freakin category! At the very least Sam Rockwell should have got a best lead actor nod and Duncan Jones a best original screenplay nomination. What. A. Joke. Other atrocities this year include Abbie Cornish missing out on a best actress nod and the movies robbed of an Academy high-five include Moon, Bright Star, Let The Right One In, Moon, Samson and Delilah, Moon and Nowhere Boy. Sigh.

Moving on, a very chipper Anne Hathaway read the Oscar nominations this morning and here is the full list. I’ve highlighted the winners I think deserve the shiny gold man, all things being true and fair in the world. Oh, but wait, they’re not *insert can kicking here*

Actress in a supporting role

Mo'Nique in Precious

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air

Penelope Cruz in Nine

Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Actor in a supporting role

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Matt Damon in Invictus

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Actress in a leading role

Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Helen Mirren in The Last Station

Gabourey Sidibe in Precious

Carey Mulligan in An Education

Actor in a leading role

Morgan Freeman in Invictus

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

George Clooney in Up in the Air

Colin Firth in A Single Man

Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Animated feature film

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)

The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)

Coraline (Henry Selick)

Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)

The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Foreign language film

Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)

A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)

The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)

The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)

The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

Directing

Avatar (James Cameron)

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)

Precious (Lee Daniels)

Writing (adapted screenplay)

District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)

An Education (Nick Hornby)

Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)

In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Writing (original screenplay)

The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)

Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)

The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Best picture

Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)

District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)

An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)

The Hurt Locker (nominees to be determined)

Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)

Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)

A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)

Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)

The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

Art direction

Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)

Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)

Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)

The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

Cinematography

Avatar (Mauro Fiore)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)

The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)

Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)

The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Costume design

Bright Star (Janet Patterson)

Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)

Nine (Colleen Atwood)

The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Documentary (feature)

Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)

The Cove (nominees to be determined)

Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)

Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

Documentary (short subject)

China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill)

The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)

The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)

Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)

Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Film editing

Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)

District 9 (Julian Clarke)

The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)

Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)

Precious (Joe Klotz)

Makeup

Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano)

The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)

Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Music (original score)

Avatar (James Horner)

Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)

Up (Michael Giacchino)

The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)

Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Music (original song)

Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman

Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman

Loin de Paname, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas

Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston

The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short film (animated)

French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell)

Logoramam (Nicolas Schmerkin)

The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)

A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park)

Short film (live action)

The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)

Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)

Kavi (Gregg Helvey)

Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)

The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Sound editing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)

The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)

Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)

Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)

Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

Sound mixing

Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)

The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)

Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)

Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Visual effects

Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)

District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)

Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

The Oscars are on March 7.

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Give a Mazzupial a bone

Okay, look, there’s no need to get all sensy at me just because I haven’t been the most attentive blogger of late. My excuse? I’ve been doing that dream-chasing thing again which I’m sure you care nil about. BUT the good news is I’ve had the opportunity to attend some amazing events which Movie Mazzupial wouldn’t get to go to otherwise, namely THE AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE OF THE LOVELY BONES!

It’s hard to believe I actually got to see the finished product of The Lovely Bones on Thrusday night, I’ve literally waiting with baited breath for two-years since I first heard Peter Jackson was adapting the amazing novel.

Speaking of legendary director Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings etc), can I divert your attention to the photograph below, which is me (squeal) with (squeal) friggin PETER JACKSON! IN A PHOTO!

Above: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

I was amongst the media throng doing red carpet interviews and after admitting this was an incredibly nerdy request, Jackson was more than willing to be in a quick happy (very happy) snap. He had this to say about The Lovely Bones;

MM: What was it like to adapt such a complex novel?

PJ: You have to make it your personal choice, you read the book just like anyone else does and then when it comes time to figure out what to leave in, what to take out and what to focus on, it’s based on your intuition really. There’s no rules, you can’t make a carbon copy of the book so you probably choose that you’ve got to shorten it and leave lots out otherwise the film would be fix or six hours.

On his decision to gloss over some of the graphic descriptions of violence in the novel:

Any violence in the movie would overwhelm the film and that’s not the point. I wanted to make a film that young adults and teenagers could see that’s got a lot of positive, uplifting things in it. Whenever you make any film with violence like that it, one; it completely stigmatises the movie, and secondly; it’s not something I’d want to make.

Just as lovely as Jackson was Irish lass Saoirse Ronan, who plays the murdered Susie, looking down on her grieving family from Jackson’s Dali-esque version of heaven. She’s seriously so sweet and in her stylish, red jumpsuit I was quite taken back at how frail she is (I was tempted to pull her in to the Hungry Jacks next door and hand her a Whopper but I figured she mightn’t answer my questions if I did that). Anywho, after her Oscar nominated turn in Atonement, Ronan is no stranger to meaty roles and told Movie Mazz she tried not to think of Susie as a “dead girl”.

“She’s someone whose body is dead but her soul is still alive and that’s what’s so great about her.

“It was challenging, it was difficult and I had to go to some very dark places sometimes.

“Other times I got to do a lot of humour, it was great.”

And of course, with my future husband Mark Wahlberg playing her father in the film I had to ask her what it was like to call him `daddy’. Er, well, kind of.

MM: What was it like to have Mark Wahlberg play your father in the film?

SR: It was great, I was really surprised that Mark isn’t offered more movie roles as a dad really because it’s more a natural thing for him I think. And he’s got a sense of humour. I was very comfortable being his daughter and he’s really nice.

After giving me a hug (sweet girl) and moving on to chat with the rest of the press, next up was the big one *drum roll * Susan Sarandon aka my favourite female actress. Seriously, for a 63-year-old the woman is a fox! She rocked up in a flattering, low-cut pink dress, comfortable as ever showing off her impressive collection of tatts; particularly a barbwire wristband and tribal symbol running from the top of her neck down the spine. Like the Hollywood vet she is, Susan was more fan-orientated on the red carpet heading over to sign The Lovely Bones posters and the odd The Rocky Horror Show DVD, before coming to say howdy.

Sarandon lived up to her playful reputation when I asked her what it was like to work with Jackson, quickly looking over her shoulder then whispering “he’s just there you know”.

“No, it was really fun, he’s very collaborative,” she said.

“There’s a lot of physical humour and we had fun doing that, and coming up with all the montage stuff.”

The Oscar winner was happy to be back in Australia where everyone is “always nice” and excited to talk about the role for which Jackson said she was the “one and only choice”.

“I didn’t register it as being that big a deal that she’s such a strange grandmother,” she said.

“She’s not a `granny’ grandmother and I’m old enough to be a grandmother.

“I chatted to my kids about what they would like to see in a really good grandparent and they said most grandparents don’t smoke.”

“I don’t really drink or smoke like her, I certainly think she’s a lot of fun and I would hope that I could come in and help out in such a horrible house.

“I think she’s very strong and has an excellent sense of humour.”

After fulfilling a considerable amount of my `wildest dream come true’ I then headed into the cinema to take a seat, wait 45 minutes and then be treated to an introduction by none other than Jackson, Sarandon and Ronan themselves.

Then IT started . . . .and to be honest, as much as I had tried to resist the temptation of reading early overseas reviews I had peeked at this one from the Sneak and i09, which pretty much said it’s amazing. And it was. Truly. Combining the whimsical afterlife with the bleak reality of life for those below, Jackson shifts between the two with jarring effect as their individual significance can only be fully compared side by side. Wahlberg is spellbinding as the grieving father, Ronan powerful as the victim, Kiwi newcomer Rose McIver in a star-making turn, Sarandon scene-stealing, Weiz a bit flat but Stanley Tucci . . .wooo! Tucci is brilliant, BRILLIANT, as the resident kiddie fiddler/serial killer and at the very least deserves an Oscar nod for best supporting actor. It’s almost impossible to believe he’s the same person who played the gay stylist in The Devil Wears Prada.

Anywho, I don’t want to continue preaching about it so I’ll conclude with this; see it, see it and make up your own mind but remember it has my glowing recommendation.

Now bring the Oscars and don’t let this be another The Dark Knight oversight please.

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