The 81st Academy Awards - Oscars 09

So here it is, I asked everyone I knew for fear that the internet live link I had found would die half way through... if they had sky movies premiere, seeing as that is the only place in the U.K they were being broadcast in full. As luck would have it my auntie had it, so here I find myself with my bag of popcorn curled up on her sofa watching with anticipation The 81st Academy Awards.


1.41am - Hugh Jackman - Bloody legend, It now makes sense of why he is presenting... what an awesome opening! - Coy compliment to Winslet early on and Anne Hathaway assists in a song and dance opening number.... "I am Wolverine".

1.44am - Montage for Meryl

First award... Prediction - Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona!

1.51am - Supporting Actress goes to... Penelope Cruz ... Speech is fast and will be longer than 45 seconds... Walks off stage accompanied by 5 previous winners, who represent the 70 women who have won this award, five previous Best Supporting Actress winners including Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn and Sister Act star Whoopi Goldberg who got a laugh introducing Doubt nominee Amy Adams by saying, "It's not easy being a nun ..."

1.55am - Tina Fey and Steve Martin appear reading off a script to present the award “to write is to live forever" for Best Original Screenplay...

I want In Bruges!

2am -Winner is Milk... by Dustin Lance Black

2.02am - Obviously the credit crunch has even hit the Oscars, Fey and Martin also present the award or best Adapted Screenplay. . .

Please let it go to the highly deserved Slumdog Millionaire although I predict Benjamin Button will pick up the first of the 13 awards it is nominated for. . . will the Academy represent the brits?

2.04am - Goes to.. Simon Beaufoy (YES!) for Slumdog Millionaire :D

2.05am - An elegantly dressed Jenifer Aniston accompanied by a rather dashing Jack Black who makes a somewhat awkward joke about how he comes to the Oscars annually and bets all the money he made from Dreamworks... on Pixar to win! So commences the start of the 2009 animation story book. Ha love it how Black announces his own film as a nominee (Kung Fu Panda) and the winner is WALL-E! to Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt.

"Did you watch anything this year, that you were not in?" Aniston to Black. his response..."No but in my defense not a lot of other people did either"

Animated short film goes to... La Maison en petis cubes - No I’ve never head of it either!

2.15am - The latest Bond, Craig... Daniel Craig accompanies SJP in a Cinderella dress that only Miley Ciruses could rival to present the award for Art Direction... the first award that power couple of Hollywood - Pitt and Jolie are up against one another for... and Pitt's film takes it. This see's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (TCCOBB) take an award for the first time tonight, as it is nominated for 13 awards I am sure that this is not the last we will here from it tonight.

2.20am - Sticking with the same presenters the award for Costume Design goes to... The Duchess , Micheal O' Connner. (I didn't even realise that this was in the qualifiers!)

2.23am - The duo now present a third award... For make-up the much desvered award goes to ... surely it has to be TCCOBB? and yes it does indeed! Second award of the evening for the film.

2.26am - The youngsters of Hollywood take a turn at presenting, Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried and current heartthrob Robert Pattison of Twilight and Harry Potter fame... a montage of romance is shown .. featuring Australia... Vicky Christina Barcelona, Twilight, Seven Pounds, Wall-E and even High School Musical 3 ... among others.

2.32am - Award for Achievement in Cinematography is presented by Natalie Portman and a somewhat bizarre Ben Stiller. ( Sporting a large beard and dark glasses in homage to eccentric Joaquin Phoenix and his interesting interview the other week) The award goes to (the second time tonight... hopefully many more to come) Antony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire.

2.40am - Jessica Biel presents the scientific and technical award, which was presented earlier , so more an honorary mention to be honest... explains why she is presenting solo.

2.44am - It seems that The Oscars have been borrowing ideas from MTV and their music awards, A pre recorded skit of Seth Rogan and James Franco in their clothes and on the set from Pineapple Express is the way of introducing a montage of films that represent comedy of 2008.

Shortly followed by the two bro-mance stars and with the VP .... they give out the award for best short film to - Spielzeugland (Toyland) picking up the award is Jochen Alexander Freydank.

2.52am Jackman re-emerges and with another musical number, these musical interludes... are they just a way to keep us awake? Only kidding, they are highly enjoyable and in the days before Jackman played Wolverine he used to be in musical theatre. Beyonce's part in the festivities is finally revealed (after she refused to discuss it on the red carpet) revealed as she joins Jackman on stage in a stunning viva la viva red sequined bodice and the two launch into a musical montage including.... Grease, Chicago, Moulin Rouge, The Sound of Music and Hairspray among many more. Joined by teenage superstars, Zac Efron and Vanessa Ann Hudgens AND Amanda Synfried and Mamma Mia co-star Dominic Cooper... ending on versions of Mamma Mia and West Side Story and Jackman in a big fanfare finish announces that " The Musical is Back!"

WOW! what a change of pace, having an entertainer present the Oscars has boost a new lease of life into the proceedings, now not only am I awaiting to see the results of the main awards but to see what Jackman does next :D

3.04am - Next up is another biggie Best Supporting Actor, again , as we saw with the female equivalent of this award earlier out come five representatives. If this award does not go to the sadly deceased Ledger then the Academy are idiots, plain and simple. and yes yes YES it deservedly goes to the man who gave everything to this role, some would even say his life. Collected by his family, tears are shed around the auditorium, it is an emotional affair making Ledger only the second man to win an acting Oscar posthumously.


3.15am - The Oscar for the best documentary feature goes to Man on Wire, about Phillippe Petit's wire-walk between New York's twin towers in 1974.

3.19am - We are back to the business at hand, giving out awards The Oscar for best short documentary goes to Smile Pinki, which is concerned with a five-year-old Indian girl's surgery on a cleft lip.

3.23am- Jackman, sadly not singing, dancing or brandishing a cane whilst donning a top hat introduces a montage of 2008 Action films. Which is essentially a guns blazing out and out action following this out comes one of the kings of both action and comedy, Will Smith who is a member of the academy.

3.27am - Award for outstanding visual effects, presented by Smith goes to (I wish Iron Man but I predict TCCOBB) and yep it does indeed.

3.29am - Still with Big Willie, the award for sound editing goes to , The Dark knight - Richard King. Considering that this film, being of the action variety was pretty much snubbed by the Academy then to have won two awards already is bloody impressive!

We are now over half way through the awards, the coverage is scheduled to go on till 5am our time, which is another hour and a half. Stilll my interest is not waning.

3.32am - Slumdog Millionaire picks up it's third award, this time for post production, Outstanding sound mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty. Star of the film, Dev Patel watches from the audience mouth agape and Danny Boyle just cannot stop smiling.
So that would be Slumdog 3, TCCOBB 2.

3.35am - Slumdog picks up it's forth award of the night , this time for Film Editing - Chris Dickens.
Make that Slumdog 4!

N.B. Finally someone mentions the in-correct mention of the pronunciation of "Moet" on the champagne adverts.... Well done Winkleman. (Obviously not from the ceremony itself, it comes from the London studios.)

We're closing up to the final hour now; with only seven awards to go it is time for the big awards. Winslet, Rourke, Streep, Boyle, Pitt and Jolie are probably starting to get very nervous in their seats and can feel the tension rising, if the list that circulated the internet yesterday was true in the slightest then Kate certainly has nothing to worry about. Fingers Crossed :D

3.42am - Eddie Murphy makes an appearance to present he Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to veteran Jerry Lewis.

"A movie without music is like an airplane without fuel" according to Jackman, an orchestra strikes up as the nominations for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score are introduced rather beautifully. To present the award out come teenage heartthrob, Zac Efron and Alicia Keys, Slumdog takes it's 5th Oscar of the evening, collected by A.R Rahman.

3.50am - "If the score is a narrative of a movie, then a song is it's punctuation" Efron tells us, kind of a kick in the teeth that he is presenting this award as originally 11 of the 13 songs in HSM 3 were shortlisted for the award. Sticking with the song and dance theme... the songs up for the award are actually performed to the audience.

4.03am - ...and there goes the SIXTH award for Slumdog! Now i only hope that it can hold it's own in the big ones. Boyle for Director and of course best motion picture, as sadly Dev Patel was not nominated for Best Actor.

4.06am - Liam Neeson and Freida Pinto are out to present the award for best Foreign Film, (Come on The Class!) Sadly not, it goes to Japanese film, Departures. With the director simply announcing " I win, I am very Happy".

Ok so it is now game on! Four AWARDS TO GO....Best....

* Director
*Lead Actor
*Lead Actress
*FILM!

4.11Aam – Queen Latifa appears on stage, oddly in a different dress to the one that she walked the red carpet in and in tribute to all the people in the industry who have sadly passed away this year she launches into a song.


4.18am - Jackman announces that the current president of the Academy Steven is stepping down after four years.

4.19am - Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon presents solo in the most beautiful dress of the night the first of the top four, Best Director (Come on Boyle!!!)

4.21am - Winner Is: DANNY BOYLE ... and that my friends makes eight! Could not have gone to a nicer bloke!

Three to go....

4.26am - Best Actress: A montage of previous winners, including the tear jerking speeches etc and five previous winners; Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Sophia Lauren, Marion Cotillard and Shirley McClaine.
After being snubbed many times before is it FINALLY Winslets' year?

Marion Cotillard tells Kate Winslet: "With each new role you continue to push the boundaries of what is possible ... you have passion, vulnerability and extraordinary depth."


YES , yes yes it is! Wow! after 5 previous nominations and no wins and seeing as her tough competition included 15 times nominated Meryl Streep and the remarkable Angelina Jolie it is purely brilliant!
She gave the most interesting speech of the night and actually breathed correctly and did not cry. Well done Kate!

Two to go....

4.36am - The montage for male actors begins and to reprsent the nominees out come; Robert DeNiro, Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Micheal Douglas and Adrian Brody.

So Rourke v Pitt?

4.45am - Crunch time, it goes to ... Sean Penn! For Milk.
Slightly surprising there, but well deserved, Rourke cold now be ready to punch something considering how the B.A.F.T.A.'s went and other various awards.... and as for Pitt well TCCOBB has won two awards all night after being nominated for a whopping 13! I highly doubt that it is going to take the final award either, best picture.

"You commy homo-loving sons of guns... I did not expect this, I am touched by the appreciation" says Sean Penn.
Penn also said he is proud to live in a country which elected "an elegant man" as president and adds that Mickey Rourke "rises again and he is my brother".

4.48am - Jackman introduces the big guns to present the final award, one of my personal idols. Steven Spielberg! A montage of the nominated films is played integrated with past winners.

Best Picture 2009, the nominees are:

Frost/Nixon - Hugely compelling and a great drama

Slumdog Millionaire - Best film of the year , hands down!

The Reader - Bitter yet realistic and hard hitting

Milk - A real triumph

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - A truly original film

THE OSCAR GOES TO.....

(FAN FARE)

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE!

YES. If my auntie, her partner, and my cousins were not fast asleep right now I would be running around screaming. A truly fantastic year at the awards for The Brits and a whopping NINE AWARDS out of a nominated 10 for Slumdog!

This now makes it all the more special that the child actors were all allowed to come over from India and be a part of all the glory.


Well folks that is it for another year. Time for bed me thinks as it is 4.58am!

Christmas Film - Preview

Four Christmases

Presents under the tree? Check, Santa please stop here sign? Check, Turkey of a Christmas film? CHECK!

Tim Allen used to the king of the Christmas catastrophe and since he realised that the audience really was tired of him re-creating Santa year upon year... then Will Ferrell had a go and now Vince Vaughn has begun “delighting” us with his take on Christmas , last year we endured Fred Claus and this year we have Four Christmases, time to give up yet Vince?

An original concept for a plot, a couple who it turns out barely know one-another (despite having been in a relationship for three years) who always escape over the holiday season, are caught out this year and have to go and embrace family festivities in not one, but four separate houses. Kate’s (Reese Witherspoon) religious crazed mother, her Father (John Voight) and his new girlfriend and then Brad’s (Vaughn) Mother, who is now in a relationship with his childhood friend and finally his Father who lives with his two boisterous brothers. Cue madness and mayhem, just like any other family Christmas. Along the way surprising discoveries are uncovered and rash decisions are made within all aspects of Kate and Brad’s lives . . . and their family’s dynamics.

All in all it is a little bit heavy on the inspirational message and is not as funny as you hoped, heck I’d even choose to watch The Santa Clause 3 : The Escape Clause than see this again, at least that film has true Christmas spirit. It makes you feel as if you have sat down for the main event and only the trimmings have been served.

I really wanted to like this film as I usually admire Witherspoons’ work and find Vaughn genuinely funny, but even with a fairly well known supporting cast, this film has resided itself to the ‘get it for £5 if you spend £30 in HMV’, next Christmas. I’ll just sit back and await the 17^th December when White Christmas is on re-release on the big screen, instead.

Amy Victoria Gathercole

As my first post on my editorial blog I thought that I would have a little discussion about a story that hit a few of the nationals today.

This buissness about the Cambridge University student who posed "wearing a black, lacy thong with hold-up stockings as she poses on one of the city's historic bridges with a cigarette in her hand".

The reactions to the scandaous story are, in some cases quite suprising. Some people obviously are outraged. (I wonder if it would be the case if it wasn't a student from an old Redbrick institution?) Others (predominantly students) are all for it. It's not the first of the page 3-esque shots that "Vivid" has featured on it's pages, and judging by this reaction , I'm pretty sure that it won't be the last.

At the end of the day, I think that it's the old trick of "publicity that money can't buy" ... I mean how often does a story about a student rag make the national news papers? It goes back to what I said re. the Sachs scandal... if you want to get attention do something outrageous. The shock factor always sells... especially when coupled with the (se)X - factor.

Amy Victoria Gathercole
Editor

Let me know your opinon....