Oscar Postpartum

"Could you double-check the envelope?"
- Martin Scorsese 02/25/07

Last night Martin Scorsese won Best Director for THE DEPARTED and today the word in all the papers, TV coverage, and online wrap-ups is "finally". Minutes later backstage he looked like he was in a state of shock when it was announced that THE DEPARTED won for Best Picture as well. I am truly happy to be wrong about that one. I had predicted BABEL and was even going to change the name of this blog to film babel for a day if it won (glad I don't have to do that). Out of the 24 categories I got 13 right. More than half but still a failing grade. Let's look over my predictions highlighting the ones I got wrong :

1.BEST PICTURE : BABEL WRONG! THE DEPARTED
2. BEST DIRECTOR : Martin Scorsese THE DEPARTED
3.BEST ACTOR : Forest Whitaker (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND)
4. BEST ACTRESS : Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN)
5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR : Alan Arkin (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE)
6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS : Jennifer Hudson (DREAMGIRLS)
7. ART DIRECTION – THE PRESTIGE WRONG! – PAN’S LABYRINTH
8. CINEMATOGRAPHY – CHILDREN OF MEN WRONG! – PAN’S LABYRINTH
9. COSTUME DESIGN – DREAMGIRLS – WRONG! – MARIE ANTOINETTE
10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT – REHEARSING A DREAM WRONG! –THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
12. FILM EDITING – BABEL WRONG! – THE DEPARTED
13. MAKEUP – PAN’S LABYRINTH
14. VISUAL EFFECTS – SUPERMAN RETURNS WRONG! – PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN : DEAD MAN’S CHEST
15. ORIGINAL SCORE – BABEL
16. ORIGINAL SONG – “Listen” (DREAMGIRLS) – WRONG! – Melissa Etheridge for "I Need To Wake Up" THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
17. ANIMATED SHORT – THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL WRONG! - THE DANISH POET
18. LIVE ACTION SHORT – WEST BANK STORY
19. SOUND EDITING – LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
20. SOUND MIXING – DREAMGIRLS
21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY – THE DEPARTED
23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM – CARS WRONG! – HAPPY FEET
24. FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – PAN’S LABYRINTH – WRONG! – THE LIVES OF OTHERS

I was very surprised I was right about Alan Arkin winning. Also the other attendees of the Oscar party I wathced the Awards at all gasped when Melissa Etheridge won for best song - in your face DREAM GIRLS!

More later...