2010 Oscar Winners

If you've been following my posts, you'll know I really liked the Hurt Locker and it was my pick for Best Picture (take that, James Cameron!!) I'm really disappointed that District 9 didn't win anything, though. Boo to that! I haven't finished my coverage of the nominees for best picture because they haven't all been released on DVD yet. I will continue to do so even though the Oscars are over. Aaaaand, you're welcome.

Here's who won last night (spoiler alert?):

Best Motion Picture of the Year
WINNER The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
WINNER Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (2009)

Other Nominees:

George Clooney for Up in the Air
Colin Firth for A Single Man
Morgan Freeman for Invictus
Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
WINNER Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side

Other Nominees:

Helen Mirren for The Last Station
Carey Mulligan for An Education
Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
WINNER Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

Other Nominees:

Matt Damon for Invictus
Woody Harrelson for The Messenger
Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
WINNER Mo'Nique for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Other Nominees:

Penélope Cruz for Nine
Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air

Best Achievement in Directing
WINNER Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:

James Cameron for Avatar
Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
WINNER The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:

Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
WINNER Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Other Nominees:

District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Up in the Air

Best Achievement in Cinematography
WINNER Avatar

Other Nominees:

Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds

Best Achievement in Editing
WINNER The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:

Avatar
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Best Achievement in Art Direction
WINNER Avatar

Other Nominees:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Achievement in Costume Design
WINNER The Young Victoria

Other Nominees:

Bright Star
Coco avant Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine

Best Achievement in Makeup
WINNER Star Trek

Other Nominees:

Il divo
The Young Victoria

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
WINNER Up

Other Nominees:

Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
WINNER Crazy Heart: T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham("The Weary Kind")

Other Nominees:

Faubourg 36: Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas("Loin de Paname")
Nine: Maury Yeston("Take It All")
The Princess and the Frog: Randy Newman("Almost There")
The Princess and the Frog: Randy Newman("Down in New Orleans")

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
WINNER The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:

Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
WINNER The Hurt Locker

Other Nominees:

Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
WINNER Avatar

Other Nominees:

District 9
Star Trek

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
WINNER Up

Other Nominees:

Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
WINNER El secreto de sus ojos (Argentina)

Other Nominees:

Ajami (Israel)
Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Germany)
Un prophète (France)
La teta asustada (Peru)

Best Documentary, Features
WINNER The Cove

Other Nominees:

Burma VJ: Reporter i et lukket land
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Which Way Home

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
WINNER Music by Prudence

Other Nominees:

China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Królik po berlinsku

Best Short Film, Animated
WINNER Logorama

Other Nominees:

French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
La dama y la muerte
Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'

Best Short Film, Live Action
WINNER The New Tenants

Other Nominees:

The Door
Istället för abrakadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish

District 9: Oscar Nominee

I'm going to attempt to watch all the Oscar nominated movies and give my opinion. This will be hard cause I REALLY don't wanna watch TheHurt Locker, lol. I've already reviewed Up.

I was very reluctant to watch District 9 because after reading about it, it sounded too sci-fi for me. I'm not a huge fan of alien movies.

Boy, was I wrong! This movie is crazy because you can't explain it to people without it sounding terrible, but it is so good! I even bought it after renting it through Netflix. The premise is that aliens show up twenty years ago over Johannesburg, South Africa. It turns out there's a bunch of dying aliens on board. They bring them down and segregate them into these slummy shacks. The aliens start intertwining in human life and the humans are not happy. MNU has been contracted to move them from their slums to a concentration camp outside the city so they don't bother the humans.

During the evictions, Wickus (the guy who is in charge of getting signatures on the eviction notices) gets sprayed by an alien toxin and he begins to morph slowly into an alien. Meanwhile, Christopher (an alien) is working on some illegal stuff and tries to protect he and his son from being killed.

Wickus gets taken to a lab and experimented on, but escapes and goes on the run, where he meets up again with Christopher.

Okay, you'll have to watch to find out the rest, but I loved this movie! I felt as though it was a metaphor for how many people treat others that are "alien" to them. They are treated like second-class citizens and it's as if they are not human. Anyway, maybe I read too much into it, but if you view it for the symbolism, it's outstanding!

Family Time Factor: It's awfully gory, so I wouldn't recommend it for young kids.

MOTR Grade: A