Okay, we’re done with the fashions. Moving on to the main event. This will be pretty much the ol’ Cowboy speaking, unless otherwise indicated. We continue below the cut line.
Personally, I think that Jon Stewart will mention the settled strike within the first thirty seconds of his time.
And away we go.
8:31: nice opening montage. I wish I had recorded it so I could freeze frame. Amazing how many of them were SF and fantasy. Then again about ninety percent of the top fifty box office films of all time were SF or fantasy.
8:33: sixteen seconds. Score.
8:34: Stewart’s definitely on. “Does this town need a hug?” “Thank God for teen pregnancy.” Beautiful.
8:36: Okay, now I *have* to see “Atonement.” The raw passion of Yom Kippur? I am so there.
8:39: Great, my stripper name is Mickey Albert.
8:40: “Normally when you have a black man or a woman president, a meteor is about to strike the statue of Liberty.” Personally, I’m going to get a “Vote for Gaydolf Titler” t-shirt made up.
8:42: Costume design: Ariel and Kath are pulling for Sweeney Todd. Kath suspects Elizabeth will win.
8:43: Yup. Opulence usually wins costume design.
8:45: Well, you don’t normally tune into the Oscars for the commercials, but that Diet Coke commercial was actually pretty funny.
RE: Comments. Yes, it was sixteen seconds. I was timing it.
8:48: “But one thing has always been consistent: Its long.” Something tells me that was an ad lib by Clooney. Very honest.
8:49: Okay, I hate to admit it, but I’m a sucker for montages, and this is a good one. But, geez, how’d they miss Sally Field.
8:51: That’s right, Carrell and Hathaway are costarring in “Get Smart.” Can’t wait.
8:52: Animated feature. We’re rooting for Ratatouille, although Persepolis is supposed to be beautiful.
8:54: Ariel’s disappointed. No animated rats came up to accept. It’d be cool if Brad Bird spoke with Edna’s voice.
8:56: Make-up. Ariel is rooting for “Pirates.”
8:57: Ariel’s reaction: “That blows.”
8:58: That woman’s left eyelash appears to be coming off. Weird.
9:00: Amy Adams is going to be busy tonight. they should really be doing more with the presentation of this song than her just standing there. The lyrics remain gloriously demented.
The best song from “Enchanted” was “How Do You know?” and that’s the one we’re definitely rooting for. My only concern is that, since three songs from the film are nominated, they could wind up splitting the vote and another slides in.
COMMENTS: No, Amy Adams was not lip synching. She even sounded a touch nervous, and yes, her voice cracked here and there. A lip synched performance would have sounded much cleaner.
9:07: The Rock presenting visual FX. Since he is a walking visual effect, it’s a good choice. Ariel is again rooting for Pirates.
9:08: Well, Ariel now says she thought Golden Compass was better. Me, i fell asleep during it so I’ll take her word for it.
9:10: Art direction. We’re rooting for Sweeney Todd.
9:11: Yea. Interesting that they played “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” which wasn’t actually sung in the movie, a point of major contention and annoyance to purists.
9:13: Cate Blanchett: What a dog. (A comment that will make no sense to anyone not watching.)
9:15: High point of Cuba Gooding’s career, winning best supporting. I wonder if he would have been so enthused if he’d been looking toward his future roles. Sheesh.
9:15: “Best supporting” could be referring to the front of Jennifer Hudson’s dress…
9:17: Be great if Holbrook won, just for sentimental value. Probably won’t.
9:18: Javier Bardem. No surprise there. Me, I love the line “I am Shiva, Goddess of death.” I think I’ll have a button made up that says that. I can wear it attached to my “Gaydolf Titler” shirt.
9:23: “Oscar’s Salute to Binoculars and Periscopes.” I sense the fine hand of the Daily Show staff on this one.
9:26: One of the songs that could benefit from the multiple nominations for “Enchanted.” The singers are excellent, though, especially that little girl from the movie.
9:28: Owen Wilson. A talented actor, and I can only hope that he’s gotten the help he clearly needed. Short films: Saw none of them. Does anyone ever?
9:30: Screw the one that won, I want to see that Tonto Woman thing.
9:31: God, Jerry, the dámņëd film’s out of the theater. STOP PLUGGING IT!!!!
9:32: Wow. That Madame Tutli Putli looks amazing.
9:33: Great. Now I’ll have that blasted “Peter and the Wolf” tune by Prokofiev in my head for the rest of the night.
9:34: MERcidees McCambridge? I always thought it was MerSAYdees McCambridge.
9:35: We’re rooting for Tilda Swinton, just because we like saying the name “Tilda Swinton.” I’m thinking it will be Blanchett to make up for her not winning Best actress (which she won’t), if for no other reason.
9:37: Yea! I guess lots of people like saying “Tilda Swinton.”
9:39: Okay, now I’m dying to meet Tilda Swinton’s agent, who I bet REALLY likes saying “Tilda Swinton.”
9:44: And now, here are the awards to the people who are so important, so ingenious, and so brilliant, that we didn’t want to waste your time presenting them here.
9:45: Okay, bloggers, fess up: Who put up the Gaydolf Titler t-shirt on Cafepress?
9:47: Interesting that in quoting “the best lines ever written” for adapted material, they cited “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” which was, from what I understand, an ad lib by Scheider.
9:48: Let’s go Coen bros.
9:48: Bingo.
9:49: “Hello there, everybody.” “Hi, Doctor Nick!”
9:50: “this time of year, we don’t have to pay for films; the studios want us to see their films.” Okay, here’s a flash: The rest of the year they have screening so they don’t have to pay, and the studios ALWAYS want you to see their films, ya yutz.
9:52: Okay, there was some cute stuff in there, I’ll admit it.
9:53: Here we go: The Enchanted song I’m rooting for. This one they’ll do up right. But Amy Adams should be singing it.
9:55: Nice height on that jump.
9:56: Okay, okay: you can see the quality difference. I love Amy Adams, but you can see the higher level of performance from an experienced Broadway headline like Chenowith moving through a number like that.
COMMENT: True enough, Roger. Chenoweth is indeed one of the best: Bernadette Peters level. I wonder if they gave Amy Adams her choice of songs. If so, she made the right choice since it was a solo piece.
10:01: Who the hëll…?
10:02: God, please, make it stop…
10:03 Sound editing? Transformers. That thing was wall to wall sound.
10:03; Winner was “Bourne Ultimatum.” Yeah, well, big deal: They didn’t have to deal with cars turning into something else during their car chases.
10:05: Okay, if these guys come out a third time, I’m going to gnaw like leg off at the knee.
10:06: Sound mixing now? Okay…probably Bourne.
10:07: Gee, that was tough to see coming considering what won just before.
10:08: My God, are they presenting best actress already? So let’s see Sally Field.
10:09: Aw, c’mon: “You like me!” That’s classic. Okay, anyway: Ariel is rooting for Ellen Page; Kath says smart money is Blanchett, although it’s tough to get an Oscar for great acting in a lousy film.
10:11: I’m wondering if it might not be Julie Christie, back after such a long time.
10:13: Zut alors. That’s a surprise. Winning for a non-English-language role is VERY tough. Although I haven’t seen it; perhaps she speaks English during it.
10:17: Wiiiiiiiiii!
10:18: I was looking down and out of the corner of my eye it looked like Colin was roller skating. Apparently there’s something slippery on the stage.
10:20: Well, THIS song is putting me to sleep…
COMMENT: I appreciate the assertion t that I’m better and faster at this than Harry Knowles. On the other hand, he has close to a thousand replies on his, so…
10:23: Boy, that’s weird. I could swear Nicholson’s hair was grayer at the beginning of the broadcast. Hunh.
10:24: A best picture montage? What the hëll? It’s not like they’re giving away the Best picture Oscar now…?
10:25: Now me, i want to see a montage of some of the films that DIDN’T get “Best Picture.”
10:26: As “Entertainment weekly” (I believe it was) noted, often it doesn’t come down to what was the actual Best Picture, but which picture had the best Oscar campaign.
10:27: Don’t walk awaaayy, renee….
10:28: Film editing: This can sometimes be an indicator for best film.
10:29: And sometimes not…
10:31: Check out the fake accent on Nicole Kidman.
10:32: Oh. Crap. That’s actually how she talks, huh?
10:32: It’s always interesting when they put together an explanation as to what the technical jobs actually mean when it comes to films. The best such that I ever saw was one for film editing in which they ran about fifteen seconds of the famous pursuit-of-the-train from “French connection,” and the they ran it a second time with a counter in the lower right ticking off the number of edits in just that brief time. And it was something like forty seven edits.
10:36: Okay, in case you’re wondering, this is Robert F. Boyle, born 1909, with a long and illustrious history in art direction. Last work was back in 1979.
10:38: Wait, I take it back. Production design work as recently as 1991.
COMMENTS: Yes, we checked IMDB, and no, in case you guys are wondering, there wasn’t really an “untitled Nicole Kidman film” for 2010. Jon Stewart made a joke. Fancy that. And will someone please slap Luigi awake?
10:42: Did someone else have a feathery dress just like Penelope Cruz before, or is this thing starting to make me punchy?
10:43: The Counterfeiters was the odds on favorite for best foreign film.
10:45: And here’s the third song from the film. It’s a nice ballad song but I have the least attachment to it.
10:48: Boy, HIS voice is cracking.
10:49: Okay…best song goes to…
10:50: Great. The one that was putting me to sleep. Figures.
10:51: You think THIS is mad? Not as mad as the people at Disney are gonna be. That’s what happens when you have three songs from the same bloody film.
10:57: VERY classy move by stewart.
10:58: Cinematography. Another potential indicator of best film.
11:00: Okay, we’ll see if “There Will Be Blood” wins for Best Picture.
11:02: Respectful blog silence for the departed.
11:05: I can’t help but observe that a number of the departed, if they won Oscars, would not be allowed to appear on the main telecast, because the jobs they do aren’t sexy enough. It is only upon their passing that they get to have their faces seen on the Oscar cast. There’s something fundamentally screwy about that.
11:08: I feel like I’m watching “Name that Tune.”
11:09: Kath thinks Michael Clayton for best score.
11:10: Guess not. I was thinking maybe it would be “3:10 to Yuma.” Then again, I tend to have a strong sense of Yuma.
11:11: How marvelously inclusive: our folks serving in Baghdad announcing short subject. Of course, there’s some irony in that considering Iraq is in fact unending rather than short, but…
11:15: I’m going to try and check out this film when it shows up on HBO. You have to love the passion that these two women obviously have for it.
11:15: Best documentary. This should be interesting. Moore was snarking Bush back before it was stylish to do so. But he did it on the Academy awards and a lot of people still resent that.
11:17: Yup.
11:18: Oooo, nicely put, about the country moving away from the dark side. And I love that his late father was a navy interrogator who was furious over current questioning techniques.
11:23: Does Harrison Ford seem a little…off…somehow?
11:24: We’re pulling for Juno here.
11:25: Bingo.
11:26: Love the tat. Exotic dancer, huh? Never have guessed.
11:30: Best actor coming up.
11:31: We’re rooting for Johnny Depp; smart money says Daniel Day Lewis.
11:34: The most notable Viggo scene is the one they dare not show.
11:34: There Will Be Oscar. And Helen Mirren knights him with it! Who’s queen?
11:36: “And to the other fine nominees in this category, I wish to say: I drink your milkshake!”
COMMENT: What did Stewart do that was classy? One of the creators from “Once” was given the bum’s rush, and Stewart brought her back out and let her give her comments without being interrupted.
11:40: The run up to Best Director.
11:42: Thank God Stewart didn’t try to make a joke about Scorsese.
11:42: Naturally we’re rooting for Jason Reitman. Likely winner: Anderson.
11:43: Son of a gun. The Coen Bros.
11:43: So this would seem to narrow the field of Best Picture to “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country For Old Men.”
11:45: Best picture. I guess it’s good the montage was earlier; by this point it’s Get On With It!
11:46: So much for the cinematography pointer. “No Country For Old Men.” Then again, the best director pointer tends to trump the cinematography pointer.
11:48: And the award for best live blog coverage goes to…
Yeah. Figures. Well, maybe next year.
Great job by Stewart, I thought. I actually enjoyed it. Then again, it may be that writing this blog helped keep me focused since this is the most awake I’ve ever been during the Academy Awards.
The Mission Impossible theme. Perfect.
• 
I agree with the others… Once is an absolutely wonderful movie, and I was really happy it won over the normal studio fare. But if you prefer the classic over-the-top musical numbers, it won’t be for you. It’s a great little love story based on indie-rock/folk music. If you don’t like that music, PAD, you’ll probably sleep through the film. Personally, it was one of my favorites of last year, by far.
Yeah, I don’t really get Luigi’s comment about the animation category, either. Why does Ratatouille’s win over Persepolis mean that there shouldn’t be an animation category at all? If it wasn’t for that category, neither film would have been nominated at all. Ratatouille was also a beloved and highly acclaimed movie, so its win was perfectly understandable (although personally, I didn’t like either one of those movies).
On the other hand, I do think having a “Best Animated Feature” award is a bit like having a “Best Black Golfer” award. But so what?
“Jon Stewart did well – much better than two years ago”
I thought he was awful, maybe second to David Letterman for Worst Oscar Host Ever. I don’t really see why they invited him back, when he seems completely out of his element. And he’s not funny.
Ah! I found the Daily Show clip about last year’s Oscars.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=82747&title=movie-award-program
I love thedailyshow.com
I would assume that Luigi Novi’s comments about “Persepolis” and “Ratatouille” meant that they are two polar opposites in purpose and execution – one a dark look at recent history with serious intent and the other a rousing funny animal caper. I’m not sure I agree with Luigi that serious work will be stigmatized by being relegated to the “ghetto” of “Best Animated Feature” along with more child-intensive work – nor sure that “Ratatouille” is all that childish – but he raises a very important point regarding the way animation is separated from other cinema at the Oscars.
“but he raises a very important point regarding the way animation is separated from other cinema at the Oscars.”
But so are documentaries. When only one animated film in history is nominated for Best Picture, I don’t think it hurts to give them their own category (and they’re still eligible for the Best Picture category anyway). Not that I really care either way.
Oh, and yes, Persepolis and Ratatouille are two polar opposites in purpose and execution. But so are No Country for Old Men and Juno.
Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t think they are polar opposites in purpose or execution. They’re both animated character studies about the protagonist’s efforts to find themselves. And Persepolis isn’t all that dark. It almost qualifies as a comedy.
Alan Coil: Luigi Novi, Internet or not, show some respect. Be an adult once in a while.
Luigi Novi: Excuse me, Alan, but making a joke regarding how one finds something boring, particularly when it’s not in an in-person situation, is hardly mutually exclusive from adulthood, nor is having such an expression censored “respect”. If you don’t like my opinion, then too bad.
There is nothing wrong with opining that I found that guy’s speech snore-inducing, nor am I required to regard it the same way that you do. I also notice that you didn’t respond to my pointing out that Peter himself opined when he found certain aspects of the ceremony boring.
If you don’t like uncensored expressions of certain opinions, kindly go elsewhere.
Luigi,
While on the whole I agree with you that you didn’t really do anything wrong with “ZZZZZ”, I’ve got a real concern with your last statement above to Alan. It’s not your place to disinvite someone from a semi-public forum. Peter can certainly do so if he chooses (though I’d personally be surprised if he did in this case), but for you to say it is somewhat … inappropriate, to say the least.
TWL
Whether or not a rat is permitted to become a fine chef seems a much less serious subject than a young woman growing up in the shadow of the Iranian Revolution. I would defend the grouping of documentaries in their own category because they are not (or at least aren’t supposed to be) fictional products of their creators’ imaginations. Separating animated from live action films is a distinction of media, rather than kind. I suppose it’s true that animated features are eligible to be nominated for Best Picture, but so long as there is a special category reserved for them there will be a disincentive to do so. The distinction between animation and live action (which is more tenuous than it may seem, given the prevalence of digital and other special effects in “live” film) is no more intuitive than separating comedy from drama, attractive from unattractive casts, or tall from short actors.
Tim Lynch: To misunderstand Luigi Novi’s warning to those who dislike opposing viewpoints is somewhat…inappropriate, to say somewhat more than the least.
Rrrrrrrright. Given your track record, Jeffrey, I think I’ll let Luigi respond to this himself.
TWL
Tim Lynch – Wouldn’t it be much better if you wrote something that actually substantiated any of your fevered opinions? Your thinking is something like this:
Someone (not Luigi, but an amazing duplicate): I dislike X.
Someone else (not Tim, but pretty similar): You’re an áššhølë to say that! Screw you! Stop doing that!!
Jeff (really – not someone else, but me): Hey, pseudo-Tim, would you care to back that up a bit? I think you’re wrong.
Pseudo-Tim: WELL, come on! It’s Jeff!!! Pfffft.
No, Jeffrey, that’s not even remotely what my thinking is “something like”, unless you use the phrase in the same sense as the Pacific Ocean being something like the surface of Mars.
I’ve already said, or at least implied, that Alan’s criticism was at best way over the top, although your caricature of it is rather loony.
Luigi responded by defending himself (which I didn’t object to in the least) and by telling Alan to leave if he didn’t like Luigi expressing opinions.
That last statement, IMO, was a stronger reaction and a more offensive statement than the rest of the conversation leading up to it, so I spoke up.
If you were hoping to make me sorry I did so, you’ve succeeded — because frankly, I generally regret getting into the muck with any mammals of the porcine variety. It’s not a mistake I intend to make again for a while — life’s too short.
If Luigi thinks that I misrepresented him or that my comment was out of line, I’ll listen to him and will take it seriously. (I’m not at all sure he’d agree with you.) The end of my conversation dealing with you, however, is done. Bye now.
TWL
Luigi said:
“If you don’t like uncensored expressions of certain opinions, kindly go elsewhere.”
—–
I don’t mind if you invite me to go away. It is to be expected at some point on the internet.
What is totally ironic is that you got the censored version of my post, not the uncensored version. That uncensored version got lost somewhere in the Ethernet.
Can’t we all just get along?
I wish I could read lips, just I could ‘hear’ what Helen Mirren was saying to Daniel Day Lewis as they left the stage together.
Joe – I do read lips. I haven’t watched the awards yet, but I’ll pay attention to this part and letcha know if I can see what she’s saying to him.
Tim, it’s remarkably dishonest for you to pretend Luigi Novi’s suggestion was at all appalling. What he said is entirely true:
This is the internet. Some of the sad people on it do not share Tim Lynch’s opinions on all issues, and some of them are impudent enough to say what they think – those poor imbeciles! If the situation offends him, he may be well advised to go away – but that’s his own decision.
ok… am I the only person who remembers the gaydolf titler joke already being on the daily show? I swear i’ve seen jon stewart deliver the exact same joke before, but no blog I’ve found mentions it being a repeat…
Tim Lynch: While on the whole I agree with you that you didn’t really do anything wrong with “ZZZZZ”, I’ve got a real concern with your last statement above to Alan. It’s not your place to disinvite someone from a semi-public forum. Peter can certainly do so if he chooses (though I’d personally be surprised if he did in this case), but for you to say it is somewhat … inappropriate, to say the least.
Luigi Novi: Strictly speaking, that’s true, but I think those like you who’ve known me long enough can guess that I wasn’t making a literal claim to any authority on this site, since I’m not the type of person who presumes authority on other people’s property. It was a shorthand way of saying something to the effect of “Since Peter generally does not condone censorship of opinions he does not like on his site, particularly on the basis of mere aesthetics, I don’t think it’s your place to police what I say, especially with insults.” I could’ve just as well said something like “Buzz off, Alan”, or “To each his own”, but I simply didn’t think a response to his statement required that much complex thought or deliberation. Perhaps I erred in that regard.
And in assent of Jason’s completely appropriate sentiment…….
Alan, I have no ill will to you, however, I do think it was inappropriate for you to insult me (and yes, it did come across as such) by accusing me of immaturity, simply because I made a facetious remark about a Oscar speech I found boring (What? A boring Oscar speech? Why, that’s MADNESS!!!). This blog entry was a rather light-hearted one, one which we mused on various aspects of Oscar history, lore, traditions and cliches of the Oscars, and did so with a mixed dollop of humor, anticipation, hope, love of the medium, and yes, a bit of sarcasm. Others like Peter mentioned how certain aspects of the night were rather boring, and my comment was perfectly in keeping with that atmosphere. Given that, I found your comment to be uncalled for. Nonetheless, I’m guessing that you did not intend offense, as I’ve never noticed any such sentiment from you, so I propose that we got our wires crossed, and let bygones be bygones, okay? Peace, brother.
“ok… am I the only person who remembers the gaydolf titler joke already being on the daily show? I swear i’ve seen jon stewart deliver the exact same joke before, but no blog I’ve found mentions it being a repeat…”
He’s at least made a similar joke, but with a different fake name.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=87095&title=right-wing-off
Skip ahead to 3:20 into the video.
I think those like you who’ve known me long enough can guess that I wasn’t making a literal claim to any authority on this site
Fair enough. I think it was just something about the phrasing that bugged me, since I’ve seen plenty of people who DO presume such authority (many of them here). Had you said something like “nobody’s forcing you to stay” as your final clause, I doubt I’d have batted an eye.
No big deal; apologies if I misread things.
TWL
Hi, Tim. Relevant to nothing, but your wife being Doc Hazard inspired me (with all apologies to Waylon Jennings)
She’s a real good doc,
Never do ya no harm,
Ya say ya feel sore,
Aches, pains and more,
Since the day you were born.
Straighten you out,
Reasonable bill,
Someday Medicaid might get ‘er,
or yer HMO will.
Writin’ a scrip,
the only way she knows how,
Illegible but legal somehow.
Just a real fine doc,
Fix you up in a pinch,
her name’s Hazard,
the hubby’s called Lynch.
(I need a hobby)
I don’t think it’s fair to indict someone just because they thought the show was boring. For one thing, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and that being said, judging from the reviews, an awful lot of people seem to share that opinion, including me. Whether it was the over-reliance on clips, Stewart’s lack of good material or just an overall lack of excitement, it wasn’t exactly a barn burner. Personally, I think they just get rid of everybody involved for the past several years and just start from scratch with a new producer, director, host and definitely a bunch of new writers. Ditch the over-produced musical numbers (did the song from Once, which was basically done with a piano and guitar, need a backing orchestra?), eliminate the applause for those who passed away, so it doesn’t feel like a popularity contest, and for goodness sake, eliminate any of the filler involving the president of the Academy explaining how voting is conducted!
Why does Luigi have to answer for rejecting orders from Alan, but Alan doesn’t have to answer for issuing them?
Well, of course the show was boring to some. I didn’t find it boring, but it was a bit bland and the reason it was bland is because those in charge ordered it to be so. That is what the current atmosphere in this country has been forced to be. They simply can’t afford to take a chance on being fined. The latest fines that were levied for so-called “indecency” were to shows that aired legally 5 years ago.
Actually, as I stated above, I thought the show breezed by pretty briskly, in part due to the attention needed to focus on the blog, and I thought Stewart did a good job too. It was just that one guy’s speech I found boring.
I enjoyed Jon Stewart’s parts, but as I said earlier, I fast forwarded over almost everything else. Stewart was all I wanted to see.
I would like to point out the fact that the show was not put together in a normal fashion. A month ago they didn’t even know there was going to *be* an Oscars. They might not have started production at all until they were sure the strike was going to end in time.
That could have caused a lot of problems. Maybe they were running so late that they got approval for the songs in Enchanted and said, “Screw it, we don’t have time to wait and see if we can get songs from other movies. Just use three songs from this one.”
Jerry Seinfeld promoting Bee Movie again? To do animation, even just basic lip synching on an existing model, you have to record the voice first. That means once the writers came back, they had to find a star of an animated movie, write something, record it, and get the animators working on it immediately. They might have used Jerry Seinfeld purely because they could get him quick.
I could think of other things that probably suffered from the last minute nature of the show. I’m sure I’d get some of them wrong, but I bet at least a few things that people didn’t like happened because they didn’t have much time to prepare. So if you found the show sub par, that doesn’t mean a Jon Stewart hosted Oscars would necessarily be the same next year.
The songs that were sung were the nominated songs.
All the nominations had been made well before the strike was settled.
I have always felt that the weakest part of the show was the singing of the nominated songs.
Peter,
Watch ONCE. It was one of my favorite films of the year. The song may have been putting you to sleep out of context of the film, but please, watch the actual movie, and then you’ll see why it won.
-John
The songs that were sung were the nominated songs.
All the nominations had been made well before the strike was settled.
Yeah, rights clearance issues almost certainly aren’t a real issue as to what songs got nominated and therefore performed.
I note that the general Academy Award submission rules include language stating that the act of sumitting a film conveys to the Academy the right to use excerpts in the telecast. I imagine there may be analagous arrangement for submitted songs–that the act of submitting a song for Oscar consideration conveys permission to perform it should it be nominated–though that may be somewhat more complicated by all the other issues that generally surround song rights.
For what it’s worth, the list of 59 movie songs deemed eligible for the award is at http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.12.12.html I’m not enough of a music-phile to recognize any of them that I’d prefer be nominated in place of what was nominated, but others will surely have stronger opinions.
I have to add my support for Once. It’s a wonderful movie, and that song really is beautiful, and absolutely deserved to win. And I’m not even normally a fan of that folksy, acoustic guitar type of music.
Not that anyone’s necessarily still interested, but with regard to Stewart bringing back Markéta Irglová to deliever her acceptance speech, according to Entertainment Weekly’s follow up Oscar coverage, it wasn’t Stewart who decided to bring her back, but rather executive producer Gilbert Cates. (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20180773_8,00.html )
Still a nice guesture, whomever initiated it.
Just so you know, Best Cinematography winners are rarely Best Picture winners, unless they are epic spectacle Best Pictures.
Cinematography gets lumped in with the technical awards, so when you’ve got a movie like ‘Titanic’ or ‘The English Patient’ — which does well in the “technical” categories, but not the above-the-line ones — yeah, it tends to win. But more often, Best Picture will be the less technical movie, but one movie will win most/all of the technical awards, culminating with Cinematography, which is kind of the “Best Picture” of below-the-line awards. That’s why ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ beat ‘Children of Men’ last year, for istance.