Award Season - And the Oscar Goes to... The Departed for the Fourth Time Tonight

February 25, 2007

The Oscars have all been handed out, but that's not the end of our coverage. Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts as well as next week when we look at the Oscar bounce. And later on we'll announce the winners of our contest,

Best Motion Picture

Best Director

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Animated Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Original Song

Best Original Score

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Best Achievement in Editing

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Best Achievement in Makeup

Best Achievement in Sound

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Best Documentary - Feature Length

Best Documentary - Short Subjects

  • The Blood of Yingzhou District
 Best Short Film - Animated

  • The Danish Poet
 Best Short Film, Live Action

  • West Bank Story
 Notes and Reactions:
  • The Departed win Best Picture and is the big winner of the night.
  • Martin Scorsese wins his Oscar. Finally.
  • Forest Whitaker won for Last King of Scotland and while I was cheering for Peter O'Toole, this was not a surprise.
  • Helen Mirren won for The Queen. I'm not surprised at all. In fact, this was the category I was most sure of.
  • The Departed wins again and ends Pan's Labyrinth's chances at being the big winner tonight. ... Unless Martin Scorsese loses out on Best Director, again.
  • It's been a bad night for Dreamgirls as it couldn't win Best Original Song despite having three of the five nominations. This time it was beaten by An Inconvenient Truth's "I Need to Wake Up." I rank this win as much, much more unlikely that it's previous win tonight.
  • Little Miss Sunshine wins for the second time tonight, earning Best Original Screenplay. Honestly, this is two more Oscars than I thought it would win earlier in the week. Its performance at the Independent Spirit Awards last night did raise my expectations somewhat.
  • Babel's first win is for Best Original Score. This might be its only win of the evening.
  • An Inconvenient Truth wins for best Documentary. Al Gore has 72 hours to announce he's running for President or it just isn't going to happen.
  • Dreamgirls wins its second Oscar as Jennifer Hudson wins for Best Supporting Actress. So far it's been a bit of a slow night for the movie, which is more surprising as the buzz had this film being a major Oscar player since this time last year.
  • Pan's Labyrinth won three Oscars already but missed out on Best Foreign Language Film to The Lives of Others. That's a bit of a weird turn.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won for Best Visual Effects, which is one of the least surprising wins so far.
  • Third win for Pan's Labyrinth. Granted, they are all technical categories, but this will still be a huge boost for the film at the box office.
  • Marie Antoinette won for Best Costume Design. This was the most obvious choice, but perhaps not the most deserving. Costume dramas just appeal to Oscar voters more than most other types of films when it comes to this genre.
  • The Departed wins its first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. It could be a good night for the film as that was not a sure thing.
  • Happy Feet beat Cars. Personally, I completely disagree with that one, but the two movies did earn similar reviews so it is not that big of an upset.
  • Alan Arkin beat Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls! That's probably a sentimental favorite winning thanks largely in part to past oversights. On the other hand, I think a lot of people tomorrow will talk about Norbit and how it might have cost Eddie Murphy an Oscar.
  • Pan's Labyrinth won for best Make Up. No surprise there. In fact, had it lost, I would have assumed there was an accounting error.

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Filed under: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Happy Feet, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, El Laberinto del Fauno, Babel, An Inconvenient Truth, The Last King of Scotland, Marie Antoinette, Letters from Iwo Jima, Das Leben der Anderen