Category |
The Masked Reviewer's Pick |
Winner |
Best Picture |
Chicago Musicals are "in". This
was popular as well as critically acclaimed. Everybody else picked
it too. |
Chicago |
Best Director |
Martin Scorsese Conventional wisdom
would pick Rob Marshall for Chicago, because he won the DGA
award and more often than not, that winner goes on to win the
Oscar(tm). But Scorsese was due, so the Masked Reviewer went
out on a limb, and it's always bad to bet against Italians (unless
it's World War II). But somehow they gave it to Polanski.
It's nice to see the Academy forgiving and forgetting...OJ and
Robert Blake, don't ever give up on your Oscar(tm) dreams! |
Roman Polanski |
Best Actor |
Daniel Day-Lewis Watching Adrien
Brody's performance in The Pianist was very much like
watching him sit through the Academy Awards. He looked nervous
most of the time, he looked bored the rest of the time, and he
didn't play the piano. Had Nazis attacked during the awards
ceremony, Adrien Brody would have been found in the basement with a
big can of watermelon. The Masked Reviewer didn't think it was
likely that Brody would win, it seemed much more likely that Academy
perennial favorite Jack Nicholson or Daniel Day-Lewis (who has
talked about retiring from acting) would have won. |
Adrien Brody |
Best Actress |
Nicole Kidman She wore a fake nose
and made herself uglier. That kind of heroic deed must be
rewarded. Steve Martin is still bitter that he didn't win for
Roxanne |
Nicole Kidman |
Best Supporting Actor |
Chris Cooper Chris Cooper did an
amazing job in Adaptation as well as his work as the mean old
neighbor dad in American Beauty. It was a tough call
between him and Christopher Walken, but the Masked Reviewer chose
wisely. |
Chris Cooper |
Best Supporting Actress |
Catherine Zeta-Jones It seemed likely
that Julianne More would have her votes split with her nomination
for Best Actress. Meryl Streep and Kathy Bates have both
already won. And Queen Latifah already has a lock for an
Academy Award next year (Bringing Down the House with Steve
Martin), so it had to be Zeta-Jones. She looks like she's put
on quite a few pounds, allegedly because she's pregnant. Way
to milk the sympathy "baby on the way" vote. |
Catherine Zeta-Jones |
Best Animated Film |
Spirited Away This was a long shot.
The Masked Reviewer figured that the Academy might go for something
different, and Hayao Miyazaki's excellent anime style is just that.
Lilo and Stitch is too cutesy, Spirit: Stallion of the
Cimarron is too horsey, and Ice Age left people cold.
Besides, Spirited Away was also distributed by Disney, so
Academy voters didn't have to feel bad for not voting for the heavy
favorite. Oh yeah, Treasure Planet...too piratey.
Should've been rated "Aaaarrrrrr!" |
Spirited Away |
Best Foreign Language Film |
Nowhere in Africa Africa hasn't
gotten enough attention lately, and in it's a cool title. |
Nowhere in Africa |
Best Adapted Screenplay |
Adaptation The Masked Reviewer has
never wanted any Oscar(tm) pick to win more than this one.
Adaptation was a great script, but the acceptance speech
would've been worth the price of admission. For those of you
who don't know, Charlie and Donald Kaufman received co-writing
credits on the film and both received a nomination.
Except...there's only one. |
The Pianist |
Best Original Screenplay |
Far From Heaven The Masked Reviewer
went with his gut on this one, it just seemed like that name was
calling out, and he picked it. It wasn't right, but movie
reviewing is sometimes about raw instinct, and sometimes it just
doesn't pay off. |
Talk to Her |
Best Art Direction |
Chicago This was a risky call, or so
the Masked Reviewer thought. His uncanny instincts must have
kicked in to guide him to this one. The other contender was
Gangs of New York, but the Masked Reviewer figured that the
Academy would like to give as many statues to Chicago as it
could, and this one is a good candidate. |
Chicago |
Best Cinematography |
Road to Perdition The
cinematographer, Conrad Hall, died a few months before the ceremony.
Well, that makes for a touching moment, so who could blame the
Academy for voting for him posthumously? Not to mention the
fact that he'd done a lot of great work including Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, and American
Beauty. |
Road to Perdition |
Best Sound |
Chicago It's a musical. It's
got to sound good. This is the category typically won by the "real
movie". |
Chicago |
Best Sound Editing |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
This category is typically won by a special effects blockbuster.
Since this film received more critical acclaim, it was a lock for
sound editing. |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |
Best Original Score |
Catch Me if You Can The Masked
Reviewer toiled over this choice. Unfortunately, he couldn't
decide between Catch Me if You Can by John Williams, or
The Hours by Phillip Glass. Frida wasn't even in
the Masked Reviewer's radar. The Masked Reviewer believes that
the accounting firm that tabulates the votes for the awards may have
slipped up. |
Frida |
Best Original Song |
"Lose Yourself" - 8 Mile Even the
Masked Reviewer had a hard time believing this could win. He
thought it would be great if he did win, but it seemed awfully
unlikely...especially with Chicago and all of it's sing-song
goodness. This guess was made solely on the premise that the
Academy members would want to see Eminem's acceptance speech as much
as everyone else. Too bad he didn't show up. |
"Lose Yourself" - 8 Mile |
Best Costume Design |
Chicago Apparently, some people have
had their wardrobe influenced by Chicago, so it should win.
Even the Masked Reviewer has picked up a sequined pinstriped mask. |
Chicago |
Best Documentary Feature |
Bowling For Columbine If you've heard
of any documentary feature in a given year, that's your winner.
Michael Moore was gracious enough to bring up all the losers on
stage with him, so he could blame them for the boos he during some
political remarks during his speech. When the booing started,
he should have said "Hey hey...don't boo them. Their stuff
wasn't that bad." |
Bowling For Columbine |
Best Documentary Short |
Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks
The Masked Reviewer blew this one big time. He didn't trust
his gut, but was swayed by the fact that Rosa Parks was attending
the awards. "Why would she be going unless she was going to
win?" he thought to himself. Twin Towers was his first
choice, although he thought it was a short about the making of
Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. Whatever. Rosa
Parks probably just showed up to heckle Cedric the Entertainer for
razzing her in Barbershop. |
Twin Towers |
Best Film Editing |
Chicago A bunch of actors who can't
dance in a musical with dancing. That takes some seriously
good editing. |
Chicago |
Best Make-Up |
Frida Easiest pick of the year.
Why? Only two choices. First, Frida, a serious, artsy
film, the kind of stuff that's the darling of the Academy.
Second, The Time Machine, which wasn't...it didn't quite
have...well, it sucked, more or less. The other thing is, the
make-up wasn't that good. |
Frida |
Best Animated Short Film |
The Chubbchubbs! It's a good title.
Somewhat cute, yet slightly dirty. |
The Chubbchubbs! |
Best Live Action Short Film |
This Charming Man (Der er en Yndig Mand)
Does anyone, other than the filmmakers who create films for this
category, really care about short films? Where do you go to
see short films? Maybe if there were some outlets to see these
things, people would care. The Masked Reviewer cares, of
course, but not many other people do. It's too bad. This
was probably a great film. Who knows? |
This Charming Man (Der er en Yndig Mand) |
Best Visual Effects |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Again, critically acclaimed film with great effects will beat out a
film with great effects that wasn't critically acclaimed.
There's that, and the fact that Spider-Man sometimes looked
like a videogame. |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers |