2011 Academy Awards Live Blog – *Spoiler Alert*

We are only a couple of hours away now and I will have a live blog running right here during the ceremony. Below you will find a complete list of nominees and I will bold the winners as they happen. The live blog continues under that and it starts when the broadcast starts. Spoilers ahead for our Australian viewers as the telecast doesn’t show on free to air TV until this evening.

We will record the 3rd Annual Oscar Wrap-Up podcast directly after the ceremony. It will be live so if you want to join Mirren Lee, Nicholas ‘The Little Geek’ McVay and myself as we sum up our thoughts and opinions of the ceremony and the winners go to https://geekactually.com/live and join the chatroom. The audio version will be on iTunes (the Film Actually feed) as soon as I can get it ready.

THE LIVE BLOG IS AT THE BOTTOM

This is the movie lover’s night of nights people and like the Super Bowl (or the Grand Final here in Australia), it is not always the greatest match of the year but it is always a fun show!

The Nominees (films with a * are my predictions and winners are in bold)

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network” *
“Toy Story 3”
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”

Directing

“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” David O. Russell
“The King’s Speech” Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” David Fincher *
“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” *
James Franco in “127 Hours”

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” *
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter” *
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit” *
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3” *

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin *
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter’s Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan *
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King’s Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Cinematography

“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
“Inception” Wally Pfister
“The King’s Speech” Danny Cohen
“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth *
“True Grit” Roger Deakins

Art Direction

“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Inception” *
“The King’s Speech”
“True Grit”

Costume Design

“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King’s Speech” Jenny Beavan *
“The Tempest” Sandy Powell
“True Grit” Mary Zophres

Documentary (Feature)

“Exit through the Gift Shop” *
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”

Documentary (Short Subject)

“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up”
“The Warriors of Qiugang”

Film Editing

“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter” Pamela Martin
“The King’s Speech” Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours” Jon Harris
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter *

Foreign Language Film

“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark *
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Music (Original Score)

“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
“Inception” Hans Zimmer
“The King’s Speech” Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross *

Music (Original Song)

“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3? Music and Lyric by Randy Newman *

Short Film (Animated)

“Day & Night” *
“The Gruffalo”
“Let’s Pollute”
“The Lost Thing”
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”

Short Film (Live Action)

“The Confession”
“The Crush”
“God of Love”
“Na Wewe”
“Wish 143”

Sound Editing

“Inception” Richard King *
“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick *
“The King’s Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

“Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb *
“Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Make Up

“Barney’s Version” Adrien Morot *
“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Live Blog – Starting at the beginning of the ceremony at 12.30pm (All times are in Australian Eastern Daylight savings time UTC +11) – As the ceremony is in progress refresh this page to get our opinions.

11.11am – Setting up this post and getting myself prepared for a very long show.

12.26pm – almost there, they are introducing all the backstage people.

12.30pm – Opening credits

12.38pm – really cute opening montage, love the True Grit moment.

12.38pm – A younger demographic :-)

12.42pm – Here comes Tom Hanks to give the award for Cinematography, production design and art direction?

12.44pm art direction goes to Alice in Wonderland

12.47pm the award for Cinematography goes to Inception.

12.51pm Kirk Douglas hits the stage, wait for the standing O.

12.53pm Best Supporting Actress Noms

12.56pm and the winner is… Kirk is milking it.

12.57pm – Winner is Melissa Leo, thought for sure Hailee had it.

1pm – Love the Oscars live, Melissa Leo just swore and we get it uncensored!

1.01pm – Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake to present animated feature and short.

1.04pm – Best animated short The Lost Thing

1.05pm – and the best animated feature film is Toy Story 3

1.13pm – Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem to give the award for screenplay.

1.15pm – Adapted screenplay goes to Aaron Sorkin, I think that was predictable.

1.17pm – Great speech Mr. Sorkin.

1.18pm – Original screenplay goes to The King’s Speech.

1.24pm – Anne Hathaway is singing. Funny she is bagging out Hugh Jackman.

1.26pm – Good lord James Franco in a dress.

1.26pm – Helen Mirren and Russell Brand to present foreign language film.

1.28pm – In a Better World wins.

1.29pm – Reese Witherspoon to present supporting actor.

1.32pm – and the winner is Christian Bale, as expected.

1.37pm – If there weren’t so many ads, this show would be a lot shorter.

1.40pm – Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman to present sound mixing and sound editing

1.41pm – Correction, I think it is for music.

1.42pm – Original Score noms

1.44pm – Go Trent Reznor – The Social Network score wins!

1.48pm – Inception wins sound mixing

1.50pm – Inception wins sound editing

1.54pm – Marissa Tomai to tell us about the technology awards

1.55pm – Cate Blanchet to present make-up

1.57pm – The winner is The Wolfman

1.58pm – Cate is also presenting costume design.

1.59pm – Alice in Wonderland takes costume design. Colleen Attwood looks very nervous.

2pm – Good lord what a terrible speech from Colleen, stop reading the little slip of paper.

2.01pm – Oh god, here comes the song noms!

2.02pm – Kevin Spacey! Love this man.

2.03pm – Randy Newman performs his Toy Story 3 song.

2.05pm – Mandy Moore and Chuck…sorry Zachery Levi sing the song from Tangled.

2.12pm – Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhall (sp?) to present short films

2.14pm – Strangers No More wins Doco short film

2.15pm – God of Love wins short film, the winner has a wild hair do!

2.18pm – turning the films into musicals is pretty funny. Love the Twilight parody.

2.19pm – Oprah to present! WTF!

2.20pm – She is presenting Documentary.

2.22pm – Inside Job beats Banksey!

2.23pm – Oh dear, here come the political statements.

2.27pm – Yay, Billy Crystal!!!!

2.28pm – He is on fire…as always.

2.30pm – A Bob Hope retrospective.

2.31pm – Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law present Special Effects.

2.32pm – they are great together.

2.33pm – and the winner is Inception

2.35pm – The Social Network takes Best editing.

2.42pm – Jennifer Hudson needs to eat something, good lord she is thin.

2.43pm – 127 Hours song is boring. Gweneth Paltrow singing a nominated song. Don’t tell me she hasn’t had surgery.

2.47pm – Randy Newman wins song for Toy Story 3

2.48pm – God I love Randy Newman, he is funny.

2.52pm – I don’t know what’s worse, Celine Dion singing or the death march of photos. I think the memorial section is heartbreaking but god, get rid of the earnst Celine music.

2.56pm – Is it my imagination or was Corey Haim not mentioned?

2.58pm – Day 5 of the Oscars! Enough with the commercials, this thing is long enough already.

3.01pm – Hillary Swank is coming out, this must be for Best Actor… no it is to present a presenter??? Kathryn Bigalow. This is for Best Director.

3.03pm – Wow, Tom Hooper wins best director, that is unexpected.

3.05pm – Wait a minute, didn’t The King’s Speech just win for best ORIGINAL screenplay??? Tom Hooper said it was based on a play.

3.06pm – Annette Bening is presenting the lifetime achievement awards. Francis Ford Coppola, Eli Wallach and Kevin Brownlow take to the stage just in time to go to commercial…..Aaaarrrggg!

3.11pm – Jeff The Dude Bridges is here man.

3.12pm – Thank god they aren’t doing that weird thing of getting all the nominated actresses up to talk about each other. Jeff just talks about the performances.

3.15pm – and the best actress is Natalie Portman!!

3.18pm – What a passionate speech from Natalie, but do we really have to thank everyone?

3.20pm – Sandra Bullock to give the noms for best actor. Love this woman.

3.23pm – If Colin Firth doesn’t win, I will be so surprised.

3.25pm – Colin Firth wins, the second most predictable Oscar of the night, next to Natalie.

3.28pm – Unlike his character, Colin Firth has no problems delivering a wonderful speech.

3.30pm – One award to go! But let’s have another commercial!

3.31pm – TV sound turned down for the commercials, but an underwear commercial showing lots of female bottoms gets more attention than the Oscars :-)

3.32pm – Steven Spielberg to give the best picture Oscar. Here we go.

3.33pm – Nicely cut montage of the noms.

3.36pm – How generous the American’s are… The King’s Speech takes best film. A British film. I thought it would be The Social Network, but I am not unhappy with this film winning, it is a wonderful film.

3.39pm – Somewhere Over the Rainbow performed by a children’s choir…. Why?!?!?!? Just end already.

3.42pm – End credits, thank god.

That was a very uninspired Oscars. Thanks for reading and we’ll do it all again next year. Remember we go live for our post Oscar wrap up podcast in about half an hour. And the audio podcast version will be up tomorrow. If you want to watch us live got to https://geekactually.com/live in about half an hour or roughly 4.15pm.

*END OF LIVE BLOG*