The Oscars: A bit of a blur

There's nothing like the annual Oscars all-nighter to make your head spin. There's tons of amazing coverage over on the BBC, which I barely remember being part of, but it was great fun being in the thick of it at four in the morning.

You'll know all the headlines by now, but I just wanted to record for posterity Bret "Flight Of The Conchords" McKenzie, who gave the best red carpet photo of all time:

Bret also deserves congratulations for winning the Oscar for best original song, having written this masterpiece (don't watch it if you haven't seen the film - it's full of spoilers).

Jason Segel, Walter - Man Or Muppet


Oh, and further "mad props" to the photoshop genius who touched up this red carpet image of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

I'm going to bed now. G'night.

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Up and away!

I'm a huge animation fan, so I was over the moon when Up got an Oscar nomination for best film on Tuesday. Even better, it's also in the running for best animated feature, so the talented geeks of Pixar are practically guaranteed a statuette (unless the dual nomination splits the vote...)

Anyway, this gives me a timely excuse to post some of the film's amazing production art, which was first showcased on animator Lou Romano's blog last year. The images illustrate just how much care and attention is paid to the tiniest of tiny details on Pixar's films. The animators test everything from the the shape of cloud formations, to the exact complexion of their protagonist. Here's a selection:









If you like these, there are tons more on this page, along with some stunning Youtube clips of the animation tests.

Best of all, the DVD is out in 10 days - and it's a steal at £9.99

*ALL ARTWORK PROPERTY of PIXAR/DISNEY*

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Oscar nomination for M.I.A.

So the Oscar nominations were a complete bore, although it was nice to see Heath Ledger recognised on the first anniversary of his death.

There was a show of surprisingly good taste in the Original Song category, too, where the Academy voters ignored High School Musical 3 (every song on the soundtrack was put forward for consideration) and the worst Bond theme of all time (except the Madonna one). Instead, they've plumped for two songs from Slumdog Millionaire, including M.I.A's fantastic O... Saya.

Let's hope the Feds let Ms Arulpragasam into the country to pick up her prize on Feb 22nd!

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Oscar nominations: All you need to know

Venn diagrams never lie, so it seems Philip Seymour Hoffman is due an Oscar come March.

But what of the best actress? In that category, nobody quite manages to straddle the famous/gay intersection (stop laughing at the back, please). Therefore, the decision is sure to be based on the likelihood of tears at the podium. So it won't be Reese Witherspoon: her jaw is too square for a wobbly chin moment. Nor Keira Knightley: if she was to let any more water out of her body she'd shrivel up and die. So my money is on Felicity Huffman, who managed to convey a suitable amount of teary dignity at the Golden Globes without ever smudging her mascara. Very classy for a pre-operative transexual.

But, what of the music category? Only three songs are nominated this year. Three! And you will be able to recall none of them.

Best music (song)
In the Deep - Crash
It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp - Hustle and Flow
Travelin' Thru - Transamerica

See what I mean?

The strange thing is, there was a great deal of good music in last year's films. The Life Aquatic, to pick my favourite example, had a whole raft of David Bowie songs covered by Seu Jorge. I'm not sure if the award rules allow cover versions - but these acoustic reworkings (sung in Portugese) are sublime, putting a whole new twist on old classics. Surely they were original enough to be considered?

Elsewhere, Alanis Morisette delivered one of her most listenable records of recent years for the closing credits of the Narnia film. And how about Team America: World Police? "Montage" or "I'm So Ronery" would have been worth a nod (moreso than South Park's Blame Canada, which was Oscar nominated a couple of years ago). And, after last year's decision to make Beyoncé sing all of the nominated songs in a selection of increasingly awful frocks, we'd pay good money to see Mariah Carey's version of "Everyone has Aids".

Still, kudos to the Academy for roundly ignoring 50 Cent's ' film'.

Venn diagram via Hanasiana

Full list of nominees

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